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