1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.2
6 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
7 dumping the instruction opcodes.
9 * New command line options
11 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
12 This is mostly for testing purposes.
14 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
15 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
17 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
18 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
19 source path list instead of augmenting it.
21 * GDB now understands thread names.
23 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
24 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
26 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
27 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
30 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
31 has been integrated into GDB.
35 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
36 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
37 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
38 that function like so:
40 result = some_value (10,20)
42 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
43 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
44 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
46 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
47 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
48 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
49 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
50 New function: register_pretty_printer.
52 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
53 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
55 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
57 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
60 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
61 holds the thread's name.
65 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
66 instantiation. For example, if you have:
68 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
70 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
71 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
74 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
75 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
76 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
77 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
78 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
79 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
81 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
82 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
83 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
84 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
85 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
87 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
88 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
91 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
92 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
93 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
94 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
96 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
97 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
98 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
101 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
103 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
104 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
105 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
106 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
107 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
108 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
111 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
113 While now you see this:
116 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
118 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
121 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
122 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
123 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
124 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
126 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
128 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
129 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
131 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
135 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
137 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
138 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
139 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
140 in the GDB user manual.
142 * Guile support was removed.
144 * New features in the GNU simulator
146 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
148 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
150 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
152 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
153 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
154 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
155 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
156 was always disabled for such configurations.
160 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
162 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
163 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
173 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
174 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
175 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
177 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
179 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
180 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
181 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
182 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
184 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
185 mentioned flavors of operators.
187 ** static const class members
189 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
190 class definition has been fixed.
192 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
194 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
195 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
196 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
197 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
198 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
199 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
203 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
204 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
205 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
206 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
207 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
208 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
209 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
210 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
211 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
212 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
213 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
214 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
215 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
216 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
217 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
218 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
219 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
220 the "New remote packets" section below.
222 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
224 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
225 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
226 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
227 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
231 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
232 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
233 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
234 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
235 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
236 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
237 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
239 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
246 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
250 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
251 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
252 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
253 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
254 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
255 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
259 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
263 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
266 qXfer:statictrace:read
268 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
269 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
270 to gdb's qSupported query.
274 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
278 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
279 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
281 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
282 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
285 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
287 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
288 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
289 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
290 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
292 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
293 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
294 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
295 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
296 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
297 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
298 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
300 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
301 for static tracepoints support.
303 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
305 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
306 it understands register description.
308 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
310 * X86 general purpose registers
312 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
313 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
314 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
315 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
316 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
318 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
319 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
320 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
321 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
322 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
323 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
325 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
326 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
327 in the specified file.
329 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
330 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
331 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
332 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
333 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
334 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
335 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
336 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
337 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
338 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
342 eval template, expressions...
343 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
344 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
346 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
347 show target-file-system-kind
348 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
351 save breakpoints <filename>
352 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
353 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
354 definitions, use the `source' command.
356 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
359 info static-tracepoint-markers
360 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
362 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
363 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
364 function, line, address, or marker ID.
368 Enable and disable observer mode.
370 set may-write-registers on|off
371 set may-write-memory on|off
372 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
373 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
374 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
375 set may-interrupt on|off
376 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
377 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
378 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
379 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
380 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
381 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
382 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
384 set record memory-query on|off
385 show record memory-query
386 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
387 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
392 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
396 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
397 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
398 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
399 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
400 GDB using Python' in the manual.
402 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
403 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
404 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
405 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
407 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
408 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
410 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
412 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
414 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
416 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
417 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
418 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
420 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
421 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
422 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
427 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
429 * D language support.
430 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
433 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
434 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
435 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
436 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
437 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
439 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
440 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
441 conditions of the form:
443 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
445 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
446 interface mentioned above.
448 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
454 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
455 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
456 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
457 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
458 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
462 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
463 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
468 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
469 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
473 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
478 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
481 * Multi-program debugging.
483 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
484 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
485 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
486 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
487 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
488 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
489 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
490 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
492 * New tracing features
494 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
496 ** Trace state variables
498 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
499 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
500 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
501 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
502 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
503 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
504 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
505 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
506 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
507 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
511 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
512 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
513 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
514 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
515 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
516 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
517 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
518 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
519 the regular trace command.
521 ** Disconnected tracing
523 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
524 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
525 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
526 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
527 connection is lost unexpectedly.
531 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
532 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
533 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
534 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
535 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
536 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
539 ** Circular trace buffer
541 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
542 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
543 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
544 not be available for all target agents.
549 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
550 the arguments to be comma-separated.
553 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
554 which only declare a variable are not shown.
557 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
558 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
561 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
562 "set script-extension" (see below).
564 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
566 record save [<FILENAME>]
567 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
568 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
570 record restore <FILENAME>
571 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
572 earlier time, for replay debugging.
574 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
577 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
578 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
584 maint info program-spaces
585 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
587 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
588 show remote interrupt-sequence
589 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
590 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
591 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
592 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
593 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
595 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
596 show remote interrupt-on-connect
597 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
598 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
601 set remotebreak [on | off]
603 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
605 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
606 Create or modify a trace state variable.
609 List trace state variables and their values.
611 delete tvariable $NAME ...
612 Delete one or more trace state variables.
615 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
616 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
618 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
619 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
621 * New expression syntax
623 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
624 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
628 set follow-exec-mode new|same
629 show follow-exec-mode
630 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
631 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
632 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
634 set default-collect EXPR, ...
636 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
637 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
638 such as registers or a critical global variable.
640 set disconnected-tracing
641 show disconnected-tracing
642 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
643 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
646 set circular-trace-buffer
647 show circular-trace-buffer
648 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
649 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
650 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
651 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
653 set script-extension off|soft|strict
654 show script-extension
655 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
656 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
657 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
658 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
660 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
662 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
663 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
664 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
665 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
666 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
667 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
668 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
671 * Python API Improvements
673 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
674 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
675 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
677 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
678 `is_base_class' attribute.
680 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
682 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
683 evaluate an expression.
688 Define a trace state variable.
691 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
694 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
697 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
700 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
704 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
706 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
707 much more reliable. In particular:
708 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
709 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
710 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
711 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
712 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
713 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
714 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
715 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
716 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
717 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
718 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
719 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
720 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
721 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
722 non-threaded programs.
724 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
725 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
726 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
729 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
731 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
732 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
733 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
734 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
735 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
737 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
738 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
739 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
740 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
741 for tracepoint actions.
743 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
744 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
745 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
747 * Process record and replay
749 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
750 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
751 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
754 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
755 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
756 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
759 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
760 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
763 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
764 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
765 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
766 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
767 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
768 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
769 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
770 the installation instructions for more information.
772 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
773 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
774 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
775 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
777 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
778 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
780 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
781 now complete on file names.
783 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
784 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
785 For instance, consider:
787 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
788 # struct example variable;
791 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
792 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
794 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
795 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
797 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
798 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
801 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
802 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
803 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
805 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
806 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
807 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
808 and simulator targets may also provide them.
813 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
816 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
817 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
818 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
821 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
822 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
825 Obtains additional operating system information
829 Read or write additional signal information.
831 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
833 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
834 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
835 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
837 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
838 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
840 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
841 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
842 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
844 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
845 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
847 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
849 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
851 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
852 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
854 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
855 list of section offsets.
857 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
858 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
859 have also been fixed.
861 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
862 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
863 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
865 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
868 template<typename T> class C { };
871 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
873 ptype C<char const *>
875 ptype C<const char *>
878 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
880 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
881 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
883 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
884 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
885 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
887 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
888 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
890 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
893 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
894 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
896 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
897 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
902 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
903 available is determined at configure time.
905 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
907 * Ada tasking support
909 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
913 Print the list of Ada tasks.
915 Print detailed information about task number N.
917 Print the task number of the current task.
919 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
921 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
922 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
924 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
926 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
927 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
928 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
929 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
930 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
931 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
934 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
935 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
938 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
939 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
940 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
941 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
944 * Multi-architecture debugging.
946 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
947 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
948 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
949 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
950 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
952 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
953 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
954 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
955 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
956 --enable-targets configure option.
958 * Non-stop mode debugging.
960 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
961 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
962 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
963 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
964 section in the user manual for more information.
966 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
967 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
968 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
969 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
970 extensions on linux targets.
972 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
974 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
975 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
976 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
977 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
978 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
979 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
980 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
981 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
982 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
984 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
986 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
988 maint set python print-stack
989 maint show python print-stack
990 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
993 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
998 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1002 Show operating system information about processes.
1005 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1008 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1011 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1014 Kill inferior number NUM.
1018 set spu stop-on-load
1019 show spu stop-on-load
1020 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1022 set spu auto-flush-cache
1023 show spu auto-flush-cache
1024 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1025 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1027 set sh calling-convention
1028 show sh calling-convention
1029 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1032 show debug timestamp
1033 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1035 set disassemble-next-line
1036 show disassemble-next-line
1037 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1040 set remote noack-packet
1041 show remote noack-packet
1042 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1043 under "New remote packets."
1045 set remote query-attached-packet
1046 show remote query-attached-packet
1047 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1049 set remote read-siginfo-object
1050 show remote read-siginfo-object
1051 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1054 set remote write-siginfo-object
1055 show remote write-siginfo-object
1056 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1059 set remote reverse-continue
1060 show remote reverse-continue
1061 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1063 set remote reverse-step
1064 show remote reverse-step
1065 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1067 set displaced-stepping
1068 show displaced-stepping
1069 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1070 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1071 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1074 show debug displaced
1075 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1077 maint set internal-error
1078 maint show internal-error
1079 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1081 maint set internal-warning
1082 maint show internal-warning
1083 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
1088 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1090 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1091 show multiple-symbols
1092 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1093 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1094 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1096 set breakpoint always-inserted
1097 show breakpoint always-inserted
1098 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1099 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1100 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1102 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1103 show arm fallback-mode
1104 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1106 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1107 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1108 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1109 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1111 set disable-randomization
1112 show disable-randomization
1113 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1114 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1115 multiple debugging sessions.
1119 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1124 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1125 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1126 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1127 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1129 set target-wide-charset
1130 show target-wide-charset
1131 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1132 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1134 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1136 set tcp connect-timeout
1137 show tcp connect-timeout
1138 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1139 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1140 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1142 set libthread-db-search-path
1143 show libthread-db-search-path
1144 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1147 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1148 show schedule-multiple
1149 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1150 the current process.
1154 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1155 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1156 affecting correctness.
1158 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1159 show interactive-mode
1160 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1161 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1162 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1163 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1164 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1169 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1170 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1171 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1175 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1176 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1177 alias for the `fork' command.
1180 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1181 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1182 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1185 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1186 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1187 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1191 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1192 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1193 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1196 * New native configurations
1198 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1200 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1204 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
1205 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
1206 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
1209 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1210 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1216 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1218 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
1220 * New native configurations
1222 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
1223 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
1227 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
1228 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
1230 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1232 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1233 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1234 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1235 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1237 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1238 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1240 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
1243 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
1244 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1245 and in inlined functions.
1247 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1248 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1249 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1251 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1253 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1254 registers on PowerPC targets.
1256 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1257 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1259 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1260 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1262 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1263 extended-remote mode.
1265 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
1266 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1267 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1268 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
1270 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1271 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1272 target architectures.
1274 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1275 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1276 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1277 stored in two consecutive float registers.
1279 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1282 * Improved support for debugging Ada
1283 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1285 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1286 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1287 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1288 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1290 - Improved command completion in Ada
1293 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1298 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1299 show print frame-arguments
1300 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1301 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1306 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1313 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1315 * New remote packets
1322 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
1325 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1329 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1331 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
1333 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1334 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1335 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1337 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1338 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1339 -Bsymbolic linker option.
1341 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1342 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1345 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1346 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1348 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
1349 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
1351 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1353 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1354 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1355 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1357 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1358 automatically displayed as character or string data.
1360 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1361 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1364 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1365 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
1366 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
1368 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1371 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1372 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1373 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1375 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1377 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1379 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1380 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1381 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1383 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1384 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1386 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1387 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1388 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1389 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1390 Windows and SymbianOS).
1392 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1393 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
1395 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1396 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
1402 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1403 when debugging using remote targets.
1405 set mem inaccessible-by-default
1406 show mem inaccessible-by-default
1407 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1408 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1409 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1410 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1411 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1413 set breakpoint auto-hw
1414 show breakpoint auto-hw
1415 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1416 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1417 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1418 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1419 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1420 including "next" and "finish".
1423 catch exception unhandled
1424 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1427 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1431 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1432 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1433 an alias to "set sysroot".
1436 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1437 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1440 * New native configurations
1442 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1445 unset tdesc filename
1447 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1448 not query the target for its built-in description.
1452 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
1453 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
1454 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
1456 * New remote packets
1459 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1460 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1462 qXfer:features:read:
1463 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1468 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1469 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1471 qXfer:libraries:read:
1472 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1473 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1474 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1475 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1479 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1487 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1488 i[34567]86-*-netware*
1489 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1490 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1492 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1495 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1496 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1505 * Other removed features
1512 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1519 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1524 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1525 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1530 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1531 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1533 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1535 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1536 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1537 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1538 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1540 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1542 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1543 in debugging information.
1547 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1548 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1550 set mips stack-arg-size
1551 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1553 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1555 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1560 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1562 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1563 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1564 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1566 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1567 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1570 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1571 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1573 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1574 stub provides the required support.
1576 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1577 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1582 unset substitute-path
1583 show substitute-path
1584 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1585 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1586 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1587 between compilation and debugging.
1591 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1592 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1593 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1597 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1599 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1600 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1602 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1604 * New remote packets
1607 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1608 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1609 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1610 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1614 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1615 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1617 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1618 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1619 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1624 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1626 * Removed remote packets
1629 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1630 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1632 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1636 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1638 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1642 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1643 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1645 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1647 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1649 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1650 previously saved state.
1652 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1654 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1656 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1657 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1659 info forks List forks of the user program that
1660 are available to be debugged.
1662 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1663 forks of the user program that are
1664 available to be debugged.
1666 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1667 that are available to be debugged (and
1668 kill the forked process).
1670 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1671 that are available to be debugged (and
1672 allow the process to continue).
1676 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1678 * Improved Windows host support
1680 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1681 native console support, and remote communications using either
1682 network sockets or serial ports.
1684 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1686 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1687 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1688 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1689 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1690 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1691 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1695 The ARM rdi-share module.
1697 The Netware NLM debug server.
1699 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1701 * New native configurations
1703 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1704 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1708 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1710 * New command line options
1712 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1713 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1714 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1715 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1716 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1717 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1718 with the --command (-x) option.
1720 * Deprecated commands removed
1722 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1726 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1727 othernames set arm disassembler
1728 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1729 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1730 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1733 * New BSD user-level threads support
1735 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1736 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1739 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1740 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1741 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1743 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1744 are not yet supported.
1746 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1747 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1749 * REMOVED configurations and files
1751 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1752 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1753 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1755 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1757 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1758 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1761 * VAX floating point support
1763 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1765 * User-defined command support
1767 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1768 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1769 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1771 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1773 * New command line option
1775 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1778 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1780 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1781 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1782 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1783 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1784 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1786 * Internationalization
1788 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1789 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1790 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1794 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1795 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1796 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1798 * New native configurations
1800 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1804 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1805 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1807 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1809 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1810 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1811 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1814 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1815 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1816 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1826 powerpc bdm protocol
1828 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1829 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1831 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1833 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1834 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1835 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1836 permanently REMOVED.
1845 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1847 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1849 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1850 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1853 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1855 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1856 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1857 IRIX long double values).
1861 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1862 command. This problem has been fixed.
1864 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1866 * Fix for ``many threads''
1868 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1869 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1872 ptrace: No such process.
1873 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1875 This problem has been fixed.
1877 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1879 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1882 * New ``start'' command.
1884 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1886 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1888 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1889 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1890 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1892 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1893 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1894 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1895 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1896 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1897 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1898 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1899 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1900 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1902 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1904 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1905 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1906 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1907 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1908 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1910 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1911 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1912 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1914 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1916 * New native configurations
1918 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1919 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1920 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1921 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1922 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1923 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1924 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1926 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1928 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1929 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1930 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1931 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1932 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1933 work, was also included.
1935 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1936 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1946 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1947 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1949 * REMOVED configurations and files
1951 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1952 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1953 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1954 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1955 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1956 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1957 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1958 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1959 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1960 sonymips mips-sony-*
1961 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1963 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1965 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1967 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1968 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1969 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1970 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1973 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1975 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1976 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1977 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1978 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1979 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1980 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1983 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1985 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1987 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1988 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1989 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1991 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1993 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1994 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1996 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1998 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1999 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2000 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2002 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2004 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2005 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2007 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2009 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2010 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2011 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2013 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2015 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2016 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2017 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2019 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
2021 * Removed --with-mmalloc
2023 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2024 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2026 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
2028 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2029 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2030 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2031 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2033 * Revised SPARC target
2035 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2036 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
2037 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2038 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2039 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
2043 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2044 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2045 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2048 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2050 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2051 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2054 * C++ nested types and namespaces
2056 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2057 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2058 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2059 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2060 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2061 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2062 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2063 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2064 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2066 * New native configurations
2068 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
2069 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2070 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
2071 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2072 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
2074 * New debugging protocols
2076 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2078 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2080 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2081 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2082 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2084 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2086 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2087 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2088 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2089 permanently REMOVED.
2091 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2092 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2093 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2094 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2095 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2096 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2097 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2098 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2099 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2100 sonymips mips-sony-*
2101 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2103 * REMOVED configurations and files
2105 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2106 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2107 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2108 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2109 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2110 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2111 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2112 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2113 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2114 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
2115 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2116 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2117 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2118 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2119 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
2120 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2121 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2123 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2127 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2128 integrated into GDB.
2130 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2132 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2133 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2134 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2137 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2138 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2139 DWARF 2 CFI support.
2143 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2144 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2145 remote protocol documentation for details.
2147 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
2149 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2150 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2151 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2154 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2156 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2157 per-thread variables.
2159 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2161 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2162 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2164 * Separate debug info.
2166 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2167 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2168 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2169 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2170 and optional debug files.
2172 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2174 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2175 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2178 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2179 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2183 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2184 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2185 considered "useable".
2187 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2189 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2190 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2193 * GDB supports logging output to a file
2195 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2196 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
2198 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2200 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2201 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2204 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
2206 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2207 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2211 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2212 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2213 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2214 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2215 data, for more informative profiling results.
2217 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2219 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2220 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
2221 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
2223 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2226 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2227 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2228 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2229 in a subsequent -var-update.
2231 * New native configurations.
2233 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2235 * Multi-arched targets.
2237 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
2238 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2240 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2242 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2243 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2244 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2245 permanently REMOVED.
2247 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2248 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2249 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2250 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2251 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2252 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2253 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2254 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2255 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2256 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2257 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2258 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2260 * REMOVED configurations and files
2263 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2264 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2265 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2266 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2267 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2268 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2270 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2271 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2272 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2273 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2274 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2275 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2277 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
2279 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2280 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2281 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2282 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2283 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2285 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
2287 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2289 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2290 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2291 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2292 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2293 shared libs like mad''.
2295 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
2297 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2298 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2299 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2300 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
2302 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2304 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2305 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2308 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2309 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2311 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2312 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2314 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2315 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2316 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2317 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2319 * Multi-arched targets.
2321 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2322 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2324 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
2325 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2326 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2330 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2333 * New native configurations
2335 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
2336 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
2337 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
2338 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
2340 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2342 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2343 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2344 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2345 permanently REMOVED.
2347 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2348 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2349 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2350 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2351 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2352 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2353 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2354 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2355 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2356 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2358 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2359 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2361 * OBSOLETE languages
2363 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2365 * REMOVED configurations and files
2367 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2368 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2369 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2370 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2371 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2373 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2375 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2377 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2378 commands. The default is 1024.
2380 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2382 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2384 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2386 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2387 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2388 from a file into memory (restore).
2390 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2392 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2393 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2394 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2396 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2404 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2405 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2406 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2408 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2409 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2410 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2412 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2413 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2414 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2416 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2417 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2418 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2420 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
2422 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2424 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2425 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2426 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2427 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2428 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2429 (notably embedded) targets.
2431 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2433 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2434 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2435 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2436 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
2438 * New command line option
2440 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2442 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2444 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2445 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2446 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2447 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2448 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2449 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2450 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2451 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2452 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2453 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2455 * Changes in ARM configurations.
2457 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2458 configuration is fully multi-arch.
2460 * New native configurations
2462 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
2463 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
2464 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
2465 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
2469 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2471 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2473 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2474 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2475 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2476 permanently REMOVED.
2478 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2479 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2480 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2481 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2482 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2484 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2486 * REMOVED configurations and files
2488 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2490 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2491 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2492 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2493 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2494 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2495 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2496 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2497 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2498 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2499 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2500 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
2502 * Changes to command line processing
2504 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2505 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2507 * Changes to key bindings
2509 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2511 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2513 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2515 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2518 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2520 Numerous documentation fixes.
2522 Numerous testsuite fixes.
2524 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
2526 * New native configurations
2528 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2529 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2530 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
2531 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2532 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
2533 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2537 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2539 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2541 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2543 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2544 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2545 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2546 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2547 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2549 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2550 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2551 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2552 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2553 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2554 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2555 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2556 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2558 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2559 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2561 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2562 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2563 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2564 permanently REMOVED.
2566 * REMOVED configurations and files
2568 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2569 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2571 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2575 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2577 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2578 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2583 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2585 * The MI enabled by default.
2587 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2588 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2589 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2590 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2591 which is now deprecated.
2593 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2595 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2596 main features are supported:
2598 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2600 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2603 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2605 - a Pascal expression parser.
2607 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2609 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2611 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2613 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2614 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2616 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2618 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2620 * Changes in completion.
2622 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2623 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2624 users expect at the shell prompt.
2626 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2627 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2628 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2629 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2630 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2631 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2632 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2634 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2636 * New platform-independent commands:
2638 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2639 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2640 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2642 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2644 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2645 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2646 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2648 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2650 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2651 multi-threaded programs though.
2653 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2655 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2657 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2658 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2661 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2663 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2664 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2665 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2666 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2667 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2670 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2671 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2672 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2674 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2676 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2677 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2679 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2680 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2683 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2684 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2685 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2686 a given linear address.
2688 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2689 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2690 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2692 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2694 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2696 * Changes in documentation.
2698 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2699 Documentation License.
2701 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2704 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2706 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2709 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2710 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2711 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2713 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2715 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2716 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2717 contents of this file.
2721 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2723 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2725 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2727 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2728 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2729 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2730 greater level of detail.
2732 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2734 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2735 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2736 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2739 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2741 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2742 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2743 machines ``out of the box''.
2745 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2746 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2747 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2748 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2749 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2751 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2752 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2753 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2754 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2755 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2757 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2758 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2761 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2764 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2765 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2766 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2767 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2769 * New native configurations
2771 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2772 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2776 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2777 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2778 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2779 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2781 * OBSOLETE configurations
2783 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2784 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2786 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2789 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2790 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2791 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2792 be permanently REMOVED.
2794 * Gould support removed
2796 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2798 * New features for SVR4
2800 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2801 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2802 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2804 * Many C++ enhancements
2806 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2807 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2809 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2811 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2812 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2813 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2814 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2816 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2817 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2819 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2821 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2822 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2823 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2825 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2826 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2828 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2830 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2831 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2832 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2834 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2836 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2837 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2838 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2840 * ``apropos'' command added.
2842 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2843 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2844 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2848 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2849 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2850 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2851 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2852 enabled by configuring with:
2854 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2856 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2858 * New native configurations
2860 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2861 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2862 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2866 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2867 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2868 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2870 * OBSOLETE configurations
2872 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2874 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2875 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2876 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2877 be permanently REMOVED.
2881 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2882 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2883 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2884 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2885 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2886 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2887 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2892 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2894 * set extension-language
2896 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2897 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2898 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2899 set extension-language .c c++
2900 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2901 and their associated languages.
2903 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2905 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2906 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2907 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2911 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2912 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2914 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2915 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2917 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2918 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2919 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2920 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2921 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2922 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2923 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2924 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2926 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2927 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2928 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2929 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2933 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2934 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2935 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2936 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2937 for xdb and dbx commands.
2941 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2942 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2943 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2945 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2946 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2947 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2949 * Debugging across forks
2951 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2956 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2957 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2958 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2960 * GDB remote protocol additions
2962 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2963 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2964 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2965 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2967 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2968 full 64-bit address. The command
2970 set remoteaddresssize 32
2972 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2973 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2976 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2977 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2979 maint packet heythere
2981 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2982 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2985 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2986 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2987 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2989 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2991 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2992 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2993 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2995 * mask-address variable for Mips
2997 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2998 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2999 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3001 * Higher serial baud rates
3003 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3004 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3005 to achieve all of these rates.)
3009 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3010 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3013 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3015 * New native configurations
3017 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3018 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3019 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3020 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3021 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3022 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3023 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3027 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3028 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3029 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3030 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3031 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3032 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3033 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3034 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3035 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3036 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3037 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3039 * New debugging protocols
3041 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3042 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3043 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3044 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3045 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3046 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3050 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3051 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3056 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3057 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3059 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3061 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3062 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3063 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3065 * Live range splitting
3067 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3068 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3069 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3073 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3074 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3078 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3079 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3080 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3085 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3090 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3091 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3092 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3093 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3094 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3095 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3099 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3100 the symbol at the specified address.
3104 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3105 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3106 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3107 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3108 file tracepoint.c for more details.
3112 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3113 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3114 of most MIPS variants.
3118 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3119 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3120 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3124 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3125 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3126 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3127 the possible architectures.
3129 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3131 * New native configurations
3133 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3134 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3135 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3136 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3137 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3138 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3142 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3143 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3144 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3145 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3146 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3148 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3152 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3153 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3154 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3155 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3156 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3160 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3162 * Windows 95/NT native
3164 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3165 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3166 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3167 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3168 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3170 * dont-repeat command
3172 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3173 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3174 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3175 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3177 * Send break instead of ^C
3179 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3180 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3181 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3183 * Remote protocol timeout
3185 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3186 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3187 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3189 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3191 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3192 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3193 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3194 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3195 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3197 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3198 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3199 automatically on hpux10.
3201 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3203 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3205 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3207 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3208 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3209 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3210 every character. The default value is 1050.
3212 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3214 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3215 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3216 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3217 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3218 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3219 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3221 * Speedups for remote debugging
3223 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3224 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3225 and more efficient S-record downloading.
3227 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3229 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3230 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3232 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3234 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
3236 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3237 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3239 * Remote targets use caching
3241 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3242 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3243 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3244 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3245 off' turns the the data cache off.
3247 * Remote targets may have threads
3249 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3250 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3251 gdb/remote.c for details.
3255 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3256 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3257 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3258 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3259 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3260 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3261 sequence is something like
3263 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3265 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3269 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3270 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3271 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3272 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3273 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3274 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3275 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3276 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3280 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3281 but does simplify configuration and building.
3285 GDB now supports hpux10.
3287 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3289 * New native configurations
3291 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3292 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3293 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3294 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3298 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3299 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3300 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3301 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3304 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3306 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3307 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3308 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3309 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3310 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3312 * Arguments to user-defined commands
3314 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3315 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3318 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3320 To execute the command use:
3323 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3324 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3325 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3327 * New `if' and `while' commands
3329 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3330 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3331 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3332 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3333 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3334 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3335 if the expression is zero.
3337 * Fortran source language mode
3339 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3340 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3341 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3342 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3345 * Better HPUX support
3347 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3348 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3349 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3350 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3351 that behavior do the following before running the program:
3357 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3358 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3364 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3365 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3368 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3369 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3371 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3373 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3374 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3375 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3376 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3377 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3378 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3380 * New DOS host serial code
3382 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3383 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3386 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3388 * New "complete" command
3390 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3391 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3393 * Trailing space optional in prompt
3395 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3396 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3398 * Breakpoint hit counts
3400 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3401 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3402 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3403 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3404 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3407 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3409 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3410 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3411 arrays actually contain only short strings.
3413 * Shared library breakpoints
3415 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3416 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3418 * Hardware watchpoints
3420 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3421 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3423 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
3427 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3428 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3430 * Improved Irix 5 support
3432 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3434 * Improved HPPA support
3436 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3438 * New native configurations
3440 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3441 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3442 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3443 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3447 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3448 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3451 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3453 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3454 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3458 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3459 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3461 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3463 * Irix 5 is now supported
3467 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3468 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3469 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3470 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3471 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3474 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3476 * User visible changes:
3480 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3481 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3482 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3483 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3484 debugging info for the mips target).
3486 * DEC Alpha native support
3488 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3489 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3490 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3491 Alpha-specific notes.
3493 * Preliminary thread implementation
3495 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3497 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
3499 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3500 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3503 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3505 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3506 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3507 call methods, ...etc.
3509 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3511 * User visible changes:
3513 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3514 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3515 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3516 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3518 Filename completion now works.
3520 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3521 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3522 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3524 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3525 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3526 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3527 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3528 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3532 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3533 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3536 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3540 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3541 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3542 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3546 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3547 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3548 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3549 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3550 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3554 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3555 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3556 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3558 * New targets supported
3560 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3561 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3562 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3563 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3564 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3566 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3567 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3568 GO32 memory extender.
3570 * New remote protocols
3572 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3574 * New source languages supported
3576 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3577 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3578 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3581 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3583 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3585 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3586 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3587 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3588 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3589 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3590 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3592 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3594 * Faster and better demangling
3596 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3597 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3598 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3599 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3600 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3601 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3604 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3605 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3606 compiler does not actually implement.
3608 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3610 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3611 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3612 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3613 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3614 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3615 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3618 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3619 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3621 * Improved configure script
3623 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3624 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3625 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3626 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3628 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3629 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3630 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3631 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3632 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3633 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3635 * Documentation improvements
3637 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3638 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3639 before submitting changes.
3641 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3642 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3643 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3644 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3645 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3647 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3648 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3649 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3650 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3651 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3652 around this problem.
3656 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3657 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3658 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3661 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3662 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3664 * New native hosts supported
3666 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3667 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3669 * New targets supported
3671 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3673 * New file formats supported
3675 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3676 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3680 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3682 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3683 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3685 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3686 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3687 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3689 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3690 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3692 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3693 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3694 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3697 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3698 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3699 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3700 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3701 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3703 * Internal improvements
3705 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3706 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3708 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3709 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3710 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3711 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3712 shared code that handles any of them.
3714 * New command line options
3716 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3720 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3721 General Public License.
3723 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3725 * Host/native/target split
3727 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3728 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3729 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3730 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3731 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3733 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3734 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3735 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3736 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3737 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3738 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3739 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3741 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3742 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3743 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3745 * New hosts supported
3747 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3748 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3749 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3751 * New targets supported
3753 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3754 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3756 * New native hosts supported
3758 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3759 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3760 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3762 * New file formats supported
3764 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3765 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3766 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3770 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3771 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3772 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3774 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3776 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3777 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3778 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3779 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3783 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3784 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3785 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3787 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3791 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3792 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3795 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3796 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3798 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3799 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3800 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3801 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3802 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3803 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3805 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3806 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3807 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3808 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3812 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3813 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3814 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3815 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3816 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3818 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3819 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3820 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3821 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3825 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3826 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3827 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3828 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3829 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3830 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3831 each instruction being stepped through.
3833 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3834 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3836 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3837 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3838 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3839 processor with a serial port.
3843 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3844 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3845 supported, and what files each one uses.
3849 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3850 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3851 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3852 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3854 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3855 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3856 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3857 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3861 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3862 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3863 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3864 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3865 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3866 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3868 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3871 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3873 * Better support for C++ function names
3875 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3876 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3877 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3878 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3879 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3881 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3882 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3883 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3884 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3885 for the list of formats.
3887 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3889 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3890 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3891 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3892 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3893 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3894 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3897 * New 'maintenance' command
3899 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3900 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3901 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3903 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3904 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3905 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3906 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3907 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3908 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3910 The following commands are new:
3912 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3913 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3914 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3916 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3918 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3919 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3920 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3921 read after argv processing.
3923 * New hosts supported
3925 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3927 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3929 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3930 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3931 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3932 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3933 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3936 * New targets supported
3938 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3940 * More smarts about finding #include files
3942 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3943 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3944 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3945 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3946 the one that contains your sources.
3948 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3949 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3950 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3952 * Interesting infernals change
3954 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3955 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3956 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3957 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3959 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3961 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3962 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3963 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3965 See the ChangeLog for details.
3967 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3969 * New machines supported (host and target)
3971 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3973 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3975 * New malloc package
3977 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3978 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3979 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3980 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3981 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3982 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3986 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3987 'help info proc' for details.
3989 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3991 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3992 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3995 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3997 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3998 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3999 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4000 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4001 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4002 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4004 * Cross byte order fixes
4006 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4007 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4009 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4011 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4012 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4013 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4014 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4015 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4016 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4017 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4018 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4019 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4020 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4022 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4023 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4024 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4025 slower, but makes future operations faster.
4027 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4028 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4029 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4032 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4034 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4035 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4036 shared across multiple host platforms.
4038 * longjmp() handling
4040 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4041 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4042 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4043 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4047 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4048 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4053 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4054 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4055 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4057 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4059 * New machines supported (host and target)
4061 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4063 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4064 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4066 * New machines supported (target)
4068 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4072 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4073 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4074 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4076 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4077 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4078 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4079 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4080 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4083 * New features for SVR4
4085 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4086 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4087 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4089 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4090 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4091 it prints the address mappings of the process.
4093 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4094 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4096 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4098 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4099 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4100 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4101 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4102 same code linked statically.
4106 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4107 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4108 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4109 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4110 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4111 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4115 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4116 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4117 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4120 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4122 * New machines supported (host and target)
4124 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4125 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4126 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4128 * Almost SCO Unix support
4130 We had hoped to support:
4131 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4132 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4133 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4134 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4136 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4138 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4139 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4140 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4141 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4146 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4147 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4148 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4152 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4153 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4154 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4156 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4158 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4159 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4160 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4162 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4163 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4164 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4165 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4168 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4169 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4170 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4171 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4174 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4175 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4178 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4179 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4180 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4183 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4185 * Improved configuration
4187 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4188 Porting BFD is simpler.
4192 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4193 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4194 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4195 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4199 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4201 * New host supported (not target)
4203 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4206 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4208 * Multiple source language support
4210 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4211 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4212 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4213 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4214 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4215 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4219 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4220 currently under development at the State University of New York at
4221 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4222 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4224 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4225 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4226 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4228 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4229 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4233 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4234 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4235 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4236 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4239 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4241 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4242 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4243 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4244 examining core files.
4248 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4251 * New machines supported (host and target)
4253 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4254 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4255 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4257 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4259 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4261 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4263 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4264 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4265 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4267 * New remote interfaces
4273 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4277 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4279 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4280 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4281 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4282 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4283 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4284 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4285 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4286 stub on the target system.
4288 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4290 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4291 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4292 object file types such as a.out and coff.
4294 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4295 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4298 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4300 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4301 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4303 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4304 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4305 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4307 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4308 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4309 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4310 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4312 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4313 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4314 it is already running. Default is ON.
4316 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4317 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4318 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4319 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4322 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4323 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4324 or the value of the environment variable
4327 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4328 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4331 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4332 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4333 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4335 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4336 history expansion will be performed on
4337 command line input. The default is OFF.
4339 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4340 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4341 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4343 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4344 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4345 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4348 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4349 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4350 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4353 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4354 ``set width'' instead.
4356 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4357 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4358 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4359 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4361 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4364 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4367 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4370 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4373 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4375 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4376 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4377 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4381 * Support for Shared Libraries
4383 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4384 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4385 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4386 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4387 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4388 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4389 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4390 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4392 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4393 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4394 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4396 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4401 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4402 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4403 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4404 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4405 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4406 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4408 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4410 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4412 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4413 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4414 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4417 * C++ multiple inheritance
4419 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4422 * C++ exception handling
4424 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4425 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4426 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4429 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4430 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4431 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4433 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4434 current stack frame.
4437 * Minor command changes
4439 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4440 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4441 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4443 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4444 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4445 frames without printing.
4447 * New directory command
4449 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4450 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4451 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4452 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4453 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4455 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4457 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4460 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4461 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4462 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4463 where the program that you are debugging will run.