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