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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 7.1
5
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6* Windows Thread Information Block access.
7
8 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
9 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
10 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
11 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
12 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
13 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
14
15* New remote packets
16
17qGetTIBAddr
18
19 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
20
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21qRelocInsn
22
23 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
24 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
25 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
26 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
27 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
28 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
29
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30* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
31 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
32 a directory.
33
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34* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
35
36 - GDBserver now support tracepoints. The feature is currently
37 supported by the i386-linux and amd64-linux builds.
38
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39 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
40
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41* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
42 it understands register description.
43
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44* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
45
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46* X86 general purpose registers
47
48 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
49 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
50 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
51 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
52 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
53
95a42b64 54* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
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55 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
56 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
57 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
58 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
59 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 60
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61* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
62 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
63 in the specified file.
64
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65* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
66 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
67 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
68 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
69 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
70 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
71 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
72 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
73 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
74 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
75
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76* New commands
77
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78set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
79show target-file-system-kind
80 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
81 names.
82
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83save breakpoints <filename>
84 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
85 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
86 definitions, use the `source' command.
87
88`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
89is now deprecated.
90
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91* Python scripting
92
adc36818 93** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
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94 tables, program spaces, and frame's code blocks. Additionally, GDB
95 Parameters can now be created from the API, and manipulated via
96 set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 97
fa33c3cd 98** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
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99 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
100
101** New exception gdb.GdbError.
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102
103** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 104
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105** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
106 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
107 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
108
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109* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
110there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
111tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
112regular breakpoints.
113
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114* New targets
115
116ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
117
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118* D language support.
119 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
120 language.
121
bfbf3774 122*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 123
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124* C++ Improvements
125
126 ** Namespace Support
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127
128 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
129 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
130 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
131 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
132 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
133
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134 ** Bug Fixes
135
136 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
137 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
138 qualified name.
139
140 ** Cast Operators
141
142 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
143 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
144
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145* New targets
146
147Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 148Renesas RX rx-*-elf
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149
150* New Simulators
151
152Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 153Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 154
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155* Multi-program debugging.
156
157 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
158 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
159 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
160 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
161 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
162 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
163 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
164 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
165
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166* New tracing features
167
168 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
169
170 ** Trace state variables
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171
172 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
173 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
174 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
175 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
176 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
177 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
178 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
179 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
180 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
181 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 182
d5551862 183 ** Fast tracepoints
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184
185 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
186 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
187 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
188 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
189 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
190 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
191 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
192 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
193 the regular trace command.
194
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195 ** Disconnected tracing
196
197 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
198 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
199 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
200 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
201 connection is lost unexpectedly.
202
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203 ** Trace files
204
205 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
206 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
207 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
208 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
209 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
210 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
211 <name>".
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212
213 ** Circular trace buffer
214
215 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
216 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
217 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
218 not be available for all target agents.
219
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220* Changed commands
221
222disassemble
223 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
224 the arguments to be comma-separated.
225
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226info variables
227 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
228 which only declare a variable are not shown.
229
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230source
231 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
232 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
233 support.
234
235 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
236 "set script-extension" (see below).
237
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238* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
239
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240record save [<FILENAME>]
241 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
242 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
243
244record restore <FILENAME>
245 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
246 earlier time, for replay debugging.
247
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248add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
249 Add a new inferior.
250
251clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
252 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
253 inferior has loaded.
254
255remove-inferior ID
256 Remove an inferior.
257
258maint info program-spaces
259 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
260
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261set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
262show remote interrupt-sequence
263 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
264 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
265 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
266 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
267 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
268
269set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
270show remote interrupt-on-connect
271 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
272 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
273 Linux kernel.
274
275set remotebreak [on | off]
276show remotebreak
277Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
278
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279tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
280 Create or modify a trace state variable.
281
282info tvariables
283 List trace state variables and their values.
284
285delete tvariable $NAME ...
286 Delete one or more trace state variables.
287
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288teval EXPR, ...
289 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
290 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
291
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292ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
293 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
294
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295* New expression syntax
296
297 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
298 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
299
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300* New options
301
302set follow-exec-mode new|same
303show follow-exec-mode
304 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
305 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
306 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
307
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308set default-collect EXPR, ...
309show default-collect
310 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
311 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
312 such as registers or a critical global variable.
313
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314set disconnected-tracing
315show disconnected-tracing
316 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
317 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
318 upon disconnection.
319
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320set circular-trace-buffer
321show circular-trace-buffer
322 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
323 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
324 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
325 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
326
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327set script-extension off|soft|strict
328show script-extension
329 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
330 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
331 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
332 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
333 evaluation failed.
334 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
335
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336set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
337show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
338 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
339 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
340 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
341 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
342 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
343 is on.
344
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345* Python API Improvements
346
347 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
348 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
349 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
350
351 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
352 `is_base_class' attribute.
353
354 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
355
356 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
357 evaluate an expression.
358
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359* New remote packets
360
361QTDV
362 Define a trace state variable.
363
364qTV
365 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
366
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367QTDisconnected
368 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
369
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370QTBuffer:circular
371 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
372
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373qTfP, qTsP
374 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
375
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376* Bug fixes
377
378Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
379
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380Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
381much more reliable. In particular:
382 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
383 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
384 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
385 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
386 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
387 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
388 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
389 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
390 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
391 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
392 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
393 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
394 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
395 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
396 non-threaded programs.
397
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398PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
399This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
400libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
401executable program.
402
abc7453d 403*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 404
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405* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
406dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
407them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
408for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
409"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
410
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411* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
412breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
413or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
414the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
415for tracepoint actions.
416
e6158f16 417* "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
7280022e 418in hex as well as in symbolic form.
e6158f16 419
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420* Process record and replay
421
422 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
423 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
424 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
425 execute commands.
426
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427* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
428step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
429set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
430reverse execution.
431
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432* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
433feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
4342.6.28 or later.
435
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436* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
437target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
438char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
439literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
440U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
441`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
442system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
443the installation instructions for more information.
444
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445* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
446remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
447with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
448the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
449
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450* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
451and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
452
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453* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
454now complete on file names.
455
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456* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
457completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
458For instance, consider:
459
460 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
461 # struct example variable;
462 (gdb) p variable.
463
464If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
465completions will be "f1" and "f2".
466
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467* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
468the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
469
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470* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
471operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
472macros.
473
47a3467a 474* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
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475the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
476implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
477
478* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
479registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
480can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
481and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 482
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483* New remote packets
484
485qSearch:memory:
486 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
487
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488QStartNoAckMode
489 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
490 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
491 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
492
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493vKill
494 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
495 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
496
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497qXfer:osdata:read
498 Obtains additional operating system information
499
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500qXfer:siginfo:read
501qXfer:siginfo:write
502 Read or write additional signal information.
503
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504* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
505
506 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
507 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
508 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
509
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510* The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
511source+assembly.
512
c055b101 513* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 514DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
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515
516* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
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517and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
518`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 519
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520* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
521with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
522
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523* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
524
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525* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
526
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527* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
528which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
529
1fddbabb 530* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 531list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 532
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533* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
534conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
535have also been fixed.
536
bfb8797a 537* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
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538From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
539are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 540
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541* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
542example, given:
543
544 template<typename T> class C { };
545 C<char const *> c;
546
547GDB will now correctly handle all of:
548
549 ptype C<char const *>
550 ptype C<char const*>
551 ptype C<const char *>
552 ptype C<const char*>
553
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554* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
555
556 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
557 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
558
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559 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
560 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
561 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
562
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563 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
564 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
565
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566 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
567 gdbserver.
568
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569 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
570 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
571
572 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
573 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
574 as appropriate.
575
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576* Python scripting
577
578 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
579 available is determined at configure time.
580
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581 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
582
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583* Ada tasking support
584
585 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
586 been introduced:
587
588 info tasks
589 Print the list of Ada tasks.
590 info task N
591 Print detailed information about task number N.
592 task
593 Print the task number of the current task.
594 task N
595 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
596
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597* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
598add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
599
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600* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
601
602 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
603 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
604 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
605 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
606 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
607 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
608 below.
609
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610* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
611"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
612information.
613
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614* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
615to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
616architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
617See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
618more information.
619
85e747d2
UW
620* Multi-architecture debugging.
621
622 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
623 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
624 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
625 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
626 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
627
628* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
629use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
630Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
631powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
632--enable-targets configure option.
633
11ade57a
PA
634* Non-stop mode debugging.
635
636 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
637 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
638 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
639 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
640 section in the user manual for more information.
641
642 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
643 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
644 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
645 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
646 extensions on linux targets.
647
d7713ae0 648* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 649
a96d9b2e
SDJ
650catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
651 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
652 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
653 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
654 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
655 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
656 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
657 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
658 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
659
08388c79
DE
660find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
661 val1 [, val2, ...]
662 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
663
d57a3c85
TJB
664maint set python print-stack
665maint show python print-stack
666 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
667
668python [CODE]
669 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
670
d7713ae0
EZ
671macro define
672macro list
673macro undef
674 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
675 interactively.
676
677info os processes
678 Show operating system information about processes.
679
2277426b
PA
680info inferiors
681 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
682
683inferior NUM
684 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
685
686detach inferior NUM
687 Detach from inferior number NUM.
688
689kill inferior NUM
690 Kill inferior number NUM.
691
d7713ae0
EZ
692* New options
693
3285f3fe
UW
694set spu stop-on-load
695show spu stop-on-load
696 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
697
ff1a52c6
UW
698set spu auto-flush-cache
699show spu auto-flush-cache
700 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
701 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
702
d7713ae0
EZ
703set sh calling-convention
704show sh calling-convention
705 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
706
e0a3ce09 707set debug timestamp
75feb17d 708show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
709 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
710
711set disassemble-next-line
712show disassemble-next-line
713 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
714 the debuggee stops.
715
716set remote noack-packet
717show remote noack-packet
718 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
719 under "New remote packets."
720
721set remote query-attached-packet
722show remote query-attached-packet
723 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
724
725set remote read-siginfo-object
726show remote read-siginfo-object
727 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
728 packet.
729
730set remote write-siginfo-object
731show remote write-siginfo-object
732 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
733 packet.
734
40ab02ce
MS
735set remote reverse-continue
736show remote reverse-continue
737 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
738
739set remote reverse-step
740show remote reverse-step
741 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
742
d7713ae0
EZ
743set displaced-stepping
744show displaced-stepping
745 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
746 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
747 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
748
749set debug displaced
750show debug displaced
751 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
752
753maint set internal-error
754maint show internal-error
755 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
756
757maint set internal-warning
758maint show internal-warning
759 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 760
ccd213ac
DJ
761set exec-wrapper
762show exec-wrapper
763unset exec-wrapper
764 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 765
aad4b048
JB
766set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
767show multiple-symbols
768 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
769 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
770 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
771
74960c60
VP
772set breakpoint always-inserted
773show breakpoint always-inserted
774 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
775 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
776 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
777
0428b8f5
DJ
778set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
779show arm fallback-mode
780set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
781show arm force-mode
782 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
783 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
784 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
785 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
786
10568435
JK
787set disable-randomization
788show disable-randomization
789 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
790 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
791 multiple debugging sessions.
792
d7713ae0
EZ
793set non-stop
794show non-stop
795 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
796 a breakpoint.
797
b3eb342c 798set target-async
d7713ae0 799show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
800 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
801 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
802 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
803 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
804
6c7a06a3
TT
805set target-wide-charset
806show target-wide-charset
807 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
808 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
809
84603566
SL
810set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
811show tcp auto-retry
812set tcp connect-timeout
813show tcp connect-timeout
814 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
815 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
816 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
817
17a37d48
PP
818set libthread-db-search-path
819show libthread-db-search-path
820 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
821 libthread_db.
822
d4db2f36
PA
823set schedule-multiple (on|off)
824show schedule-multiple
825 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
826 the current process.
827
4e5d721f
DE
828set stack-cache
829show stack-cache
830 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
831 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
832 affecting correctness.
833
910c5da8
JB
834set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
835show interactive-mode
836 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
837 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
838 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
839 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
840 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
841
2277426b
PA
842* Removed commands
843
844info forks
845 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
846 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
847 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
848 command.
849
850fork NUM
851 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
852 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
853 alias for the `fork' command.
854
855process PID
856 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
857 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
858 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
859
860delete fork NUM
861 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
862 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
863 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
864 fork' command.
865
866detach fork NUM
867 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
868 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
869 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
870 fork' command.
871
a80b95ba
TG
872* New native configurations
873
874x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
875
b8bfd3ed
JB
876x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
877
75a2d5e7
TT
878* New targets
879
c28c63d8 880Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 881x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 882x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 883S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 884
6de3146c
PA
885* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
886 (mingw32ce) debugging.
887
d5cbbe6e
JB
888* Removed commands
889
890catch load
891catch unload
892 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
893
75feb17d 894*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 895
af5ca30d
NH
896* New native configurations
897
898NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 899Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
900
901* New targets
902
903NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 904Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 905
7a404eba
PA
906* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
907
908 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
909 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
910 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
911 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
912
430ebac9
PA
913* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
914(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
915
fe6fbf8b 916* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 917is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
918
919* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
920including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
921and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 922
10665d76
JB
923* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
924accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
925more than one contiguous range of addresses.
926
7cc46491
DJ
927* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
928
d71340b8
DJ
929* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
930registers on PowerPC targets.
931
523c4513
DJ
932* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
933targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
934
a6b151f1
DJ
935* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
936commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
937
2d717e4f
DJ
938* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
939extended-remote mode.
940
24a836bd 941* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
942The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
943error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
944The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 945
d0c678e6
UW
946* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
947building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
948target architectures.
949
d64a946d
TJB
950* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
951Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
952now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
953stored in two consecutive float registers.
954
ee163bf5
VP
955* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
956breakpoints now.
957
b93b6ca7 958* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
959Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
960include:
b93b6ca7
JB
961 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
962 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
963 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
964 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
965 of an assignment
966 - Improved command completion in Ada
967 - Several bug fixes
968
d001be7a
DJ
969* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
970process.
971
a6b151f1
DJ
972* New commands
973
6d53d0af
JB
974set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
975show print frame-arguments
976 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
977 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
978
a6b151f1
DJ
979remote put
980remote get
981remote delete
982 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
983
984* New MI commands
985
986-target-file-put
987-target-file-get
988-target-file-delete
989 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
990
991* New remote packets
992
993vFile:open:
994vFile:close:
995vFile:pread:
996vFile:pwrite:
997vFile:unlink:
998 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 999
2d717e4f
DJ
1000vAttach
1001 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1002 mode.
1003
1004vRun
1005 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1006
8d5f9c6f 1007*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 1008
19d378fc
MS
1009* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1010bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1011Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1012
3a40aaa0
UW
1013* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1014symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1015-Bsymbolic linker option.
1016
a6ec25f2
BW
1017* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1018recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1019is not supported.
1020
6dd09645
JB
1021* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1022frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1023
c9bb8148
DJ
1024* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
102532-bit or 64-bit register values.
1026
0d5de010
DJ
1027* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1028
23181151
DJ
1029* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1030target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1031a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1032
ea37ba09
DJ
1033* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1034automatically displayed as character or string data.
1035
1036* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1037arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1038as strings.
e1f48ead 1039
123dc839
DJ
1040* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1041for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 1042only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 1043
05a4558a
DJ
1044* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1045iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 1046
7c963485
PA
1047* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1048ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1049has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1050
b18be20d
DJ
1051* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1052
0ca420ce
UW
1053* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1054
31d99776
DJ
1055* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1056layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1057segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1058
a4642986
MR
1059* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1060immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1061
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1062* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1063"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1064packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1065where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1066Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
1067
1068* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1069(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
1070
1071* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1072according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 1073
c9bb8148
DJ
1074* New commands
1075
23776285
MR
1076set remoteflow
1077show remoteflow
1078 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1079 when debugging using remote targets.
1080
c9bb8148
DJ
1081set mem inaccessible-by-default
1082show mem inaccessible-by-default
1083 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1084 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1085 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1086 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1087 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1088
1089set breakpoint auto-hw
1090show breakpoint auto-hw
1091 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1092 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1093 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1094 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1095 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1096 including "next" and "finish".
1097
0e420bd8
JB
1098catch exception
1099catch exception unhandled
1100 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1101
1102catch assert
1103 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1104
f822c95b
DJ
1105set sysroot
1106show sysroot
1107 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1108 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1109 an alias to "set sysroot".
1110
83cc5c53
UW
1111info spu
1112 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1113 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1114 architecture.
1115
bd372731
MK
1116* New native configurations
1117
1118OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1119
23181151
DJ
1120set tdesc filename
1121unset tdesc filename
1122show tdesc filename
1123 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1124 not query the target for its built-in description.
1125
c9bb8148
DJ
1126* New targets
1127
54fe9172 1128OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 1129MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 1130Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 1131
6dd09645
JB
1132* New remote packets
1133
1134QPassSignals:
1135 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1136 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1137
23181151
DJ
1138qXfer:features:read:
1139 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1140 features.
6dd09645 1141
83cc5c53
UW
1142qXfer:spu:read:
1143qXfer:spu:write:
1144 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1145 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1146
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1147qXfer:libraries:read:
1148 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1149 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1150 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1151 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1152
483367ee
DJ
1153* Removed targets
1154
1155Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1156
d08950c4
UW
1157alpha*-*-osf1*
1158alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 1159d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
1160hppa*-*-hiux*
1161i[34567]86-ncr-*
1162i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1163i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1164i[34567]86-*-netware*
1165i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1166i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1167i[34567]86-*-sco*
1168i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1169i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1170i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1171i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1172i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1173i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1174i[34567]86-*-isc*
1175m68*-cisco*-*
1176m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 1177mips*-*-pe
483367ee 1178rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 1179sh*-*-pe
483367ee 1180
7ce59000
DJ
1181* Other removed features
1182
1183target abug
1184target cpu32bug
1185target est
1186target rom68k
1187
1188 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1189
ea35711c
DJ
1190target hms
1191target e7000
1192target sh3
1193target sh3e
1194
1195 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1196 H8/300.
1197
1198target ocd
1199
1200 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1201 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1202 interfaces.
1203
7ce59000
DJ
1204DWARF 1 support
1205
1206 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1207 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1208
54d61198
DJ
1209Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1210
1211 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1212 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1213 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1214 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1215
ea35711c
DJ
1216MIPS ".pdr" sections
1217
1218 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1219 in debugging information.
1220
1221Scheme support
1222
1223 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1224 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1225
1a69e1e4
DJ
1226set mips stack-arg-size
1227set mips saved-gpreg-size
1228
1229 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1230
6dd09645 1231*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 1232
ca3bf3bd
DJ
1233* New targets
1234
1235Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 1236Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 1237
6aec2e11
DJ
1238* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1239(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1240running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1241
1242* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1243Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1244supported.
1245
17218d91
DJ
1246* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1247broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1248
9ebce043
DJ
1249* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1250stub provides the required support.
1251
7d3d3ece
DJ
1252* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1253longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1254
4f8253f3
JB
1255* New commands
1256
1257set substitute-path
1258unset substitute-path
1259show substitute-path
1260 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1261 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1262 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1263 between compilation and debugging.
1264
9fa66fd7
AS
1265set trace-commands
1266show trace-commands
1267 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1268 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1269 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1270
1f5befc1
DJ
1271* REMOVED features
1272
1273The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1274
2ec3381a
DJ
1275Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1276an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1277
3d00d119
DJ
1278The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1279
be2a5f71
DJ
1280* New remote packets
1281
1282qSupported:
1283 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1284 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1285 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1286 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1287 target.
1288
0876f84a
DJ
1289qXfer:auxv:read:
1290 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1291 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1292
9ebce043
DJ
1293qXfer:memory-map:read:
1294 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1295 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1296
1297vFlashErase:
1298vFlashWrite:
1299vFlashDone:
1300 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1301
0876f84a
DJ
1302* Removed remote packets
1303
1304qPart:auxv:read:
1305 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1306 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1307
e374b601 1308*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 1309
96309189
MS
1310* New targets
1311
1312Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1313
1314Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1315
53e5f3cf
AS
1316* New commands
1317
1318init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1319 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1320
ac264b3b
MS
1321The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1322
1323checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1324
1325restart <n> Return the program state to a
1326 previously saved state.
1327
1328info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1329
1330delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1331
1332set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1333 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1334
1335info forks List forks of the user program that
1336 are available to be debugged.
1337
1338fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1339 forks of the user program that are
1340 available to be debugged.
1341
1342delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1343 that are available to be debugged (and
1344 kill the forked process).
1345
1346detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1347 that are available to be debugged (and
1348 allow the process to continue).
1349
3950dc3f
NS
1350* New architecture
1351
1352Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1353
0ea3f30e
DJ
1354* Improved Windows host support
1355
1356GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1357native console support, and remote communications using either
1358network sockets or serial ports.
1359
f79daebb
GM
1360* Improved Modula-2 language support
1361
1362GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1363basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1364pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1365printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1366written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1367GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1368
acab6ab2
MM
1369* REMOVED features
1370
1371The ARM rdi-share module.
1372
f4267320
DJ
1373The Netware NLM debug server.
1374
53e5f3cf 1375*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 1376
e0ecbda1
MK
1377* New native configurations
1378
02a677ac 1379OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
1380OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1381
d64a6579
KB
1382* New targets
1383
1384Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1385
b33a6190
AS
1386* New command line options
1387
1388--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1389--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1390 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1391--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1392 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1393 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1394 with the --command (-x) option.
1395
11dced61
AC
1396* Deprecated commands removed
1397
1398The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1399removed:
1400
1401 Command Replacement
1402 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1403 othernames set arm disassembler
1404 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1405 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1406 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1407 regs info registers
1408
6fe85783
MK
1409* New BSD user-level threads support
1410
1411It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1412library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1413configurations are:
1414
1415FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1416FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1417OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1418
1419Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1420are not yet supported.
1421
5260ca71
MS
1422* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1423(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1424
e84ecc99
AC
1425* REMOVED configurations and files
1426
1427VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 1428Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 1429National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 1430
31e35378
JB
1431* New "set print array-indexes" command
1432
1433After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1434when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1435behavior.
1436
e85e5c83
MK
1437* VAX floating point support
1438
1439GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1440
d91e9901
AS
1441* User-defined command support
1442
1443In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1444to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1445section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1446
f2cb65ca
MC
1447*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1448
f47b1503
AS
1449* New command line option
1450
1451GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1452debugging.
1453
f2cb65ca
MC
1454* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1455
1456GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1457information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1458by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1459proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1460to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 1461
d08c0230
AC
1462* Internationalization
1463
1464When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1465internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1466continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1467
117ea3cf
PH
1468* Ada
1469
1470Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1471implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1472into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1473
d08c0230
AC
1474* New native configurations
1475
1476GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1477
1478* Remote 'p' packet
1479
1480GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1481packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1482
1483* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1484
1485GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1486The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1487features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1488i386 application).
1489
1490GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1491compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1492continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1493configurations:
1494
1495hppa-*-hpux
1496ia64-*-aix
1497mips-*-irix*
1498*-*-lynx
1499mips-*-linux-gnu
1500sds protocol
1501xdr protocol
1502powerpc bdm protocol
1503
1504Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1505made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1506
1507* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1508
1509Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1510been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1511configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1512permanently REMOVED.
1513
1514h8300-*-*
1515mcore-*-*
1516mn10300-*-*
1517ns32k-*-*
1518sh64-*-*
1519v850-*-*
1520
ebb7c577
AC
1521*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1522
1523* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1524
1525When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1526heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1527been fixed.
1528
1529* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1530
1531When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1532fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1533IRIX long double values).
1534
1535* VAX and "next"
1536
1537A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1538command. This problem has been fixed.
1539
860660cb 1540*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 1541
0dea2468
AC
1542* Fix for ``many threads''
1543
1544On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1545rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1546error message:
1547
1548 ptrace: No such process.
1549 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1550
1551This problem has been fixed.
1552
2c07db7a
AC
1553* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1554
1555Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1556GDB to dump core).
1557
c23968a2
JB
1558* New ``start'' command.
1559
1560This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1561
71009278
MK
1562* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1563
1564Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1565live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1566platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1567
1568FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1569FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1570NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1571NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1572NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1573OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1574OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1575OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1576OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1577
3c0b7db2
AC
1578* Signal trampoline code overhauled
1579
1580Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1581These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1582of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1583call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1584signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1585
73cc75f3
AC
1586Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1587features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1588include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 1589
7243600a
BF
1590* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1591
6f606e1c
MK
1592* New native configurations
1593
97dc871c 1594GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 1595OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
1596OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1597OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 1598OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1599NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 1600OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1601
a1b461bf
AC
1602* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1603
1604GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1605The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1606including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1607migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1608compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1609work, was also included.
1610
1611GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1612module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1613
1614h8300-*-*
1615mcore-*-*
1616mn10300-*-*
1617ns32k-*-*
1618sh64-*-*
1619v850-*-*
1620xstormy16-*-*
1621
1622Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1623made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1624
3c7012f5
AC
1625* REMOVED configurations and files
1626
1627Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1628Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1629Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1630Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1631Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1632AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1633Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1634decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1635riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1636sonymips mips-sony-*
1637sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1638
e5fe55f7
AC
1639*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1640
1641* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1642
1643The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1644GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1645command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1646program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1647with GDB".
1648
1649* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1650
1651Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1652libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1653cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1654GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1655shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1656the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1657are created.
1658
1659Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1660
1661* Fixed ISO-C build problems
1662
1663The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1664non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1665compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1666
1667* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1668
1669Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1670wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1671
1672* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1673
1674The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1675permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1676systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1677
1678* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1679
1680Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1681has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1682
1683* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1684
1685GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1686its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1687panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1688
1689* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1690
1691When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1692by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1693not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1694
faae5abe 1695*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 1696
9175c9a3
MC
1697* Removed --with-mmalloc
1698
1699Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1700conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1701
3cc87ec0
MK
1702* Changes in AMD64 configurations
1703
1704The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1705the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1706and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1707you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1708
f0424ef6
MK
1709* Revised SPARC target
1710
1711The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1712FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
1713support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1714from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1715(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 1716
59659be2
ILT
1717* New C++ demangler
1718
1719GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1720names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1721with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1722programs.
1723
9e08b29b
DJ
1724* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1725
1726GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1727arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1728encountered these.
1729
8dfe8985
DC
1730* C++ nested types and namespaces
1731
1732GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1733improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1734is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1735Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1736namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1737"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1738frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1739if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1740GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1741
cced5e27
MK
1742* New native configurations
1743
1744NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 1745OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 1746OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
1747OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1748OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 1749
b4b4b794
KI
1750* New debugging protocols
1751
1752M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1753
7989c619
AC
1754* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1755
1756The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1757and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1758tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1759
5994185b
AC
1760* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1761
1762Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1763been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1764configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1765permanently REMOVED.
1766
1767Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1768Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1769Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1770Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1771Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1772AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1773Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
1774decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1775riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1776sonymips mips-sony-*
1777sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 1778
0ddabb4c
AC
1779* REMOVED configurations and files
1780
1781SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1782SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
1783Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1784Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1785H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1786HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1787HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1788HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1789PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 1790386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
1791Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1792 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1793 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
1794SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1795SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
1796Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1797Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 1798
c7f1390e
DJ
1799*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1800
1fe43d45
AC
1801* Objective-C
1802
1803Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1804integrated into GDB.
1805
e6beb428
AC
1806* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1807
1808DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1809information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1810By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1811backtraces.
1812
1813The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1814have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1815DWARF 2 CFI support.
1816
1817* Hosted file I/O.
1818
1819GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1820file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1821remote protocol documentation for details.
1822
1823* All targets using the new architecture framework.
1824
1825All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1826architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1827to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1828ppc32 on ppc64).
1829
1830* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1831
1832GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1833per-thread variables.
1834
1835* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1836
1837GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1838GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1839
1840* Separate debug info.
1841
1842GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1843automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1844of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1845system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1846and optional debug files.
1847
1848* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1849
1850DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1851describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1852debugger.
1853
1854GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1855for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1856
1857* Java
1858
1859A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1860Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1861considered "useable".
1862
85f8f974
DJ
1863* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1864
1865The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1866commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1867kernel.
1868
0fac0b41
DJ
1869* GDB supports logging output to a file
1870
1871There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1872used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 1873
6ad8ae5c
DJ
1874* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1875
1876The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1877disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1878command.
1879
e286caf2 1880* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
1881
1882The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1883registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1884
d28f9cdf
DJ
1885* Profiling support
1886
1887A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1888be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1889session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1890"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1891data, for more informative profiling results.
1892
da0f9dcd
AC
1893* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1894
1895The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1896option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 1897"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
1898
1899Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1900removed.
1901
fb9b6b35
JJ
1902Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1903Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1904Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1905 in a subsequent -var-update.
1906
954a4db8
MK
1907* New native configurations.
1908
1909FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1910
6760f9e6
JB
1911* Multi-arched targets.
1912
b4263afa 1913HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 1914Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 1915
1b831c93
AC
1916* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1917
1918Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1919been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1920configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1921permanently REMOVED.
1922
8b0e5691 1923Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 1924Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 1925H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
1926HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1927HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1928HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 1929PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
1930Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1931 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1932 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
1933Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1934Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 1935
5835abe7
NC
1936* REMOVED configurations and files
1937
1938V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
1939Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1940IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1941i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1942i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1943i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1944HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1945 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1946 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1947Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1948Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1949Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1950OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1951I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 1952
a094c6fb
AC
1953* MIPS $fp behavior changed
1954
1955The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1956the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1957context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1958address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1959The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1960
299ffc64 1961*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 1962
46248966
AC
1963* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1964
1965When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1966`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1967in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1968library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1969shared libs like mad''.
1970
b9d14705 1971* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 1972
b9d14705
DJ
1973Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1974the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1975arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1976powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 1977
e0e9281e
JB
1978* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1979
1980GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1981and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1982they expand.
1983
dd73b9bb
AC
1984The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1985invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1986
1987The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1988macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1989
e0e9281e
JB
1990Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1991information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1992your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1993information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1994
2250ee0c
CV
1995* Multi-arched targets.
1996
6e3ba3b8
JT
1997DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1998DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 1999NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 2000National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
2001Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2002Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 2003
cd9bfe15 2004* New targets.
e33ce519 2005
456f8b9d
DB
2006Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2007
e33ce519 2008
da8ca43d
JT
2009* New native configurations
2010
2011Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 2012SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 2013MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 2014UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 2015
cd9bfe15
AC
2016* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2017
2018Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2019been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2020configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2021permanently REMOVED.
2022
92eb23c5 2023Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 2024OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 2025IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 2026Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 2027Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 2028Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
2029i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2030i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2031i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
2032HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2033 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2034 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 2035I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 2036
db034ac5
AC
2037* OBSOLETE languages
2038
2039CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2040
cd9bfe15
AC
2041* REMOVED configurations and files
2042
2043AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2044A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2045AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2046AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2047AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2048
2049testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2050
20f01a46
DH
2051* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2052
2053This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2054commands. The default is 1024.
2055
a5941fbf
MK
2056* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2057
2058Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2059
89743e04
MS
2060* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2061
2062These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2063to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2064from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 2065
9fb14e79
JB
2066* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2067
2068The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2069including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2070of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2071
2037aebb
AC
2072*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2073
2074* New targets.
2075
2076Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
2077
2078* Bug fixes
2079
2080gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2081mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2082Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2083
2084gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2085dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2086Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2087
2088Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2089Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2090By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2091
2092i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2093avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2094By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2095
37057839 2096*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 2097
1a703748
MS
2098* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2099
2100This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2101really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2102In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2103target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2104This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2105(notably embedded) targets.
2106
cefd4ef5
MS
2107* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2108
55241689
AC
2109This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2110process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2111GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2112hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 2113
352ed7b4
MS
2114* New command line option
2115
2116GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2117
2118* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2119
2120There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2121command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2122a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2123be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2124open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2125issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2126a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2127it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2128GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2129is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2130
fe419ffc
RE
2131* Changes in ARM configurations.
2132
2133Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2134configuration is fully multi-arch.
2135
eb7cedd9
MK
2136* New native configurations
2137
fe419ffc 2138ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 2139x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 2140AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 2141Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 2142
c9f63e6b
CV
2143* New targets
2144
2145Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2146
9b4ff276
AC
2147* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2148
2149Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2150been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2151configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2152permanently REMOVED.
2153
2154AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2155A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2156AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2157AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2158AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2159
b4ceaee6 2160testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 2161
e2caac18
AC
2162* REMOVED configurations and files
2163
2164TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 2165WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
2166PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2167PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2168PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 2169Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
2170Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2171 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 2172SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 2173Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
2174Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2175ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 2176Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 2177
c2a727fa
TT
2178* Changes to command line processing
2179
2180The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2181for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2182
467d8519
TT
2183* Changes to key bindings
2184
2185There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2186
7072a954
AC
2187*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2188
2189Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2190
2191Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2192corrupted.
2193
2194Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2195
2196Numerous documentation fixes.
2197
2198Numerous testsuite fixes.
2199
34f47bc4 2200*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
2201
2202* New native configurations
2203
2204Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2205x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 2206MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
2207MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2208ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 2209s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 2210
bf64bfd6
AC
2211* New targets
2212
def90278 2213Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 2214CRIS cris-axis
55241689 2215UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 2216
17e78a56 2217* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
2218
2219x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 2220Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
2221Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2222 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
2223TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2224WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 2225Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
2226PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2227PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2228PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 2229SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
2230Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2231ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 2232Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 2233
17e78a56
AC
2234stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2235kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2236
7fcca85b
AC
2237Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2238been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2239configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2240permanently REMOVED.
2241
a196c81c 2242* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
2243
2244Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2245Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2246Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2247ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2248Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 2249ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 2250
6d6b80e5 2251* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 2252
6d6b80e5 2253GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
2254sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2255present.
2256
bf64bfd6
AC
2257* Other news:
2258
e23194cb
EZ
2259* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2260
2261* The MI enabled by default.
2262
2263The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2264revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2265engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2266using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2267which is now deprecated.
2268
2269* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2270
2271GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2272main features are supported:
2273
2274 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2275
2276 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2277 extension;
2278
2279 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2280
2281 - a Pascal expression parser.
2282
2283However, some important features are not yet supported.
2284
2285 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2286
2287 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2288
2289 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2290 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2291
2292 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2293
2294 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2295
2296* Changes in completion.
2297
2298Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2299to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2300users expect at the shell prompt.
2301
2302Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2303`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2304program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2305files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2306be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2307considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2308name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2309
2310`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2311
2312* New platform-independent commands:
2313
2314It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2315hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2316documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2317
2318* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2319
d7275149
MK
2320Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2321revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2322many threads as your system allows you to have.
2323
e23194cb
EZ
2324Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2325
d7275149
MK
2326Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2327multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
2328
2329* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
2330
2331Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2332
e23194cb
EZ
2333GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2334debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2335supported.)
2336
2337* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2338
2339Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2340breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2341implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2342put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2343and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2344registers.
2345
2346The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2347debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2348watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2349
2350* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2351
2352New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2353the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2354
2355New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2356display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2357IDT.
2358
2359New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2360from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2361New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2362a given linear address.
2363
2364GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2365program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2366which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2367
2368DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2369
6c56c069
EZ
2370It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2371
e23194cb
EZ
2372* Changes in documentation.
2373
2374All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2375Documentation License.
2376
2377Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2378manual.
2379
2380TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2381
2382Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2383manual.
2384
2385The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2386documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2387hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2388
5d6640b1
AC
2389* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2390
2391The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2392``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2393contents of this file.
2394
1a1d8446
AC
2395* gdba.el deleted
2396
2397GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 2398
9debab2f 2399*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 2400
c63ce875
EZ
2401* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2402
2403Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2404programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2405displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2406greater level of detail.
2407
2408* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2409
2410It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2411bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2412on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2413written.
2414
2415* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2416
2417The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2418necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2419machines ``out of the box''.
2420
2421The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2422possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2423signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2424would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2425interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2426
2427It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2428standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2429even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2430and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2431terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2432
2433The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2434enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2435also works.
2436
2437DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2438GDB.
2439
2440It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2441directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2442times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2443breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2444
ed9a39eb
JM
2445* New native configurations
2446
2447ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 2448PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 2449
7a292a7a
SS
2450* New targets
2451
96baa820 2452Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
2453x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2454PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
2455TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2456
085dd6e6
JM
2457* OBSOLETE configurations
2458
2459Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2460Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 2461Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 2462ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 2463Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 2464
9debab2f
AC
2465Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2466but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2467these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2468be permanently REMOVED.
2469
5330533d
SS
2470* Gould support removed
2471
2472Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2473
bc9e5bbf
AC
2474* New features for SVR4
2475
2476On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2477without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2478load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2479
2480* Many C++ enhancements
2481
2482C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2483in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2484
adf40b2e
JM
2485* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2486
2487A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2488sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2489with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2490``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2491
2492 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2493 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2494
43e526b9
JM
2495* MIPS 64 remote protocol
2496
2497A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2498expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2499instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2500
2501The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2502added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2503
96baa820
JM
2504* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2505
2506The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2507``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2508include ``set remote P-packet''.
2509
11cf8741
JM
2510* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2511
2512The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2513accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2514``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2515
7876dd43
DB
2516* ``apropos'' command added.
2517
2518The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2519documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2520try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2521
bc9e5bbf
AC
2522* New MI interface
2523
2524A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2525interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
2526process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2527"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2528enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
2529
2530 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2531
c906108c
SS
2532*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2533
2534* New native configurations
2535
2536HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2537HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 2538M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
2539
2540* New targets
2541
2542Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2543Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2544Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2545
2546* OBSOLETE configurations
2547
2548Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2549
2550Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2551but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2552these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2553be permanently REMOVED.
2554
2555* ANSI/ISO C
2556
2557As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2558buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2559containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2560use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2561available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2562configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2563information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2564already.
2565
2566* Readline 2.2
2567
2568GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2569
2570* set extension-language
2571
2572You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2573languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2574you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2575 set extension-language .c c++
2576The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2577and their associated languages.
2578
2579* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2580
2581When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2582you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2583PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2584
2585 set processor NAME
2586
2587sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2588following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2589
2590 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2591 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2592 403 IBM PowerPC 403
2593 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2594 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2595 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2596 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2597 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2598 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2599 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2600 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2601
2602At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2603special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2604registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2605only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2606
2607* HP-UX support
2608
2609Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2610more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2611library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2612support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2613for xdb and dbx commands.
2614
2615* Catchpoints
2616
2617HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2618generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2619to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2620
2621This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2622argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2623output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2624
2625* Debugging across forks
2626
2627On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2628in the inferior.
2629
2630* TUI
2631
2632HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2633it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2634configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2635
2636* GDB remote protocol additions
2637
2638A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2639Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2640fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2641allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2642
2643For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2644full 64-bit address. The command
2645
2646 set remoteaddresssize 32
2647
2648can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2649the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2650will be discarded.
2651
2652In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2653command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2654
2655 maint packet heythere
2656
2657sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2658disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2659time.
2660
2661The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2662target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2663downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2664
2665* Tracing can collect general expressions
2666
2667You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2668further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2669doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2670
2671* mask-address variable for Mips
2672
2673For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2674a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2675of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2676
2677* Higher serial baud rates
2678
2679GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2680230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2681to achieve all of these rates.)
2682
2683* i960 simulator
2684
2685The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2686builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2687
2688
2689*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2690
2691* New native configurations
2692
2693Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2694Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2695Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2696PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2697PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2698Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2699Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2700
2701* New targets
2702
2703Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2704Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2705Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2706Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2707MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2708MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2709MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2710Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2711Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2712Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2713NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2714
2715* New debugging protocols
2716
2717ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2718M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2719DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2720PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2721PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2722Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2723
2724* DWARF 2
2725
2726All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2727format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2728information.
2729
2730* Java frontend
2731
2732GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2733only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2734
2735* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2736
2737For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2738loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2739locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2740
2741* Live range splitting
2742
2743GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2744range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2745more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2746
2747* Hurd support
2748
2749GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2750updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2751
2752* ARM Thumb support
2753
2754GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2755instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2756instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2757accordingly.
2758
2759* MIPS16 support
2760
2761GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2762instruction set.
2763
2764* Overlay support
2765
2766GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2767linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2768will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2769control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2770additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2771in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2772
2773* info symbol
2774
2775The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2776the symbol at the specified address.
2777
2778* Trace support
2779
2780The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2781asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2782extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2783includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2784file tracepoint.c for more details.
2785
2786* MIPS simulator
2787
2788Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2789by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2790of most MIPS variants.
2791
2792* Sparc simulator
2793
2794Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2795by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2796Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2797
2798* set architecture
2799
2800For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2801basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2802architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2803the possible architectures.
2804
2805*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2806
2807* New native configurations
2808
2809Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2810M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2811PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2812PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2813PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2814RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2815
2816* New targets
2817
2818ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2819I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2820MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2821MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2822PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2823Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
2824Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2825
2826* PowerPC simulator
2827
2828The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2829contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2830PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2831basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2832performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2833
2834* Solaris 2.5
2835
2836GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2837
2838* Windows 95/NT native
2839
2840GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2841To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2842which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2843Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2844ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2845
2846* dont-repeat command
2847
2848If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2849command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2850useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2851extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2852
2853* Send break instead of ^C
2854
2855The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2856rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2857GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2858
2859* Remote protocol timeout
2860
2861The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2862that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2863to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2864
2865* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2866
2867By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2868loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2869stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2870when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2871in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2872
2873Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2874/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2875automatically on hpux10.
2876
2877* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2878
2879Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2880
2881* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2882
2883When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2884may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2885the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2886every character. The default value is 1050.
2887
2888* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2889
2890If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2891a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2892replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2893details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2894remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2895to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2896
2897* Speedups for remote debugging
2898
2899GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2900the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2901and more efficient S-record downloading.
2902
2903* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2904
2905GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2906Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2907
2908*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2909
2910* Psymtabs for XCOFF
2911
2912The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2913can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2914
2915* Remote targets use caching
2916
2917Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2918remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2919it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2920debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2921off' turns the the data cache off.
2922
2923* Remote targets may have threads
2924
2925The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2926in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2927gdb/remote.c for details.
2928
2929* NetROM support
2930
2931If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2932support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2933acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2934write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2935support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2936another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2937sequence is something like
2938
2939 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2940 load <prog>
2941 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2942
2943* Macintosh host
2944
2945GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2946may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2947it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2948available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2949device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2950directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2951scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2952mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2953
2954* Autoconf
2955
2956GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2957but does simplify configuration and building.
2958
2959* hpux10
2960
2961GDB now supports hpux10.
2962
2963*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2964
2965* New native configurations
2966
2967x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2968x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2969NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2970Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2971
2972* New targets
2973
2974A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2975HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2976CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2977PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2978WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2979
2980* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2981
2982GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2983possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2984filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2985the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2986if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2987
2988* Arguments to user-defined commands
2989
2990User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2991Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2992trivial example:
2993define adder
2994 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2995
2996To execute the command use:
2997adder 1 2 3
2998
2999Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3000Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3001use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3002
3003* New `if' and `while' commands
3004
3005This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3006commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3007expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3008execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3009terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3010`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3011if the expression is zero.
3012
3013* Fortran source language mode
3014
3015GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3016Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3017variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3018with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3019Fortran compilers.
3020
3021* Better HPUX support
3022
3023Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3024running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3025processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3026for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3027that behavior do the following before running the program:
3028
3029 adb -w a.out
3030 __dld_flags?W 0x5
3031 control-d
3032
3033This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3034To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3035
3036 adb -w a.out
3037 __dld_flags?W 0x4
3038 control-d
3039
3040You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3041the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3042external linkage.
3043
3044GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3045HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3046
3047* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3048
3049You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3050commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3051current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3052"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3053associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3054configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3055
3056* New DOS host serial code
3057
3058This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3059no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3060a PC's serial port.
3061
3062*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3063
3064* New "complete" command
3065
3066This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3067were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3068
3069* Trailing space optional in prompt
3070
3071"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3072allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3073
3074* Breakpoint hit counts
3075
3076"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3077has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3078can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3079to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3080less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3081that breakpoint.
3082
3083* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3084
3085"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3086an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3087arrays actually contain only short strings.
3088
3089* Shared library breakpoints
3090
3091In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3092breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3093
3094* Hardware watchpoints
3095
3096There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3097targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3098
55241689 3099Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
3100
3101* Annotations
3102
3103Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3104and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3105
3106* Improved Irix 5 support
3107
3108GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3109
3110* Improved HPPA support
3111
3112GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3113
3114* New native configurations
3115
3116Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3117HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3118Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3119RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3120
3121* New targets
3122
3123OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3124MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3125Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3126
3127* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3128
3129There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3130This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3131
3132* Fixes
3133
3134As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3135and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3136
3137*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3138
3139* Irix 5 is now supported
3140
3141* HPPA support
3142
3143GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3144to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3145GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3146of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3147can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3148
3149
3150*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3151
3152* User visible changes:
3153
3154* Remote Debugging
3155
3156The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3157target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3158debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3159integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3160debugging info for the mips target).
3161
3162* DEC Alpha native support
3163
3164GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3165debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3166work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3167Alpha-specific notes.
3168
3169* Preliminary thread implementation
3170
3171GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3172
3173* LynxOS native and target support for 386
3174
3175This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3176to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3177for details).
3178
3179* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3180
3181This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3182mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3183call methods, ...etc.
3184
3185*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3186
3187 * User visible changes:
3188
3189Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3190supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3191other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3192somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3193
3194Filename completion now works.
3195
3196When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3197arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3198addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3199
3200All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3201vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3202should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3203your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3204to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3205
3206 * DEC alpha support
3207
3208This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3209cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3210
3211
3212*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3213
3214 * Testsuite
3215
3216This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3217The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3218via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3219
3220 * C++ demangling
3221
3222'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3223emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3224Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3225disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3226use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3227
3228 * Simulators
3229
3230GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3231So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3232Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3233
3234 * New targets supported
3235
3236H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3237H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3238SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3239Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3240IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3241
3242Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3243version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3244GO32 memory extender.
3245
3246 * New remote protocols
3247
3248MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3249
3250 * New source languages supported
3251
3252This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3253used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3254into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3255
3256
3257*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3258
3259 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3260
3261GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3262version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3263University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3264compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3265format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3266(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3267
3268Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3269
3270 * Faster and better demangling
3271
3272We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3273demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3274character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3275only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3276This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3277increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3278symbol lookups.
3279
3280`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3281from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3282compiler does not actually implement.
3283
3284 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3285
3286In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3287inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3288recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3289very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3290The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3291circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3292fix.
3293
3294The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3295release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3296
3297 * Improved configure script
3298
3299The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3300you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3301host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3302done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3303
3304We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3305version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3306`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3307The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3308only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3309We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3310
3311 * Documentation improvements
3312
3313There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3314produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3315before submitting changes.
3316
3317The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3318M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3319`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3320you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3321a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3322
3323*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3324We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3325been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3326or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3327`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3328around this problem.
3329
3330 * New features
3331
3332GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3333the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3334`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3335the target program.
3336
3337The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3338how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3339
3340 * New native hosts supported
3341
3342HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3343386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3344
3345 * New targets supported
3346
3347AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3348
3349 * New file formats supported
3350
3351BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3352HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3353
3354 * Major bug fixes
3355
3356Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3357
3358We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3359printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3360
3361We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3362for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3363release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3364
3365You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3366will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3367
3368We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3369for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3370especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3371libraries.
3372
3373The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3374information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3375command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3376any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3377when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3378
3379 * Internal improvements
3380
3381GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3382debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3383
3384GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3385Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3386symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3387contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3388shared code that handles any of them.
3389
3390 * New command line options
3391
3392We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3393
3394 * Mmalloc licensing
3395
3396The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3397General Public License.
3398
3399*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3400
3401 * Host/native/target split
3402
3403GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3404hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3405target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3406local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3407ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3408
3409The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3410GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3411is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3412code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3413any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3414built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3415handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3416
3417GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3418It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3419plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3420
3421 * New hosts supported
3422
3423HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3424386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3425386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3426
3427 * New targets supported
3428
3429Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
343068030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3431
3432 * New native hosts supported
3433
3434386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3435 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3436386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3437
3438 * New file formats supported
3439
3440BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3441supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3442format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3443
3444 * New commands
3445
3446`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3447`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3448These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3449
3450`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3451
3452You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3453scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3454prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3455executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3456
3457 * C++ improvements
3458
3459We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3460info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3461symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3462
3463Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3464
3465 * Major bug fixes
3466
3467The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3468fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3469by the compiler.
3470
3471We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3472support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3473
3474John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3475slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3476that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3477purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3478the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3479mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3480
3481Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3482about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3483completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3484we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3485
3486 * AMD 29k support
3487
3488A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3489specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3490calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3491usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3492in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3493
3494We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3495Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3496of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3497resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3498
3499 * Remote interfaces
3500
3501We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3502with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3503message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3504This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3505needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3506breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3507each instruction being stepped through.
3508
3509The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3510registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3511
3512There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3513find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3514Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3515processor with a serial port.
3516
3517 * Configuration
3518
3519Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3520`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3521supported, and what files each one uses.
3522
3523 * Library changes
3524
3525There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3526disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3527Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3528disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3529
3530The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3531Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3532can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3533grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3534
3535 * Documentation
3536
3537The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3538reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3539as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3540encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3541system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3542bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3543
3544And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3545
3546
3547*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3548
3549 * Better support for C++ function names
3550
3551GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3552names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3553(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3554single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3555Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3556
3557GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3558the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3559You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3560lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3561for the list of formats.
3562
3563 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3564
3565Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3566C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3567directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3568can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3569usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3570about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3571this problem.)
3572
3573 * New 'maintenance' command
3574
3575All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3576the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3577can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3578
3579 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3580 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3581 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3582 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3583 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3584 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3585
3586The following commands are new:
3587
3588 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3589 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3590 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3591
3592 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3593
3594We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3595(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3596be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3597read after argv processing.
3598
3599 * New hosts supported
3600
3601Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3602
55241689 3603GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
3604
3605We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3606is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3607for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3608masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3609fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3610It costs extra.
3611
3612 * New targets supported
3613
3614Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3615
3616 * More smarts about finding #include files
3617
3618GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3619all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3620greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3621especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3622the one that contains your sources.
3623
3624We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3625breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3626try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3627
3628 * Interesting infernals change
3629
3630GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3631section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3632target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3633stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3634
3635 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3636
3637There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3638 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3639 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3640
3641See the ChangeLog for details.
3642
3643*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3644
3645 * New machines supported (host and target)
3646
3647IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3648
3649SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3650
3651 * New malloc package
3652
3653GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3654Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3655capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3656This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3657pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3658more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3659
3660 * info proc
3661
3662The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3663'help info proc' for details.
3664
3665 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3666
3667The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3668Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3669possible.
3670
3671 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3672
3673Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3674support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3675conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3676environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3677that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3678in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3679
3680 * Cross byte order fixes
3681
3682Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3683targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3684
3685 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3686
3687If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3688system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3689`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3690program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3691called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3692Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3693and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3694the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3695option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3696starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3697
3698You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3699the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3700information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3701slower, but makes future operations faster.
3702
3703The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3704build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3705A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3706use is:
3707
3708 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3709
3710The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3711It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3712shared across multiple host platforms.
3713
3714 * longjmp() handling
3715
3716GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3717siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3718all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3719platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3720
3721 * Solaris 2.0
3722
3723Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3724this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3725reading symbols.
3726
3727 * Bug fixes
3728
3729As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3730People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3731crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3732
3733*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3734
3735 * New machines supported (host and target)
3736
3737SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3738 (except core files)
3739BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3740Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3741
3742 * New machines supported (target)
3743
3744AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3745
3746 * C++ support
3747
3748GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3749The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3750per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3751
3752GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3753`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3754extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3755good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3756will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3757released.
3758
3759 * New features for SVR4
3760
3761GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3762shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3763only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3764
3765The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3766on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3767it prints the address mappings of the process.
3768
3769If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3770bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3771
3772 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3773
3774Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3775now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3776skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3777make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3778same code linked statically.
3779
3780 * New Getopt
3781
3782GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3783version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3784continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3785Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3786added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3787future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3788
3789 * Bugs fixed
3790
3791The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3792Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3793See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3794
3795
3796*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3797
3798 * New machines supported (host and target)
3799
3800Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3801NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3802Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3803
3804 * Almost SCO Unix support
3805
3806We had hoped to support:
3807SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3808(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3809that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3810about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3811
3812 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3813
3814GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3815debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3816is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3817send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3818reqired (if any).
3819
3820 * New Readline
3821
3822GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3823is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3824required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3825
3826 * Bugs fixed
3827
3828The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3829Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3830See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3831
3832 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3833
3834GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3835supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3836symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3837
3838Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3839mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3840debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3841mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3842version 2.
3843
3844Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3845really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3846line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3847variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3848situation somewhat.
3849
3850When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3851However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3852methods.
3853
3854We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3855DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3856encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3857
3858
3859*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3860
3861 * Improved configuration
3862
3863Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3864Porting BFD is simpler.
3865
3866 * Stepping improved
3867
3868The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3869of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3870in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3871function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3872
3873 * Bug fixing
3874
3875Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3876
3877 * New host supported (not target)
3878
3879Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3880
3881
3882*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3883
3884 * Multiple source language support
3885
3886GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3887It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3888and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3889language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3890You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3891`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3892
3893 * GDB and Modula-2
3894
3895GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3896currently under development at the State University of New York at
3897Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3898continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3899
3900Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3901debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3902symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3903
3904There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3905in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3906
3907 * set write on/off
3908
3909GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3910a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3911the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3912by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3913effect immediately.
3914
3915 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3916
3917When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3918shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3919The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3920examining core files.
3921
3922 * set listsize
3923
3924You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3925The default is 10.
3926
3927 * New machines supported (host and target)
3928
3929SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3930Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3931Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3932
3933 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3934
3935IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3936
3937 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3938
3939AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3940AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3941Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3942
3943 * New remote interfaces
3944
3945AMD 29000 Adapt
3946AMD 29000 Minimon
3947
3948
3949*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3950
3951 * New Facilities
3952
3953Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3954
3955Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3956target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3957is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3958remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3959remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3960also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3961using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3962stub on the target system.
3963
3964New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3965
3966GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3967library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3968object file types such as a.out and coff.
3969
3970There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3971refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3972
3973
3974 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3975
3976All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3977by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3978
3979For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3980``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3981Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3982
3983What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3984print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3985will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3986all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3987
3988confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3989 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3990 it is already running. Default is ON.
3991
3992editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3993 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3994 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3995 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3996 Default is ON.
3997
3998history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3999 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4000 or the value of the environment variable
4001 GDBHISTFILE.
4002
4003history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4004 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4005 HISTSIZE.
4006
4007history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4008 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4009 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4010
4011history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4012 history expansion will be performed on
4013 command line input. The default is OFF.
4014
4015radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4016 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4017 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4018
4019height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4020 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4021 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4022 variable TERM.
4023
4024width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4025 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4026 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4027 variable TERM.
4028
4029Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4030``set width'' instead.
4031
4032print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4033 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4034 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4035 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4036
4037print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4038 is OFF.
4039
4040print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4041 "raw" form if off.
4042
4043print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4044 like instructions.
4045
4046print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4047
4048
4049 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4050
4051The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4052new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4053are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4054window.
4055
4056
4057 * Support for Shared Libraries
4058
4059GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4060Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4061before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4062happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4063At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4064from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4065shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4066It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4067
4068sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4069 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4070 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4071
4072info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4073
4074
4075 * Watchpoints
4076
4077A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4078expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4079tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4080quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4081problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4082more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4083
4084watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4085
4086info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4087
4088delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4089disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4090enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4091
4092
4093 * C++ multiple inheritance
4094
4095When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4096for C++ programs.
4097
4098 * C++ exception handling
4099
4100Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4101ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4102the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4103handler's context).
4104
4105catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4106 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4107 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4108
4109info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4110 current stack frame.
4111
4112
4113 * Minor command changes
4114
4115The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4116command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4117is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4118
4119The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4120at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4121frames without printing.
4122
4123 * New directory command
4124
4125'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4126The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4127about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4128with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4129find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4130
4131 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4132
4133For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4134for more details.
4135
4136GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4137two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4138Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4139where the program that you are debugging will run.