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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 7.2
5
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6* Python scripting
7
8 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
9 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
10 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
11 that function like so:
12
13 result = some_value (10,20)
14
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15* C++ Improvements:
16
17 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
18 instantiation. For example, if you have:
19
20 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
21
22 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
23 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
24 was added to GCC 4.5.
25
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26* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
27 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
28 execution to a label.
29
30* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
31 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
32 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
33 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
34
b56df873 35* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 36 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
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37 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
38 of scope.
39
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40* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
41
42 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
43 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
44 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
45 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
46 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
47 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
48
49 (gdb) info threads
50 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
51
52 While now you see this:
53
54 (gdb) info threads
55 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
56
57 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
58 dumps.
59
60 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
61 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
62 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
63 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
64
76b8507d 65*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 66
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67* Shared library support for remote targets by default
68
69 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
70 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
71 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
72 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
73 was always disabled for such configurations.
74
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75* C++ Improvements:
76
77 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
78
79 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
80 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
81 For example:
82 namespace A
83 {
84 class B { };
85 void foo (B) { }
86 }
87 ...
88 A::B b
89 foo(b)
90 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
91 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
92 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
93
94 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
95
96 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
97 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
98 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
99 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
100 entry.
101 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
102 mentioned flavors of operators.
103
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104 ** static const class members
105
106 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
107 class definition has been fixed.
108
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109* Windows Thread Information Block access.
110
111 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
112 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
113 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
114 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
115 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
116 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
117
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118* Static tracepoints
119
120 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
121 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
122 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
123 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
124 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
125 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
126 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
127 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
128 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
129 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
130 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
131 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
132 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
133 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
134 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
135 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
136 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
137 the "New remote packets" section below.
138
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139* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
140
141 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
142 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
143 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
144 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
145
146* Observer mode
147
148 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
149 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
150 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
151 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
152 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
153 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
154 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
155
156* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
157 current thread.
158
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159* New remote packets
160
161qGetTIBAddr
162
163 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
164
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165qRelocInsn
166
167 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
168 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
169 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
170 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
171 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
172 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
173
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174qTfSTM, qTsSTM
175
176 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
177
178qTSTMat
179
180 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
181 program.
182
183qXfer:statictrace:read
184
185 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
186 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
187 to gdb's qSupported query.
188
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189QAllow
190
191 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
192
193QTDPsrc
194
195 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
196 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
197
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198* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
199 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
200 a directory.
201
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202* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
203
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204 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
205 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
206 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
207 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
208
209 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
210 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
211 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
212 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
213 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
214 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
215 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
216
217 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
218 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 219
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220 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
221
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222* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
223 it understands register description.
224
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225* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
226
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227* X86 general purpose registers
228
229 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
230 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
231 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
232 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
233 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
234
95a42b64 235* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
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236 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
237 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
238 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
239 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
240 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 241
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242* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
243 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
244 in the specified file.
245
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246* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
247 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
248 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
249 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
250 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
251 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
252 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
253 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
254 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
255 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
256
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257* New commands
258
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259eval template, expressions...
260 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
261 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
262
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263set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
264show target-file-system-kind
265 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
266 names.
267
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268save breakpoints <filename>
269 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
270 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
271 definitions, use the `source' command.
272
273`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
274is now deprecated.
275
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276info static-tracepoint-markers
277 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
278
279strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
280 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
281 function, line, address, or marker ID.
282
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283set observer on|off
284show observer
285 Enable and disable observer mode.
286
287set may-write-registers on|off
288set may-write-memory on|off
289set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
290set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
291set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
292set may-interrupt on|off
293 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
294 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
295 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
296 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
297 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
298 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
299 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
300
301set record memory-query on|off
302show record memory-query
303 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
304 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
305
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306* Changed commands
307
308disassemble
309 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
310
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311* Python scripting
312
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313** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
314 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
315 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
316 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
317 GDB using Python' in the manual.
318
adc36818 319** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
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320 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
321 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
322 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 323
fa33c3cd 324** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
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325 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
326
327** New exception gdb.GdbError.
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328
329** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 330
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331** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
332
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333** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
334 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
335 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
336
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337* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
338there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
339tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
340regular breakpoints.
341
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342* New targets
343
344ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
345
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346* D language support.
347 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
348 language.
349
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350* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
351 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
352 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
353 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
354 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
355
356* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
357 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
358 conditions of the form:
359
360 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
361
362 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
363 interface mentioned above.
364
bfbf3774 365*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 366
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367* C++ Improvements
368
369 ** Namespace Support
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370
371 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
372 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
373 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
374 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
375 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
376
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377 ** Bug Fixes
378
379 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
380 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
381 qualified name.
382
383 ** Cast Operators
384
385 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
386 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
387
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388* New targets
389
390Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 391Renesas RX rx-*-elf
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392
393* New Simulators
394
395Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 396Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 397
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398* Multi-program debugging.
399
400 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
401 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
402 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
403 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
404 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
405 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
406 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
407 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
408
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409* New tracing features
410
411 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
412
413 ** Trace state variables
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414
415 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
416 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
417 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
418 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
419 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
420 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
421 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
422 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
423 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
424 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 425
d5551862 426 ** Fast tracepoints
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427
428 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
429 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
430 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
431 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
432 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
433 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
434 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
435 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
436 the regular trace command.
437
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438 ** Disconnected tracing
439
440 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
441 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
442 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
443 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
444 connection is lost unexpectedly.
445
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446 ** Trace files
447
448 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
449 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
450 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
451 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
452 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
453 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
454 <name>".
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455
456 ** Circular trace buffer
457
458 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
459 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
460 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
461 not be available for all target agents.
462
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463* Changed commands
464
465disassemble
466 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
467 the arguments to be comma-separated.
468
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469info variables
470 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
471 which only declare a variable are not shown.
472
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473source
474 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
475 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
476 support.
477
478 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
479 "set script-extension" (see below).
480
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481* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
482
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483record save [<FILENAME>]
484 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
485 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
486
487record restore <FILENAME>
488 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
489 earlier time, for replay debugging.
490
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491add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
492 Add a new inferior.
493
494clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
495 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
496 inferior has loaded.
497
498remove-inferior ID
499 Remove an inferior.
500
501maint info program-spaces
502 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
503
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504set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
505show remote interrupt-sequence
506 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
507 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
508 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
509 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
510 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
511
512set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
513show remote interrupt-on-connect
514 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
515 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
516 Linux kernel.
517
518set remotebreak [on | off]
519show remotebreak
520Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
521
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522tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
523 Create or modify a trace state variable.
524
525info tvariables
526 List trace state variables and their values.
527
528delete tvariable $NAME ...
529 Delete one or more trace state variables.
530
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531teval EXPR, ...
532 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
533 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
534
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535ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
536 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
537
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538* New expression syntax
539
540 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
541 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
542
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543* New options
544
545set follow-exec-mode new|same
546show follow-exec-mode
547 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
548 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
549 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
550
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551set default-collect EXPR, ...
552show default-collect
553 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
554 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
555 such as registers or a critical global variable.
556
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557set disconnected-tracing
558show disconnected-tracing
559 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
560 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
561 upon disconnection.
562
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563set circular-trace-buffer
564show circular-trace-buffer
565 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
566 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
567 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
568 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
569
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570set script-extension off|soft|strict
571show script-extension
572 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
573 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
574 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
575 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
576 evaluation failed.
577 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
578
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579set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
580show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
581 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
582 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
583 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
584 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
585 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
586 is on.
587
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588* Python API Improvements
589
590 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
591 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
592 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
593
594 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
595 `is_base_class' attribute.
596
597 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
598
599 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
600 evaluate an expression.
601
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602* New remote packets
603
604QTDV
605 Define a trace state variable.
606
607qTV
608 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
609
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610QTDisconnected
611 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
612
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613QTBuffer:circular
614 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
615
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616qTfP, qTsP
617 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
618
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619* Bug fixes
620
621Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
622
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623Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
624much more reliable. In particular:
625 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
626 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
627 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
628 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
629 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
630 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
631 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
632 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
633 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
634 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
635 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
636 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
637 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
638 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
639 non-threaded programs.
640
93c26624
JK
641PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
642This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
643libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
644executable program.
645
abc7453d 646*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 647
4efc6507
DE
648* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
649dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
650them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
651for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
652"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
653
782b2b07
SS
654* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
655breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
656or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
657the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
658for tracepoint actions.
659
53a71c06
CR
660* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
661raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
662modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 663
e7a8dbfb
HZ
664* Process record and replay
665
666 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
667 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
668 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
669 execute commands.
670
64644d9b
MS
671* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
672step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
673set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
674reverse execution.
675
b9412953
DD
676* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
677feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
6782.6.28 or later.
679
6c7a06a3
TT
680* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
681target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
682char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
683literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
684U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
685`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
686system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
687the installation instructions for more information.
688
f1838a98
UW
689* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
690remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
691with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
692the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
693
55333a84
DE
694* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
695and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
696
7f6a6314
PM
697* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
698now complete on file names.
699
65d12d83
TT
700* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
701completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
702For instance, consider:
703
704 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
705 # struct example variable;
706 (gdb) p variable.
707
708If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
709completions will be "f1" and "f2".
710
edb3359d
DJ
711* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
712the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
713
2fae03e8
TT
714* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
715operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
716macros.
717
47a3467a 718* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
719the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
720implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
721
722* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
723registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
724can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
725and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 726
08388c79
DE
727* New remote packets
728
729qSearch:memory:
730 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
731
a6f3e723
SL
732QStartNoAckMode
733 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
734 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
735 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
736
d7713ae0
EZ
737vKill
738 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
739 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
740
07e059b5
VP
741qXfer:osdata:read
742 Obtains additional operating system information
743
47a3467a
PA
744qXfer:siginfo:read
745qXfer:siginfo:write
746 Read or write additional signal information.
747
060871df
PA
748* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
749
750 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
751 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
752 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
753
c055b101 754* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 755DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
756
757* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
758and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
759`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 760
31fffb02
CS
761* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
762with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
763
88d8a8e0
JB
764* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
765
7f99b190
JB
766* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
767
ccd213ac
DJ
768* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
769which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
770
1fddbabb 771* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 772list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 773
a0ef4274
DJ
774* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
775conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
776have also been fixed.
777
bfb8797a 778* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
779From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
780are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 781
71c25dea
TT
782* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
783example, given:
784
785 template<typename T> class C { };
786 C<char const *> c;
787
788GDB will now correctly handle all of:
789
790 ptype C<char const *>
791 ptype C<char const*>
792 ptype C<const char *>
793 ptype C<const char*>
794
ccd213ac
DJ
795* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
796
797 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
798 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
799
7ae0e2a2
UW
800 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
801 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
802 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
803
a6f3e723
SL
804 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
805 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
806
da8bd9a3
DJ
807 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
808 gdbserver.
809
d70e31dd
DE
810 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
811 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
812
813 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
814 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
815 as appropriate.
816
d57a3c85
TJB
817* Python scripting
818
819 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
820 available is determined at configure time.
821
d8906c6f
TJB
822 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
823
aadc346a
JB
824* Ada tasking support
825
826 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
827 been introduced:
828
829 info tasks
830 Print the list of Ada tasks.
831 info task N
832 Print detailed information about task number N.
833 task
834 Print the task number of the current task.
835 task N
836 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
837
adb483fe
DJ
838* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
839add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
840
2277426b
PA
841* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
842
843 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
844 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
845 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
846 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
847 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
848 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
849 below.
850
08d16641
PA
851* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
852"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
853information.
854
e35359c5
UW
855* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
856to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
857architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
858See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
859more information.
860
85e747d2
UW
861* Multi-architecture debugging.
862
863 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
864 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
865 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
866 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
867 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
868
869* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
870use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
871Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
872powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
873--enable-targets configure option.
874
11ade57a
PA
875* Non-stop mode debugging.
876
877 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
878 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
879 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
880 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
881 section in the user manual for more information.
882
883 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
884 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
885 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
886 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
887 extensions on linux targets.
888
d7713ae0 889* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 890
a96d9b2e
SDJ
891catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
892 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
893 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
894 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
895 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
896 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
897 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
898 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
899 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
900
08388c79
DE
901find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
902 val1 [, val2, ...]
903 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
904
d57a3c85
TJB
905maint set python print-stack
906maint show python print-stack
907 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
908
909python [CODE]
910 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
911
d7713ae0
EZ
912macro define
913macro list
914macro undef
915 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
916 interactively.
917
918info os processes
919 Show operating system information about processes.
920
2277426b
PA
921info inferiors
922 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
923
924inferior NUM
925 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
926
927detach inferior NUM
928 Detach from inferior number NUM.
929
930kill inferior NUM
931 Kill inferior number NUM.
932
d7713ae0
EZ
933* New options
934
3285f3fe
UW
935set spu stop-on-load
936show spu stop-on-load
937 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
938
ff1a52c6
UW
939set spu auto-flush-cache
940show spu auto-flush-cache
941 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
942 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
943
d7713ae0
EZ
944set sh calling-convention
945show sh calling-convention
946 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
947
e0a3ce09 948set debug timestamp
75feb17d 949show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
950 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
951
952set disassemble-next-line
953show disassemble-next-line
954 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
955 the debuggee stops.
956
957set remote noack-packet
958show remote noack-packet
959 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
960 under "New remote packets."
961
962set remote query-attached-packet
963show remote query-attached-packet
964 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
965
966set remote read-siginfo-object
967show remote read-siginfo-object
968 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
969 packet.
970
971set remote write-siginfo-object
972show remote write-siginfo-object
973 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
974 packet.
975
40ab02ce
MS
976set remote reverse-continue
977show remote reverse-continue
978 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
979
980set remote reverse-step
981show remote reverse-step
982 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
983
d7713ae0
EZ
984set displaced-stepping
985show displaced-stepping
986 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
987 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
988 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
989
990set debug displaced
991show debug displaced
992 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
993
994maint set internal-error
995maint show internal-error
996 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
997
998maint set internal-warning
999maint show internal-warning
1000 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 1001
ccd213ac
DJ
1002set exec-wrapper
1003show exec-wrapper
1004unset exec-wrapper
1005 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 1006
aad4b048
JB
1007set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1008show multiple-symbols
1009 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1010 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1011 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1012
74960c60
VP
1013set breakpoint always-inserted
1014show breakpoint always-inserted
1015 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1016 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1017 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1018
0428b8f5
DJ
1019set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1020show arm fallback-mode
1021set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1022show arm force-mode
1023 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1024 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1025 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1026 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1027
10568435
JK
1028set disable-randomization
1029show disable-randomization
1030 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1031 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1032 multiple debugging sessions.
1033
d7713ae0
EZ
1034set non-stop
1035show non-stop
1036 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1037 a breakpoint.
1038
b3eb342c 1039set target-async
d7713ae0 1040show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
1041 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1042 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1043 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1044 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1045
6c7a06a3
TT
1046set target-wide-charset
1047show target-wide-charset
1048 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1049 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1050
84603566
SL
1051set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1052show tcp auto-retry
1053set tcp connect-timeout
1054show tcp connect-timeout
1055 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1056 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1057 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1058
17a37d48
PP
1059set libthread-db-search-path
1060show libthread-db-search-path
1061 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1062 libthread_db.
1063
d4db2f36
PA
1064set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1065show schedule-multiple
1066 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1067 the current process.
1068
4e5d721f
DE
1069set stack-cache
1070show stack-cache
1071 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1072 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1073 affecting correctness.
1074
910c5da8
JB
1075set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1076show interactive-mode
1077 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1078 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1079 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1080 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1081 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1082
2277426b
PA
1083* Removed commands
1084
1085info forks
1086 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1087 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1088 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1089 command.
1090
1091fork NUM
1092 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1093 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1094 alias for the `fork' command.
1095
1096process PID
1097 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1098 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1099 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1100
1101delete fork NUM
1102 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1103 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1104 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1105 fork' command.
1106
1107detach fork NUM
1108 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1109 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1110 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1111 fork' command.
1112
a80b95ba
TG
1113* New native configurations
1114
1115x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1116
b8bfd3ed
JB
1117x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1118
75a2d5e7
TT
1119* New targets
1120
c28c63d8 1121Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 1122x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 1123x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 1124S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 1125
6de3146c
PA
1126* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1127 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1128
d5cbbe6e
JB
1129* Removed commands
1130
1131catch load
1132catch unload
1133 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1134
75feb17d 1135*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 1136
af5ca30d
NH
1137* New native configurations
1138
1139NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 1140Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
1141
1142* New targets
1143
1144NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 1145Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 1146
7a404eba
PA
1147* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1148
1149 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1150 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1151 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1152 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1153
430ebac9
PA
1154* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1155(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1156
fe6fbf8b 1157* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 1158is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
1159
1160* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
1161including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1162and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 1163
10665d76
JB
1164* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1165accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1166more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1167
7cc46491
DJ
1168* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1169
d71340b8
DJ
1170* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1171registers on PowerPC targets.
1172
523c4513
DJ
1173* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1174targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1175
a6b151f1
DJ
1176* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1177commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1178
2d717e4f
DJ
1179* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1180extended-remote mode.
1181
24a836bd 1182* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
1183The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1184error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1185The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 1186
d0c678e6
UW
1187* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1188building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1189target architectures.
1190
d64a946d
TJB
1191* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1192Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1193now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1194stored in two consecutive float registers.
1195
ee163bf5
VP
1196* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1197breakpoints now.
1198
b93b6ca7 1199* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
1200Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1201include:
b93b6ca7
JB
1202 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1203 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1204 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1205 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1206 of an assignment
1207 - Improved command completion in Ada
1208 - Several bug fixes
1209
d001be7a
DJ
1210* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1211process.
1212
a6b151f1
DJ
1213* New commands
1214
6d53d0af
JB
1215set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1216show print frame-arguments
1217 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1218 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1219
a6b151f1
DJ
1220remote put
1221remote get
1222remote delete
1223 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1224
1225* New MI commands
1226
1227-target-file-put
1228-target-file-get
1229-target-file-delete
1230 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1231
1232* New remote packets
1233
1234vFile:open:
1235vFile:close:
1236vFile:pread:
1237vFile:pwrite:
1238vFile:unlink:
1239 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 1240
2d717e4f
DJ
1241vAttach
1242 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1243 mode.
1244
1245vRun
1246 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1247
8d5f9c6f 1248*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 1249
19d378fc
MS
1250* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1251bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1252Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1253
3a40aaa0
UW
1254* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1255symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1256-Bsymbolic linker option.
1257
a6ec25f2
BW
1258* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1259recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1260is not supported.
1261
6dd09645
JB
1262* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1263frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1264
c9bb8148
DJ
1265* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
126632-bit or 64-bit register values.
1267
0d5de010
DJ
1268* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1269
23181151
DJ
1270* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1271target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1272a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1273
ea37ba09
DJ
1274* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1275automatically displayed as character or string data.
1276
1277* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1278arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1279as strings.
e1f48ead 1280
123dc839
DJ
1281* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1282for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 1283only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 1284
05a4558a
DJ
1285* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1286iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 1287
7c963485
PA
1288* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1289ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1290has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1291
b18be20d
DJ
1292* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1293
0ca420ce
UW
1294* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1295
31d99776
DJ
1296* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1297layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1298segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1299
a4642986
MR
1300* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1301immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1302
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1303* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1304"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1305packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1306where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1307Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
1308
1309* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1310(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
1311
1312* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1313according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 1314
c9bb8148
DJ
1315* New commands
1316
23776285
MR
1317set remoteflow
1318show remoteflow
1319 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1320 when debugging using remote targets.
1321
c9bb8148
DJ
1322set mem inaccessible-by-default
1323show mem inaccessible-by-default
1324 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1325 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1326 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1327 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1328 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1329
1330set breakpoint auto-hw
1331show breakpoint auto-hw
1332 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1333 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1334 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1335 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1336 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1337 including "next" and "finish".
1338
0e420bd8
JB
1339catch exception
1340catch exception unhandled
1341 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1342
1343catch assert
1344 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1345
f822c95b
DJ
1346set sysroot
1347show sysroot
1348 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1349 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1350 an alias to "set sysroot".
1351
83cc5c53
UW
1352info spu
1353 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1354 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1355 architecture.
1356
bd372731
MK
1357* New native configurations
1358
1359OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1360
23181151
DJ
1361set tdesc filename
1362unset tdesc filename
1363show tdesc filename
1364 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1365 not query the target for its built-in description.
1366
c9bb8148
DJ
1367* New targets
1368
54fe9172 1369OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 1370MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 1371Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 1372
6dd09645
JB
1373* New remote packets
1374
1375QPassSignals:
1376 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1377 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1378
23181151
DJ
1379qXfer:features:read:
1380 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1381 features.
6dd09645 1382
83cc5c53
UW
1383qXfer:spu:read:
1384qXfer:spu:write:
1385 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1386 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1387
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1388qXfer:libraries:read:
1389 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1390 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1391 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1392 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1393
483367ee
DJ
1394* Removed targets
1395
1396Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1397
d08950c4
UW
1398alpha*-*-osf1*
1399alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 1400d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
1401hppa*-*-hiux*
1402i[34567]86-ncr-*
1403i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1404i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1405i[34567]86-*-netware*
1406i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1407i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1408i[34567]86-*-sco*
1409i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1410i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1411i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1412i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1413i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1414i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1415i[34567]86-*-isc*
1416m68*-cisco*-*
1417m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 1418mips*-*-pe
483367ee 1419rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 1420sh*-*-pe
483367ee 1421
7ce59000
DJ
1422* Other removed features
1423
1424target abug
1425target cpu32bug
1426target est
1427target rom68k
1428
1429 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1430
ea35711c
DJ
1431target hms
1432target e7000
1433target sh3
1434target sh3e
1435
1436 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1437 H8/300.
1438
1439target ocd
1440
1441 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1442 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1443 interfaces.
1444
7ce59000
DJ
1445DWARF 1 support
1446
1447 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1448 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1449
54d61198
DJ
1450Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1451
1452 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1453 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1454 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1455 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1456
ea35711c
DJ
1457MIPS ".pdr" sections
1458
1459 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1460 in debugging information.
1461
1462Scheme support
1463
1464 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1465 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1466
1a69e1e4
DJ
1467set mips stack-arg-size
1468set mips saved-gpreg-size
1469
1470 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1471
6dd09645 1472*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 1473
ca3bf3bd
DJ
1474* New targets
1475
1476Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 1477Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 1478
6aec2e11
DJ
1479* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1480(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1481running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1482
1483* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1484Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1485supported.
1486
17218d91
DJ
1487* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1488broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1489
9ebce043
DJ
1490* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1491stub provides the required support.
1492
7d3d3ece
DJ
1493* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1494longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1495
4f8253f3
JB
1496* New commands
1497
1498set substitute-path
1499unset substitute-path
1500show substitute-path
1501 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1502 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1503 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1504 between compilation and debugging.
1505
9fa66fd7
AS
1506set trace-commands
1507show trace-commands
1508 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1509 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1510 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1511
1f5befc1
DJ
1512* REMOVED features
1513
1514The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1515
2ec3381a
DJ
1516Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1517an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1518
3d00d119
DJ
1519The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1520
be2a5f71
DJ
1521* New remote packets
1522
1523qSupported:
1524 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1525 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1526 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1527 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1528 target.
1529
0876f84a
DJ
1530qXfer:auxv:read:
1531 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1532 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1533
9ebce043
DJ
1534qXfer:memory-map:read:
1535 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1536 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1537
1538vFlashErase:
1539vFlashWrite:
1540vFlashDone:
1541 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1542
0876f84a
DJ
1543* Removed remote packets
1544
1545qPart:auxv:read:
1546 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1547 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1548
e374b601 1549*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 1550
96309189
MS
1551* New targets
1552
1553Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1554
1555Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1556
53e5f3cf
AS
1557* New commands
1558
1559init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1560 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1561
ac264b3b
MS
1562The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1563
1564checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1565
1566restart <n> Return the program state to a
1567 previously saved state.
1568
1569info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1570
1571delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1572
1573set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1574 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1575
1576info forks List forks of the user program that
1577 are available to be debugged.
1578
1579fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1580 forks of the user program that are
1581 available to be debugged.
1582
1583delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1584 that are available to be debugged (and
1585 kill the forked process).
1586
1587detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1588 that are available to be debugged (and
1589 allow the process to continue).
1590
3950dc3f
NS
1591* New architecture
1592
1593Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1594
0ea3f30e
DJ
1595* Improved Windows host support
1596
1597GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1598native console support, and remote communications using either
1599network sockets or serial ports.
1600
f79daebb
GM
1601* Improved Modula-2 language support
1602
1603GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1604basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1605pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1606printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1607written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1608GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1609
acab6ab2
MM
1610* REMOVED features
1611
1612The ARM rdi-share module.
1613
f4267320
DJ
1614The Netware NLM debug server.
1615
53e5f3cf 1616*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 1617
e0ecbda1
MK
1618* New native configurations
1619
02a677ac 1620OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
1621OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1622
d64a6579
KB
1623* New targets
1624
1625Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1626
b33a6190
AS
1627* New command line options
1628
1629--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1630--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1631 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1632--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1633 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1634 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1635 with the --command (-x) option.
1636
11dced61
AC
1637* Deprecated commands removed
1638
1639The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1640removed:
1641
1642 Command Replacement
1643 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1644 othernames set arm disassembler
1645 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1646 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1647 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1648 regs info registers
1649
6fe85783
MK
1650* New BSD user-level threads support
1651
1652It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1653library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1654configurations are:
1655
1656FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1657FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1658OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1659
1660Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1661are not yet supported.
1662
5260ca71
MS
1663* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1664(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1665
e84ecc99
AC
1666* REMOVED configurations and files
1667
1668VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 1669Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 1670National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 1671
31e35378
JB
1672* New "set print array-indexes" command
1673
1674After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1675when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1676behavior.
1677
e85e5c83
MK
1678* VAX floating point support
1679
1680GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1681
d91e9901
AS
1682* User-defined command support
1683
1684In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1685to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1686section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1687
f2cb65ca
MC
1688*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1689
f47b1503
AS
1690* New command line option
1691
1692GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1693debugging.
1694
f2cb65ca
MC
1695* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1696
1697GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1698information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1699by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1700proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1701to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 1702
d08c0230
AC
1703* Internationalization
1704
1705When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1706internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1707continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1708
117ea3cf
PH
1709* Ada
1710
1711Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1712implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1713into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1714
d08c0230
AC
1715* New native configurations
1716
1717GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1718
1719* Remote 'p' packet
1720
1721GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1722packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1723
1724* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1725
1726GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1727The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1728features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1729i386 application).
1730
1731GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1732compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1733continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1734configurations:
1735
1736hppa-*-hpux
1737ia64-*-aix
1738mips-*-irix*
1739*-*-lynx
1740mips-*-linux-gnu
1741sds protocol
1742xdr protocol
1743powerpc bdm protocol
1744
1745Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1746made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1747
1748* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1749
1750Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1751been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1752configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1753permanently REMOVED.
1754
1755h8300-*-*
1756mcore-*-*
1757mn10300-*-*
1758ns32k-*-*
1759sh64-*-*
1760v850-*-*
1761
ebb7c577
AC
1762*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1763
1764* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1765
1766When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1767heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1768been fixed.
1769
1770* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1771
1772When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1773fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1774IRIX long double values).
1775
1776* VAX and "next"
1777
1778A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1779command. This problem has been fixed.
1780
860660cb 1781*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 1782
0dea2468
AC
1783* Fix for ``many threads''
1784
1785On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1786rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1787error message:
1788
1789 ptrace: No such process.
1790 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1791
1792This problem has been fixed.
1793
2c07db7a
AC
1794* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1795
1796Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1797GDB to dump core).
1798
c23968a2
JB
1799* New ``start'' command.
1800
1801This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1802
71009278
MK
1803* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1804
1805Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1806live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1807platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1808
1809FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1810FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1811NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1812NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1813NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1814OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1815OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1816OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1817OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1818
3c0b7db2
AC
1819* Signal trampoline code overhauled
1820
1821Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1822These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1823of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1824call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1825signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1826
73cc75f3
AC
1827Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1828features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1829include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 1830
7243600a
BF
1831* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1832
6f606e1c
MK
1833* New native configurations
1834
97dc871c 1835GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 1836OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
1837OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1838OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 1839OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1840NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 1841OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1842
a1b461bf
AC
1843* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1844
1845GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1846The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1847including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1848migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1849compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1850work, was also included.
1851
1852GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1853module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1854
1855h8300-*-*
1856mcore-*-*
1857mn10300-*-*
1858ns32k-*-*
1859sh64-*-*
1860v850-*-*
1861xstormy16-*-*
1862
1863Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1864made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1865
3c7012f5
AC
1866* REMOVED configurations and files
1867
1868Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1869Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1870Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1871Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1872Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1873AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1874Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1875decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1876riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1877sonymips mips-sony-*
1878sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1879
e5fe55f7
AC
1880*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1881
1882* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1883
1884The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1885GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1886command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1887program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1888with GDB".
1889
1890* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1891
1892Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1893libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1894cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1895GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1896shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1897the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1898are created.
1899
1900Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1901
1902* Fixed ISO-C build problems
1903
1904The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1905non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1906compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1907
1908* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1909
1910Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1911wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1912
1913* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1914
1915The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1916permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1917systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1918
1919* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1920
1921Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1922has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1923
1924* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1925
1926GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1927its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1928panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1929
1930* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1931
1932When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1933by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1934not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1935
faae5abe 1936*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 1937
9175c9a3
MC
1938* Removed --with-mmalloc
1939
1940Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1941conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1942
3cc87ec0
MK
1943* Changes in AMD64 configurations
1944
1945The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1946the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1947and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1948you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1949
f0424ef6
MK
1950* Revised SPARC target
1951
1952The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1953FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
1954support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1955from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1956(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 1957
59659be2
ILT
1958* New C++ demangler
1959
1960GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1961names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1962with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1963programs.
1964
9e08b29b
DJ
1965* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1966
1967GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1968arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1969encountered these.
1970
8dfe8985
DC
1971* C++ nested types and namespaces
1972
1973GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1974improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1975is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1976Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1977namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1978"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1979frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1980if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1981GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1982
cced5e27
MK
1983* New native configurations
1984
1985NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 1986OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 1987OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
1988OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1989OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 1990
b4b4b794
KI
1991* New debugging protocols
1992
1993M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1994
7989c619
AC
1995* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1996
1997The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1998and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1999tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2000
5994185b
AC
2001* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2002
2003Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2004been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2005configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2006permanently REMOVED.
2007
2008Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2009Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2010Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2011Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2012Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2013AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2014Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
2015decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2016riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2017sonymips mips-sony-*
2018sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 2019
0ddabb4c
AC
2020* REMOVED configurations and files
2021
2022SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2023SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
2024Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2025Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2026H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2027HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2028HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2029HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2030PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 2031386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
2032Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2033 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2034 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
2035SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2036SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
2037Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2038Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 2039
c7f1390e
DJ
2040*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2041
1fe43d45
AC
2042* Objective-C
2043
2044Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2045integrated into GDB.
2046
e6beb428
AC
2047* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2048
2049DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2050information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2051By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2052backtraces.
2053
2054The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2055have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2056DWARF 2 CFI support.
2057
2058* Hosted file I/O.
2059
2060GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2061file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2062remote protocol documentation for details.
2063
2064* All targets using the new architecture framework.
2065
2066All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2067architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2068to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2069ppc32 on ppc64).
2070
2071* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2072
2073GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2074per-thread variables.
2075
2076* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2077
2078GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2079GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2080
2081* Separate debug info.
2082
2083GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2084automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2085of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2086system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2087and optional debug files.
2088
2089* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2090
2091DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2092describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2093debugger.
2094
2095GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2096for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2097
2098* Java
2099
2100A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2101Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2102considered "useable".
2103
85f8f974
DJ
2104* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2105
2106The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2107commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2108kernel.
2109
0fac0b41
DJ
2110* GDB supports logging output to a file
2111
2112There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2113used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 2114
6ad8ae5c
DJ
2115* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2116
2117The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2118disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2119command.
2120
e286caf2 2121* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
2122
2123The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2124registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2125
d28f9cdf
DJ
2126* Profiling support
2127
2128A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2129be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2130session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2131"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2132data, for more informative profiling results.
2133
da0f9dcd
AC
2134* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2135
2136The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2137option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 2138"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
2139
2140Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2141removed.
2142
fb9b6b35
JJ
2143Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2144Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2145Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2146 in a subsequent -var-update.
2147
954a4db8
MK
2148* New native configurations.
2149
2150FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2151
6760f9e6
JB
2152* Multi-arched targets.
2153
b4263afa 2154HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 2155Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 2156
1b831c93
AC
2157* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2158
2159Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2160been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2161configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2162permanently REMOVED.
2163
8b0e5691 2164Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 2165Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 2166H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
2167HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2168HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2169HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 2170PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
2171Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2172 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2173 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
2174Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2175Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 2176
5835abe7
NC
2177* REMOVED configurations and files
2178
2179V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
2180Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2181IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2182i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2183i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2184i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2185HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2186 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2187 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2188Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2189Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2190Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2191OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2192I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 2193
a094c6fb
AC
2194* MIPS $fp behavior changed
2195
2196The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2197the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2198context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2199address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2200The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2201
299ffc64 2202*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 2203
46248966
AC
2204* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2205
2206When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2207`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2208in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2209library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2210shared libs like mad''.
2211
b9d14705 2212* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 2213
b9d14705
DJ
2214Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2215the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2216arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2217powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 2218
e0e9281e
JB
2219* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2220
2221GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2222and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2223they expand.
2224
dd73b9bb
AC
2225The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2226invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2227
2228The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2229macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2230
e0e9281e
JB
2231Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2232information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2233your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2234information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2235
2250ee0c
CV
2236* Multi-arched targets.
2237
6e3ba3b8
JT
2238DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2239DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 2240NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 2241National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
2242Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2243Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 2244
cd9bfe15 2245* New targets.
e33ce519 2246
456f8b9d
DB
2247Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2248
e33ce519 2249
da8ca43d
JT
2250* New native configurations
2251
2252Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 2253SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 2254MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 2255UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 2256
cd9bfe15
AC
2257* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2258
2259Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2260been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2261configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2262permanently REMOVED.
2263
92eb23c5 2264Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 2265OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 2266IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 2267Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 2268Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 2269Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
2270i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2271i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2272i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
2273HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2274 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2275 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 2276I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 2277
db034ac5
AC
2278* OBSOLETE languages
2279
2280CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2281
cd9bfe15
AC
2282* REMOVED configurations and files
2283
2284AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2285A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2286AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2287AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2288AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2289
2290testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2291
20f01a46
DH
2292* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2293
2294This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2295commands. The default is 1024.
2296
a5941fbf
MK
2297* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2298
2299Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2300
89743e04
MS
2301* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2302
2303These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2304to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2305from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 2306
9fb14e79
JB
2307* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2308
2309The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2310including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2311of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2312
2037aebb
AC
2313*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2314
2315* New targets.
2316
2317Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
2318
2319* Bug fixes
2320
2321gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2322mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2323Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2324
2325gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2326dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2327Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2328
2329Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2330Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2331By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2332
2333i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2334avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2335By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2336
37057839 2337*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 2338
1a703748
MS
2339* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2340
2341This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2342really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2343In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2344target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2345This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2346(notably embedded) targets.
2347
cefd4ef5
MS
2348* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2349
55241689
AC
2350This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2351process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2352GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2353hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 2354
352ed7b4
MS
2355* New command line option
2356
2357GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2358
2359* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2360
2361There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2362command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2363a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2364be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2365open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2366issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2367a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2368it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2369GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2370is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2371
fe419ffc
RE
2372* Changes in ARM configurations.
2373
2374Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2375configuration is fully multi-arch.
2376
eb7cedd9
MK
2377* New native configurations
2378
fe419ffc 2379ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 2380x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 2381AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 2382Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 2383
c9f63e6b
CV
2384* New targets
2385
2386Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2387
9b4ff276
AC
2388* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2389
2390Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2391been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2392configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2393permanently REMOVED.
2394
2395AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2396A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2397AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2398AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2399AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2400
b4ceaee6 2401testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 2402
e2caac18
AC
2403* REMOVED configurations and files
2404
2405TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 2406WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
2407PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2408PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2409PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 2410Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
2411Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2412 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 2413SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 2414Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
2415Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2416ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 2417Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 2418
c2a727fa
TT
2419* Changes to command line processing
2420
2421The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2422for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2423
467d8519
TT
2424* Changes to key bindings
2425
2426There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2427
7072a954
AC
2428*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2429
2430Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2431
2432Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2433corrupted.
2434
2435Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2436
2437Numerous documentation fixes.
2438
2439Numerous testsuite fixes.
2440
34f47bc4 2441*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
2442
2443* New native configurations
2444
2445Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2446x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 2447MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
2448MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2449ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 2450s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 2451
bf64bfd6
AC
2452* New targets
2453
def90278 2454Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 2455CRIS cris-axis
55241689 2456UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 2457
17e78a56 2458* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
2459
2460x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 2461Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
2462Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2463 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
2464TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2465WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 2466Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
2467PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2468PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2469PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 2470SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
2471Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2472ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 2473Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 2474
17e78a56
AC
2475stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2476kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2477
7fcca85b
AC
2478Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2479been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2480configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2481permanently REMOVED.
2482
a196c81c 2483* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
2484
2485Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2486Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2487Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2488ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2489Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 2490ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 2491
6d6b80e5 2492* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 2493
6d6b80e5 2494GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
2495sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2496present.
2497
bf64bfd6
AC
2498* Other news:
2499
e23194cb
EZ
2500* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2501
2502* The MI enabled by default.
2503
2504The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2505revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2506engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2507using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2508which is now deprecated.
2509
2510* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2511
2512GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2513main features are supported:
2514
2515 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2516
2517 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2518 extension;
2519
2520 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2521
2522 - a Pascal expression parser.
2523
2524However, some important features are not yet supported.
2525
2526 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2527
2528 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2529
2530 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2531 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2532
2533 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2534
2535 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2536
2537* Changes in completion.
2538
2539Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2540to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2541users expect at the shell prompt.
2542
2543Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2544`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2545program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2546files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2547be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2548considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2549name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2550
2551`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2552
2553* New platform-independent commands:
2554
2555It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2556hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2557documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2558
2559* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2560
d7275149
MK
2561Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2562revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2563many threads as your system allows you to have.
2564
e23194cb
EZ
2565Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2566
d7275149
MK
2567Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2568multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
2569
2570* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
2571
2572Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2573
e23194cb
EZ
2574GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2575debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2576supported.)
2577
2578* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2579
2580Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2581breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2582implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2583put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2584and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2585registers.
2586
2587The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2588debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2589watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2590
2591* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2592
2593New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2594the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2595
2596New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2597display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2598IDT.
2599
2600New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2601from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2602New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2603a given linear address.
2604
2605GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2606program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2607which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2608
2609DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2610
6c56c069
EZ
2611It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2612
e23194cb
EZ
2613* Changes in documentation.
2614
2615All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2616Documentation License.
2617
2618Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2619manual.
2620
2621TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2622
2623Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2624manual.
2625
2626The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2627documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2628hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2629
5d6640b1
AC
2630* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2631
2632The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2633``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2634contents of this file.
2635
1a1d8446
AC
2636* gdba.el deleted
2637
2638GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 2639
9debab2f 2640*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 2641
c63ce875
EZ
2642* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2643
2644Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2645programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2646displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2647greater level of detail.
2648
2649* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2650
2651It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2652bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2653on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2654written.
2655
2656* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2657
2658The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2659necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2660machines ``out of the box''.
2661
2662The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2663possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2664signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2665would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2666interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2667
2668It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2669standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2670even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2671and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2672terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2673
2674The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2675enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2676also works.
2677
2678DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2679GDB.
2680
2681It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2682directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2683times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2684breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2685
ed9a39eb
JM
2686* New native configurations
2687
2688ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 2689PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 2690
7a292a7a
SS
2691* New targets
2692
96baa820 2693Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
2694x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2695PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
2696TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2697
085dd6e6
JM
2698* OBSOLETE configurations
2699
2700Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2701Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 2702Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 2703ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 2704Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 2705
9debab2f
AC
2706Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2707but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2708these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2709be permanently REMOVED.
2710
5330533d
SS
2711* Gould support removed
2712
2713Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2714
bc9e5bbf
AC
2715* New features for SVR4
2716
2717On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2718without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2719load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2720
2721* Many C++ enhancements
2722
2723C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2724in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2725
adf40b2e
JM
2726* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2727
2728A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2729sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2730with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2731``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2732
2733 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2734 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2735
43e526b9
JM
2736* MIPS 64 remote protocol
2737
2738A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2739expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2740instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2741
2742The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2743added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2744
96baa820
JM
2745* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2746
2747The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2748``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2749include ``set remote P-packet''.
2750
11cf8741
JM
2751* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2752
2753The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2754accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2755``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2756
7876dd43
DB
2757* ``apropos'' command added.
2758
2759The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2760documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2761try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2762
bc9e5bbf
AC
2763* New MI interface
2764
2765A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2766interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
2767process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2768"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2769enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
2770
2771 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2772
c906108c
SS
2773*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2774
2775* New native configurations
2776
2777HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2778HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 2779M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
2780
2781* New targets
2782
2783Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2784Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2785Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2786
2787* OBSOLETE configurations
2788
2789Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2790
2791Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2792but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2793these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2794be permanently REMOVED.
2795
2796* ANSI/ISO C
2797
2798As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2799buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2800containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2801use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2802available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2803configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2804information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2805already.
2806
2807* Readline 2.2
2808
2809GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2810
2811* set extension-language
2812
2813You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2814languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2815you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2816 set extension-language .c c++
2817The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2818and their associated languages.
2819
2820* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2821
2822When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2823you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2824PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2825
2826 set processor NAME
2827
2828sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2829following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2830
2831 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2832 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2833 403 IBM PowerPC 403
2834 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2835 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2836 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2837 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2838 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2839 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2840 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2841 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2842
2843At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2844special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2845registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2846only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2847
2848* HP-UX support
2849
2850Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2851more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2852library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2853support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2854for xdb and dbx commands.
2855
2856* Catchpoints
2857
2858HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2859generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2860to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2861
2862This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2863argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2864output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2865
2866* Debugging across forks
2867
2868On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2869in the inferior.
2870
2871* TUI
2872
2873HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2874it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2875configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2876
2877* GDB remote protocol additions
2878
2879A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2880Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2881fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2882allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2883
2884For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2885full 64-bit address. The command
2886
2887 set remoteaddresssize 32
2888
2889can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2890the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2891will be discarded.
2892
2893In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2894command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2895
2896 maint packet heythere
2897
2898sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2899disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2900time.
2901
2902The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2903target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2904downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2905
2906* Tracing can collect general expressions
2907
2908You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2909further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2910doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2911
2912* mask-address variable for Mips
2913
2914For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2915a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2916of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2917
2918* Higher serial baud rates
2919
2920GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2921230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2922to achieve all of these rates.)
2923
2924* i960 simulator
2925
2926The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2927builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2928
2929
2930*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2931
2932* New native configurations
2933
2934Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2935Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2936Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2937PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2938PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2939Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2940Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2941
2942* New targets
2943
2944Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2945Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2946Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2947Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2948MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2949MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2950MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2951Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2952Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2953Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2954NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2955
2956* New debugging protocols
2957
2958ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2959M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2960DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2961PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2962PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2963Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2964
2965* DWARF 2
2966
2967All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2968format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2969information.
2970
2971* Java frontend
2972
2973GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2974only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2975
2976* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2977
2978For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2979loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2980locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2981
2982* Live range splitting
2983
2984GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2985range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2986more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2987
2988* Hurd support
2989
2990GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2991updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2992
2993* ARM Thumb support
2994
2995GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2996instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2997instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2998accordingly.
2999
3000* MIPS16 support
3001
3002GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3003instruction set.
3004
3005* Overlay support
3006
3007GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3008linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3009will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3010control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3011additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3012in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3013
3014* info symbol
3015
3016The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3017the symbol at the specified address.
3018
3019* Trace support
3020
3021The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3022asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3023extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3024includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3025file tracepoint.c for more details.
3026
3027* MIPS simulator
3028
3029Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3030by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3031of most MIPS variants.
3032
3033* Sparc simulator
3034
3035Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3036by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3037Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3038
3039* set architecture
3040
3041For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3042basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3043architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3044the possible architectures.
3045
3046*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3047
3048* New native configurations
3049
3050Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3051M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3052PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3053PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3054PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3055RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3056
3057* New targets
3058
3059ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3060I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3061MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3062MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3063PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3064Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
3065Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3066
3067* PowerPC simulator
3068
3069The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3070contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3071PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3072basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3073performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3074
3075* Solaris 2.5
3076
3077GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3078
3079* Windows 95/NT native
3080
3081GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3082To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3083which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3084Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3085ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3086
3087* dont-repeat command
3088
3089If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3090command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3091useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3092extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3093
3094* Send break instead of ^C
3095
3096The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3097rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3098GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3099
3100* Remote protocol timeout
3101
3102The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3103that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3104to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3105
3106* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3107
3108By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3109loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3110stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3111when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3112in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3113
3114Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3115/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3116automatically on hpux10.
3117
3118* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3119
3120Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3121
3122* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3123
3124When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3125may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3126the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3127every character. The default value is 1050.
3128
3129* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3130
3131If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3132a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3133replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3134details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3135remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3136to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3137
3138* Speedups for remote debugging
3139
3140GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3141the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3142and more efficient S-record downloading.
3143
3144* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3145
3146GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3147Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3148
3149*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3150
3151* Psymtabs for XCOFF
3152
3153The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3154can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3155
3156* Remote targets use caching
3157
3158Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3159remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3160it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3161debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3162off' turns the the data cache off.
3163
3164* Remote targets may have threads
3165
3166The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3167in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3168gdb/remote.c for details.
3169
3170* NetROM support
3171
3172If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3173support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3174acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3175write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3176support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3177another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3178sequence is something like
3179
3180 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3181 load <prog>
3182 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3183
3184* Macintosh host
3185
3186GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3187may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3188it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3189available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3190device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3191directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3192scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3193mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3194
3195* Autoconf
3196
3197GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3198but does simplify configuration and building.
3199
3200* hpux10
3201
3202GDB now supports hpux10.
3203
3204*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3205
3206* New native configurations
3207
3208x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3209x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3210NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3211Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3212
3213* New targets
3214
3215A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3216HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3217CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3218PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3219WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3220
3221* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3222
3223GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3224possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3225filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3226the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3227if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3228
3229* Arguments to user-defined commands
3230
3231User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3232Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3233trivial example:
3234define adder
3235 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3236
3237To execute the command use:
3238adder 1 2 3
3239
3240Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3241Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3242use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3243
3244* New `if' and `while' commands
3245
3246This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3247commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3248expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3249execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3250terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3251`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3252if the expression is zero.
3253
3254* Fortran source language mode
3255
3256GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3257Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3258variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3259with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3260Fortran compilers.
3261
3262* Better HPUX support
3263
3264Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3265running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3266processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3267for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3268that behavior do the following before running the program:
3269
3270 adb -w a.out
3271 __dld_flags?W 0x5
3272 control-d
3273
3274This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3275To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3276
3277 adb -w a.out
3278 __dld_flags?W 0x4
3279 control-d
3280
3281You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3282the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3283external linkage.
3284
3285GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3286HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3287
3288* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3289
3290You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3291commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3292current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3293"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3294associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3295configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3296
3297* New DOS host serial code
3298
3299This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3300no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3301a PC's serial port.
3302
3303*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3304
3305* New "complete" command
3306
3307This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3308were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3309
3310* Trailing space optional in prompt
3311
3312"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3313allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3314
3315* Breakpoint hit counts
3316
3317"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3318has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3319can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3320to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3321less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3322that breakpoint.
3323
3324* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3325
3326"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3327an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3328arrays actually contain only short strings.
3329
3330* Shared library breakpoints
3331
3332In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3333breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3334
3335* Hardware watchpoints
3336
3337There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3338targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3339
55241689 3340Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
3341
3342* Annotations
3343
3344Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3345and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3346
3347* Improved Irix 5 support
3348
3349GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3350
3351* Improved HPPA support
3352
3353GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3354
3355* New native configurations
3356
3357Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3358HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3359Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3360RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3361
3362* New targets
3363
3364OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3365MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3366Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3367
3368* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3369
3370There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3371This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3372
3373* Fixes
3374
3375As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3376and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3377
3378*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3379
3380* Irix 5 is now supported
3381
3382* HPPA support
3383
3384GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3385to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3386GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3387of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3388can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3389
3390
3391*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3392
3393* User visible changes:
3394
3395* Remote Debugging
3396
3397The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3398target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3399debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3400integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3401debugging info for the mips target).
3402
3403* DEC Alpha native support
3404
3405GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3406debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3407work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3408Alpha-specific notes.
3409
3410* Preliminary thread implementation
3411
3412GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3413
3414* LynxOS native and target support for 386
3415
3416This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3417to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3418for details).
3419
3420* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3421
3422This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3423mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3424call methods, ...etc.
3425
3426*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3427
3428 * User visible changes:
3429
3430Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3431supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3432other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3433somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3434
3435Filename completion now works.
3436
3437When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3438arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3439addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3440
3441All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3442vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3443should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3444your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3445to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3446
3447 * DEC alpha support
3448
3449This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3450cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3451
3452
3453*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3454
3455 * Testsuite
3456
3457This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3458The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3459via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3460
3461 * C++ demangling
3462
3463'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3464emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3465Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3466disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3467use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3468
3469 * Simulators
3470
3471GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3472So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3473Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3474
3475 * New targets supported
3476
3477H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3478H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3479SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3480Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3481IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3482
3483Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3484version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3485GO32 memory extender.
3486
3487 * New remote protocols
3488
3489MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3490
3491 * New source languages supported
3492
3493This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3494used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3495into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3496
3497
3498*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3499
3500 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3501
3502GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3503version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3504University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3505compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3506format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3507(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3508
3509Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3510
3511 * Faster and better demangling
3512
3513We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3514demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3515character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3516only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3517This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3518increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3519symbol lookups.
3520
3521`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3522from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3523compiler does not actually implement.
3524
3525 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3526
3527In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3528inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3529recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3530very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3531The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3532circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3533fix.
3534
3535The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3536release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3537
3538 * Improved configure script
3539
3540The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3541you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3542host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3543done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3544
3545We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3546version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3547`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3548The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3549only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3550We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3551
3552 * Documentation improvements
3553
3554There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3555produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3556before submitting changes.
3557
3558The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3559M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3560`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3561you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3562a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3563
3564*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3565We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3566been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3567or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3568`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3569around this problem.
3570
3571 * New features
3572
3573GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3574the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3575`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3576the target program.
3577
3578The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3579how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3580
3581 * New native hosts supported
3582
3583HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3584386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3585
3586 * New targets supported
3587
3588AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3589
3590 * New file formats supported
3591
3592BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3593HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3594
3595 * Major bug fixes
3596
3597Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3598
3599We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3600printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3601
3602We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3603for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3604release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3605
3606You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3607will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3608
3609We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3610for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3611especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3612libraries.
3613
3614The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3615information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3616command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3617any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3618when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3619
3620 * Internal improvements
3621
3622GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3623debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3624
3625GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3626Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3627symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3628contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3629shared code that handles any of them.
3630
3631 * New command line options
3632
3633We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3634
3635 * Mmalloc licensing
3636
3637The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3638General Public License.
3639
3640*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3641
3642 * Host/native/target split
3643
3644GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3645hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3646target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3647local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3648ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3649
3650The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3651GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3652is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3653code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3654any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3655built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3656handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3657
3658GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3659It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3660plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3661
3662 * New hosts supported
3663
3664HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3665386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3666386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3667
3668 * New targets supported
3669
3670Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
367168030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3672
3673 * New native hosts supported
3674
3675386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3676 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3677386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3678
3679 * New file formats supported
3680
3681BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3682supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3683format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3684
3685 * New commands
3686
3687`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3688`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3689These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3690
3691`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3692
3693You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3694scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3695prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3696executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3697
3698 * C++ improvements
3699
3700We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3701info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3702symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3703
3704Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3705
3706 * Major bug fixes
3707
3708The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3709fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3710by the compiler.
3711
3712We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3713support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3714
3715John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3716slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3717that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3718purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3719the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3720mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3721
3722Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3723about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3724completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3725we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3726
3727 * AMD 29k support
3728
3729A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3730specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3731calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3732usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3733in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3734
3735We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3736Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3737of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3738resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3739
3740 * Remote interfaces
3741
3742We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3743with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3744message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3745This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3746needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3747breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3748each instruction being stepped through.
3749
3750The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3751registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3752
3753There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3754find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3755Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3756processor with a serial port.
3757
3758 * Configuration
3759
3760Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3761`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3762supported, and what files each one uses.
3763
3764 * Library changes
3765
3766There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3767disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3768Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3769disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3770
3771The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3772Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3773can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3774grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3775
3776 * Documentation
3777
3778The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3779reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3780as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3781encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3782system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3783bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3784
3785And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3786
3787
3788*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3789
3790 * Better support for C++ function names
3791
3792GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3793names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3794(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3795single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3796Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3797
3798GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3799the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3800You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3801lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3802for the list of formats.
3803
3804 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3805
3806Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3807C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3808directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3809can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3810usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3811about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3812this problem.)
3813
3814 * New 'maintenance' command
3815
3816All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3817the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3818can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3819
3820 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3821 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3822 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3823 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3824 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3825 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3826
3827The following commands are new:
3828
3829 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3830 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3831 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3832
3833 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3834
3835We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3836(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3837be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3838read after argv processing.
3839
3840 * New hosts supported
3841
3842Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3843
55241689 3844GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
3845
3846We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3847is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3848for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3849masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3850fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3851It costs extra.
3852
3853 * New targets supported
3854
3855Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3856
3857 * More smarts about finding #include files
3858
3859GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3860all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3861greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3862especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3863the one that contains your sources.
3864
3865We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3866breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3867try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3868
3869 * Interesting infernals change
3870
3871GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3872section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3873target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3874stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3875
3876 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3877
3878There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3879 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3880 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3881
3882See the ChangeLog for details.
3883
3884*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3885
3886 * New machines supported (host and target)
3887
3888IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3889
3890SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3891
3892 * New malloc package
3893
3894GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3895Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3896capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3897This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3898pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3899more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3900
3901 * info proc
3902
3903The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3904'help info proc' for details.
3905
3906 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3907
3908The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3909Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3910possible.
3911
3912 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3913
3914Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3915support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3916conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3917environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3918that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3919in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3920
3921 * Cross byte order fixes
3922
3923Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3924targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3925
3926 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3927
3928If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3929system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3930`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3931program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3932called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3933Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3934and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3935the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3936option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3937starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3938
3939You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3940the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3941information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3942slower, but makes future operations faster.
3943
3944The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3945build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3946A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3947use is:
3948
3949 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3950
3951The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3952It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3953shared across multiple host platforms.
3954
3955 * longjmp() handling
3956
3957GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3958siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3959all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3960platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3961
3962 * Solaris 2.0
3963
3964Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3965this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3966reading symbols.
3967
3968 * Bug fixes
3969
3970As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3971People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3972crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3973
3974*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3975
3976 * New machines supported (host and target)
3977
3978SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3979 (except core files)
3980BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3981Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3982
3983 * New machines supported (target)
3984
3985AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3986
3987 * C++ support
3988
3989GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3990The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3991per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3992
3993GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3994`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3995extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3996good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3997will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3998released.
3999
4000 * New features for SVR4
4001
4002GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4003shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4004only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4005
4006The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4007on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4008it prints the address mappings of the process.
4009
4010If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4011bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4012
4013 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4014
4015Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4016now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4017skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4018make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4019same code linked statically.
4020
4021 * New Getopt
4022
4023GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4024version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4025continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4026Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4027added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4028future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4029
4030 * Bugs fixed
4031
4032The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4033Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4034See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4035
4036
4037*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4038
4039 * New machines supported (host and target)
4040
4041Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4042NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4043Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4044
4045 * Almost SCO Unix support
4046
4047We had hoped to support:
4048SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4049(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4050that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4051about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4052
4053 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4054
4055GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4056debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4057is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4058send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4059reqired (if any).
4060
4061 * New Readline
4062
4063GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4064is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4065required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4066
4067 * Bugs fixed
4068
4069The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4070Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4071See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4072
4073 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4074
4075GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4076supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4077symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4078
4079Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4080mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4081debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4082mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4083version 2.
4084
4085Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4086really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4087line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4088variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4089situation somewhat.
4090
4091When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4092However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4093methods.
4094
4095We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4096DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4097encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4098
4099
4100*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4101
4102 * Improved configuration
4103
4104Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4105Porting BFD is simpler.
4106
4107 * Stepping improved
4108
4109The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4110of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4111in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4112function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4113
4114 * Bug fixing
4115
4116Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4117
4118 * New host supported (not target)
4119
4120Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4121
4122
4123*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4124
4125 * Multiple source language support
4126
4127GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4128It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4129and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4130language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4131You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4132`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4133
4134 * GDB and Modula-2
4135
4136GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4137currently under development at the State University of New York at
4138Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4139continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4140
4141Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4142debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4143symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4144
4145There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4146in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4147
4148 * set write on/off
4149
4150GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4151a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4152the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4153by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4154effect immediately.
4155
4156 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4157
4158When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4159shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4160The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4161examining core files.
4162
4163 * set listsize
4164
4165You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4166The default is 10.
4167
4168 * New machines supported (host and target)
4169
4170SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4171Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4172Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4173
4174 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4175
4176IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4177
4178 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4179
4180AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4181AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4182Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4183
4184 * New remote interfaces
4185
4186AMD 29000 Adapt
4187AMD 29000 Minimon
4188
4189
4190*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4191
4192 * New Facilities
4193
4194Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4195
4196Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4197target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4198is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4199remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4200remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4201also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4202using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4203stub on the target system.
4204
4205New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4206
4207GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4208library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4209object file types such as a.out and coff.
4210
4211There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4212refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4213
4214
4215 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4216
4217All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4218by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4219
4220For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4221``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4222Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4223
4224What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4225print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4226will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4227all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4228
4229confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4230 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4231 it is already running. Default is ON.
4232
4233editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4234 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4235 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4236 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4237 Default is ON.
4238
4239history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4240 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4241 or the value of the environment variable
4242 GDBHISTFILE.
4243
4244history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4245 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4246 HISTSIZE.
4247
4248history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4249 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4250 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4251
4252history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4253 history expansion will be performed on
4254 command line input. The default is OFF.
4255
4256radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4257 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4258 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4259
4260height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4261 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4262 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4263 variable TERM.
4264
4265width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4266 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4267 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4268 variable TERM.
4269
4270Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4271``set width'' instead.
4272
4273print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4274 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4275 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4276 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4277
4278print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4279 is OFF.
4280
4281print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4282 "raw" form if off.
4283
4284print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4285 like instructions.
4286
4287print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4288
4289
4290 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4291
4292The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4293new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4294are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4295window.
4296
4297
4298 * Support for Shared Libraries
4299
4300GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4301Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4302before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4303happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4304At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4305from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4306shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4307It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4308
4309sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4310 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4311 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4312
4313info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4314
4315
4316 * Watchpoints
4317
4318A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4319expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4320tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4321quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4322problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4323more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4324
4325watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4326
4327info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4328
4329delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4330disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4331enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4332
4333
4334 * C++ multiple inheritance
4335
4336When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4337for C++ programs.
4338
4339 * C++ exception handling
4340
4341Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4342ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4343the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4344handler's context).
4345
4346catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4347 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4348 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4349
4350info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4351 current stack frame.
4352
4353
4354 * Minor command changes
4355
4356The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4357command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4358is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4359
4360The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4361at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4362frames without printing.
4363
4364 * New directory command
4365
4366'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4367The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4368about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4369with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4370find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4371
4372 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4373
4374For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4375for more details.
4376
4377GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4378two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4379Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4380where the program that you are debugging will run.