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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 ** '-file-list-exec-source-files [--basename | --dirname] [--] [REGEXP]'
53
54 The existing -file-list-exec-source-files command now takes an
55 optional REGEXP which is used to filter the source files that are
56 included in the results.
57
58 By default REGEXP is matched against the full filename of the
59 source file. When one of --basename or --dirname is given then
60 REGEXP is only matched against the specified part of the full
61 source filename.
62
63 The results from -file-list-exec-source-files now include a
64 'debug-fully-read' field which takes the value 'true' or 'false'.
65 A 'true' value indicates the source file is from a compilation
66 unit that has had its debug information fully read in by GDB, a
67 value of 'false' indicates GDB has only performed a partial scan
68 of the debug information so far.
69
70 * GDB now supports core file debugging for x86_64 Cygwin programs.
71
72 * GDB will now look for the .gdbinit file in a config directory before
73 looking for ~/.gdbinit. The file is searched for in the following
74 locations: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.config/gdb/gdbinit,
75 $HOME/.gdbinit. On Apple hosts the search order is instead:
76 $HOME/Library/Preferences/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.gdbinit.
77
78 * GDB now supports fixed point types which are described in DWARF
79 as base types with a fixed-point encoding. Additionally, support
80 for the DW_AT_GNU_numerator and DW_AT_GNU_denominator has also
81 been added.
82
83 For Ada, this allows support for fixed point types without requiring
84 the use of the GNAT encoding (based on information added to the type's
85 name following a GNAT-specific format).
86
87 * GDB will now load and process commands from ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit
88 or ~/.gdbearlyinit if these files are present. These files are
89 processed earlier than any of the other initialization files and
90 can affect parts of GDB's startup that previously had already been
91 completed before the initialization files were read, for example
92 styling of the initial GDB greeting.
93
94 * GDB now has two new options "--early-init-command" and
95 "--early-init-eval-command" with corresponding short options "-eix"
96 and "-eiex" that allow options (that would normally appear in a
97 gdbearlyinit file) to be passed on the command line.
98
99 * For RISC-V targets, the target feature "org.gnu.gdb.riscv.vector" is
100 now understood by GDB, and can be used to describe the vector
101 registers of a target. The precise requirements of this register
102 feature are documented in the GDB manual.
103
104 * New commands
105
106 set debug event-loop
107 show debug event-loop
108 Control the display of debug output about GDB's event loop.
109
110 set print memory-tag-violations
111 show print memory-tag-violations
112 Control whether to display additional information about memory tag violations
113 when printing pointers and addresses. Architecture support for memory
114 tagging is required for this option to have an effect.
115
116 maintenance flush symbol-cache
117 maintenance flush register-cache
118 These new commands are equivalent to the already existing commands
119 'maintenance flush-symbol-cache' and 'flushregs' respectively.
120
121 maintenance flush dcache
122 A new command to flush the dcache.
123
124 maintenance info target-sections
125 Print GDB's internal target sections table.
126
127 memory-tag show-logical-tag POINTER
128 Print the logical tag for POINTER.
129 memory-tag with-logical-tag POINTER TAG
130 Print POINTER with logical tag TAG.
131 memory-tag show-allocation-tag ADDRESS
132 Print the allocation tag for ADDRESS.
133 memory-tag set-allocation-tag ADDRESS LENGTH TAGS
134 Set the allocation tag for [ADDRESS, ADDRESS + LENGTH) to TAGS.
135 memory-tag check POINTER
136 Validate that POINTER's logical tag matches the allocation tag.
137
138 set startup-quietly on|off
139 show startup-quietly
140 When 'on', this causes GDB to act as if "-silent" were passed on the
141 command line. This command needs to be added to an early
142 initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to
143 affect GDB.
144
145 set print type hex on|off
146 show print type hex
147 When 'on', the 'ptype' command uses hexadecimal notation to print sizes
148 and offsets of struct members. When 'off', decimal notation is used.
149
150 set python ignore-environment on|off
151 show python ignore-environment
152 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to ignore any
153 environment variables that would otherwise affect how Python
154 behaves. This command needs to be added to an early initialization
155 file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to affect GDB.
156
157 set python dont-write-bytecode auto|on|off
158 show python dont-write-bytecode
159 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to not write any
160 byte-code (.pyc files) to disk. This command needs to be added to
161 an early initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in
162 order to affect GDB. When 'off' byte-code will always be written.
163 When set to 'auto' (the default) Python will check the
164 PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE environment variable.
165
166 * Changed commands
167
168 break [PROBE_MODIFIER] [LOCATION] [thread THREADNUM]
169 [-force-condition] [if CONDITION]
170 This command would previously refuse setting a breakpoint if the
171 CONDITION expression is invalid at a location. It now accepts and
172 defines the breakpoint if there is at least one location at which
173 the CONDITION is valid. The locations for which the CONDITION is
174 invalid, are automatically disabled. If CONDITION is invalid at all
175 of the locations, setting the breakpoint is still rejected. However,
176 the '-force-condition' flag can be used in this case for forcing GDB to
177 define the breakpoint, making all the current locations automatically
178 disabled. This may be useful if the user knows the condition will
179 become meaningful at a future location, e.g. due to a shared library
180 load.
181
182 condition [-force] N COND
183 The behavior of this command is changed the same way for the 'break'
184 command as explained above. The '-force' flag can be used to force
185 GDB into defining the condition even when COND is invalid for all the
186 current locations of breakpoint N.
187
188 flushregs
189 maintenance flush-symbol-cache
190 These commands are deprecated in favor of the new commands
191 'maintenance flush register-cache' and 'maintenance flush
192 symbol-cache' respectively.
193
194 set style version foreground COLOR
195 set style version background COLOR
196 set style version intensity VALUE
197 Control the styling of GDB's version number text.
198
199 inferior [ID]
200 When the ID parameter is omitted, then this command prints information
201 about the current inferior. When the ID parameter is present, the
202 behavior of the command is unchanged and have the inferior ID become
203 the current inferior.
204
205 maintenance info sections
206 The ALLOBJ keyword has been replaced with an -all-objects command
207 line flag. It is now possible to filter which sections are printed
208 even when -all-objects is passed.
209
210 ptype[/FLAGS] TYPE | EXPRESSION
211 The 'ptype' command has two new flags. When '/x' is set, hexadecimal
212 notation is used when printing sizes and offsets of struct members.
213 When '/d' is set, decimal notation is used when printing sizes and
214 offsets of struct members. Default behavior is given by 'show print
215 type hex'.
216
217 * Removed targets and native configurations
218
219 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
220
221 * New remote packets
222
223 qMemTags
224 Request the remote to send allocation tags for a particular memory range.
225 QMemTags
226 Request the remote to store the specified allocation tags to the requested
227 memory range.
228
229 * Guile API
230
231 ** Improved support for rvalue reference values:
232 TYPE_CODE_RVALUE_REF is now exported as part of the API and the
233 value-referenced-value procedure now handles rvalue reference
234 values.
235
236 ** New procedures for obtaining value variants:
237 value-reference-value, value-rvalue-reference-value and
238 value-const-value.
239
240 * Python API
241
242 ** Inferior objects now contain a read-only 'connection_num' attribute that
243 gives the connection number as seen in 'info connections' and
244 'info inferiors'.
245
246 ** New method gdb.Frame.level() which returns the stack level of the
247 frame object.
248
249 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.level() which returns the stack level
250 of the frame object.
251
252 ** When hitting a catchpoint, the Python API will now emit a
253 gdb.BreakpointEvent rather than a gdb.StopEvent. The
254 gdb.Breakpoint attached to the event will have type BP_CATCHPOINT.
255
256 *** Changes in GDB 10
257
258 * There are new feature names for ARC targets: "org.gnu.gdb.arc.core"
259 and "org.gnu.gdb.arc.aux". The old names are still supported but
260 must be considered obsolete. They will be deprecated after some
261 grace period.
262
263 * Help and apropos commands will now show the documentation of a
264 command only once, even if that command has one or more aliases.
265 These commands now show the command name, then all of its aliases,
266 and finally the description of the command.
267
268 * 'help aliases' now shows only the user defined aliases. GDB predefined
269 aliases are shown together with their aliased command.
270
271 * GDB now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing ELF/DWARF
272 debugging information as well as source code.
273
274 When built with debuginfod, GDB can automatically query debuginfod
275 servers for the separate debug files and source code of the executable
276 being debugged.
277
278 To build GDB with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure (this
279 requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library).
280
281 debuginfod is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178.
282
283 You can get the latest version from https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
284
285 * Multi-target debugging support
286
287 GDB now supports debugging multiple target connections
288 simultaneously. For example, you can now have each inferior
289 connected to different remote servers running in different machines,
290 or have one inferior debugging a local native process, an inferior
291 debugging a core dump, etc.
292
293 This support is experimental and comes with some limitations -- you
294 can only resume multiple targets simultaneously if all targets
295 support non-stop mode, and all remote stubs or servers must support
296 the same set of remote protocol features exactly. See also "info
297 connections" and "add-inferior -no-connection" below, and "maint set
298 target-non-stop" in the user manual.
299
300 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
301
302 ** GDBserver is now supported on ARC GNU/Linux.
303
304 ** GDBserver is now supported on RISC-V GNU/Linux.
305
306 ** GDBserver no longer supports these host triplets:
307
308 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
309 powerpc-*-lynxos*
310 i[34567]86-*-nto*
311 bfin-*-*linux*
312 crisv32-*-linux*
313 cris-*-linux*
314 m32r*-*-linux*
315 tilegx-*-linux*
316 arm*-*-mingw32ce*
317 i[34567]86-*-mingw32ce*
318
319 * Debugging MS-Windows processes now sets $_exitsignal when the
320 inferior is terminated by a signal, instead of setting $_exitcode.
321
322 * Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
323 that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
324 performance for programs with many symbols.
325
326 * The $_siginfo convenience variable now also works on Windows targets,
327 and will display the EXCEPTION_RECORD of the last handled exception.
328
329 * TUI windows can now be arranged horizontally.
330
331 * The command history filename can now be set to the empty string
332 either using 'set history filename' or by setting 'GDBHISTFILE=' in
333 the environment. The effect of setting this filename to the empty
334 string is that GDB will not try to load any previous command
335 history.
336
337 * On Windows targets, it is now possible to debug 32-bit programs with a
338 64-bit GDB.
339
340 * New commands
341
342 set exec-file-mismatch -- Set exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
343 show exec-file-mismatch -- Show exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
344 Set or show the option 'exec-file-mismatch'. When GDB attaches to a
345 running process, this new option indicates whether to detect
346 a mismatch between the current executable file loaded by GDB and the
347 executable file used to start the process. If 'ask', the default,
348 display a warning and ask the user whether to load the process
349 executable file; if 'warn', just display a warning; if 'off', don't
350 attempt to detect a mismatch.
351
352 tui new-layout NAME WINDOW WEIGHT [WINDOW WEIGHT]...
353 Define a new TUI layout, specifying its name and the windows that
354 will be displayed.
355
356 maintenance print xml-tdesc [FILE]
357 Prints the current target description as an XML document. If the
358 optional FILE is provided (which is an XML target description) then
359 the target description is read from FILE into GDB, and then
360 reprinted.
361
362 maintenance print core-file-backed-mappings
363 Prints file-backed mappings loaded from a core file's note section.
364 Output is expected to be similar to that of "info proc mappings".
365
366 set debug fortran-array-slicing on|off
367 show debug fortran-array-slicing
368 Print debugging when taking slices of Fortran arrays.
369
370 set fortran repack-array-slices on|off
371 show fortran repack-array-slices
372 When taking slices from Fortran arrays and strings, if the slice is
373 non-contiguous within the original value then, when this option is
374 on, the new value will be repacked into a single contiguous value.
375 When this option is off, then the value returned will consist of a
376 descriptor that describes the slice within the memory of the
377 original parent value.
378
379 * Changed commands
380
381 alias [-a] [--] ALIAS = COMMAND [DEFAULT-ARGS...]
382 The alias command can now specify default args for an alias.
383 GDB automatically prepends the alias default args to the argument list
384 provided explicitly by the user.
385 For example, to have a backtrace with full details, you can define
386 an alias 'bt_ALL' as
387 'alias bt_ALL = backtrace -entry-values both -frame-arg all
388 -past-main -past-entry -full'.
389 Alias default arguments can also use a set of nested 'with' commands,
390 e.g. 'alias pp10 = with print pretty -- with print elem 10 -- print'
391 defines the alias pp10 that will pretty print a maximum of 10 elements
392 of the given expression (if the expression is an array).
393
394 * New targets
395
396 GNU/Linux/RISC-V (gdbserver) riscv*-*-linux*
397 BPF bpf-unknown-none
398
399 * Python API
400
401 ** gdb.register_window_type can be used to implement new TUI windows
402 in Python.
403
404 ** Dynamic types can now be queried. gdb.Type has a new attribute,
405 "dynamic", and gdb.Type.sizeof can be None for a dynamic type. A
406 field of a dynamic type may have None for its "bitpos" attribute
407 as well.
408
409 ** Commands written in Python can be in the "TUI" help class by
410 registering with the new constant gdb.COMMAND_TUI.
411
412 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.architecture () to retrieve the
413 architecture of the pending frame.
414
415 ** New gdb.Architecture.registers method that returns a
416 gdb.RegisterDescriptorIterator object, an iterator that returns
417 gdb.RegisterDescriptor objects. The new RegisterDescriptor is a
418 way to query the registers available for an architecture.
419
420 ** New gdb.Architecture.register_groups method that returns a
421 gdb.RegisterGroupIterator object, an iterator that returns
422 gdb.RegisterGroup objects. The new RegisterGroup is a way to
423 discover the available register groups.
424
425 * Guile API
426
427 ** GDB can now be built with GNU Guile 3.0 and 2.2 in addition to 2.0.
428
429 ** Procedures 'memory-port-read-buffer-size',
430 'set-memory-port-read-buffer-size!', 'memory-port-write-buffer-size',
431 and 'set-memory-port-write-buffer-size!' are deprecated. When
432 using Guile 2.2 and later, users who need to control the size of
433 a memory port's internal buffer can use the 'setvbuf' procedure.
434
435 *** Changes in GDB 9
436
437 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
438
439 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
440 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
441 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
442 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
443 such as in system-wide init files.
444
445 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
446 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
447 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
448 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
449 current GDB settings.
450
451 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
452 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
453 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
454 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
455
456 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
457 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
458 postfix [PAC].
459
460 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
461 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
462
463 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
464 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
465 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
466
467 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
468 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
469 commands.
470
471 * Command names can now use the . character.
472
473 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
474
475 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
476 messages.
477
478 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
479
480 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
481 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
482
483 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
484 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
485 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
486
487 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
488
489 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
490 not visible in the current scope.
491
492 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
493 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
494 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
495 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
496 compiled with support for that language.
497
498 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
499 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
500 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
501
502 * Python API
503
504 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
505 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
506 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
507 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
508 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
509
510 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
511 type was defined in.
512
513 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
514 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
515 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
516 is given.
517
518 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
519 symbols with static linkage.
520
521 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
522 all static symbols with static linkage.
523
524 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
525 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
526
527 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
528 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
529
530 * New commands
531
532 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
533 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
534 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
535 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
536 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
537 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
538 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
539
540 define-prefix COMMAND
541 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
542
543 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
544 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
545 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
546 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
547 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
548 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
549 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
550 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
551 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
552 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
553 of array elements to print.
554
555 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
556 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
557
558 set may-call-functions [on|off]
559 show may-call-functions
560 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
561 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
562 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
563 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
564 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
565 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
566 in the program.
567
568 set print finish [on|off]
569 show print finish
570 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
571 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
572 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
573 default is `on'.
574
575 set print max-depth
576 show print max-depth
577 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
578 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
579 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
580 the old behavior back.
581
582 set print raw-values [on|off]
583 show print raw-values
584 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
585 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
586 of commands. The default is 'off'.
587
588 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
589 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
590 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
591
592 set style title foreground COLOR
593 set style title background COLOR
594 set style title intensity VALUE
595 Control the styling of titles.
596
597 set style highlight foreground COLOR
598 set style highlight background COLOR
599 set style highlight intensity VALUE
600 Control the styling of highlightings.
601
602 maint set worker-threads
603 maint show worker-threads
604 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
605 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
606 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
607 the names of linker symbols.
608
609 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
610 set style tui-border background COLOR
611 Control the styling of TUI borders.
612
613 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
614 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
615 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
616
617 maint set test-settings KIND
618 maint show test-settings KIND
619 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
620 infrastructure.
621
622 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
623 maint show tui-resize-message
624 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
625 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
626 TUI.
627
628 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
629 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
630 show print frame-info
631 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
632 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
633 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
634 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
635
636 set tui compact-source
637 show tui compact-source
638
639 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
640 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
641 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
642 line numbers from the source.
643
644 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
645 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
646 no REGEXP is given.
647
648 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
649 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
650 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
651 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
652 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
653 matches against the function name.
654
655 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
656 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
657 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
658 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
659 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
660 against the variable name.
661
662 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
663 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
664 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
665 "set debug remote".
666 The default is 512 bytes.
667
668 info connections
669 Lists the target connections currently in use.
670
671 * Changed commands
672
673 help
674 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
675 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
676 command names.
677
678 apropos [-v] REGEXP
679 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
680 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
681 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
682 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
683 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
684
685 printf
686 eval
687 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
688 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
689 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
690 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
691
692 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
693 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
694 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
695 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
696 parts of the files.
697
698 show style
699 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
700 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
701 the user visualize the different styles.
702
703 set print frame-arguments
704 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
705 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
706
707 set print raw-frame-arguments
708 show print raw-frame-arguments
709
710 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
711 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
712 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
713 release.
714
715 add-inferior [-no-connection]
716 The add-inferior command now supports a "-no-connection" flag that
717 makes the new inferior start with no target connection associated.
718 By default, the new inferior inherits the target connection of the
719 current inferior. See also "info connections".
720
721 info inferior
722 This command's output now includes a new "Connection" column
723 indicating which target connection an inferior is bound to. See
724 "info connections" above.
725
726 maint test-options require-delimiter
727 maint test-options unknown-is-error
728 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
729 maint show test-options-completion-result
730 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
731 framework.
732
733 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
734 These commands are now case-sensitive.
735
736 * New command options, command completion
737
738 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
739 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
740 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
741 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
742 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
743 number of commands got support for new command options in this
744 release:
745
746 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
747 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
748 set by "set print" subcommands:
749
750 -address [on|off]
751 -array [on|off]
752 -array-indexes [on|off]
753 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
754 -null-stop [on|off]
755 -object [on|off]
756 -pretty [on|off]
757 -raw-values [on|off]
758 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
759 -static-members [on|off]
760 -symbol [on|off]
761 -union [on|off]
762 -vtbl [on|off]
763
764 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
765 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
766 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
767 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
768
769 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
770 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
771 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
772
773 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
774 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
775 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
776 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
777 |location-and-address|short-location
778 -past-main [on|off]
779 -past-entry [on|off]
780
781 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
782 exposed as command options too:
783
784 -full
785 -no-filters
786 -hide
787
788 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
789 support the following options:
790
791 -past-main [on|off]
792 -past-entry [on|off]
793
794 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
795 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
796
797 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
798 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
799 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
800 like for example:
801
802 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
803
804 The above is equivalent to:
805
806 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
807
808 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
809 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
810 variables" and "info functions".
811
812 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
813 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
814 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
815 from the results.
816
817 * Completion improvements
818
819 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
820 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
821 abbreviated.
822
823 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
824 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
825 commands.
826
827 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
828 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
829 completes on filenames.
830
831 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
832 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
833
834 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
835
836 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
837 elements unlimited".
838
839 * New MI commands
840
841 -complete
842 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
843 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
844 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
845
846 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
847 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
848 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
849
850 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
851 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
852 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
853
854 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
855 modules' command.
856
857 -symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
858 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
859 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
860
861 * Other MI changes
862
863 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
864
865 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
866 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
867 the following commands and events:
868
869 - -break-insert
870 - -break-info
871 - =breakpoint-created
872 - =breakpoint-modified
873
874 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
875 this behavior with previous MI versions.
876
877 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
878 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
879 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
880 present.
881
882 * Testsuite
883
884 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
885 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
886 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
887 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
888
889 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
890
891 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
892 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
893
894 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
895
896 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
897 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
898
899 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
900 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
901 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
902
903 * Removed targets and native configurations
904
905 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
906 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
907 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
908
909 * New Simulators
910
911 TI PRU pru-*-elf
912
913 * Removed targets and native configurations
914
915 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
916 sparc*-*-solaris2.10
917
918 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
919
920 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
921 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
922 HTM registers.
923
924 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
925 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
926 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
927 and operators.
928
929 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
930 (the C++ plug-in).
931
932 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
933 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
934 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
935
936 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
937 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
938
939 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
940 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
941 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
942 in the GDB user manual.
943
944 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
945 executed failed.
946
947 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
948
949 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
950 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
951 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
952 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
953 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
954 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
955 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
956 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
957 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
958 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
959 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
960 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
961
962 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
963 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
964 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
965 information.
966
967 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
968 lucid.
969
970 * New commands
971
972 set debug compile-cplus-types
973 show debug compile-cplus-types
974 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
975 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiling
976 for other languages.
977
978 set debug skip
979 show debug skip
980 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
981 displayed.
982
983 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
984 Apply a command to some frames.
985 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
986 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
987
988 taas COMMAND
989 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
990 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
991
992 faas COMMAND
993 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
994 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
995
996 tfaas COMMAND
997 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
998 output).
999 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
1000
1001 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
1002 maint show dwarf unwinders
1003 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
1004
1005 info proc files
1006 Display a list of open files for a process.
1007
1008 * Changed commands
1009
1010 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
1011 These commands all now take a frame specification which
1012 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
1013 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
1014 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
1015 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
1016 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
1017
1018 target remote FILENAME
1019 target extended-remote FILENAME
1020 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
1021 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
1022
1023 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1024 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1025 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1026 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1027 These commands can now print only the searched entities
1028 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
1029 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
1030 printing headers or informations messages.
1031
1032 info functions
1033 info types
1034 info variables
1035 rbreak
1036 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
1037 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
1038 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
1039 the shown entities.
1040
1041 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
1042 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
1043 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
1044 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
1045
1046 set tui tab-width NCHARS
1047 show tui tab-width NCHARS
1048 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
1049
1050 set style enabled [on|off]
1051 show style enabled
1052 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
1053 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
1054
1055 set style sources [on|off]
1056 show style sources
1057 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
1058 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
1059 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
1060
1061 set style filename foreground COLOR
1062 set style filename background COLOR
1063 set style filename intensity VALUE
1064 Control the styling of file names.
1065
1066 set style function foreground COLOR
1067 set style function background COLOR
1068 set style function intensity VALUE
1069 Control the styling of function names.
1070
1071 set style variable foreground COLOR
1072 set style variable background COLOR
1073 set style variable intensity VALUE
1074 Control the styling of variable names.
1075
1076 set style address foreground COLOR
1077 set style address background COLOR
1078 set style address intensity VALUE
1079 Control the styling of addresses.
1080
1081 * MI changes
1082
1083 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
1084 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
1085 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
1086 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
1087 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
1088
1089 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
1090 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
1091
1092 * New native configurations
1093
1094 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
1095 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
1096
1097 * New targets
1098
1099 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
1100 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
1101 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
1102 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
1103 NXP S12Z s12z-*-elf
1104 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
1105
1106 * Removed targets
1107
1108 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
1109 before Windows XP.
1110
1111 * Python API
1112
1113 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
1114
1115 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
1116 space associated to that inferior.
1117
1118 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
1119 of objfiles associated to that program space.
1120
1121 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
1122 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
1123 the gdb core.
1124
1125 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
1126 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
1127 correct and did not work properly.
1128
1129 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
1130 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
1131
1132 * Configure changes
1133
1134 --enable-ubsan
1135
1136 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
1137 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
1138 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
1139 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
1140 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
1141
1142 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
1143
1144 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
1145 for the MIPS target.
1146
1147 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
1148 offset to all sections.
1149
1150 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
1151 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
1152 address of individual sections using '-s'.
1153
1154 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
1155 (address of the text section).
1156
1157 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
1158 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
1159 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
1160 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
1161 default.
1162
1163 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
1164 for the rest of the current command.
1165
1166 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
1167 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
1168
1169 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
1170 files created on FreeBSD systems.
1171
1172 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
1173 alignof.
1174
1175 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
1176 the vector length while the process is running.
1177
1178 * New commands
1179
1180 set debug fbsd-nat
1181 show debug fbsd-nat
1182 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
1183
1184 set|show varsize-limit
1185 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
1186 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
1187 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
1188
1189 set|show record btrace cpu
1190 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
1191 branch trace decode.
1192
1193 maint check libthread-db
1194 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
1195 library
1196
1197 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
1198 maint show check-libthread-db
1199 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
1200 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
1201 perform such checks.
1202
1203 * Python API
1204
1205 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
1206
1207 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
1208 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
1209
1210 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
1211
1212 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
1213 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
1214 of convenience variables.
1215
1216 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
1217 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
1218 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
1219
1220 * New targets
1221
1222 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
1223
1224 * Removed targets and native configurations
1225
1226 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
1227 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
1228 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
1229 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
1230
1231 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
1232
1233 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
1234 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
1235 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
1236 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
1237 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
1238 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
1239 reported.
1240
1241 * Configure changes
1242
1243 --enable-codesign=CERT
1244 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
1245 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
1246 gdb to work properly.
1247
1248 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
1249 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
1250
1251 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
1252
1253 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
1254 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
1255 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
1256
1257 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
1258 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
1259
1260 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
1261 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
1262 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
1263 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
1264 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
1265
1266 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
1267 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
1268 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
1269 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
1270
1271 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
1272 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
1273
1274 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
1275 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
1276 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
1277
1278 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
1279 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
1280 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
1281
1282 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
1283 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
1284 environment" command.
1285
1286 * Completion improvements
1287
1288 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
1289 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
1290 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
1291 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
1292 correctly:
1293
1294 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
1295 (gdb) b function(int)
1296
1297 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
1298 C++ anonymous namespaces:
1299
1300 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
1301 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
1302 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
1303 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
1304
1305 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
1306 completion support, that better understands what you're
1307 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
1308 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
1309 setting a breakpoint.
1310
1311 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
1312
1313 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
1314
1315 * New command line options (gcore)
1316
1317 -a
1318 Dump all memory mappings.
1319
1320 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
1321
1322 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
1323 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
1324 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
1325
1326 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
1327
1328 A::B::func()
1329 B::func()
1330
1331 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
1332 on both symbols.
1333
1334 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
1335 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
1336 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
1337 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
1338 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
1339 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
1340 a breakpoint from Python.
1341
1342 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1343
1344 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1345 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
1346 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
1347
1348 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
1349
1350 function[abi:cxx11](int)
1351 ^^^^^^^^^^^
1352
1353 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
1354 no tag, like:
1355
1356 (gdb) b function(int)
1357
1358 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
1359
1360 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
1361
1362 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
1363
1364 * Python Scripting
1365
1366 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
1367 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
1368 description of these.
1369
1370 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
1371 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
1372 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
1373
1374 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
1375 manual for a further description of this feature.
1376
1377
1378 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1379
1380 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
1381 specified initial working directory.
1382
1383 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
1384 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
1385
1386 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
1387 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
1388
1389 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
1390 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
1391
1392 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
1393 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
1394 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
1395 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
1396 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
1397
1398 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
1399 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
1400 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
1401
1402 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
1403 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
1404 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
1405 in the *stopped notification.
1406
1407 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
1408 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
1409
1410 * New remote packets
1411
1412 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
1413 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
1414 the inferior when starting it.
1415
1416 QEnvironmentUnset
1417 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
1418 before starting the remote inferior.
1419
1420 QEnvironmentReset
1421 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
1422 user-set environment variables should be unset).
1423
1424 QStartupWithShell
1425 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
1426
1427 QSetWorkingDir
1428 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
1429 working directory.
1430
1431 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
1432 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
1433
1434 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
1435 filter the tests to be run.
1436
1437 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
1438 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
1439
1440 * New commands
1441
1442 set|show cwd
1443 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
1444
1445 set|show compile-gcc
1446 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
1447 with the 'compile' commands.
1448
1449 set debug separate-debug-file
1450 show debug separate-debug-file
1451 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
1452
1453 set dump-excluded-mappings
1454 show dump-excluded-mappings
1455 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
1456 dumped when generating a core file.
1457
1458 maint info selftests
1459 List the registered selftests.
1460
1461 starti
1462 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
1463
1464 set|show debug or1k
1465 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
1466
1467 set|show print type nested-type-limit
1468 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
1469 type printer will show.
1470
1471 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
1472 `o' for nexti.
1473
1474 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
1475
1476 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
1477 'int'.
1478
1479 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
1480 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
1481 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
1482 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
1483
1484 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
1485 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
1486 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
1487 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1488 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
1489 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1490
1491 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
1492 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
1493 unless you tell it the variable's type:
1494
1495 (gdb) p var
1496 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
1497 (gdb) p (float) var
1498 $3 = 3.14
1499
1500 * New native configurations
1501
1502 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1503 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1504
1505 * New targets
1506
1507 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1508 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1509 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
1510
1511 * Removed targets and native configurations
1512
1513 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
1514
1515 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
1516
1517 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
1518 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
1519 available in future Intel CPUs.
1520
1521 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
1522
1523 * Python Scripting
1524
1525 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
1526 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
1527
1528 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
1529 instructions.
1530
1531 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
1532
1533 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
1534
1535 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
1536 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
1537 removed.
1538
1539 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
1540
1541 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
1542 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
1543
1544 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
1545
1546 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
1547 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
1548 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
1549 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
1550 features.
1551
1552 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
1553
1554 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
1555 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
1556 debugger.
1557
1558 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
1559
1560 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
1561 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
1562
1563 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
1564
1565 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
1566
1567 define mycommand
1568 set $i = 0
1569 while $i < $argc
1570 eval "print $arg%d", $i
1571 set $i = $i + 1
1572 end
1573 end
1574
1575 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
1576
1577 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
1578 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
1579
1580 * New native configurations
1581
1582 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1583
1584 * New targets
1585
1586 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
1587 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1588
1589 * Removed targets and native configurations
1590
1591 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1592 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
1593
1594 * New commands
1595
1596 flash-erase
1597 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
1598
1599 maint print arc arc-instruction address
1600 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
1601
1602 * New options
1603
1604 set disassembler-options
1605 show disassembler-options
1606 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
1607 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
1608 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
1609 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
1610 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
1611
1612 * New MI commands
1613
1614 -target-flash-erase
1615 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
1616 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
1617
1618 -file-list-shared-libraries
1619 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
1620 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
1621
1622 -catch-handlers
1623 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
1624 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
1625
1626 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
1627
1628 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
1629
1630 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
1631 default. One must now explicitly configure with
1632 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
1633 option will be removed in a future release.
1634
1635 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
1636 GDB connection.
1637
1638 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
1639 memory backward from the given address. For example:
1640
1641 (gdb) bt
1642 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
1643 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
1644 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
1645 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
1646 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
1647 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
1648 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
1649 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
1650 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
1651
1652 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
1653 arrays of dynamic types.
1654
1655 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
1656 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1657 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1658 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1659 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1660 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
1661
1662 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
1663 descriptions.
1664
1665 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
1666 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
1667 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
1668
1669 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
1670
1671 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
1672 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
1673 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
1674 signal received and code location.
1675
1676 For example:
1677
1678 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
1679 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
1680 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
1681 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
1682
1683 * Rust language support.
1684 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
1685 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
1686 Rust.
1687
1688 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
1689
1690 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
1691 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
1692 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
1693 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
1694 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
1695 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
1696 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
1697 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
1698 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
1699 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
1700 line.
1701
1702 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
1703
1704 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
1705 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
1706
1707 * New commands
1708
1709 skip -file file
1710 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
1711 skip -function function
1712 skip -rfunction regular-expression
1713 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
1714 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
1715 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
1716
1717 maint info line-table REGEXP
1718 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data structure.
1719
1720 maint selftest
1721 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
1722
1723 new-ui INTERP TTY
1724 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
1725 using the TTY file for input/output.
1726
1727 * Python Scripting
1728
1729 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
1730 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
1731 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
1732 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
1733 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
1734
1735 signal-event EVENTID
1736 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
1737 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
1738 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
1739 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
1740 signalling an event.
1741
1742 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
1743 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
1744 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
1745
1746 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
1747 been removed:
1748
1749 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
1750 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
1751 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
1752 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
1753 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
1754 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
1755
1756 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
1757 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
1758 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
1759 bytecode into native code.
1760
1761 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
1762 recording. For example:
1763
1764 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
1765
1766 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
1767
1768 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
1769
1770 * New targets
1771
1772 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
1773
1774 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
1775
1776 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
1777
1778 * Per-inferior thread numbers
1779
1780 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
1781 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
1782 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
1783
1784 (gdb) info threads
1785 Id Target Id Frame
1786 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
1787 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
1788 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
1789 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
1790
1791 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
1792 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
1793 are no longer unique between inferiors.
1794
1795 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
1796 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
1797 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
1798
1799 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
1800 IDs.
1801
1802 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
1803 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
1804
1805 (gdb) thread 2.1
1806 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
1807 (gdb)
1808
1809 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
1810 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
1811 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
1812 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
1813 threads 2.*".
1814
1815 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
1816 all threads.
1817
1818 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
1819 the current thread.
1820
1821 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
1822 current inferior.
1823
1824 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
1825 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
1826 example:
1827
1828 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
1829 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
1830
1831 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
1832
1833 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
1834
1835 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
1836 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
1837
1838 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
1839 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
1840 clients.
1841
1842 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1843 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
1844 at the same time.
1845
1846 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
1847 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
1848 into native code.
1849
1850 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1851
1852 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
1853 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
1854 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
1855
1856 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
1857 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
1858
1859 * New commands
1860
1861 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
1862 maint show target-non-stop
1863 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
1864 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
1865 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
1866
1867 maint set bfd-sharing
1868 maint show bfd-sharing
1869 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
1870
1871 set debug bfd-cache
1872 show debug bfd-cache
1873 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
1874
1875 set debug fbsd-lwp
1876 show debug fbsd-lwp
1877 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
1878
1879 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1880 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1881 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
1882
1883 set remote thread-events
1884 show remote thread-events
1885 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
1886
1887 set ada print-signatures on|off
1888 show ada print-signatures"
1889 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
1890 selection menus. It is activated (@code{on}) by default.
1891
1892 set max-value-size
1893 show max-value-size
1894 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
1895 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
1896 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
1897
1898 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1899 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
1900 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
1901 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
1902 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
1903 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
1904
1905 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1906 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
1907
1908 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
1909 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
1910
1911 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
1912
1913 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
1914 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
1915 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
1916 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
1917 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
1918 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
1919
1920 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
1921 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
1922
1923 catch handlers
1924 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
1925
1926 * New remote packets
1927
1928 exec stop reason
1929 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
1930
1931 exec-events feature in qSupported
1932 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
1933 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
1934 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
1935 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
1936
1937 vCtrlC
1938 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
1939 non-stop mode.
1940
1941 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
1942 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
1943
1944 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
1945 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
1946
1947 QThreadEvents
1948 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
1949 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
1950 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
1951 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
1952 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
1953 stop for that same thread.
1954
1955 N stop reply
1956 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
1957 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
1958 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
1959
1960 QCatchSyscalls
1961 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
1962 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
1963
1964 syscall_entry stop reason
1965 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
1966
1967 syscall_return stop reason
1968 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
1969
1970 * Extended-remote exec events
1971
1972 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
1973 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
1974 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
1975
1976 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
1977 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
1978 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
1979
1980 * Thread names in remote protocol
1981
1982 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
1983 thread.
1984
1985 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
1986
1987 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
1988 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
1989 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
1990 fork and exec catchpoints.
1991
1992 * Remote syscall events
1993
1994 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
1995 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
1996
1997 set remote catch-syscall-packet
1998 show remote catch-syscall-packet
1999 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
2000
2001 * MI changes
2002
2003 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
2004 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
2005 left.
2006
2007 * Python Scripting
2008
2009 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
2010 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
2011 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
2012 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
2013 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
2014 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
2015
2016 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
2017
2018 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
2019 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
2020 including advance SIMD instructions.
2021
2022 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
2023
2024 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
2025 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
2026 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
2027 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
2028 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
2029 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
2030 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
2031
2032 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2033 cpu information :
2034 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
2035
2036 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
2037 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
2038 remote serial I/O.
2039
2040 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
2041 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
2042 and may include things like its command line arguments.
2043
2044 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
2045 is now available on all platforms.
2046
2047 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
2048 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
2049 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
2050 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
2051 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
2052 backward compatibility.
2053
2054 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
2055 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
2056 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
2057 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
2058
2059 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
2060 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
2061 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
2062 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
2063 packets" below.
2064
2065 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
2066
2067 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
2068
2069 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
2070 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
2071 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
2072 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
2073 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
2074 See "New remote packets" below.
2075
2076 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
2077 available register groups, including target specific groups.
2078
2079 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
2080 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
2081 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
2082 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
2083 are ignored.
2084
2085 * Guile Scripting
2086
2087 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
2088
2089 * Python Scripting
2090
2091 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
2092 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
2093 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
2094 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
2095 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
2096 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
2097 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
2098 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
2099 "const" version of the value respectively.
2100
2101 * New commands
2102
2103 maint print symbol-cache
2104 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
2105
2106 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
2107 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
2108
2109 maint flush-symbol-cache
2110 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
2111
2112 record btrace bts
2113 record bts
2114 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
2115
2116 compile print
2117 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
2118
2119 tui enable
2120 tui disable
2121 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
2122
2123 show mpx bound
2124 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
2125 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
2126
2127 record btrace pt
2128 record pt
2129 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
2130
2131 maint info btrace
2132 Print information about branch tracing internals.
2133
2134 maint btrace packet-history
2135 Print the raw branch tracing data.
2136
2137 maint btrace clear-packet-history
2138 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
2139
2140 maint btrace clear
2141 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
2142 anew by the next "record" command.
2143
2144 * New options
2145
2146 set debug dwarf-die
2147 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
2148 show debug dwarf-die
2149 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
2150
2151 set debug dwarf-read
2152 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
2153 show debug dwarf-read
2154 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
2155
2156 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
2157 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
2158 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
2159 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
2160
2161 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
2162 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
2163 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
2164 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
2165
2166 set debug dwarf-line
2167 show debug dwarf-line
2168 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
2169
2170 set max-completions
2171 show max-completions
2172 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
2173 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
2174 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
2175 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
2176
2177 set history remove-duplicates
2178 show history remove-duplicates
2179 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
2180
2181 maint set symbol-cache-size
2182 maint show symbol-cache-size
2183 Control the size of the symbol cache.
2184
2185 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
2186 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
2187 BTS format.
2188 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
2189 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
2190
2191 set debug linux-namespaces
2192 show debug linux-namespaces
2193 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
2194
2195 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
2196 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
2197 Intel Processor Trace format.
2198 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
2199 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
2200
2201 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
2202 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
2203 packet history.
2204
2205 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
2206 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
2207
2208 * Python/Guile scripting
2209
2210 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
2211 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
2212
2213 * New remote packets
2214
2215 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
2216 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
2217
2218 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
2219 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
2220
2221 Qbtrace:pt
2222 Enable Intel Processor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
2223 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
2224 qSupported query.
2225
2226 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
2227 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
2228 Trace format.
2229
2230 swbreak stop reason
2231 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
2232 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
2233 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
2234 mode operation.
2235
2236 hwbreak stop reason
2237 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
2238 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
2239
2240 vFile:fstat:
2241 Return information about files on the remote system.
2242
2243 qXfer:exec-file:read
2244 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
2245 create a process running on the remote system.
2246
2247 vFile:setfs:
2248 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
2249 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
2250 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
2251 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
2252
2253 fork stop reason
2254 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
2255
2256 vfork stop reason
2257 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
2258
2259 vforkdone stop reason
2260 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
2261 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
2262
2263 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
2264 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
2265 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
2266 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
2267 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
2268 whether these features are enabled.
2269
2270 * Extended-remote fork events
2271
2272 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
2273 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
2274 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
2275 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
2276
2277 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
2278 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
2279 the btrace record target.
2280 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
2281
2282 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
2283 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
2284
2285 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
2286 targets.
2287
2288 * Removed command line options
2289
2290 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
2291
2292 * Removed targets and native configurations
2293
2294 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
2295 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2296
2297 * New configure options
2298
2299 --with-intel-pt
2300 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
2301 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
2302
2303 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
2304 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
2305 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
2306 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
2307
2308 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
2309
2310 * Python Scripting
2311
2312 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
2313
2314 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
2315
2316 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
2317
2318 * Python Scripting
2319
2320 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
2321 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
2322 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
2323 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
2324 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
2325 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
2326 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
2327 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
2328 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
2329 selecting a new file to debug.
2330 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
2331 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
2332
2333 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
2334 inferior.
2335
2336 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
2337 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
2338 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
2339 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
2340
2341 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2342
2343 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2344 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2345 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2346 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2347
2348 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
2349 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
2350 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
2351 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
2352 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
2353 interface with this new feature are:
2354
2355 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
2356 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
2357
2358 * New commands
2359
2360 demangle [-l language] [--] name
2361 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
2362 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
2363 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
2364 as "maint demangler-warning".
2365
2366 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
2367 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
2368
2369 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
2370 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
2371 scripts.
2372
2373 maint print user-registers
2374 List all currently available "user" registers.
2375
2376 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
2377 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
2378 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
2379
2380 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
2381 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
2382 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
2383 provided.
2384
2385 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
2386 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
2387 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
2388 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
2389 at resume time.
2390
2391 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
2392 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
2393 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
2394 switched threads meanwhile.
2395
2396 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
2397
2398 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
2399 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
2400 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
2401 is now the default mode.
2402
2403 * New options
2404
2405 set debug symbol-lookup
2406 show debug symbol-lookup
2407 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
2408
2409 * MI changes
2410
2411 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
2412 inferiors that have exited.
2413
2414 * New targets
2415
2416 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
2417
2418 * Removed targets
2419
2420 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2421
2422 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
2423 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
2424 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
2425 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
2426 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
2427
2428 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2429 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2430 its alias "share", instead.
2431
2432 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
2433
2434 * New command line options
2435
2436 -D data-directory
2437 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
2438
2439 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
2440 as specified in ISO C99.
2441
2442 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
2443 with or without disassembly.
2444
2445 * Guile scripting
2446
2447 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
2448 available is determined at configure time.
2449 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
2450 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
2451
2452 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2453
2454 guile [code]
2455 gu [code]
2456 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
2457
2458 guile-repl
2459 gr
2460 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
2461
2462 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
2463 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
2464
2465 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
2466 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
2467
2468 * New options
2469
2470 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
2471 show print symbol-loading
2472 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
2473 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
2474 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
2475 becomes less useful.
2476
2477 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
2478 show guile print-stack
2479 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
2480
2481 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
2482 show auto-load guile-scripts
2483 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
2484
2485 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
2486 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
2487 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
2488 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
2489 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
2490 usage of this option.
2491
2492 set auto-connect-native-target
2493
2494 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
2495 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
2496 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
2497
2498 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
2499 show record btrace replay-memory-access
2500 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
2501
2502 maint set target-async (on|off)
2503 maint show target-async
2504 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
2505 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
2506 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
2507 occurring only in synchronous mode.
2508
2509 set mi-async (on|off)
2510 show mi-async
2511 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
2512 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
2513
2514 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
2515 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
2516
2517 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
2518 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
2519 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
2520 "set target-async on" command.
2521
2522 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2523
2524 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
2525 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
2526 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
2527 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
2528 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
2529
2530 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
2531 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
2532 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
2533
2534 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
2535 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
2536 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
2537 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
2538 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
2539 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
2540 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
2541
2542 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
2543 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
2544
2545 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
2546 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
2547 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
2548
2549 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
2550 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
2551 memory or registers.
2552
2553 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
2554
2555 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
2556 remote. It now works with all targets.
2557
2558 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
2559 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
2560 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
2561 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
2562 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
2563 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
2564 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
2565 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
2566 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
2567 target-stack".
2568
2569 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
2570 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
2571 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
2572
2573 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
2574
2575 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
2576 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
2577 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
2578
2579 * New remote packets
2580
2581 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
2582 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
2583 branch trace incrementally.
2584
2585 * Python Scripting
2586
2587 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
2588 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
2589 available.
2590 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
2591 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
2592 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
2593 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
2594 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
2595
2596 * New targets
2597 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
2598
2599 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2600 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2601 its alias "share", instead.
2602
2603 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
2604 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
2605 instead.
2606
2607 * MI changes
2608
2609 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
2610 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
2611 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
2612 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
2613 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
2614 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
2615 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
2616 commands and CLI execution commands.
2617
2618 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
2619
2620 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
2621 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
2622 recording has been added.
2623
2624 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2625
2626 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
2627 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
2628
2629 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
2630 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
2631 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
2632 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
2633 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
2634 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
2635 "void".
2636
2637 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
2638
2639 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
2640
2641 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
2642 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
2643 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
2644 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
2645
2646 (gdb) p $rax
2647 $1 = <not saved>
2648
2649 (gdb) info registers rax
2650 rax <not saved>
2651
2652 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
2653 "*value not available*".
2654
2655 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
2656 to binaries.
2657
2658 * Python scripting
2659
2660 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
2661 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
2662 ** Line tables representation has been added.
2663 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
2664 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
2665 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
2666
2667 * New targets
2668
2669 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
2670 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
2671 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
2672
2673 * Removed native configurations
2674
2675 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
2676 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
2677
2678 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2679 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2680 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
2681 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
2682 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2683 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2684 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2685
2686 * New commands:
2687 catch rethrow
2688 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
2689 maint check-psymtabs
2690 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
2691 maint check-symtabs
2692 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
2693 maint expand-symtabs
2694 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
2695
2696 show configuration
2697 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2698
2699 maint set|show per-command
2700 maint set|show per-command space
2701 maint set|show per-command time
2702 maint set|show per-command symtab
2703 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
2704
2705 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
2706 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
2707 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
2708 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
2709 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
2710
2711 info exceptions
2712 info exceptions REGEXP
2713 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
2714 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
2715 are listed.
2716
2717 * New options
2718
2719 set debug symfile off|on
2720 show debug symfile
2721 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
2722 symbol tables within those files
2723
2724 set print raw frame-arguments
2725 show print raw frame-arguments
2726 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
2727 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
2728
2729 set remote trace-status-packet
2730 show remote trace-status-packet
2731 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
2732
2733 set debug nios2
2734 show debug nios2
2735 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
2736
2737 set range-stepping
2738 show range-stepping
2739 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
2740
2741 set startup-with-shell
2742 show startup-with-shell
2743 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
2744 directly.
2745
2746 set code-cache
2747 show code-cache
2748 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
2749 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
2750
2751 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
2752 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
2753 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
2754 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
2755 "set height 0".
2756
2757 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
2758 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
2759 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
2760
2761 * New command-line options
2762 --configuration
2763 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2764
2765 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
2766 buffer in Common Trace Format.
2767
2768 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
2769 GDB command gcore.
2770
2771 * GDB now implements the C++ 'typeid' operator.
2772
2773 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
2774 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
2775
2776 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
2777 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
2778
2779 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
2780 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
2781 due to an uncaught signal.
2782
2783 * MI changes
2784
2785 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
2786 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
2787 command, which should contain "language-option".
2788
2789 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
2790 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
2791
2792 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
2793 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
2794 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
2795 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2796 "undefined-command-error-code".
2797
2798 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
2799 Trace Format now.
2800
2801 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
2802
2803 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
2804 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
2805 are displayed.
2806
2807 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
2808 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
2809
2810 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
2811 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
2812 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
2813
2814 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
2815 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
2816 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
2817 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
2818 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2819 "exec-run-start-option".
2820
2821 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
2822 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
2823
2824 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
2825 the new "info exceptions" command.
2826
2827 * New system-wide configuration scripts
2828 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
2829 configuration scripts for the following systems:
2830 ** ElinOS
2831 ** Wind River Linux
2832
2833 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
2834 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
2835 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
2836 below.
2837
2838 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
2839 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
2840
2841 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
2842 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
2843 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
2844
2845 * New remote packets
2846
2847 vCont;r
2848
2849 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
2850 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
2851 involvemement at each single-step.
2852
2853 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
2854 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
2855 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
2856 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
2857 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
2858 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
2859 speedup.
2860
2861 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2862
2863 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
2864 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
2865
2866 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
2867 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
2868 trace state variables.
2869
2870 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
2871 target.
2872
2873 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
2874 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
2875
2876 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
2877
2878 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
2879 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
2880 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
2881 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2882
2883 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
2884
2885 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
2886 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
2887 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
2888 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
2889
2890 set|show record full insn-number-max
2891 set|show record full stop-at-limit
2892 set|show record full memory-query
2893
2894 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
2895 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
2896 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
2897 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
2898 This new recording method can be enabled using:
2899
2900 record btrace
2901
2902 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
2903 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
2904
2905 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
2906 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
2907 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
2908
2909 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
2910 instruction granularity
2911
2912 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
2913 function granularity
2914
2915 * New native configurations
2916
2917 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
2918 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
2919 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2920 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
2921
2922 * New targets
2923
2924 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
2925 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
2926 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
2927 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2928 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
2929
2930 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
2931 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
2932 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
2933 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
2934 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
2935 --data-directory command-line option.
2936
2937 * New command line options:
2938
2939 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
2940 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
2941
2942 * Removed command line options
2943
2944 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
2945 Emacs.
2946
2947 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
2948 type formatting.
2949
2950 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
2951
2952 * Python scripting
2953
2954 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
2955
2956 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
2957
2958 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
2959
2960 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
2961
2962 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
2963 of architecture in the Python API.
2964
2965 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
2966 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
2967
2968 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2969
2970 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
2971 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
2972 ** $_strlen(str)
2973 ** $_regex(str, regex)
2974
2975 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
2976 given an argument.
2977
2978 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
2979 default for GCC since November 2000.
2980
2981 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
2982
2983 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
2984 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
2985
2986 * New configure options
2987
2988 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
2989 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
2990 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
2991 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
2992 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
2993 options allow the user to override that default.
2994 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
2995 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
2996 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
2997
2998 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2999
3000 catch signal
3001 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
3002 conditions to be attached.
3003
3004 maint info bfds
3005 List the BFDs known to GDB.
3006
3007 python-interactive [command]
3008 pi [command]
3009 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
3010 and print the result of expressions.
3011
3012 py [command]
3013 "py" is a new alias for "python".
3014
3015 enable type-printer [name]...
3016 disable type-printer [name]...
3017 Enable or disable type printers.
3018
3019 * Removed commands
3020
3021 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
3022 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
3023 instead.
3024
3025 * New options
3026
3027 set print type methods (on|off)
3028 show print type methods
3029 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
3030 The default is to show them.
3031
3032 set print type typedefs (on|off)
3033 show print type typedefs
3034 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
3035 The default is to show them.
3036
3037 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
3038 show filename-display
3039 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
3040 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
3041
3042 set trace-buffer-size
3043 show trace-buffer-size
3044 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
3045
3046 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
3047 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
3048 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
3049
3050 set debug aarch64
3051 show debug aarch64
3052 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
3053 The default is off.
3054
3055 set debug coff-pe-read
3056 show debug coff-pe-read
3057 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
3058 exported symbols.
3059
3060 set debug mach-o
3061 show debug mach-o
3062 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
3063 processing.
3064
3065 set debug notification
3066 show debug notification
3067 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
3068
3069 * MI changes
3070
3071 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
3072 "=cmd-param-changed".
3073 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
3074 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
3075 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
3076 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
3077 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
3078 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
3079 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
3080 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
3081 "=memory-changed".
3082 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
3083 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
3084 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
3085 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
3086 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
3087 library load/unload events.
3088 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
3089 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
3090 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
3091 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
3092 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
3093 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
3094 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
3095 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
3096
3097 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
3098 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
3099 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
3100 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
3101
3102 * New remote packets
3103
3104 QTBuffer:size
3105 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
3106 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3107
3108 Qbtrace:bts
3109 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
3110 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
3111 qSupported query.
3112
3113 Qbtrace:off
3114 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
3115 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3116
3117 qXfer:btrace:read
3118 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
3119 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3120
3121 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
3122
3123 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
3124 for more x32 ABI info.
3125
3126 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
3127
3128 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
3129
3130 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
3131 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
3132 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
3133 "info os files" lists file descriptors
3134 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
3135 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
3136 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
3137 "info os msg" lists message queues
3138 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
3139
3140 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
3141 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
3142 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
3143 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
3144 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
3145 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
3146
3147 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
3148 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
3149 record/replay support.
3150
3151 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
3152
3153 * Python scripting
3154
3155 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
3156 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
3157
3158 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
3159
3160 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
3161 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
3162
3163 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
3164
3165 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
3166 the source at which the symbol was defined.
3167
3168 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
3169 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
3170 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
3171 symbol's value.
3172
3173 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
3174 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
3175
3176 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
3177 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
3178 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
3179
3180 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
3181 object associated with a PC value.
3182
3183 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
3184 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
3185
3186 * Go language support.
3187 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
3188 language.
3189
3190 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
3191 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
3192
3193 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
3194 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
3195
3196 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
3197 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
3198 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
3199 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
3200 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
3201 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
3202
3203 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
3204 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
3205 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
3206 build/libcpp/expr.c.
3207
3208 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
3209 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
3210
3211 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
3212 since December 2007.
3213
3214 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
3215 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
3216 command does. For instance:
3217
3218 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
3219
3220 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
3221 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
3222 created, using the "condition" command.
3223
3224 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
3225 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
3226
3227 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
3228
3229 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
3230 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
3231 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
3232 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
3233 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
3234 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
3235 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
3236 files with older .gdb_index sections.
3237
3238 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
3239 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
3240 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
3241 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
3242 the .gdb_index section.
3243
3244 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
3245
3246 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
3247 target.
3248
3249 * MI changes
3250
3251 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
3252
3253 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
3254
3255 * New commands
3256
3257 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
3258 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
3259 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
3260
3261 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
3262 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
3263
3264 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
3265 several hits.
3266
3267 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
3268 C++ and Java objects.
3269
3270 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
3271 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
3272 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
3273 configured with '--with-python'.
3274
3275 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
3276 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
3277 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
3278 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
3279 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
3280 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
3281 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
3282
3283 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
3284 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
3285 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
3286 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
3287
3288 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
3289 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
3290 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
3291 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
3292
3293 ** "set print symbol"
3294 "show print symbol"
3295 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
3296 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
3297 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
3298
3299 * Deprecated commands
3300
3301 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
3302 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
3303
3304 * New targets
3305
3306 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3307 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
3308
3309 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
3310 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
3311 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
3312 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
3313 evaluates to true.
3314
3315 * New options
3316
3317 set mips compression
3318 show mips compression
3319 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
3320 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
3321 mips16
3322 micromips
3323 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
3324
3325 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
3326 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
3327 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
3328 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
3329 available mode.
3330 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
3331 target.
3332
3333 set auto-load off
3334 Disable auto-loading globally.
3335
3336 show auto-load
3337 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
3338
3339 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
3340 show auto-load gdb-scripts
3341 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
3342
3343 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
3344 show auto-load python-scripts
3345 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
3346
3347 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
3348 show auto-load local-gdbinit
3349 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
3350
3351 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
3352 show auto-load libthread-db
3353 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
3354
3355 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3356 show auto-load scripts-directory
3357 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
3358 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
3359 of the directories listed by this option.
3360 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3361
3362 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3363 show auto-load safe-path
3364 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
3365 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3366
3367 set debug auto-load on|off
3368 show debug auto-load
3369 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
3370
3371 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
3372 show dprintf-style
3373 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
3374 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
3375 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
3376 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
3377
3378 set dprintf-function <expr>
3379 show dprintf-function
3380 set dprintf-channel <expr>
3381 show dprintf-channel
3382 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
3383 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
3384
3385 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
3386 show disconnected-dprintf
3387 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
3388 after GDB disconnects.
3389
3390 * New configure options
3391
3392 --with-auto-load-dir
3393 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
3394 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
3395 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
3396 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
3397 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
3398
3399 --with-auto-load-safe-path
3400 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
3401 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
3402
3403 --without-auto-load-safe-path
3404 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
3405 security feature.
3406
3407 * New remote packets
3408
3409 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
3410
3411 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
3412 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
3413 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
3414 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
3415
3416 QProgramSignals:
3417
3418 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
3419 program without GDB involvement.
3420
3421 * New command line options
3422
3423 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
3424 before loading inferior.
3425 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
3426 execute it before loading inferior.
3427
3428 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
3429
3430 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
3431 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
3432 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
3433 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
3434 inferior changes.
3435
3436 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
3437 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
3438
3439 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
3440 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
3441 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
3442 target hardware watchpoint.
3443
3444 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
3445 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
3446 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
3447 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
3448
3449 * Python scripting
3450
3451 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
3452 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
3453 existing one.
3454
3455 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
3456 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
3457 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
3458 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
3459 now "message", which just prints the error message without
3460 the stack trace.
3461
3462 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3463 Python API.
3464
3465 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
3466 modules library. This module provides functionality for
3467 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
3468 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
3469 corresponding value.
3470
3471 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
3472 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
3473 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
3474 on GDB start-up.
3475
3476 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
3477 static_block will return the global and static blocks
3478 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
3479 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
3480
3481 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
3482
3483 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
3484 "gdb.breakpoints".
3485
3486 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
3487 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
3488 available in the CLI.
3489
3490 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
3491 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
3492 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
3493 "some_type.items()".
3494
3495 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
3496 new object file.
3497
3498 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
3499 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
3500 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
3501 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
3502 any anonymous fields.
3503
3504 * MI changes
3505
3506 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
3507 "solib-event".
3508
3509 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
3510 "=breakpoint-modified".
3511
3512 ** New command -ada-task-info.
3513
3514 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
3515 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
3516 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
3517 lives.
3518
3519 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
3520 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
3521 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
3522 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
3523 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
3524
3525 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
3526 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
3527
3528 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
3529 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
3530 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
3531 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
3532 use this option to specify where to find it.
3533
3534 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3535 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
3536 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
3537 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
3538 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
3539 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3540 section in the user manual for more details.
3541
3542 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
3543 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
3544 become available after that.
3545
3546 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
3547
3548 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
3549 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
3550 gcc version 4.7.
3551
3552 * New commands
3553
3554 !SHELL COMMAND
3555 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
3556 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
3557
3558 * Changed commands
3559
3560 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
3561 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
3562 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
3563
3564 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
3565 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
3566 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
3567
3568 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
3569 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
3570 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
3571 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
3572 name starts with a hyphen.
3573
3574 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
3575 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
3576 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
3577 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
3578 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
3579 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
3580 number of bytes that will be collected.
3581
3582 tstart [NOTES]
3583 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
3584 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
3585 setting the variable trace-notes.
3586
3587 tstop [NOTES]
3588 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
3589 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
3590 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
3591 trace-stop-notes.
3592
3593 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
3594 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
3595 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
3596 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
3597 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
3598 is running.
3599
3600 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
3601 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
3602 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
3603
3604 * New options
3605
3606 set debug dwarf2-read
3607 show debug dwarf2-read
3608 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
3609 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
3610
3611 set debug symtab-create
3612 show debug symtab-create
3613 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
3614 creation. The default is off.
3615
3616 set extended-prompt
3617 show extended-prompt
3618 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
3619 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
3620 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
3621 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
3622 prompt is displayed.
3623
3624 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
3625 show print entry-values
3626 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
3627 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
3628 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
3629
3630 set debug entry-values
3631 show debug entry-values
3632 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
3633 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
3634
3635 set basenames-may-differ
3636 show basenames-may-differ
3637 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
3638 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
3639 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
3640 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
3641 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
3642 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
3643 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
3644 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
3645
3646 set trace-user
3647 show trace-user
3648 set trace-notes
3649 show trace-notes
3650 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
3651 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
3652 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
3653 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
3654
3655 set trace-stop-notes
3656 show trace-stop-notes
3657 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
3658 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
3659 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
3660 started by someone else.
3661
3662 * New remote packets
3663
3664 QTEnable
3665
3666 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3667
3668 QTDisable
3669
3670 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3671
3672 QTNotes
3673
3674 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
3675
3676 qTP
3677
3678 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
3679
3680 qTMinFTPILen
3681
3682 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
3683 be placed.
3684
3685 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
3686 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
3687
3688 * New targets
3689
3690 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
3691
3692 * New Simulators
3693
3694 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3695
3696 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
3697
3698 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
3699
3700 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
3701
3702 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
3703 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
3704 matches the given regular expression.
3705
3706 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
3707
3708 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
3709 dumping the instruction opcodes.
3710
3711 * New command line options
3712
3713 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
3714 This is mostly for testing purposes.
3715
3716 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
3717 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
3718
3719 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
3720 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
3721 source path list instead of augmenting it.
3722
3723 * GDB now understands thread names.
3724
3725 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
3726 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
3727
3728 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
3729 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
3730
3731 * OpenCL C
3732 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
3733 has been integrated into GDB.
3734
3735 * Python scripting
3736
3737 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
3738 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
3739 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
3740
3741 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3742 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
3743 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
3744 and allows for more dynamic content.
3745
3746 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
3747 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
3748 have an is_valid method.
3749
3750 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3751 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
3752 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
3753
3754 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
3755
3756 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
3757 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
3758 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
3759 that function like so:
3760
3761 result = some_value (10,20)
3762
3763 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
3764 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
3765 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
3766
3767 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
3768 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
3769 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
3770 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
3771 New function: register_pretty_printer.
3772
3773 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
3774 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
3775
3776 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
3777
3778 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
3779 selected thread.
3780
3781 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
3782 holds the thread's name.
3783
3784 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
3785 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
3786 occurring in the process being debugged.
3787 The following events are currently supported:
3788 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
3789 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
3790 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
3791
3792 * C++ Improvements:
3793
3794 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
3795 instantiation. For example, if you have:
3796
3797 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
3798
3799 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
3800 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
3801 was added to GCC 4.5.
3802
3803 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
3804 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
3805 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
3806 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
3807 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
3808 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
3809
3810 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
3811 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
3812 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
3813 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
3814 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
3815
3816 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
3817 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
3818 execution to a label.
3819
3820 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
3821 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
3822 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
3823 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
3824
3825 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
3826 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
3827 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
3828 of scope.
3829
3830 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
3831
3832 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
3833 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
3834 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
3835 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
3836 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
3837 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
3838
3839 (gdb) info threads
3840 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
3841
3842 While now you see this:
3843
3844 (gdb) info threads
3845 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
3846
3847 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
3848 dumps.
3849
3850 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
3851 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
3852 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
3853 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
3854
3855 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3856 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
3857 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
3858 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3859 section in the user manual for more details.
3860
3861 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3862
3863 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
3864 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
3865
3866 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
3867
3868 * New native configurations
3869
3870 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
3871
3872 * New targets:
3873
3874 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
3875
3876 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
3877 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
3878 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
3879 in the GDB user manual.
3880
3881 * Guile support was removed.
3882
3883 * New features in the GNU simulator
3884
3885 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
3886
3887 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
3888
3889 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
3890
3891 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
3892
3893 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
3894 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
3895 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
3896 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
3897 was always disabled for such configurations.
3898
3899 * C++ Improvements:
3900
3901 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
3902
3903 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
3904 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
3905 For example:
3906 namespace A
3907 {
3908 class B { };
3909 void foo (B) { }
3910 }
3911 ...
3912 A::B b
3913 foo(b)
3914 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
3915 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
3916 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
3917
3918 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
3919
3920 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
3921 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
3922 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
3923 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
3924 entry.
3925 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
3926 mentioned flavors of operators.
3927
3928 ** static const class members
3929
3930 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
3931 class definition has been fixed.
3932
3933 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
3934
3935 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
3936 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
3937 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
3938 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
3939 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
3940 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
3941
3942 * Static tracepoints
3943
3944 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
3945 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
3946 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
3947 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
3948 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
3949 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
3950 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
3951 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
3952 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
3953 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
3954 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
3955 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
3956 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
3957 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
3958 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
3959 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
3960 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
3961 the "New remote packets" section below.
3962
3963 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
3964
3965 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
3966 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
3967 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
3968 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
3969
3970 * Observer mode
3971
3972 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
3973 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
3974 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
3975 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
3976 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
3977 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
3978 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
3979
3980 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
3981 current thread.
3982
3983 * New remote packets
3984
3985 qGetTIBAddr
3986
3987 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
3988
3989 qRelocInsn
3990
3991 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
3992 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
3993 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
3994 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
3995 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
3996 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
3997
3998 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
3999
4000 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
4001
4002 qTSTMat
4003
4004 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
4005 program.
4006
4007 qXfer:statictrace:read
4008
4009 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
4010 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
4011 to gdb's qSupported query.
4012
4013 QAllow
4014
4015 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
4016
4017 QTDPsrc
4018
4019 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
4020 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
4021
4022 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
4023 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
4024 a directory.
4025
4026 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
4027
4028 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
4029 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
4030 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
4031 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
4032
4033 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
4034 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
4035 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
4036 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
4037 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
4038 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
4039 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
4040
4041 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
4042 for static tracepoints support.
4043
4044 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
4045
4046 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
4047 it understands register description.
4048
4049 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
4050
4051 * X86 general purpose registers
4052
4053 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
4054 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
4055 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
4056 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
4057 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
4058
4059 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
4060 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
4061 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
4062 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
4063 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
4064 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
4065
4066 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
4067 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
4068 in the specified file.
4069
4070 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
4071 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
4072 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
4073 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
4074 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
4075 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
4076 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
4077 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
4078 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
4079 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
4080
4081 * New commands
4082
4083 eval template, expressions...
4084 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
4085 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
4086
4087 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
4088 show target-file-system-kind
4089 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
4090 names.
4091
4092 save breakpoints <filename>
4093 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
4094 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
4095 definitions, use the `source' command.
4096
4097 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
4098 is now deprecated.
4099
4100 info static-tracepoint-markers
4101 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
4102
4103 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
4104 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
4105 function, line, address, or marker ID.
4106
4107 set observer on|off
4108 show observer
4109 Enable and disable observer mode.
4110
4111 set may-write-registers on|off
4112 set may-write-memory on|off
4113 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
4114 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
4115 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
4116 set may-interrupt on|off
4117 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
4118 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
4119 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
4120 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
4121 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
4122 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
4123 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
4124
4125 set record memory-query on|off
4126 show record memory-query
4127 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
4128 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
4129
4130 * Changed commands
4131
4132 disassemble
4133 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
4134
4135 * Python scripting
4136
4137 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
4138 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
4139 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
4140 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
4141 GDB using Python' in the manual.
4142
4143 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
4144 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
4145 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
4146 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
4147
4148 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
4149 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
4150
4151 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
4152
4153 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
4154
4155 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
4156
4157 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
4158 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
4159 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
4160
4161 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
4162 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
4163 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
4164 regular breakpoints.
4165
4166 * New targets
4167
4168 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
4169
4170 * D language support.
4171 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
4172 language.
4173
4174 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
4175 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
4176 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
4177 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
4178 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
4179
4180 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
4181 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
4182 conditions of the form:
4183
4184 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
4185
4186 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
4187 interface mentioned above.
4188
4189 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
4190
4191 * C++ Improvements
4192
4193 ** Namespace Support
4194
4195 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
4196 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
4197 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
4198 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
4199 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
4200
4201 ** Bug Fixes
4202
4203 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
4204 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
4205 qualified name.
4206
4207 ** Cast Operators
4208
4209 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
4210 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
4211
4212 * New targets
4213
4214 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
4215 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
4216
4217 * New Simulators
4218
4219 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
4220 Renesas RX rx
4221
4222 * Multi-program debugging.
4223
4224 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
4225 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
4226 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
4227 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
4228 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
4229 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
4230 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
4231 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
4232
4233 * New tracing features
4234
4235 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
4236
4237 ** Trace state variables
4238
4239 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
4240 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
4241 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
4242 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
4243 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
4244 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
4245 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
4246 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
4247 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
4248 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
4249
4250 ** Fast tracepoints
4251
4252 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
4253 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
4254 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
4255 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
4256 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
4257 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
4258 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
4259 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
4260 the regular trace command.
4261
4262 ** Disconnected tracing
4263
4264 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
4265 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
4266 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
4267 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
4268 connection is lost unexpectedly.
4269
4270 ** Trace files
4271
4272 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
4273 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
4274 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
4275 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
4276 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
4277 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
4278 <name>".
4279
4280 ** Circular trace buffer
4281
4282 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
4283 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
4284 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
4285 not be available for all target agents.
4286
4287 * Changed commands
4288
4289 disassemble
4290 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
4291 the arguments to be comma-separated.
4292
4293 info variables
4294 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
4295 which only declare a variable are not shown.
4296
4297 source
4298 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
4299 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
4300 support.
4301
4302 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
4303 "set script-extension" (see below).
4304
4305 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4306
4307 record save [<FILENAME>]
4308 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
4309 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
4310
4311 record restore <FILENAME>
4312 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
4313 earlier time, for replay debugging.
4314
4315 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
4316 Add a new inferior.
4317
4318 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
4319 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
4320 inferior has loaded.
4321
4322 remove-inferior ID
4323 Remove an inferior.
4324
4325 maint info program-spaces
4326 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
4327
4328 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
4329 show remote interrupt-sequence
4330 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
4331 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
4332 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
4333 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
4334 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
4335
4336 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
4337 show remote interrupt-on-connect
4338 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
4339 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
4340 Linux kernel.
4341
4342 set remotebreak [on | off]
4343 show remotebreak
4344 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
4345
4346 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
4347 Create or modify a trace state variable.
4348
4349 info tvariables
4350 List trace state variables and their values.
4351
4352 delete tvariable $NAME ...
4353 Delete one or more trace state variables.
4354
4355 teval EXPR, ...
4356 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
4357 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
4358
4359 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
4360 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
4361
4362 * New expression syntax
4363
4364 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
4365 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
4366
4367 * New options
4368
4369 set follow-exec-mode new|same
4370 show follow-exec-mode
4371 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
4372 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
4373 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
4374
4375 set default-collect EXPR, ...
4376 show default-collect
4377 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
4378 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
4379 such as registers or a critical global variable.
4380
4381 set disconnected-tracing
4382 show disconnected-tracing
4383 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
4384 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
4385 upon disconnection.
4386
4387 set circular-trace-buffer
4388 show circular-trace-buffer
4389 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
4390 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
4391 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
4392 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
4393
4394 set script-extension off|soft|strict
4395 show script-extension
4396 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
4397 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
4398 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
4399 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
4400 evaluation failed.
4401 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
4402
4403 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
4404 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
4405 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
4406 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
4407 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
4408 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
4409 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
4410 is on.
4411
4412 * Python API Improvements
4413
4414 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
4415 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
4416 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
4417
4418 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
4419 `is_base_class' attribute.
4420
4421 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
4422
4423 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
4424 evaluate an expression.
4425
4426 * New remote packets
4427
4428 QTDV
4429 Define a trace state variable.
4430
4431 qTV
4432 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
4433
4434 QTDisconnected
4435 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
4436
4437 QTBuffer:circular
4438 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
4439
4440 qTfP, qTsP
4441 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
4442
4443 * Bug fixes
4444
4445 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
4446
4447 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
4448 much more reliable. In particular:
4449 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
4450 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
4451 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
4452 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
4453 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
4454 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
4455 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
4456 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
4457 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
4458 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
4459 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
4460 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
4461 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
4462 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
4463 non-threaded programs.
4464
4465 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
4466 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
4467 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
4468 executable program.
4469
4470 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
4471
4472 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
4473 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
4474 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
4475 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
4476 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
4477
4478 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
4479 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
4480 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
4481 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
4482 for tracepoint actions.
4483
4484 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
4485 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
4486 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
4487
4488 * Process record and replay
4489
4490 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
4491 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
4492 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
4493 execute commands.
4494
4495 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
4496 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
4497 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
4498 reverse execution.
4499
4500 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
4501 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
4502 2.6.28 or later.
4503
4504 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
4505 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
4506 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
4507 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
4508 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
4509 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
4510 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
4511 the installation instructions for more information.
4512
4513 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
4514 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
4515 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
4516 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
4517
4518 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
4519 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
4520
4521 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
4522 now complete on file names.
4523
4524 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
4525 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
4526 For instance, consider:
4527
4528 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
4529 # struct example variable;
4530 (gdb) p variable.
4531
4532 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
4533 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
4534
4535 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
4536 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
4537
4538 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
4539 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
4540 macros.
4541
4542 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
4543 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
4544 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
4545
4546 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
4547 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
4548 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
4549 and simulator targets may also provide them.
4550
4551 * New remote packets
4552
4553 qSearch:memory:
4554 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4555
4556 QStartNoAckMode
4557 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
4558 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
4559 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
4560
4561 vKill
4562 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
4563 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
4564
4565 qXfer:osdata:read
4566 Obtains additional operating system information
4567
4568 qXfer:siginfo:read
4569 qXfer:siginfo:write
4570 Read or write additional signal information.
4571
4572 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
4573
4574 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
4575 packet that permitted the stub to pass a process id was removed.
4576 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
4577
4578 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
4579 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
4580
4581 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
4582 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
4583 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
4584
4585 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
4586 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
4587
4588 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
4589
4590 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
4591
4592 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
4593 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
4594
4595 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote protocol packet now allows passing a
4596 list of section offsets.
4597
4598 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
4599 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
4600 have also been fixed.
4601
4602 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
4603 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
4604 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
4605
4606 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
4607 example, given:
4608
4609 template<typename T> class C { };
4610 C<char const *> c;
4611
4612 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
4613
4614 ptype C<char const *>
4615 ptype C<char const*>
4616 ptype C<const char *>
4617 ptype C<const char*>
4618
4619 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
4620
4621 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
4622 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4623
4624 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
4625 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4626 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
4627
4628 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
4629 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
4630
4631 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
4632 gdbserver.
4633
4634 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
4635 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4636
4637 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
4638 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
4639 as appropriate.
4640
4641 * Python scripting
4642
4643 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
4644 available is determined at configure time.
4645
4646 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
4647
4648 * Ada tasking support
4649
4650 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
4651 been introduced:
4652
4653 info tasks
4654 Print the list of Ada tasks.
4655 info task N
4656 Print detailed information about task number N.
4657 task
4658 Print the task number of the current task.
4659 task N
4660 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
4661
4662 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
4663 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
4664
4665 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
4666
4667 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
4668 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
4669 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
4670 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
4671 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
4672 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
4673 below.
4674
4675 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
4676 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
4677 information.
4678
4679 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
4680 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
4681 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
4682 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
4683 more information.
4684
4685 * Multi-architecture debugging.
4686
4687 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
4688 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
4689 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
4690 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
4691 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
4692
4693 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
4694 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
4695 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
4696 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
4697 --enable-targets configure option.
4698
4699 * Non-stop mode debugging.
4700
4701 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
4702 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
4703 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
4704 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
4705 section in the user manual for more information.
4706
4707 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
4708 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
4709 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
4710 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
4711 extensions on linux targets.
4712
4713 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4714
4715 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
4716 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
4717 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
4718 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
4719 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
4720 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
4721 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
4722 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
4723 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
4724
4725 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
4726 val1 [, val2, ...]
4727 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4728
4729 maint set python print-stack
4730 maint show python print-stack
4731 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
4732
4733 python [CODE]
4734 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
4735
4736 macro define
4737 macro list
4738 macro undef
4739 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
4740 interactively.
4741
4742 info os processes
4743 Show operating system information about processes.
4744
4745 info inferiors
4746 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
4747
4748 inferior NUM
4749 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
4750
4751 detach inferior NUM
4752 Detach from inferior number NUM.
4753
4754 kill inferior NUM
4755 Kill inferior number NUM.
4756
4757 * New options
4758
4759 set spu stop-on-load
4760 show spu stop-on-load
4761 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4762
4763 set spu auto-flush-cache
4764 show spu auto-flush-cache
4765 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
4766 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4767
4768 set sh calling-convention
4769 show sh calling-convention
4770 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
4771
4772 set debug timestamp
4773 show debug timestamp
4774 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
4775
4776 set disassemble-next-line
4777 show disassemble-next-line
4778 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
4779 the debuggee stops.
4780
4781 set remote noack-packet
4782 show remote noack-packet
4783 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
4784 under "New remote packets."
4785
4786 set remote query-attached-packet
4787 show remote query-attached-packet
4788 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
4789
4790 set remote read-siginfo-object
4791 show remote read-siginfo-object
4792 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
4793 packet.
4794
4795 set remote write-siginfo-object
4796 show remote write-siginfo-object
4797 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
4798 packet.
4799
4800 set remote reverse-continue
4801 show remote reverse-continue
4802 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
4803
4804 set remote reverse-step
4805 show remote reverse-step
4806 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
4807
4808 set displaced-stepping
4809 show displaced-stepping
4810 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
4811 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
4812 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
4813
4814 set debug displaced
4815 show debug displaced
4816 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
4817
4818 maint set internal-error
4819 maint show internal-error
4820 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
4821
4822 maint set internal-warning
4823 maint show internal-warning
4824 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
4825
4826 set exec-wrapper
4827 show exec-wrapper
4828 unset exec-wrapper
4829 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4830
4831 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
4832 show multiple-symbols
4833 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
4834 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
4835 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
4836
4837 set breakpoint always-inserted
4838 show breakpoint always-inserted
4839 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
4840 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
4841 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
4842
4843 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4844 show arm fallback-mode
4845 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4846 show arm force-mode
4847 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
4848 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
4849 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
4850 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
4851
4852 set disable-randomization
4853 show disable-randomization
4854 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
4855 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
4856 multiple debugging sessions.
4857
4858 set non-stop
4859 show non-stop
4860 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
4861 a breakpoint.
4862
4863 set target-async
4864 show target-async
4865 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
4866 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
4867 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
4868 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
4869
4870 set target-wide-charset
4871 show target-wide-charset
4872 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
4873 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
4874
4875 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
4876 show tcp auto-retry
4877 set tcp connect-timeout
4878 show tcp connect-timeout
4879 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
4880 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
4881 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
4882
4883 set libthread-db-search-path
4884 show libthread-db-search-path
4885 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
4886 libthread_db.
4887
4888 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
4889 show schedule-multiple
4890 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
4891 the current process.
4892
4893 set stack-cache
4894 show stack-cache
4895 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
4896 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
4897 affecting correctness.
4898
4899 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
4900 show interactive-mode
4901 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
4902 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
4903 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
4904 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
4905 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
4906
4907 * Removed commands
4908
4909 info forks
4910 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
4911 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
4912 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
4913 command.
4914
4915 fork NUM
4916 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
4917 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
4918 alias for the `fork' command.
4919
4920 process PID
4921 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
4922 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
4923 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
4924
4925 delete fork NUM
4926 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
4927 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
4928 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
4929 fork' command.
4930
4931 detach fork NUM
4932 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
4933 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
4934 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
4935 fork' command.
4936
4937 * New native configurations
4938
4939 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
4940
4941 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
4942
4943 * New targets
4944
4945 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
4946 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4947 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
4948 S+core 3 score-*-*
4949
4950 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
4951 (mingw32ce) debugging.
4952
4953 * Removed commands
4954
4955 catch load
4956 catch unload
4957 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
4958
4959 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
4960
4961 * New native configurations
4962
4963 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
4964 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4965
4966 * New targets
4967
4968 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
4969 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4970
4971 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4972
4973 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
4974 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
4975 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
4976 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
4977
4978 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
4979 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
4980
4981 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
4982 is resolved.
4983
4984 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
4985 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
4986 and in inlined functions.
4987
4988 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
4989 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
4990 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
4991
4992 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
4993
4994 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
4995 registers on PowerPC targets.
4996
4997 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
4998 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
4999
5000 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
5001 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
5002
5003 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
5004 extended-remote mode.
5005
5006 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
5007 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
5008 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
5009 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
5010
5011 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
5012 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
5013 target architectures.
5014
5015 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
5016 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
5017 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
5018 stored in two consecutive float registers.
5019
5020 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
5021 breakpoints now.
5022
5023 * Improved support for debugging Ada
5024 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
5025 include:
5026 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
5027 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
5028 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
5029 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
5030 of an assignment
5031 - Improved command completion in Ada
5032 - Several bug fixes
5033
5034 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
5035 process.
5036
5037 * New commands
5038
5039 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
5040 show print frame-arguments
5041 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
5042 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
5043
5044 remote put
5045 remote get
5046 remote delete
5047 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
5048
5049 * New MI commands
5050
5051 -target-file-put
5052 -target-file-get
5053 -target-file-delete
5054 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
5055
5056 * New remote packets
5057
5058 vFile:open:
5059 vFile:close:
5060 vFile:pread:
5061 vFile:pwrite:
5062 vFile:unlink:
5063 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
5064
5065 vAttach
5066 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
5067 mode.
5068
5069 vRun
5070 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
5071
5072 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
5073
5074 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
5075 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
5076 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
5077
5078 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
5079 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
5080 -Bsymbolic linker option.
5081
5082 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
5083 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
5084 is not supported.
5085
5086 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
5087 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
5088
5089 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
5090 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
5091
5092 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
5093
5094 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
5095 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
5096 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
5097
5098 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
5099 automatically displayed as character or string data.
5100
5101 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
5102 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
5103 as strings.
5104
5105 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
5106 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
5107 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
5108
5109 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
5110 iWMMXt coprocessor.
5111
5112 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
5113 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
5114 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
5115
5116 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
5117
5118 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
5119
5120 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
5121 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
5122 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
5123
5124 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
5125 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
5126
5127 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
5128 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
5129 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
5130 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
5131 Windows and SymbianOS).
5132
5133 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
5134 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
5135
5136 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
5137 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
5138
5139 * New commands
5140
5141 set remoteflow
5142 show remoteflow
5143 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
5144 when debugging using remote targets.
5145
5146 set mem inaccessible-by-default
5147 show mem inaccessible-by-default
5148 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
5149 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
5150 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
5151 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
5152 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
5153
5154 set breakpoint auto-hw
5155 show breakpoint auto-hw
5156 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
5157 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
5158 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
5159 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
5160 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
5161 including "next" and "finish".
5162
5163 catch exception
5164 catch exception unhandled
5165 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
5166
5167 catch assert
5168 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
5169
5170 set sysroot
5171 show sysroot
5172 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
5173 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
5174 an alias to "set sysroot".
5175
5176 info spu
5177 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
5178 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
5179 architecture.
5180
5181 * New native configurations
5182
5183 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
5184
5185 set tdesc filename
5186 unset tdesc filename
5187 show tdesc filename
5188 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
5189 not query the target for its built-in description.
5190
5191 * New targets
5192
5193 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
5194 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
5195 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
5196
5197 * New remote packets
5198
5199 QPassSignals:
5200 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
5201 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
5202
5203 qXfer:features:read:
5204 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
5205 features.
5206
5207 qXfer:spu:read:
5208 qXfer:spu:write:
5209 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
5210 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
5211
5212 qXfer:libraries:read:
5213 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
5214 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
5215 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
5216 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
5217
5218 * Removed targets
5219
5220 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
5221
5222 alpha*-*-osf1*
5223 alpha*-*-osf2*
5224 d10v-*-*
5225 hppa*-*-hiux*
5226 i[34567]86-ncr-*
5227 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
5228 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
5229 i[34567]86-*-netware*
5230 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
5231 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
5232 i[34567]86-*-sco*
5233 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
5234 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
5235 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
5236 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
5237 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
5238 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
5239 i[34567]86-*-isc*
5240 m68*-cisco*-*
5241 m68*-tandem-*
5242 mips*-*-pe
5243 rs6000-*-lynxos*
5244 sh*-*-pe
5245
5246 * Other removed features
5247
5248 target abug
5249 target cpu32bug
5250 target est
5251 target rom68k
5252
5253 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
5254
5255 target hms
5256 target e7000
5257 target sh3
5258 target sh3e
5259
5260 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
5261 H8/300.
5262
5263 target ocd
5264
5265 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
5266 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
5267 interfaces.
5268
5269 DWARF 1 support
5270
5271 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
5272 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
5273
5274 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
5275
5276 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
5277 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
5278 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
5279 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
5280
5281 MIPS ".pdr" sections
5282
5283 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
5284 in debugging information.
5285
5286 Scheme support
5287
5288 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
5289 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
5290
5291 set mips stack-arg-size
5292 set mips saved-gpreg-size
5293
5294 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
5295
5296 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
5297
5298 * New targets
5299
5300 Xtensa xtensa-elf
5301 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
5302
5303 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
5304 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
5305 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
5306
5307 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
5308 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
5309 supported.
5310
5311 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
5312 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
5313
5314 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
5315 stub provides the required support.
5316
5317 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
5318 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
5319
5320 * New commands
5321
5322 set substitute-path
5323 unset substitute-path
5324 show substitute-path
5325 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
5326 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
5327 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
5328 between compilation and debugging.
5329
5330 set trace-commands
5331 show trace-commands
5332 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
5333 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
5334 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
5335
5336 * REMOVED features
5337
5338 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
5339
5340 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
5341 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
5342
5343 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
5344
5345 * New remote packets
5346
5347 qSupported:
5348 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
5349 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
5350 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
5351 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
5352 target.
5353
5354 qXfer:auxv:read:
5355 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
5356 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
5357
5358 qXfer:memory-map:read:
5359 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
5360 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
5361
5362 vFlashErase:
5363 vFlashWrite:
5364 vFlashDone:
5365 Erase and program a flash memory device.
5366
5367 * Removed remote packets
5368
5369 qPart:auxv:read:
5370 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
5371 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
5372
5373 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
5374
5375 * New targets
5376
5377 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
5378
5379 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5380
5381 * New commands
5382
5383 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
5384 only if it doesn't already have a value.
5385
5386 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
5387
5388 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
5389
5390 restart <n> Return the program state to a
5391 previously saved state.
5392
5393 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
5394
5395 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
5396
5397 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
5398 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
5399
5400 info forks List forks of the user program that
5401 are available to be debugged.
5402
5403 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
5404 forks of the user program that are
5405 available to be debugged.
5406
5407 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5408 that are available to be debugged (and
5409 kill the forked process).
5410
5411 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5412 that are available to be debugged (and
5413 allow the process to continue).
5414
5415 * New architecture
5416
5417 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
5418
5419 * Improved Windows host support
5420
5421 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
5422 native console support, and remote communications using either
5423 network sockets or serial ports.
5424
5425 * Improved Modula-2 language support
5426
5427 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
5428 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
5429 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
5430 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
5431 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
5432 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
5433
5434 * REMOVED features
5435
5436 The ARM rdi-share module.
5437
5438 The Netware NLM debug server.
5439
5440 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
5441
5442 * New native configurations
5443
5444 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
5445 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
5446
5447 * New targets
5448
5449 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5450
5451 * New command line options
5452
5453 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
5454 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
5455 the child (debugged) program exited with.
5456 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
5457 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
5458 specified multiple times and in conjunction
5459 with the --command (-x) option.
5460
5461 * Deprecated commands removed
5462
5463 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
5464 removed:
5465
5466 Command Replacement
5467 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
5468 othernames set arm disassembler
5469 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
5470 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
5471 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
5472 regs info registers
5473
5474 * New BSD user-level threads support
5475
5476 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
5477 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
5478 configurations are:
5479
5480 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5481 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
5482 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
5483
5484 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
5485 are not yet supported.
5486
5487 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
5488 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
5489
5490 * REMOVED configurations and files
5491
5492 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
5493 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5494 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
5495
5496 * New "set print array-indexes" command
5497
5498 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
5499 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
5500 behavior.
5501
5502 * VAX floating point support
5503
5504 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
5505
5506 * User-defined command support
5507
5508 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
5509 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
5510 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
5511
5512 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
5513
5514 * New command line option
5515
5516 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
5517 debugging.
5518
5519 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
5520
5521 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
5522 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
5523 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
5524 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
5525 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
5526
5527 * Internationalization
5528
5529 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
5530 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
5531 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
5532
5533 * Ada
5534
5535 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
5536 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
5537 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
5538
5539 * New native configurations
5540
5541 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
5542
5543 * Remote 'p' packet
5544
5545 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
5546 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
5547
5548 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
5549
5550 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5551 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
5552 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
5553 i386 application).
5554
5555 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the registers[]
5556 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
5557 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
5558 configurations:
5559
5560 hppa-*-hpux
5561 ia64-*-aix
5562 mips-*-irix*
5563 *-*-lynx
5564 mips-*-linux-gnu
5565 sds protocol
5566 xdr protocol
5567 powerpc bdm protocol
5568
5569 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5570 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
5571
5572 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5573
5574 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5575 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5576 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5577 permanently REMOVED.
5578
5579 h8300-*-*
5580 mcore-*-*
5581 mn10300-*-*
5582 ns32k-*-*
5583 sh64-*-*
5584 v850-*-*
5585
5586 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
5587
5588 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
5589
5590 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
5591 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
5592 been fixed.
5593
5594 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
5595
5596 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
5597 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
5598 IRIX long double values).
5599
5600 * VAX and "next"
5601
5602 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
5603 command. This problem has been fixed.
5604
5605 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
5606
5607 * Fix for ``many threads''
5608
5609 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
5610 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
5611 error message:
5612
5613 ptrace: No such process.
5614 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
5615
5616 This problem has been fixed.
5617
5618 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
5619
5620 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
5621 GDB to dump core).
5622
5623 * New ``start'' command.
5624
5625 This command runs the program until the beginning of the main procedure.
5626
5627 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
5628
5629 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
5630 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
5631 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
5632
5633 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5634 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
5635 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
5636 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
5637 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
5638 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5639 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
5640 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
5641 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5642
5643 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
5644
5645 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
5646 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
5647 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
5648 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
5649 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
5650
5651 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
5652 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
5653 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
5654
5655 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
5656
5657 * New native configurations
5658
5659 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
5660 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
5661 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
5662 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
5663 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
5664 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
5665 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
5666
5667 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
5668
5669 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5670 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
5671 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
5672 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
5673 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
5674 work, was also included.
5675
5676 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
5677 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
5678
5679 h8300-*-*
5680 mcore-*-*
5681 mn10300-*-*
5682 ns32k-*-*
5683 sh64-*-*
5684 v850-*-*
5685 xstormy16-*-*
5686
5687 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5688 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
5689
5690 * REMOVED configurations and files
5691
5692 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5693 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5694 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5695 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5696 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5697 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5698 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5699 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5700 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5701 sonymips mips-sony-*
5702 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5703
5704 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
5705
5706 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
5707
5708 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
5709 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
5710 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
5711 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
5712 with GDB".
5713
5714 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
5715
5716 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
5717 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
5718 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
5719 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
5720 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
5721 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
5722 are created.
5723
5724 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
5725
5726 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
5727
5728 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
5729 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
5730 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
5731
5732 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
5733
5734 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
5735 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
5736
5737 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
5738
5739 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
5740 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
5741 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
5742
5743 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
5744
5745 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
5746 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
5747
5748 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
5749
5750 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
5751 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
5752 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
5753
5754 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
5755
5756 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
5757 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
5758 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
5759
5760 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
5761
5762 * Removed --with-mmalloc
5763
5764 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
5765 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
5766
5767 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
5768
5769 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
5770 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
5771 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
5772 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
5773
5774 * Revised SPARC target
5775
5776 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
5777 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
5778 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
5779 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
5780 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
5781
5782 * New C++ demangler
5783
5784 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
5785 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
5786 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
5787 programs.
5788
5789 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5790
5791 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
5792 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
5793 encountered these.
5794
5795 * C++ nested types and namespaces
5796
5797 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
5798 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
5799 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
5800 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
5801 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
5802 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
5803 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
5804 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
5805 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
5806
5807 * New native configurations
5808
5809 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
5810 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5811 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
5812 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5813 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
5814
5815 * New debugging protocols
5816
5817 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
5818
5819 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
5820
5821 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
5822 and its very obscure effect on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
5823 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
5824
5825 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5826
5827 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5828 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5829 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5830 permanently REMOVED.
5831
5832 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5833 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5834 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5835 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5836 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5837 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5838 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5839 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5840 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5841 sonymips mips-sony-*
5842 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5843
5844 * REMOVED configurations and files
5845
5846 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5847 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5848 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5849 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5850 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5851 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5852 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5853 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5854 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5855 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
5856 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5857 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5858 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5859 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
5860 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
5861 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5862 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5863
5864 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
5865
5866 * Objective-C
5867
5868 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
5869 integrated into GDB.
5870
5871 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
5872
5873 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
5874 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
5875 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
5876 backtraces.
5877
5878 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
5879 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
5880 DWARF 2 CFI support.
5881
5882 * Hosted file I/O.
5883
5884 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
5885 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
5886 remote protocol documentation for details.
5887
5888 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
5889
5890 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
5891 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
5892 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
5893 ppc32 on ppc64).
5894
5895 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
5896
5897 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
5898 per-thread variables.
5899
5900 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
5901
5902 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
5903 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
5904
5905 * Separate debug info.
5906
5907 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
5908 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
5909 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
5910 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
5911 and optional debug files.
5912
5913 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5914
5915 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
5916 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
5917 debugger.
5918
5919 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
5920 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
5921
5922 * Java
5923
5924 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
5925 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
5926 considered "useable".
5927
5928 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
5929
5930 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
5931 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
5932 kernel.
5933
5934 * GDB supports logging output to a file
5935
5936 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
5937 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
5938
5939 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
5940
5941 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
5942 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
5943 command.
5944
5945 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5946
5947 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
5948 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
5949
5950 * Profiling support
5951
5952 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
5953 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
5954 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
5955 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
5956 data, for more informative profiling results.
5957
5958 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
5959
5960 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
5961 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
5962 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
5963
5964 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
5965 removed.
5966
5967 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
5968 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
5969 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
5970 in a subsequent -var-update.
5971
5972 * New native configurations.
5973
5974 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5975
5976 * Multi-arched targets.
5977
5978 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
5979 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5980
5981 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5982
5983 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5984 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5985 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5986 permanently REMOVED.
5987
5988 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5989 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5990 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5991 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5992 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5993 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5994 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5995 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5996 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5997 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5998 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5999 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6000
6001 * REMOVED configurations and files
6002
6003 V850EA ISA
6004 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6005 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
6006 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
6007 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
6008 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
6009 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
6010 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
6011 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
6012 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6013 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6014 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6015 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6016 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6017
6018 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
6019
6020 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
6021 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
6022 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
6023 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
6024 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
6025
6026 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
6027
6028 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
6029
6030 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
6031 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
6032 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
6033 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
6034 shared libs like mad''.
6035
6036 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6037
6038 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
6039 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
6040 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
6041 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6042
6043 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
6044
6045 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
6046 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
6047 they expand.
6048
6049 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
6050 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
6051
6052 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
6053 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
6054
6055 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
6056 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
6057 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
6058 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
6059
6060 * Multi-arched targets.
6061
6062 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
6063 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
6064 NEC V850 v850-*-*
6065 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
6066 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
6067 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
6068
6069 * New targets.
6070
6071 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
6072
6073
6074 * New native configurations
6075
6076 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
6077 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
6078 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
6079 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
6080
6081 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6082
6083 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6084 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6085 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6086 permanently REMOVED.
6087
6088 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6089 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6090 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
6091 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6092 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6093 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6094 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
6095 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
6096 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
6097 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
6098 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
6099 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
6100 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6101
6102 * OBSOLETE languages
6103
6104 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
6105
6106 * REMOVED configurations and files
6107
6108 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
6109 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6110 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6111 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6112 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6113
6114 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
6115
6116 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
6117
6118 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
6119 commands. The default is 1024.
6120
6121 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
6122
6123 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
6124
6125 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
6126
6127 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
6128 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
6129 from a file into memory (restore).
6130
6131 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
6132
6133 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
6134 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
6135 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
6136
6137 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
6138
6139 * New targets.
6140
6141 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
6142
6143 * Bug fixes
6144
6145 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
6146 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
6147 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
6148
6149 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
6150 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
6151 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
6152
6153 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
6154 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
6155 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
6156
6157 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
6158 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
6159 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
6160
6161 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
6162
6163 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
6164
6165 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
6166 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
6167 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
6168 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
6169 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
6170 (notably embedded) targets.
6171
6172 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
6173
6174 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
6175 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
6176 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
6177 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
6178
6179 * New command line option
6180
6181 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
6182
6183 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
6184
6185 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
6186 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
6187 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
6188 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
6189 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
6190 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
6191 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
6192 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
6193 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
6194 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
6195
6196 * Changes in ARM configurations.
6197
6198 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
6199 configuration is fully multi-arch.
6200
6201 * New native configurations
6202
6203 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
6204 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
6205 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
6206 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
6207
6208 * New targets
6209
6210 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
6211
6212 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6213
6214 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6215 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6216 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6217 permanently REMOVED.
6218
6219 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
6220 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6221 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6222 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6223 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6224
6225 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
6226
6227 * REMOVED configurations and files
6228
6229 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6230 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6231 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6232 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6233 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
6234 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
6235 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
6236 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
6237 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
6238 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
6239 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
6240 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
6241 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
6242
6243 * Changes to command line processing
6244
6245 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
6246 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
6247
6248 * Changes to key bindings
6249
6250 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
6251
6252 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
6253
6254 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
6255
6256 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
6257 corrupted.
6258
6259 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
6260
6261 Numerous documentation fixes.
6262
6263 Numerous testsuite fixes.
6264
6265 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
6266
6267 * New native configurations
6268
6269 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
6270 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
6271 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
6272 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6273 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
6274 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
6275
6276 * New targets
6277
6278 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
6279 CRIS cris-axis
6280 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
6281
6282 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6283
6284 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
6285 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
6286 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
6287 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
6288 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6289 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6290 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
6291 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6292 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6293 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
6294 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
6295 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
6296 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
6297 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
6298
6299 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
6300 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
6301
6302 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6303 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6304 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6305 permanently REMOVED.
6306
6307 * REMOVED configurations and files
6308
6309 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6310 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6311 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
6312 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6313 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
6314 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
6315
6316 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
6317
6318 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
6319 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
6320 present.
6321
6322 * Other news:
6323
6324 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
6325
6326 * The MI enabled by default.
6327
6328 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
6329 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
6330 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
6331 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
6332 which is now deprecated.
6333
6334 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
6335
6336 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
6337 main features are supported:
6338
6339 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
6340
6341 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
6342 extension;
6343
6344 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
6345
6346 - a Pascal expression parser.
6347
6348 However, some important features are not yet supported.
6349
6350 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
6351
6352 - there are some problems with boolean types;
6353
6354 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
6355 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
6356
6357 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
6358
6359 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
6360
6361 * Changes in completion.
6362
6363 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
6364 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
6365 users expect at the shell prompt.
6366
6367 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
6368 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
6369 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
6370 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
6371 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
6372 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
6373 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
6374
6375 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
6376
6377 * New platform-independent commands:
6378
6379 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
6380 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
6381 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
6382
6383 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
6384
6385 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
6386 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
6387 many threads as your system allows you to have.
6388
6389 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
6390
6391 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
6392 multi-threaded programs though.
6393
6394 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
6395
6396 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
6397
6398 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
6399 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
6400 supported.)
6401
6402 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
6403
6404 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
6405 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
6406 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
6407 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
6408 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
6409 registers.
6410
6411 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
6412 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
6413 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
6414
6415 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
6416
6417 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
6418 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
6419
6420 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
6421 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
6422 IDT.
6423
6424 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
6425 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
6426 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
6427 a given linear address.
6428
6429 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
6430 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
6431 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
6432
6433 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
6434
6435 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
6436
6437 * Changes in documentation.
6438
6439 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
6440 Documentation License.
6441
6442 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6443 manual.
6444
6445 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
6446
6447 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6448 manual.
6449
6450 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
6451 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
6452 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
6453
6454 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
6455
6456 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
6457 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
6458 contents of this file.
6459
6460 * gdba.el deleted
6461
6462 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
6463
6464 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
6465
6466 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
6467
6468 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
6469 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
6470 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
6471 greater level of detail.
6472
6473 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
6474
6475 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
6476 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
6477 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
6478 written.
6479
6480 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
6481
6482 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
6483 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
6484 machines ``out of the box''.
6485
6486 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
6487 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
6488 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
6489 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
6490 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
6491
6492 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
6493 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
6494 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
6495 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
6496 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
6497
6498 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
6499 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
6500 also works.
6501
6502 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
6503 GDB.
6504
6505 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
6506 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
6507 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
6508 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
6509
6510 * New native configurations
6511
6512 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
6513 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6514
6515 * New targets
6516
6517 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
6518 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
6519 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
6520 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6521
6522 * OBSOLETE configurations
6523
6524 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6525 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6526 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
6527 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6528 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
6529
6530 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6531 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6532 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6533 be permanently REMOVED.
6534
6535 * Gould support removed
6536
6537 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
6538
6539 * New features for SVR4
6540
6541 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
6542 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
6543 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
6544
6545 * Many C++ enhancements
6546
6547 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
6548 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
6549
6550 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
6551
6552 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
6553 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
6554 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
6555 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
6556
6557 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
6558 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
6559
6560 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
6561
6562 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
6563 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
6564 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
6565
6566 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
6567 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
6568
6569 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
6570
6571 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
6572 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
6573 include ``set remote P-packet''.
6574
6575 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
6576
6577 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
6578 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
6579 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
6580
6581 * ``apropos'' command added.
6582
6583 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
6584 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
6585 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
6586
6587 * New MI interface
6588
6589 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
6590 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
6591 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
6592 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
6593 enabled by configuring with:
6594
6595 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
6596
6597 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
6598
6599 * New native configurations
6600
6601 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
6602 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
6603 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
6604
6605 * New targets
6606
6607 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6608 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
6609 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6610
6611 * OBSOLETE configurations
6612
6613 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
6614
6615 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6616 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6617 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6618 be permanently REMOVED.
6619
6620 * ANSI/ISO C
6621
6622 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
6623 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
6624 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
6625 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
6626 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
6627 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
6628 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
6629 already.
6630
6631 * Readline 2.2
6632
6633 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
6634
6635 * set extension-language
6636
6637 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
6638 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
6639 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
6640 set extension-language .c c++
6641 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
6642 and their associated languages.
6643
6644 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
6645
6646 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
6647 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
6648 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
6649
6650 set processor NAME
6651
6652 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
6653 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
6654
6655 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
6656 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
6657 403 IBM PowerPC 403
6658 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
6659 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
6660 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
6661 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
6662 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
6663 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
6664 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
6665 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
6666
6667 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
6668 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
6669 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
6670 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
6671
6672 * HP-UX support
6673
6674 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
6675 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
6676 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
6677 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
6678 for xdb and dbx commands.
6679
6680 * Catchpoints
6681
6682 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
6683 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
6684 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
6685
6686 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
6687 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
6688 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
6689
6690 * Debugging across forks
6691
6692 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
6693 in the inferior.
6694
6695 * TUI
6696
6697 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
6698 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
6699 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
6700
6701 * GDB remote protocol additions
6702
6703 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
6704 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
6705 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
6706 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
6707
6708 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
6709 full 64-bit address. The command
6710
6711 set remoteaddresssize 32
6712
6713 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
6714 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
6715 will be discarded.
6716
6717 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
6718 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
6719
6720 maint packet heythere
6721
6722 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
6723 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
6724 time.
6725
6726 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
6727 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
6728 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
6729
6730 * Tracing can collect general expressions
6731
6732 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
6733 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
6734 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
6735
6736 * mask-address variable for Mips
6737
6738 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
6739 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
6740 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
6741
6742 * Higher serial baud rates
6743
6744 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
6745 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
6746 to achieve all of these rates.)
6747
6748 * i960 simulator
6749
6750 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
6751 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
6752
6753
6754 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
6755
6756 * New native configurations
6757
6758 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
6759 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
6760 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6761 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6762 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6763 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
6764 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
6765
6766 * New targets
6767
6768 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6769 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
6770 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6771 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
6772 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
6773 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
6774 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
6775 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
6776 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6777 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6778 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
6779
6780 * New debugging protocols
6781
6782 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
6783 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
6784 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
6785 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6786 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6787 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6788
6789 * DWARF 2
6790
6791 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
6792 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
6793 information.
6794
6795 * Java frontend
6796
6797 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
6798 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
6799
6800 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
6801
6802 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
6803 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
6804 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
6805
6806 * Live range splitting
6807
6808 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
6809 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
6810 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
6811
6812 * Hurd support
6813
6814 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
6815 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
6816
6817 * ARM Thumb support
6818
6819 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
6820 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
6821 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
6822 accordingly.
6823
6824 * MIPS16 support
6825
6826 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
6827 instruction set.
6828
6829 * Overlay support
6830
6831 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
6832 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
6833 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
6834 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
6835 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
6836 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
6837
6838 * info symbol
6839
6840 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
6841 the symbol at the specified address.
6842
6843 * Trace support
6844
6845 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
6846 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
6847 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
6848 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
6849 file tracepoint.c for more details.
6850
6851 * MIPS simulator
6852
6853 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
6854 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
6855 of most MIPS variants.
6856
6857 * Sparc simulator
6858
6859 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
6860 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
6861 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
6862
6863 * set architecture
6864
6865 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
6866 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
6867 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
6868 the possible architectures.
6869
6870 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
6871
6872 * New native configurations
6873
6874 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
6875 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
6876 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
6877 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
6878 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6879 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
6880
6881 * New targets
6882
6883 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
6884 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6885 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
6886 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
6887 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
6888 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
6889 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6890
6891 * PowerPC simulator
6892
6893 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
6894 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
6895 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
6896 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
6897 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
6898
6899 * Solaris 2.5
6900
6901 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
6902
6903 * Windows 95/NT native
6904
6905 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
6906 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
6907 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
6908 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
6909 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
6910
6911 * dont-repeat command
6912
6913 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
6914 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
6915 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
6916 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
6917
6918 * Send break instead of ^C
6919
6920 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
6921 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
6922 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
6923
6924 * Remote protocol timeout
6925
6926 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
6927 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
6928 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
6929
6930 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
6931
6932 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
6933 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
6934 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
6935 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
6936 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
6937
6938 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
6939 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
6940 automatically on hpux10.
6941
6942 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
6943
6944 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
6945
6946 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
6947
6948 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
6949 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
6950 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
6951 every character. The default value is 1050.
6952
6953 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
6954
6955 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
6956 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
6957 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
6958 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
6959 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
6960 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
6961
6962 * Speedups for remote debugging
6963
6964 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
6965 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
6966 and more efficient S-record downloading.
6967
6968 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
6969
6970 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
6971 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
6972
6973 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
6974
6975 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
6976
6977 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
6978 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
6979
6980 * Remote targets use caching
6981
6982 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
6983 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
6984 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
6985 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
6986 off' turns the data cache off.
6987
6988 * Remote targets may have threads
6989
6990 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
6991 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
6992 gdb/remote.c for details.
6993
6994 * NetROM support
6995
6996 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
6997 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
6998 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
6999 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
7000 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
7001 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
7002 sequence is something like
7003
7004 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
7005 load <prog>
7006 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
7007
7008 * Macintosh host
7009
7010 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
7011 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
7012 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
7013 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
7014 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
7015 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
7016 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
7017 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
7018
7019 * Autoconf
7020
7021 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
7022 but does simplify configuration and building.
7023
7024 * hpux10
7025
7026 GDB now supports hpux10.
7027
7028 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
7029
7030 * New native configurations
7031
7032 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
7033 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
7034 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
7035 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
7036
7037 * New targets
7038
7039 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
7040 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
7041 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
7042 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
7043 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7044
7045 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
7046
7047 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
7048 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
7049 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
7050 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
7051 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
7052
7053 * Arguments to user-defined commands
7054
7055 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
7056 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
7057 trivial example:
7058 define adder
7059 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
7060
7061 To execute the command use:
7062 adder 1 2 3
7063
7064 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
7065 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
7066 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
7067
7068 * New `if' and `while' commands
7069
7070 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
7071 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
7072 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
7073 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
7074 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
7075 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
7076 if the expression is zero.
7077
7078 * Fortran source language mode
7079
7080 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
7081 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
7082 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
7083 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
7084 Fortran compilers.
7085
7086 * Better HPUX support
7087
7088 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
7089 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
7090 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
7091 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
7092 that behavior do the following before running the program:
7093
7094 adb -w a.out
7095 __dld_flags?W 0x5
7096 control-d
7097
7098 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
7099 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
7100
7101 adb -w a.out
7102 __dld_flags?W 0x4
7103 control-d
7104
7105 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
7106 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
7107 external linkage.
7108
7109 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
7110 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
7111
7112 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
7113
7114 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
7115 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
7116 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
7117 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
7118 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
7119 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
7120
7121 * New DOS host serial code
7122
7123 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
7124 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
7125 a PC's serial port.
7126
7127 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
7128
7129 * New "complete" command
7130
7131 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
7132 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
7133
7134 * Trailing space optional in prompt
7135
7136 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
7137 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
7138
7139 * Breakpoint hit counts
7140
7141 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
7142 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
7143 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
7144 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
7145 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
7146 that breakpoint.
7147
7148 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
7149
7150 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
7151 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
7152 arrays actually contain only short strings.
7153
7154 * Shared library breakpoints
7155
7156 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
7157 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
7158
7159 * Hardware watchpoints
7160
7161 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
7162 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
7163
7164 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
7165
7166 * Annotations
7167
7168 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
7169 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
7170
7171 * Improved Irix 5 support
7172
7173 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
7174
7175 * Improved HPPA support
7176
7177 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
7178
7179 * New native configurations
7180
7181 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
7182 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
7183 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
7184 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
7185
7186 * New targets
7187
7188 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
7189 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
7190 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
7191
7192 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
7193
7194 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
7195 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
7196
7197 * Fixes
7198
7199 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
7200 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
7201
7202 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
7203
7204 * Irix 5 is now supported
7205
7206 * HPPA support
7207
7208 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
7209 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
7210 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
7211 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
7212 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
7213
7214
7215 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
7216
7217 * User visible changes:
7218
7219 * Remote Debugging
7220
7221 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
7222 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
7223 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
7224 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
7225 debugging info for the mips target).
7226
7227 * DEC Alpha native support
7228
7229 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
7230 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
7231 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
7232 Alpha-specific notes.
7233
7234 * Preliminary thread implementation
7235
7236 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
7237
7238 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
7239
7240 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
7241 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
7242 for details).
7243
7244 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
7245
7246 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
7247 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
7248 call methods, ...etc.
7249
7250 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
7251
7252 * User visible changes:
7253
7254 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
7255 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
7256 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
7257 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
7258
7259 Filename completion now works.
7260
7261 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
7262 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
7263 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
7264
7265 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
7266 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
7267 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
7268 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
7269 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
7270
7271 * DEC alpha support
7272
7273 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
7274 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
7275
7276
7277 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
7278
7279 * Testsuite
7280
7281 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
7282 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
7283 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
7284
7285 * C++ demangling
7286
7287 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
7288 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
7289 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
7290 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
7291 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
7292
7293 * Simulators
7294
7295 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
7296 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
7297 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
7298
7299 * New targets supported
7300
7301 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7302 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
7303 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
7304 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
7305 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
7306
7307 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
7308 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
7309 GO32 memory extender.
7310
7311 * New remote protocols
7312
7313 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
7314
7315 * New source languages supported
7316
7317 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
7318 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
7319 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
7320
7321
7322 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
7323
7324 * HP Precision Architecture supported
7325
7326 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
7327 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
7328 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
7329 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
7330 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
7331 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
7332
7333 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
7334
7335 * Faster and better demangling
7336
7337 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
7338 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
7339 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
7340 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
7341 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
7342 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
7343 symbol lookups.
7344
7345 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
7346 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
7347 compiler does not actually implement.
7348
7349 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
7350
7351 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
7352 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
7353 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
7354 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
7355 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
7356 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
7357 fix.
7358
7359 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
7360 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
7361
7362 * Improved configure script
7363
7364 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
7365 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
7366 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
7367 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
7368
7369 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
7370 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
7371 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
7372 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
7373 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
7374 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
7375
7376 * Documentation improvements
7377
7378 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
7379 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
7380 before submitting changes.
7381
7382 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
7383 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
7384 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
7385 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
7386 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
7387
7388 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
7389 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
7390 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
7391 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
7392 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
7393 around this problem.
7394
7395 * New features
7396
7397 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
7398 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
7399 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
7400 the target program.
7401
7402 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
7403 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
7404
7405 * New native hosts supported
7406
7407 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
7408 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
7409
7410 * New targets supported
7411
7412 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
7413
7414 * New file formats supported
7415
7416 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
7417 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
7418
7419 * Major bug fixes
7420
7421 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
7422
7423 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
7424 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
7425
7426 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
7427 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
7428 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
7429
7430 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
7431 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
7432
7433 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
7434 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
7435 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
7436 libraries.
7437
7438 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
7439 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
7440 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
7441 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
7442 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
7443
7444 * Internal improvements
7445
7446 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
7447 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
7448
7449 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
7450 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
7451 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
7452 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
7453 shared code that handles any of them.
7454
7455 * New command line options
7456
7457 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
7458
7459 * Mmalloc licensing
7460
7461 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
7462 General Public License.
7463
7464 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
7465
7466 * Host/native/target split
7467
7468 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
7469 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
7470 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
7471 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
7472 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
7473
7474 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
7475 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
7476 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
7477 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
7478 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
7479 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
7480 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
7481
7482 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
7483 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
7484 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
7485
7486 * New hosts supported
7487
7488 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
7489 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7490 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
7491
7492 * New targets supported
7493
7494 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7495 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
7496
7497 * New native hosts supported
7498
7499 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7500 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
7501 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
7502
7503 * New file formats supported
7504
7505 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
7506 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
7507 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
7508
7509 * New commands
7510
7511 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
7512 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
7513 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
7514
7515 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
7516
7517 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
7518 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
7519 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
7520 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
7521
7522 * C++ improvements
7523
7524 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
7525 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
7526 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
7527
7528 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
7529
7530 * Major bug fixes
7531
7532 The crash that occurred when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
7533 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
7534 by the compiler.
7535
7536 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
7537 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
7538
7539 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
7540 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
7541 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
7542 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
7543 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
7544 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
7545
7546 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
7547 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
7548 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
7549 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
7550
7551 * AMD 29k support
7552
7553 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
7554 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
7555 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
7556 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
7557 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
7558
7559 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
7560 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
7561 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
7562 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
7563
7564 * Remote interfaces
7565
7566 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
7567 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
7568 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
7569 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
7570 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
7571 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
7572 each instruction being stepped through.
7573
7574 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
7575 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
7576
7577 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
7578 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
7579 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
7580 processor with a serial port.
7581
7582 * Configuration
7583
7584 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
7585 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
7586 supported, and what files each one uses.
7587
7588 * Library changes
7589
7590 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
7591 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
7592 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
7593 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
7594
7595 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
7596 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
7597 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
7598 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
7599
7600 * Documentation
7601
7602 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
7603 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
7604 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
7605 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
7606 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
7607 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
7608
7609 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
7610
7611
7612 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
7613
7614 * Better support for C++ function names
7615
7616 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
7617 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
7618 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
7619 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
7620 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
7621
7622 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
7623 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
7624 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
7625 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
7626 for the list of formats.
7627
7628 * G++ symbol mangling problem
7629
7630 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
7631 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
7632 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
7633 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compiling gdb/symtab.c. The
7634 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
7635 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
7636 this problem.)
7637
7638 * New 'maintenance' command
7639
7640 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
7641 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
7642 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
7643
7644 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
7645 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
7646 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
7647 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
7648 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
7649 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
7650
7651 The following commands are new:
7652
7653 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
7654 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
7655 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
7656
7657 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
7658
7659 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
7660 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
7661 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
7662 read after argv processing.
7663
7664 * New hosts supported
7665
7666 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
7667
7668 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
7669
7670 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
7671 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
7672 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
7673 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
7674 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
7675 It costs extra.
7676
7677 * New targets supported
7678
7679 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7680
7681 * More smarts about finding #include files
7682
7683 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
7684 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
7685 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
7686 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
7687 the one that contains your sources.
7688
7689 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
7690 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
7691 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
7692
7693 * Interesting infernals change
7694
7695 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
7696 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
7697 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
7698 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
7699
7700 * Bug fixes (of course!)
7701
7702 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
7703 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
7704 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
7705
7706 See the ChangeLog for details.
7707
7708 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
7709
7710 * New machines supported (host and target)
7711
7712 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
7713
7714 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
7715
7716 * New malloc package
7717
7718 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
7719 Mmalloc is capable of handling multiple heaps of memory. It is also
7720 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
7721 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
7722 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
7723 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
7724
7725 * info proc
7726
7727 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
7728 'help info proc' for details.
7729
7730 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
7731
7732 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
7733 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
7734 possible.
7735
7736 * File name changes for MS-DOS
7737
7738 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
7739 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
7740 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
7741 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
7742 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
7743 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
7744
7745 * Cross byte order fixes
7746
7747 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
7748 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
7749
7750 * New -mapped and -readnow options
7751
7752 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
7753 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
7754 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
7755 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
7756 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
7757 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
7758 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
7759 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
7760 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
7761 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
7762
7763 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
7764 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
7765 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
7766 slower, but makes future operations faster.
7767
7768 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
7769 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
7770 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
7771 use is:
7772
7773 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
7774
7775 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
7776 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
7777 shared across multiple host platforms.
7778
7779 * longjmp() handling
7780
7781 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
7782 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
7783 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
7784 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
7785
7786 * Solaris 2.0
7787
7788 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
7789 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
7790 reading symbols.
7791
7792 * Bug fixes
7793
7794 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
7795 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
7796 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
7797
7798 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
7799
7800 * New machines supported (host and target)
7801
7802 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7803 (except core files)
7804 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
7805 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
7806
7807 * New machines supported (target)
7808
7809 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7810
7811 * C++ support
7812
7813 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
7814 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
7815 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
7816
7817 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
7818 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
7819 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
7820 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
7821 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
7822 released.
7823
7824 * New features for SVR4
7825
7826 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
7827 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
7828 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
7829
7830 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
7831 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
7832 it prints the address mappings of the process.
7833
7834 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
7835 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
7836
7837 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
7838
7839 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
7840 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
7841 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
7842 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
7843 same code linked statically.
7844
7845 * New Getopt
7846
7847 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
7848 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
7849 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
7850 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
7851 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
7852 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
7853
7854 * Bugs fixed
7855
7856 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7857 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7858 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7859
7860
7861 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
7862
7863 * New machines supported (host and target)
7864
7865 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
7866 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
7867 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7868
7869 * Almost SCO Unix support
7870
7871 We had hoped to support:
7872 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7873 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
7874 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
7875 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
7876
7877 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
7878
7879 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
7880 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
7881 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
7882 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
7883 reqired (if any).
7884
7885 * New Readline
7886
7887 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
7888 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
7889 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
7890
7891 * Bugs fixed
7892
7893 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7894 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7895 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7896
7897 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
7898
7899 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
7900 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
7901 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
7902
7903 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
7904 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
7905 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
7906 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
7907 version 2.
7908
7909 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
7910 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
7911 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
7912 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
7913 situation somewhat.
7914
7915 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
7916 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
7917 methods.
7918
7919 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
7920 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
7921 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
7922
7923
7924 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
7925
7926 * Improved configuration
7927
7928 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
7929 Porting BFD is simpler.
7930
7931 * Stepping improved
7932
7933 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
7934 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
7935 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
7936 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
7937
7938 * Bug fixing
7939
7940 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
7941
7942 * New host supported (not target)
7943
7944 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
7945
7946
7947 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
7948
7949 * Multiple source language support
7950
7951 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
7952 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
7953 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
7954 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
7955 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
7956 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
7957
7958 * GDB and Modula-2
7959
7960 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
7961 currently under development at the State University of New York at
7962 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
7963 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
7964
7965 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
7966 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
7967 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
7968
7969 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
7970 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
7971
7972 * set write on/off
7973
7974 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
7975 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
7976 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
7977 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
7978 effect immediately.
7979
7980 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
7981
7982 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
7983 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
7984 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
7985 examining core files.
7986
7987 * set listsize
7988
7989 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
7990 The default is 10.
7991
7992 * New machines supported (host and target)
7993
7994 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7995 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
7996 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
7997
7998 * New hosts supported (not targets)
7999
8000 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
8001
8002 * New targets supported (not hosts)
8003
8004 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
8005 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
8006 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
8007
8008 * New remote interfaces
8009
8010 AMD 29000 Adapt
8011 AMD 29000 Minimon
8012
8013
8014 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
8015
8016 * New Facilities
8017
8018 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
8019
8020 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
8021 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
8022 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
8023 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
8024 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
8025 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
8026 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
8027 stub on the target system.
8028
8029 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
8030
8031 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
8032 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
8033 object file types such as a.out and coff.
8034
8035 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
8036 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
8037
8038
8039 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
8040
8041 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
8042 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
8043
8044 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
8045 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
8046 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
8047
8048 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
8049 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
8050 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
8051 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
8052
8053 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
8054 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
8055 it is already running. Default is ON.
8056
8057 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
8058 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
8059 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
8060 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
8061 Default is ON.
8062
8063 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
8064 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
8065 or the value of the environment variable
8066 GDBHISTFILE.
8067
8068 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
8069 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
8070 HISTSIZE.
8071
8072 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
8073 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
8074 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
8075
8076 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
8077 history expansion will be performed on
8078 command line input. The default is OFF.
8079
8080 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
8081 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
8082 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
8083
8084 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
8085 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
8086 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
8087 variable TERM.
8088
8089 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
8090 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
8091 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
8092 variable TERM.
8093
8094 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
8095 ``set width'' instead.
8096
8097 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
8098 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
8099 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
8100 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
8101
8102 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
8103 is OFF.
8104
8105 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
8106 "raw" form if off.
8107
8108 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
8109 like instructions.
8110
8111 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
8112
8113
8114 * Support for Epoch Environment.
8115
8116 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
8117 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
8118 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
8119 window.
8120
8121
8122 * Support for Shared Libraries
8123
8124 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
8125 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
8126 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
8127 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
8128 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
8129 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
8130 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
8131 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
8132
8133 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
8134 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
8135 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
8136
8137 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
8138
8139
8140 * Watchpoints
8141
8142 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
8143 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
8144 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
8145 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
8146 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
8147 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
8148
8149 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
8150
8151 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
8152
8153 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8154 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8155 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8156
8157
8158 * C++ multiple inheritance
8159
8160 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
8161 for C++ programs.
8162
8163 * C++ exception handling
8164
8165 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
8166 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
8167 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
8168 handler's context).
8169
8170 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
8171 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
8172 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
8173
8174 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
8175 current stack frame.
8176
8177
8178 * Minor command changes
8179
8180 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
8181 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
8182 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
8183
8184 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
8185 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
8186 frames without printing.
8187
8188 * New directory command
8189
8190 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
8191 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
8192 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
8193 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
8194 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
8195
8196 * Configuring GDB for compilation
8197
8198 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
8199 for more details.
8200
8201 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
8202 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
8203 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
8204 where the program that you are debugging will run.