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