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