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