1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 17
6 * Support for .gdb_index sections with version less than 7 has been
9 * GDB now accepts --no-escape-args as an alternative to --args on the
10 command line. GDB will not escape special shell characters within
11 arguments after --no-escape-args.
13 * gdbserver now accepts --no-escape-args as a command line flag. When
14 this flag is used gdbserver will not escape special shell characters
15 within the inferior arguments.
17 * The add-inferior, clone-inferior, and MI -add-inferior commands will
18 now give a warning, and create the new inferior without a
19 connection, when the current inferior's connection, at the time the
20 command is given, is unshareable. For example, the core-file target
21 cannot be shared between inferiors, nor can the Window native
22 target. These targets could never really be shared. Attempting to
23 share them would usually lead to GDB crashing. GDB now prevents
26 * When connecting to a remote server, if the server supports the new
27 qExecAndArgs packet, then GDB will copy the argument string from the
28 server and update the 'args' setting, as if 'set args ...' had been
29 used. This means that the arguments are visible from GDB using
30 'show args', and that, if using the extended-remote protocol,
31 subsequent runs of the inferior will use the same arguments as the
36 GNU/Linux/MicroBlaze (gdbserver) microblazeel-*linux*
40 maintenance test-remote-args ARGS
41 Test splitting and joining of inferior arguments ARGS as they would
42 be split and joined when being passed to a remote target.
46 maintenance info program-spaces
47 This command no longer displays the core file name.
50 If an inferior has a core file loaded, then this will be displayed
51 as an additional line under the inferior's table entry in the
54 * Changed remote packets
56 single-inf-arg in qSupported
57 The new single-inf-arg feature within the qSupported packet allows
58 GDB to inform the stub that it would like to send the inferior
59 arguments as a single string within the vRun packet. The stub can
60 reply with the single-inf-arg feature to indicate that it is able to
61 accept arguments as a single string.
66 This packet returns the executable filename and argument string with
67 which the server was started. If no such information was given to
68 the server then this is reflected in the reply.
72 ** New class gdb.Style for representing styles, a collection of
73 foreground and background gdb.Color objects, and an intensity.
75 ** New constants gdb.INTENSITY_NORMAL, gdb.INTENSITY_BOLD, and
76 gdb.INTENSITY_DIM for use with gdb.Style when representing
79 ** New gdb.StyleParameterSet for creating custom style settings.
80 Use gdb.StyleParameterSet(NAME) to create 'set style NAME ...'
81 and 'show style NAME ...' parameters.
83 ** The gdb.write() function now takes an additional, optional,
84 'style' argument, which can be used to style the output.
86 ** New gdb.Corefile class which represents a loaded core file. This
87 has an attribute Corefile.filename, the file name of the loaded
88 core file, and a method Corefile.is_valid(), which returns False
89 when a Corefile object becomes invalid (e.g. when the core file
90 is unloaded). There is also Corefile.mapped_files() which
91 returns a list of CorefileMappedFile objects, representing files
92 that were mapped into the core file when it was created.
94 ** New gdb.CorefileMappedFile type representing a file that was
95 mapped when the core file was created. Has read-only attributes
96 filename (string), build_id (string), is_main_executable
97 (boolean), and regions (list of CorefileMappedFileRegion objects).
99 ** New gdb.CorefileMappedFileRegion type, which represents a mapped
100 region of a file (see gdb.CorefileMappedFile above). Has
101 read-only attributes start, end, and file_offset.
103 ** New Inferior.corefile attribute. This read only attribute
104 contains the gdb.Corefile object if a core file is loaded into
105 the inferior, otherwise, this contains None.
107 *** Changes in GDB 17
109 * Debugging Linux programs that use x86-64 or x86-64 with 32-bit pointer
110 size (X32) Shadow Stacks are now supported.
112 * Support for the shadow stack pointer register on x86-64 or x86-64 with
113 32-bit pointer size (X32) GNU/Linux.
115 * Debugger Adapter Protocol changes
117 ** GDB now supports the "completions" request.
119 * "set style" commands now supports numeric format for basic colors
120 from 0 to 255 and #RRGGBB format for TrueColor.
122 * New built-in convenience variable $_colorsupport provides comma-separated
123 list of color space names supported by terminal. Each color space name is one
124 of monochrome, ansi_8color, aixterm_16color, xterm_256color or rgb_24bit.
125 It is handy for conditionally using styling colors based on terminal features.
128 (gdb) if $_regex ($_colorsupport, ".*(^|,)rgb_24bit($|,).*")
129 >set style filename background #FACADE
131 >if $_regex ($_colorsupport, ".*(^|,)xterm_256color($|,).*")
132 >set style filename background 224
134 >set style filename background red
138 * UST (static tracepoint) support from gdbserver has been removed.
140 * Linux checkpoint code has been updated to work with multiple inferiors.
142 * The gcore and gdb-add-index scripts now have a -v or --version
143 option, which prints the version number, and then exits. As well as
144 a -h or --help option, which prints each options and a brief
147 * The gcore script now has a -g option that lets you specify the GDB
148 binary invoked by gcore.
150 * On systems that support linker namespaces, the output of the command
151 "info sharedlibraries" may add one more column, NS, which identifies the
152 namespace into which the library was loaded, if more than one namespace
155 * New built-in convenience variables $linker_namespace_count and
156 $_linker_namespace. These show the number of active linker
157 namespaces, and the namespace to which the current location belongs to.
158 In systems that don't support linker namespaces, or if the inferior hasn't
159 started yet, these always return the integer 0.
161 * Add record full support for rv64gc architectures
163 * Debugging Linux programs that use AArch64 Guarded Control Stacks is now
166 * New "--binary-output" command line option instructs GDB to set the
167 translation mode of its stdout/stderr to binary mode. This disables
168 Line Feed translation. MS-Windows only.
170 * The "catch syscall" command now works on riscv*-linux* targets.
174 maintenance check psymtabs
175 Renamed from maintenance check-psymtabs
177 maintenance check symtabs
178 Renamed from maintenance check-symtabs
180 maintenance canonicalize
181 Show the canonical form of a C++ name.
183 set riscv numeric-register-names on|off
184 show riscv numeric-register-names
185 Controls whether GDB refers to risc-v registers by their numeric names
186 (e.g 'x1') or their abi names (e.g. 'ra').
187 Defaults to 'off', matching the old behaviour (abi names).
189 set style emoji on|off|auto
191 Controls whether GDB can display emoji. The default is "auto",
192 which means emoji will be displayed in some situations when
193 the host charset is UTF-8.
195 set style warning-prefix STRING
196 set style error-prefix STRING
197 These commands control the prefix that is printed before warnings
198 and errors, respectively. This functionality is intended for use
199 with emoji display, and so the prefixes are only displayed if emoji
202 info linker-namespaces
203 info linker-namespaces [[N]]
204 Print information about the given linker namespace (identified as N),
205 or about all the namespaces if no argument is given.
210 On Linux and FreeBSD, the addresses shown in the output of this
211 command are now for the full memory range allocated to the shared
214 info threads [-gid] [-stopped] [-running] [ID]...
215 If no threads match the given ID(s) or filter options, GDB now prints
219 without printing the provided arguments. The newly added '-stopped'
220 option makes GDB list the stopped threads only. Similarly,
221 '-running' makes GDB list the running threads only. If both options
222 are given together, both stopped and running threads are listed.
223 These new flags can be useful to get a reduced list when there is a
224 large number of threads.
226 * GDB-internal Thread Local Storage (TLS) support
228 ** Linux targets for the x86_64, aarch64, ppc64, s390x, and riscv
229 architectures now have GDB-internal support for TLS address
230 lookup in addition to that traditionally provided by the
231 libthread_db library. This internal support works for programs
232 linked against either the GLIBC or MUSL C libraries. For
233 programs linked against MUSL, this new internal support provides
234 new debug functionality, allowing access to TLS variables, due to
235 the fact that MUSL does not implement the libthread_db library.
236 Internal TLS support is also useful in cross-debugging
237 situations, debugging statically linked binaries, and debugging
238 programs linked against GLIBC 2.33 and earlier, but which are not
239 linked against libpthread.
241 ** The command 'maint set force-internal-tls-address-lookup on' may
242 be used to force the internal TLS lookup mechanisms to be used.
243 Otherwise, TLS lookup via libthread_db will still be preferred,
248 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 3.4.
250 ** New class gdb.Color for dealing with colors.
252 ** New constant gdb.PARAM_COLOR represents color type of a
253 gdb.Parameter.value. Parameter's value is gdb.Color instance.
255 ** The memory_source argument (the second argument) has been removed
256 from gdb.disassembler.builtin_disassemble. This argument was
257 never used by GDB, and was added by mistake. The unused argument
258 was never documented in the GDB manual, so users should not have
261 ** gdb.execute has an additional 'styling' argument. When True, then
262 output will be styled. The default for this argument is True
263 when output is going to standard output, and False when output is
266 ** Setting the documentation string (__doc__) of a gdb.Parameter
267 sub-class to the empty string, means GDB will only display the
268 set_doc or show_doc strings in the set/show help output.
270 ** New gdb.ParameterPrefix class. This can be used to create 'set'
271 and 'show' gdb.Command prefixes, suitable for use with new
274 ** Prefix commands (gdb.Command sub-classes) that don't have an
275 invoke method will now behave like builtin prefix commands when
276 invoked without a sub-command name. This means printing the help
277 text for all sub-commands, unless the prefix command is a 'show'
278 command, in which case the value of all sub-commands is printed.
280 ** New gdb.warning() function that takes a string and prints it as a
281 warning, with GDB's standard 'warning' prefix.
283 ** New attribute gdb.Value.is_unavailable, this checks for
284 unavailability like gdb.Value.is_optimized_out checks for
285 optimized out values.
289 ** New type <gdb:color> for dealing with colors.
291 ** New constant PARAM_COLOR represents color type of a value
292 of a <gdb:parameter> object. Parameter's value is <gdb::color> instance.
294 ** Eliding the #:doc string from make-parameter now means that GDB
295 will use a default documentation string. Setting #:doc to the
296 empty string for make-parameter means GDB will only display the
297 #:set_doc or #:show_doc strings in the set/show help output.
299 ** Prefix commands (using make-command) that don't have a #:invoke
300 property will now behave like builtin prefix commands when
301 invoked without a sub-command name. This means printing the help
302 text for all sub-commands, unless the prefix command is a 'show'
303 command, in which case the value of all sub-commands is printed.
307 binary-upload in qSupported reply
308 If the stub sends back 'binary-upload+' in it's qSupported reply,
309 then GDB will, where possible, make use of the 'x' packet. If the
310 stub doesn't report this feature supported, then GDB will not use
314 Return information about files on the remote system. Like
315 vFile:stat but if the filename is a symbolic link, return
316 information about the link itself, the file the link refers to.
318 * Changed remote packets
321 The XML that is sent as a response can now include an "id_str"
322 attribute for a thread element. The attribute indicates what GDB
323 should print as the target ID of the thread, for example in the
324 "info threads" command or when switching to the thread.
327 Previously, gdbserver incorrectly implemented this packet using
328 lstat rather than stat. This has now been corrected. The
329 documentation has also been clarified.
333 ** The =library-unloaded event now includes the 'ranges' field, which
334 has the same meaning as for the =library-loaded event.
336 ** The =library-unloaded event now includes the 'still-in-use' field.
337 This field is 'true' when a library is unloaded (removed from the
338 inferior's list of loaded libraries), but the mapping within the
339 inferior's address space is retained, as the library was mapped
340 multiple times, and the same mapping was being reused. In all
341 other cases, this field will have the value 'false'.
343 * Support for stabs debugging format and the a.out/dbx object format is
344 deprecated, and will be removed in GDB 18.
348 --enable-binary-file-formats=[FORMAT,...]
349 --enable-binary-file-formats=all
350 A user can now decide to only compile support for certain file formats.
351 The available formats at this point are: dbx, coff, xcoff, elf, mach-o
352 and mips. Some targets require specific file formats to be available,
353 and in such cases, the configure script will warn the user and add
354 support anyway. By default, all formats will be compiled in, to
355 continue the behavior from before adding the switch.
357 * A new configure option was added, allowing support for the compile
358 subsystem to be disabled at configure time, in the form of
359 --disable-gdb-compile.
361 * A new configure option was added, allowing support for DWARF debug
362 information to be disabled at configure time. The flag is
363 --disable-gdb-dwarf-support.
365 * A new configure option was added, allowing support for mdebug/ecoff
366 debug information to be disabled at configure time. The flag to do
367 that is --disable-gdb-mdebug-support.
369 * The Alpha target now supports target descriptions.
371 *** Changes in GDB 16
373 * Support for Nios II targets has been removed as this architecture
374 has been EOL'ed by Intel.
376 * GDB now supports watchpoints for tagged data pointers (see
377 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagged_pointer) on amd64, such as the
378 one used by the Linear Address Masking (LAM) feature provided by
381 * Debugging support for Intel MPX has been removed. This includes the
383 ** MPX register support
384 ** the commands "show/set mpx bound" (deprecated since GDB 15)
385 ** i386 and amd64 implementation of the hooks report_signal_info and
388 * GDB now supports printing of asynchronous events from the Intel Processor
389 Trace during 'record instruction-history', 'record function-call-history'
390 and all stepping commands. This can be controlled with the new
391 "set record btrace pt event-tracing" command.
393 * GDB now supports printing of ptwrite payloads from the Intel Processor
394 Trace during 'record instruction-history', 'record function-call-history'
395 and all stepping commands. The payload is also accessible in Python as a
396 RecordAuxiliary object. Printing is customizable via a ptwrite filter
397 function in Python. By default, the raw ptwrite payload is printed for
398 each ptwrite that is encountered.
400 * For breakpoints that are created in the 'pending' state, any
401 'thread' or 'task' keywords are parsed at the time the breakpoint is
402 created, rather than at the time the breakpoint becomes non-pending.
404 * Thread-specific breakpoints are only inserted into the program space
405 in which the thread of interest is running. In most cases program
406 spaces are unique for each inferior, so this means that
407 thread-specific breakpoints will usually only be inserted for the
408 inferior containing the thread of interest. The breakpoint will
409 be hit no less than before.
411 * For ARM targets, the offset of the pc in the jmp_buf has been fixed to match
412 glibc 2.20 and later. This should only matter when not using libc probes.
413 This may cause breakage when using an incompatible libc, like uclibc or
414 newlib, or an older glibc.
416 * MTE (Memory Tagging Extension) debugging is now supported on AArch64 baremetal
419 * Remove support (native and remote) for QNX Neutrino (triplet
422 * In a record session, when a forward emulation reaches the end of the reverse
423 history, the warning message has been changed to indicate that the end of the
424 history has been reached. It also specifies that the forward execution can
425 continue, and the recording will also continue.
427 * The Ada 'Object_Size attribute is now supported.
429 * Support for process record/replay and reverse debugging on loongarch*-linux*
430 targets has been added.
432 * New bash script gstack uses GDB to print stack traces of running processes.
436 ** Added gdb.record.clear. Clears the trace data of the current recording.
437 This forces re-decoding of the trace for successive commands.
439 ** Added the new event source gdb.tui_enabled.
441 ** New module gdb.missing_objfile that facilitates dealing with
442 missing objfiles when opening a core-file.
444 ** New function gdb.missing_objfile.register_handler that can
445 register an instance of a sub-class of
446 gdb.missing_debug.MissingObjfileHandler as a handler for missing
449 ** New class gdb.missing_objfile.MissingObjfileHandler which can be
450 sub-classed to create handlers for missing objfiles.
452 ** The 'signed' argument to gdb.Architecture.integer_type() will no
453 longer accept non-bool types.
455 ** The gdb.MICommand.installed property can only be set to True or
458 ** The 'qualified' argument to gdb.Breakpoint constructor will no
459 longer accept non-bool types.
461 ** Added the gdb.Symbol.is_artificial attribute.
463 ** Added gdb.Block.subblocks. Returns a list of blocks contained in that
466 ** Added gdb.Symbol.domain. Contains the domain of the symbol.
468 ** Added gdb.Architecture.void_type. Returns a gdb.Type representing "void"
469 type for that architecture.
471 * Debugger Adapter Protocol changes
473 ** The "scopes" request will now return a scope holding global
474 variables from the stack frame's compilation unit.
476 ** The "scopes" request will return a "returnValue" scope holding
477 the return value from the latest "stepOut" command, when
480 ** The "launch" and "attach" requests were rewritten in accordance
481 with some clarifications to the spec. Now they can be sent at
482 any time after the "initialized" event, but will not take effect
483 (or send a response) until after the "configurationDone" request
486 ** The "variables" request will not return artificial symbols.
490 show jit-reader-directory
491 Show the name of the directory that "jit-reader-load" uses for
494 set style line-number foreground COLOR
495 set style line-number background COLOR
496 set style line-number intensity VALUE
497 Control the styling of line numbers printed by GDB.
499 set style command foreground COLOR
500 set style command background COLOR
501 set style command intensity VALUE
502 Control the styling of GDB commands when displayed by GDB.
504 set style title foreground COLOR
505 set style title background COLOR
506 set style title intensity VALUE
507 This style now applies to the header line of lists, for example the
508 first line of the output of "info breakpoints". Previous uses of
509 this style have been replaced with the new "command" style.
511 set warn-language-frame-mismatch [on|off]
512 show warn-language-frame-mismatch
513 Control the warning that is emitted when specifying a language that
514 does not match the current frame's language.
516 maintenance info inline-frames [ADDRESS]
517 New command which displays GDB's inline-frame information for the
518 current address, or for ADDRESS if specified. The output identifies
519 inlined frames which start at the specified address.
521 maintenance info blocks [ADDRESS]
522 New command which displays information about all of the blocks at
523 ADDRESS, or at the current address if ADDRESS is not given. Blocks
524 are listed starting at the inner global block out to the most inner
527 maintenance frame-unwinder disable [-all | -name NAME | [-class] CLASS]
528 maintenance frame-unwinder enable [-all | -name NAME | [-class] CLASS]
529 Enable or disable frame unwinders. This is only meant to be used when
530 testing unwinders themselves, and you want to ensure that a fallback
531 algorithm won't obscure a regression. GDB is not expected to behave
532 well if you try to execute the inferior with unwinders disabled.
534 info missing-objfile-handlers
535 List all the registered missing-objfile handlers.
537 enable missing-objfile-handler LOCUS HANDLER
538 disable missing-objfile-handler LOCUS HANDLER
539 Enable or disable a missing-objfile handler with a name matching the
540 regular expression HANDLER, in LOCUS.
542 LOCUS can be 'global' to operate on global missing-objfile handler,
543 'progspace' to operate on handlers within the current program space,
544 or can be a regular expression which is matched against the filename
545 of the primary executable in each program space.
550 This command now supports file-name completion.
552 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
553 The ADDRESS expression can now be a full expression consisting of
554 multiple terms, e.g. 'function + 0x1000' (without quotes),
555 previously only a single term could be given.
564 These commands now require their filename argument to be quoted if
565 it contains white space or quote characters. If the argument
566 contains no such special characters then quoting is not required.
568 maintenance print remote-registers
569 Add an "Expedited" column to the output of the command. It indicates
570 which registers were included in the last stop reply packet received by
573 maintenance info frame-unwinders
574 Add a CLASS column to the output. This class is a somewhat arbitrary
575 grouping of unwinders, based on which area of GDB adds the unwinder.
576 Also add an ENABLED column, that will show if the unwinder is enabled
579 maintenance set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
580 This command has been removed because the same functionality can be
581 achieved with maint frame-unwinder (enable|disable) DEBUGINFO.
583 maintenance show dwarf unwinders
584 This command has been removed since the functionality can be achieved
585 by checking the last column of maint info frame-unwinders.
588 Now includes the version of GNU Readline library that GDB is using.
593 Return information about files on the remote system. Like
594 vFile:fstat but takes a filename rather than an open file
598 Given ADDR and LENGTH, fetch LENGTH units from the memory at address
599 ADDR and send the fetched data in binary format. This packet is
600 equivalent to 'm', except that the data in the response are in
603 *** Changes in GDB 15
605 * The MPX commands "show/set mpx bound" have been deprecated, as Intel
606 listed MPX as removed in 2019.
608 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++17 compiler.
609 For example, GCC 9 or later.
611 * GDB index now contains information about the main function. This speeds up
612 startup when it is being used for some large binaries.
614 * On hosts where threading is available, DWARF reading is now done in
615 the background, resulting in faster startup. This can be controlled
616 using "maint set dwarf synchronous".
621 Attempting to use both the 'r' and 'b' flags with the disassemble
622 command will now give an error. Previously the 'b' flag would
623 always override the 'r' flag.
627 GDB now generates sparse core files, on systems that support it.
629 maintenance info line-table
630 Add an EPILOGUE-BEGIN column to the output of the command. It indicates
631 if the line is considered the start of the epilogue, and thus a point at
632 which the frame can be considered destroyed.
634 set unwindonsignal on|off
636 These commands are now aliases for the new set/show unwind-on-signal.
639 This command now gives an error if any unexpected arguments are
640 found after the command.
643 When using the command "list ." in a location that has no debug information
644 or no file loaded, GDB now says that there is no debug information to print
645 lines. This makes it more obvious that there is no information, as opposed
646 to implying there is no inferior loaded.
650 info missing-debug-handler
651 List all the registered missing debug handlers.
653 enable missing-debug-handler LOCUS HANDLER
654 disable missing-debug-handler LOCUS HANDLER
655 Enable or disable a missing debug handler with a name matching the
656 regular expression HANDLER, in LOCUS.
658 LOCUS can be 'global' to operate on global missing debug handler,
659 'progspace' to operate on handlers within the current program space,
660 or can be a regular expression which is matched against the filename
661 of the primary executable in each program space.
663 maintenance info linux-lwps
664 List all LWPs under control of the linux-nat target.
666 set remote thread-options-packet
667 show remote thread-options-packet
668 Set/show the use of the thread options packet.
670 set direct-call-timeout SECONDS
671 show direct-call-timeout
672 set indirect-call-timeout SECONDS
673 show indirect-call-timeout
674 These new settings can be used to limit how long GDB will wait for
675 an inferior function call to complete. The direct timeout is used
676 for inferior function calls from e.g. 'call' and 'print' commands,
677 while the indirect timeout is used for inferior function calls from
678 within a conditional breakpoint expression.
680 The default for the direct timeout is unlimited, while the default
681 for the indirect timeout is 30 seconds.
683 These timeouts will only have an effect for targets that are
684 operating in async mode. For non-async targets the timeouts are
685 ignored, GDB will wait indefinitely for an inferior function to
686 complete, unless interrupted by the user using Ctrl-C.
688 set unwind-on-timeout on|off
689 show unwind-on-timeout
690 These commands control whether GDB should unwind the stack when a
691 timeout occurs during an inferior function call. The default is
692 off, in which case the inferior will remain in the frame where the
693 timeout occurred. When on, GDB will unwind the stack removing the
694 dummy frame that was added for the inferior call, and restoring the
695 inferior state to how it was before the inferior call started.
697 set unwind-on-signal on|off
698 show unwind-on-signal
699 These new commands replaces the existing set/show unwindonsignal. The
700 old command is maintained as an alias.
702 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
704 ** The --remote-debug and --event-loop-debug command line options
707 ** The --debug command line option now takes an optional comma
708 separated list of components to emit debug for. The currently
709 supported components are: all, threads, event-loop, and remote.
710 If no components are given then threads is assumed.
712 ** The 'monitor set remote-debug' and 'monitor set event-loop-debug'
713 command have been removed.
715 ** The 'monitor set debug 0|1' command has been extended to take a
716 component name, e.g.: 'monitor set debug COMPONENT off|on'.
717 Possible component names are: all, threads, event-loop, and
722 ** New function gdb.notify_mi(NAME, DATA), that emits custom
723 GDB/MI async notification.
725 ** New read/write attribute gdb.Value.bytes that contains a bytes
726 object holding the contents of this value.
728 ** New module gdb.missing_debug that facilitates dealing with
729 objfiles that are missing any debug information.
731 ** New function gdb.missing_debug.register_handler that can register
732 an instance of a sub-class of gdb.missing_debug.MissingDebugInfo
733 as a handler for objfiles that are missing debug information.
735 ** New class gdb.missing_debug.MissingDebugInfo which can be
736 sub-classed to create handlers for objfiles with missing debug
739 ** Stop events now have a "details" attribute that holds a
740 dictionary that carries the same information as an MI "*stopped"
743 ** New function gdb.interrupt(), that interrupts GDB as if the user
746 ** New gdb.InferiorThread.ptid_string attribute. This read-only
747 attribute contains the string that appears in the 'Target Id'
748 column of the 'info threads' command output.
750 ** It is no longer possible to create new gdb.Progspace object using
751 'gdb.Progspace()', this will result in a TypeError. Progspace
752 objects can still be obtained through calling other API
753 functions, for example 'gdb.current_progspace()'.
755 ** User defined attributes can be added to a gdb.Inferior object,
756 these will be stored in the object's new Inferior.__dict__
759 ** User defined attributes can be added to a gdb.InferiorThread
760 object, these will be stored in the object's new
761 InferiorThread.__dict__ attribute.
763 ** New constants gdb.SYMBOL_TYPE_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTION_DOMAIN,
764 and gdb.SEARCH_*_DOMAIN corresponding to all the existing symbol
765 domains. Symbol lookup can now search in multiple domains at
766 once, and can also narrowly search for just a type or function.
768 * Debugger Adapter Protocol changes
770 ** GDB now emits the "process" event.
772 ** GDB now supports the "cancel" request.
774 ** The "attach" request now supports specifying the program.
776 ** New command "set debug dap-log-level" controls DAP logging.
778 ** The "set debug dap-log-file" command is now documented. This
779 command was available in GDB 14 but not documented.
783 ** New constants SYMBOL_TYPE_DOMAIN, SYMBOL_FUNCTION_DOMAIN, and
784 SEARCH_*_DOMAIN corresponding to all the existing symbol domains.
785 Symbol lookup can now search in multiple domains at once, and can
786 also narrowly search for just a type or function.
790 New stop reason: clone
791 Indicates that a clone system call was executed.
794 Enable/disable optional event reporting, on a per-thread basis.
795 Currently supported options are GDB_THREAD_OPTION_CLONE, to enable
796 clone event reporting, and GDB_THREAD_OPTION_EXIT to enable thread
797 exit event reporting.
799 QThreadOptions in qSupported
800 The qSupported packet allows GDB to inform the stub it supports the
801 QThreadOptions packet, and the qSupported response can contain the
802 set of thread options the remote stub supports.
805 This new packet allows GDB to query the stub about a given address to check
806 if it is tagged or not. Many memory tagging-related GDB commands need to
807 perform this check before they read/write the allocation tag related to an
808 address. Currently, however, this is done through a 'vFile' request to read
809 the file /proc/<PID>/smaps and check if the address is in a region reported
810 as memory tagged. Since not all targets have a notion of what the smaps
811 file is about, this new packet provides a more generic way to perform such
814 *** Changes in GDB 14
816 * GDB now supports the AArch64 Scalable Matrix Extension 2 (SME2), which
817 includes a new 512 bit lookup table register named ZT0.
819 * GDB now supports the AArch64 Scalable Matrix Extension (SME), which includes
820 a new matrix register named ZA, a new thread register TPIDR2 and a new vector
821 length register SVG (streaming vector granule). GDB also supports tracking
822 ZA state across signal frames.
824 Some features are still under development or are dependent on ABI specs that
825 are still in alpha stage. For example, manual function calls with ZA state
826 don't have any special handling, and tracking of SVG changes based on
827 DWARF information is still not implemented, but there are plans to do so in
830 * GDB now recognizes the NO_COLOR environment variable and disables
831 styling according to the spec. See https://no-color.org/.
832 Styling can be re-enabled with "set style enabled on".
834 * The AArch64 'org.gnu.gdb.aarch64.pauth' Pointer Authentication feature string
835 has been deprecated in favor of the 'org.gnu.gdb.aarch64.pauth_v2' feature
838 * GDB now has some support for integer types larger than 64 bits.
840 * Removed targets and native configurations
842 GDB no longer supports AIX 4.x, AIX 5.x and AIX 6.x. The minimum supported
843 AIX version is now AIX 7.1.
845 * Multi-target feature configuration
847 GDB now supports the individual configuration of remote targets' feature
848 sets. Based on the current selection of a target, the commands 'set remote
849 <name>-packet (on|off|auto)' and 'show remote <name>-packet' can be used to
850 configure a target's feature packet and to display its configuration,
853 The individual packet sizes can be configured and shown using the commands
854 ** 'set remote memory-read-packet-size (number of bytes|fixed|limit)'
855 ** 'set remote memory-write-packet-size (number of bytes|fixed|limit)'
856 ** 'show remote memory-read-packet-size'
857 ** 'show remote memory-write-packet-size'.
859 The configuration of the packet itself, as well as the size of a memory-read
860 or memory-write packet applies to the currently selected target (if
861 available). If no target is selected, it applies to future remote
862 connections. Similarly, the show commands print the configuration of the
863 currently selected target. If no remote target is selected, the default
864 configuration for future connections is shown.
866 * GDB has initial built-in support for the Debugger Adapter Protocol.
867 This support requires that GDB be built with Python scripting
870 * For the break command, multiple uses of the 'thread' or 'task'
871 keywords will now give an error instead of just using the thread or
872 task id from the last instance of the keyword. E.g.:
873 break foo thread 1 thread 2
874 will now give an error rather than using 'thread 2'.
876 * For the watch command, multiple uses of the 'task' keyword will now
877 give an error instead of just using the task id from the last
878 instance of the keyword. E.g.:
879 watch my_var task 1 task 2
880 will now give an error rather than using 'task 2'. The 'thread'
881 keyword already gave an error when used multiple times with the
882 watch command, this remains unchanged.
884 * The 'set print elements' setting now helps when printing large arrays.
885 If an array would otherwise exceed max-value-size, but 'print elements'
886 is set such that the size of elements to print is less than or equal
887 to 'max-value-size', GDB will now still print the array, however only
888 'max-value-size' worth of data will be added into the value history.
890 * For both the break and watch commands, it is now invalid to use both
891 the 'thread' and 'task' keywords within the same command. For
892 example the following commands will now give an error:
893 break foo thread 1 task 1
894 watch var thread 2 task 3
896 * The printf command now accepts a '%V' output format which will
897 format an expression just as the 'print' command would. Print
898 options can be placed within '[...]' after the '%V' to modify how
899 the value is printed. E.g:
900 printf "%V", some_array
901 printf "%V[-array-indexes on]", some_array
902 will print the array without, or with array indexes included, just
903 as the array would be printed by the 'print' command. This
904 functionality is also available for dprintf when dprintf-style is
907 * When the printf command requires a string to be fetched from the
908 inferior, GDB now uses the existing 'max-value-size' setting to the
909 limit the memory allocated within GDB. The default 'max-value-size'
910 is 64k. To print longer strings you should increase
913 * The Ada 2022 Enum_Rep and Enum_Val attributes are now supported.
915 * The Ada 2022 target name symbol ('@') is now supported by the Ada
918 * The 'list' command now accepts '.' as an argument, which tells GDB to
919 print the location around the point of execution within the current frame.
920 If the inferior hasn't started yet, the command will print around the
921 beginning of the 'main' function.
923 * Using the 'list' command with no arguments in a situation where the
924 command would attempt to list past the end of the file now warns the
925 user that the end of file has been reached, refers the user to the
926 newly added '.' argument
928 * Breakpoints can now be inferior-specific. This is similar to the
929 existing thread-specific breakpoint support. Breakpoint conditions
930 can include the 'inferior' keyword followed by an inferior id (as
931 displayed in the 'info inferiors' output). It is invalid to use the
932 'inferior' keyword with either the 'thread' or 'task' keywords when
933 creating a breakpoint.
935 * New convenience function "$_shell", to execute a shell command and
936 return the result. This lets you run shell commands in expressions.
939 (gdb) p $_shell("true")
941 (gdb) p $_shell("false")
943 (gdb) break func if $_shell("some command") == 0
947 --additional-debug-dirs=PATHs
949 Provide a colon-separated list of additional directories to search for
950 separate debug info. These directories are added to the default value of
951 the 'debug-file-directory' GDB parameter.
955 set debug breakpoint on|off
956 show debug breakpoint
957 Print additional debug messages about breakpoint insertion and removal.
959 maintenance print record-instruction [ N ]
960 Print the recorded information for a given instruction. If N is not given
961 prints how GDB would undo the last instruction executed. If N is negative,
962 prints how GDB would undo the N-th previous instruction, and if N is
963 positive, it prints how GDB will redo the N-th following instruction.
965 maintenance info frame-unwinders
966 List the frame unwinders currently in effect, starting with the highest
969 maintenance wait-for-index-cache
970 Wait until all pending writes to the index cache have completed.
972 set always-read-ctf on|off
974 When off, CTF is only read if DWARF is not present. When on, CTF is
975 read regardless of whether DWARF is present. Off by default.
978 Get main symbol to identify entry point into program.
980 set tui mouse-events [on|off]
981 show tui mouse-events
982 When on (default), mouse clicks control the TUI and can be accessed by
983 Python extensions. When off, mouse clicks are handled by the terminal,
984 enabling terminal-native text selection.
988 ** MI version 1 has been removed.
990 ** mi now reports 'no-history' as a stop reason when hitting the end of the
991 reverse execution history.
993 ** When creating a thread-specific breakpoint using the '-p' option,
994 the -break-insert command would report the 'thread' field twice in
995 the reply. The content of both fields was always identical. This
996 has now been fixed; the 'thread' field will be reported just once
997 for thread-specific breakpoints, or not at all for breakpoints
998 without a thread restriction. The same is also true for the 'task'
999 field of an Ada task-specific breakpoint.
1001 ** It is no longer possible to create a thread-specific breakpoint for
1002 a thread that doesn't exist using '-break-insert -p ID'. Creating
1003 breakpoints for non-existent threads is not allowed when using the
1004 CLI, that the MI allowed it was a long standing bug, which has now
1007 ** The '--simple-values' argument to the '-stack-list-arguments',
1008 '-stack-list-locals', '-stack-list-variables', and '-var-list-children'
1009 commands now takes reference types into account: that is, a value is now
1010 considered simple if it is neither an array, structure, or union, nor a
1011 reference to an array, structure, or union. (Previously all references were
1012 considered simple.) Support for this feature can be verified by using the
1013 '-list-features' command, which should contain "simple-values-ref-types".
1015 ** The -break-insert command now accepts a '-g thread-group-id' option
1016 to allow for the creation of inferior-specific breakpoints.
1018 ** The bkpt tuple, which appears in breakpoint-created notifications,
1019 and in the result of the -break-insert command can now include an
1020 optional 'inferior' field for both the main breakpoint, and each
1021 location, when the breakpoint is inferior-specific.
1025 ** gdb.ThreadExitedEvent added. Emits a ThreadEvent.
1027 ** The gdb.unwinder.Unwinder.name attribute is now read-only.
1029 ** The name argument passed to gdb.unwinder.Unwinder.__init__ must
1030 now be of type 'str' otherwise a TypeError will be raised.
1032 ** The gdb.unwinder.Unwinder.enabled attribute can now only accept
1033 values of type 'bool'. Changing this attribute will now
1034 invalidate GDB's frame-cache, which means GDB will need to
1035 rebuild its frame-cache when next required - either with, or
1036 without the particular unwinder, depending on how 'enabled' was
1039 ** New methods added to the gdb.PendingFrame class. These methods
1040 have the same behavior as the corresponding methods on
1041 gdb.Frame. The new methods are:
1043 - gdb.PendingFrame.name: Return the name for the frame's
1045 - gdb.PendingFrame.is_valid: Return True if the pending frame
1047 - gdb.PendingFrame.pc: Return the $pc register value for this
1049 - gdb.PendingFrame.language: Return a string containing the
1050 language for this frame, or None.
1051 - gdb.PendingFrame.find_sal: Return a gdb.Symtab_and_line
1052 object for the current location within the pending frame, or
1054 - gdb.PendingFrame.block: Return a gdb.Block for the current
1055 pending frame, or None.
1056 - gdb.PendingFrame.function: Return a gdb.Symbol for the
1057 current pending frame, or None.
1059 ** The frame-id passed to gdb.PendingFrame.create_unwind_info can
1060 now use either an integer or a gdb.Value object for each of its
1061 'sp', 'pc', and 'special' attributes.
1063 ** A new class gdb.unwinder.FrameId has been added. Instances of
1064 this class are constructed with 'sp' (stack-pointer) and 'pc'
1065 (program-counter) values, and can be used as the frame-id when
1066 calling gdb.PendingFrame.create_unwind_info.
1068 ** It is now no longer possible to sub-class the
1069 gdb.disassembler.DisassemblerResult type.
1071 ** The Disassembler API from the gdb.disassembler module has been
1072 extended to include styling support:
1074 - The DisassemblerResult class can now be initialized with a list
1075 of parts. Each part represents part of the disassembled
1076 instruction along with the associated style information. This
1077 list of parts can be accessed with the new
1078 DisassemblerResult.parts property.
1080 - New constants gdb.disassembler.STYLE_* representing all the
1081 different styles part of an instruction might have.
1083 - New methods DisassembleInfo.text_part and
1084 DisassembleInfo.address_part which are used to create the new
1085 styled parts of a disassembled instruction.
1087 - Changes are backwards compatible, the older API can still be
1088 used to disassemble instructions without styling.
1090 ** New function gdb.execute_mi(COMMAND, [ARG]...), that invokes a
1091 GDB/MI command and returns the output as a Python dictionary.
1093 ** New function gdb.block_signals(). This returns a context manager
1094 that blocks any signals that GDB needs to handle itself.
1096 ** New class gdb.Thread. This is a subclass of threading.Thread
1097 that calls gdb.block_signals in its "start" method.
1099 ** gdb.parse_and_eval now has a new "global_context" parameter.
1100 This can be used to request that the parse only examine global
1103 ** gdb.Inferior now has a new "arguments" attribute. This holds the
1104 command-line arguments to the inferior, if known.
1106 ** gdb.Inferior now has a new "main_name" attribute. This holds the
1107 name of the inferior's "main", if known.
1109 ** gdb.Inferior now has new methods "clear_env", "set_env", and
1110 "unset_env". These can be used to modify the inferior's
1111 environment before it is started.
1113 ** gdb.Value now has the 'assign' method.
1115 ** gdb.Value now has the 'to_array' method. This converts an
1116 array-like Value to an array.
1118 ** gdb.Progspace now has the new method "objfile_for_address". This
1119 returns the gdb.Objfile, if any, that covers a given address.
1121 ** gdb.Breakpoint now has an "inferior" attribute. If the
1122 Breakpoint object is inferior specific then this attribute holds
1123 the inferior-id (an integer). If the Breakpoint object is not
1124 inferior specific, then this field contains None. This field can
1127 ** gdb.Type now has the "is_array_like" and "is_string_like"
1128 methods. These reflect GDB's internal idea of whether a type
1129 might be array- or string-like, even if they do not have the
1130 corresponding type code.
1132 ** gdb.ValuePrinter is a new class that can be used as the base
1133 class for the result of applying a pretty-printer. As a base
1134 class, it signals to gdb that the printer may implement new
1135 pretty-printer methods.
1137 ** New attribute Progspace.symbol_file. This attribute holds the
1138 gdb.Objfile that corresponds to Progspace.filename (when
1139 Progspace.filename is not None), otherwise, this attribute is
1142 ** New attribute Progspace.executable_filename. This attribute
1143 holds a string containing a file name set by the "exec-file" or
1144 "file" commands, or None if no executable file is set. This
1145 isn't the exact string passed by the user to these commands; the
1146 file name will have been partially resolved to an absolute file
1149 ** A new executable_changed event registry is available. This event
1150 emits ExecutableChangedEvent objects, which have 'progspace' (a
1151 gdb.Progspace) and 'reload' (a Boolean) attributes. This event
1152 is emitted when gdb.Progspace.executable_filename changes.
1154 ** New event registries gdb.events.new_progspace and
1155 gdb.events.free_progspace, these emit NewProgspaceEvent and
1156 FreeProgspaceEvent event types respectively. Both of these event
1157 types have a single 'progspace' attribute, which is the
1158 gdb.Progspace that is either being added to GDB, or removed from
1161 ** gdb.LazyString now implements the __str__ method.
1163 ** New method gdb.Frame.static_link that returns the outer frame
1164 of a nested function frame.
1166 *** Changes in GDB 13
1168 * MI version 1 is deprecated, and will be removed in GDB 14.
1170 * GDB now supports dumping memory tag data for AArch64 MTE. It also supports
1171 reading memory tag data for AArch64 MTE from core files generated by
1172 the gcore command or the Linux kernel.
1174 When a process uses memory-mapped pages protected by memory tags (for
1175 example, AArch64 MTE), this additional information will be recorded in
1176 the core file in the event of a crash or if GDB generates a core file
1177 from the current process state. GDB will show this additional information
1178 automatically, or through one of the memory-tag subcommands.
1180 * Scheduler-locking and new threads
1182 When scheduler-locking is in effect, only the current thread may run
1183 when the inferior is resumed. However, previously, new threads
1184 created by the resumed thread would still be able to run free. Now,
1185 they are held stopped.
1187 * "info breakpoints" now displays enabled breakpoint locations of
1188 disabled breakpoints as in the "y-" state. For example:
1190 (gdb) info breakpoints
1191 Num Type Disp Enb Address What
1192 1 breakpoint keep n <MULTIPLE>
1193 1.1 y- 0x00000000000011b6 in ...
1194 1.2 y- 0x00000000000011c2 in ...
1195 1.3 n 0x00000000000011ce in ...
1197 * Support for Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on FreeBSD arm and
1198 aarch64 architectures.
1200 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on FreeBSD/Aarch64.
1202 * Remove support for building against Python 2, it is now only possible to
1203 build GDB against Python 3.
1205 * DBX mode has been removed.
1207 * GDB now honours the DWARF prologue_end line-table entry flag the compiler can
1208 emit to indicate where a breakpoint should be placed to break in a function
1211 * Completion now also offers "NUMBER" for "set" commands that accept
1212 a numeric argument and the "unlimited" keyword. For example:
1214 (gdb) set width <TAB>
1219 (gdb) complete set width
1223 * Disassembler styling using libopcodes. GDB now supports
1224 disassembler styling using libopcodes. This is only available for
1225 some targets (currently x86 and RISC-V). For unsupported targets
1226 Python Pygments is still used. For supported targets, libopcodes
1227 styling is used by default.
1229 * The Windows native target now supports target async.
1231 * gdb now supports zstd compressed debug sections (ELFCOMPRESS_ZSTD) for ELF.
1233 * The format of 'disassemble /r' and 'record instruction-history /r'
1234 has changed. The instruction bytes could now be grouped together,
1235 and displayed in the endianness of the instruction. This is the
1236 same layout as used by GNU objdump when disassembling.
1238 There is now 'disassemble /b' and 'record instruction-history /b'
1239 which will always display the instructions bytes one at a time in
1240 memory order, that is, the byte at the lowest address first.
1242 For both /r and /b GDB is now better at using whitespace in order to
1243 align the disassembled instruction text.
1245 * The TUI no longer styles the source and assembly code highlighted by
1246 the current position indicator by default. You can however
1247 re-enable styling using the new "set style tui-current-position"
1250 * New convenience variable $_inferior_thread_count contains the number
1251 of live threads in the current inferior.
1253 * When a breakpoint with multiple code locations is hit, GDB now prints
1254 the code location using the syntax <breakpoint_number>.<location_number>
1256 Thread 1 "zeoes" hit Breakpoint 2.3, some_func () at zeoes.c:8
1258 * When a breakpoint is hit, GDB now sets the convenience variables $_hit_bpnum
1259 and $_hit_locno to the hit breakpoint number and code location number.
1260 This allows to disable the last hit breakpoint using
1261 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum
1262 or disable only the specific breakpoint code location using
1263 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum.$_hit_locno
1264 These commands can be used inside the command list of a breakpoint to
1265 automatically disable the just encountered breakpoint (or the just
1266 encountered specific breakpoint code location).
1267 When a breakpoint has only one location, $_hit_locno is set to 1 so that
1268 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum.$_hit_locno
1270 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum
1271 are both disabling the breakpoint.
1275 maintenance set ignore-prologue-end-flag on|off
1276 maintenance show ignore-prologue-end-flag
1277 This setting, which is off by default, controls whether GDB ignores the
1278 PROLOGUE-END flag from the line-table when skipping prologue. This can be
1279 used to force GDB to use prologue analyzers if the line-table is constructed
1280 from erroneous debug information.
1282 set print nibbles [on|off]
1284 This controls whether the 'print/t' command will display binary values
1285 in groups of four bits, known as "nibbles". The default is 'off'.
1287 maintenance set libopcodes-styling on|off
1288 maintenance show libopcodes-styling
1289 These can be used to force off libopcodes based styling, the Python
1290 Pygments styling will then be used instead.
1292 set style disassembler comment
1293 show style disassembler comment
1294 set style disassembler immediate
1295 show style disassembler immediate
1296 set style disassembler mnemonic
1297 show style disassembler mnemonic
1298 set style disassembler register
1299 show style disassembler register
1300 set style disassembler address
1301 show style disassembler address
1302 set style disassembler symbol
1303 show style disassembler symbol
1304 For targets that support libopcodes based styling, these settings
1305 control how various aspects of the disassembler output are styled.
1306 The 'disassembler address' and 'disassembler symbol' styles are
1307 aliases for the 'address' and 'function' styles respectively.
1309 maintenance print frame-id [ LEVEL ]
1310 Print GDB's internal frame-id for the frame at LEVEL. If LEVEL is
1311 not given, then print the frame-id for the currently selected frame.
1313 set debug infcall on|off
1315 Print additional debug messages about inferior function calls.
1317 set debug solib on|off
1319 Print additional debug messages about shared library handling.
1321 set style tui-current-position [on|off]
1322 Whether to style the source and assembly code highlighted by the
1323 TUI's current position indicator. The default is off.
1325 set print characters LIMIT
1326 show print characters
1327 This new setting is like 'set print elements', but controls how many
1328 characters of a string are printed. This functionality used to be
1329 covered by 'set print elements', but it can be controlled separately
1330 now. LIMIT can be set to a numerical value to request that particular
1331 character count, to 'unlimited' to print all characters of a string,
1332 or to 'elements', which is also the default, to follow the setting of
1333 'set print elements' as it used to be.
1335 print -characters LIMIT
1336 This new option to the 'print' command has the same effect as a temporary
1337 use of 'set print characters'.
1341 document user-defined
1342 It is now possible to document user-defined aliases.
1343 When a user-defined alias is documented, the help and apropos commands
1344 use the provided documentation instead of the documentation of the
1346 Documenting a user-defined alias is particularly useful when the alias
1347 is a set of nested 'with' commands to avoid showing the help of
1348 the with command for an alias that will in fact launch the
1349 last command given in the nested commands.
1351 maintenance info line-table
1352 Add a PROLOGUE-END column to the output which indicates that an
1353 entry corresponds to an address where a breakpoint should be placed
1354 to be at the first instruction past a function's prologue.
1358 set debug aix-solib on|off
1359 show debug aix-solib
1360 set debug solib-frv on|off
1361 show debug solib-frv
1362 Removed in favor of "set/show debug solib".
1364 maintenance info program-spaces
1365 This command now includes a 'Core File' column which indicates the
1366 name of the core file associated with each program space.
1370 GNU/Linux/LoongArch (gdbserver) loongarch*-*-linux*
1372 GNU/Linux/CSKY (gdbserver) csky*-*linux*
1378 ** The async record stating the stopped reason 'breakpoint-hit' now
1379 contains an optional field locno giving the code location number
1380 when the breakpoint has multiple code locations.
1384 ** GDB will now reformat the doc string for gdb.Command and
1385 gdb.Parameter sub-classes to remove unnecessary leading
1386 whitespace from each line before using the string as the help
1389 ** New function gdb.format_address(ADDRESS, PROGSPACE, ARCHITECTURE),
1390 that formats ADDRESS as 'address <symbol+offset>', where symbol is
1391 looked up in PROGSPACE, and ARCHITECTURE is used to format address.
1392 This is the same format that GDB uses when printing address, symbol,
1393 and offset information from the disassembler.
1395 ** New function gdb.current_language that returns the name of the
1396 current language. Unlike gdb.parameter('language'), this will
1397 never return 'auto'.
1399 ** New method gdb.Frame.language that returns the name of the
1402 ** New Python API for wrapping GDB's disassembler:
1404 - gdb.disassembler.register_disassembler(DISASSEMBLER, ARCH).
1405 DISASSEMBLER is a sub-class of gdb.disassembler.Disassembler.
1406 ARCH is either None or a string containing a bfd architecture
1407 name. DISASSEMBLER is registered as a disassembler for
1408 architecture ARCH, or for all architectures if ARCH is None.
1409 The previous disassembler registered for ARCH is returned, this
1410 can be None if no previous disassembler was registered.
1412 - gdb.disassembler.Disassembler is the class from which all
1413 disassemblers should inherit. Its constructor takes a string,
1414 a name for the disassembler, which is currently only used in
1415 some debug output. Sub-classes should override the __call__
1416 method to perform disassembly, invoking __call__ on this base
1417 class will raise an exception.
1419 - gdb.disassembler.DisassembleInfo is the class used to describe
1420 a single disassembly request from GDB. An instance of this
1421 class is passed to the __call__ method of
1422 gdb.disassembler.Disassembler and has the following read-only
1423 attributes: 'address', and 'architecture', as well as the
1424 following method: 'read_memory'.
1426 - gdb.disassembler.builtin_disassemble(INFO, MEMORY_SOURCE),
1427 calls GDB's builtin disassembler on INFO, which is a
1428 gdb.disassembler.DisassembleInfo object. MEMORY_SOURCE is
1429 optional, its default value is None. If MEMORY_SOURCE is not
1430 None then it must be an object that has a 'read_memory' method.
1432 - gdb.disassembler.DisassemblerResult is a class that can be used
1433 to wrap the result of a call to a Disassembler. It has
1434 read-only attributes 'length' and 'string'.
1436 ** gdb.Objfile now has an attribute named "is_file". This is True
1437 if the objfile comes from a file, and False otherwise.
1439 ** New function gdb.print_options that returns a dictionary of the
1440 prevailing print options, in the form accepted by
1441 gdb.Value.format_string.
1443 ** gdb.Value.format_string now uses the format provided by 'print',
1444 if it is called during a 'print' or other similar operation.
1446 ** gdb.Value.format_string now accepts the 'summary' keyword. This
1447 can be used to request a shorter representation of a value, the
1448 way that 'set print frame-arguments scalars' does.
1450 ** New Python type gdb.BreakpointLocation.
1451 The new attribute 'locations' of gdb.Breakpoint returns a list of
1452 gdb.BreakpointLocation objects specifying the locations where the
1453 breakpoint is inserted into the debuggee.
1455 ** The gdb.register_window_type method now restricts the set of
1456 acceptable window names. The first character of a window's name
1457 must start with a character in the set [a-zA-Z], every subsequent
1458 character of a window's name must be in the set [-_.a-zA-Z0-9].
1460 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1462 ** GDBserver is now supported on LoongArch GNU/Linux.
1464 ** GDBserver is now supported on CSKY GNU/Linux.
1466 * LoongArch floating-point support
1468 GDB now supports floating-point on LoongArch GNU/Linux.
1470 * AMD GPU ROCm debugging support
1472 GDB now supports debugging programs offloaded to AMD GPUs using the ROCm
1475 *** Changes in GDB 12
1477 * DBX mode is deprecated, and will be removed in GDB 13
1479 * GDB 12 is the last release of GDB that will support building against
1480 Python 2. From GDB 13, it will only be possible to build GDB itself
1481 with Python 3 support.
1483 * The disable-randomization setting now works on Windows.
1485 * Improved C++ template support
1487 GDB now treats functions/types involving C++ templates like it does function
1488 overloads. Users may omit parameter lists to set breakpoints on families of
1489 template functions, including types/functions composed of multiple template types:
1491 (gdb) break template_func(template_1, int)
1493 The above will set breakpoints at every function `template_func' where
1494 the first function parameter is any template type named `template_1' and
1495 the second function parameter is `int'.
1497 TAB completion also gains similar improvements.
1499 * The FreeBSD native target now supports async mode.
1505 Enable or disable multithreaded symbol loading. This is enabled
1506 by default, but passing --disable-threading or --enable-threading=no
1507 to configure will disable it.
1509 Disabling this can cause a performance penalty when there are a lot of
1510 symbols to load, but is useful for debugging purposes.
1514 maint set backtrace-on-fatal-signal on|off
1515 maint show backtrace-on-fatal-signal
1516 This setting is 'on' by default. When 'on' GDB will print a limited
1517 backtrace to stderr in the situation where GDB terminates with a
1518 fatal signal. This only supported on some platforms where the
1519 backtrace and backtrace_symbols_fd functions are available.
1521 set source open on|off
1523 This setting, which is on by default, controls whether GDB will try
1524 to open source code files. Switching this off will stop GDB trying
1525 to open and read source code files, which can be useful if the files
1526 are located over a slow network connection.
1530 These are now deprecated aliases for "set max-value-size" and
1531 "show max-value-size".
1533 task apply [all | TASK-IDS...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
1534 Like "thread apply", but applies COMMAND to Ada tasks.
1537 Watchpoints can now be restricted to a specific Ada task.
1539 maint set internal-error backtrace on|off
1540 maint show internal-error backtrace
1541 maint set internal-warning backtrace on|off
1542 maint show internal-warning backtrace
1543 GDB can now print a backtrace of itself when it encounters either an
1544 internal-error, or an internal-warning. This is on by default for
1545 internal-error and off by default for internal-warning.
1548 Deprecated and replaced by "set logging enabled on|off".
1550 set logging enabled on|off
1551 show logging enabled
1552 These commands set or show whether logging is enabled or disabled.
1555 You can now exit GDB by using the new command "exit", in addition to
1556 the existing "quit" command.
1558 set debug threads on|off
1560 Print additional debug messages about thread creation and deletion.
1562 set debug linux-nat on|off
1563 show debug linux-nat
1564 These new commands replaced the old 'set debug lin-lwp' and 'show
1565 debug lin-lwp' respectively. Turning this setting on prints debug
1566 messages relating to GDB's handling of native Linux inferiors.
1568 maint flush source-cache
1569 Flush the contents of the source code cache.
1571 maint set gnu-source-highlight enabled on|off
1572 maint show gnu-source-highlight enabled
1573 Whether GDB should use the GNU Source Highlight library for adding
1574 styling to source code. When off, the library will not be used, even
1575 when available. When GNU Source Highlight isn't used, or can't add
1576 styling to a particular source file, then the Python Pygments
1577 library will be used instead.
1579 set suppress-cli-notifications (on|off)
1580 show suppress-cli-notifications
1581 This controls whether printing the notifications is suppressed for CLI.
1582 CLI notifications occur when you change the selected context
1583 (i.e., the current inferior, thread and/or the frame), or when
1584 the program being debugged stops (e.g., because of hitting a
1585 breakpoint, completing source-stepping, an interrupt, etc.).
1587 set style disassembler enabled on|off
1588 show style disassembler enabled
1589 If GDB is compiled with Python support, and the Python Pygments
1590 package is available, then, when this setting is on, disassembler
1591 output will have styling applied.
1593 set ada source-charset
1594 show ada source-charset
1595 Set the character set encoding that is assumed for Ada symbols. Valid
1596 values for this follow the values that can be passed to the GNAT
1597 compiler via the '-gnati' option. The default is ISO-8859-1.
1603 These are the new names for the old 'layout', 'focus', 'refresh',
1604 and 'winheight' tui commands respectively. The old names still
1605 exist as aliases to these new commands.
1609 The new command 'tui window width', and the alias 'winwidth' allow
1610 the width of a tui window to be adjusted when windows are laid out
1613 set debug tui on|off
1615 Control the display of debug output about GDB's tui.
1620 Printing of floating-point values with base-modifying formats like
1621 /x has been changed to display the underlying bytes of the value in
1622 the desired base. This was GDB's documented behavior, but was never
1623 implemented correctly.
1626 This command can now print a reply, if the reply includes
1627 non-printable characters. Any non-printable characters are printed
1628 as escaped hex, e.g. \x?? where '??' is replaces with the value of
1629 the non-printable character.
1632 The clone-inferior command now ensures that the TTY, CMD and ARGS
1633 settings are copied from the original inferior to the new one.
1634 All modifications to the environment variables done using the 'set
1635 environment' or 'unset environment' commands are also copied to the new
1638 set debug lin-lwp on|off
1640 These commands have been removed from GDB. The new command 'set
1641 debug linux-nat' and 'show debug linux-nat' should be used
1645 This command now includes information about the width of the tui
1646 windows in its output.
1652 These commands are now aliases for the 'tui layout', 'tui focus',
1653 'tui refresh', and 'tui window height' commands respectively.
1655 * GDB's Ada parser now supports an extension for specifying the exact
1656 byte contents of a floating-point literal. This can be useful for
1657 setting floating-point registers to a precise value without loss of
1658 precision. The syntax is an extension of the based literal syntax.
1659 Use, e.g., "16lf#0123abcd#" -- the number of "l"s controls the width
1660 of the floating-point type, and the "f" is the marker for floating
1665 ** The '-add-inferior' with no option flags now inherits the
1666 connection of the current inferior, this restores the behavior of
1667 GDB as it was prior to GDB 10.
1669 ** The '-add-inferior' command now accepts a '--no-connection'
1670 option, which causes the new inferior to start without a
1673 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 4 (-i=mi4).
1675 ** The "script" field in breakpoint output (which is syntactically
1676 incorrect in MI 3 and below) has changed in MI 4 to become a list.
1677 This affects the following commands and events:
1681 - =breakpoint-created
1682 - =breakpoint-modified
1684 The -fix-breakpoint-script-output command can be used to enable
1685 this behavior with previous MI versions.
1689 GNU/Linux/LoongArch loongarch*-*-linux*
1697 ** New function gdb.add_history(), which takes a gdb.Value object
1698 and adds the value it represents to GDB's history list. An
1699 integer, the index of the new item in the history list, is
1702 ** New function gdb.history_count(), which returns the number of
1703 values in GDB's value history.
1705 ** New gdb.events.gdb_exiting event. This event is called with a
1706 gdb.GdbExitingEvent object which has the read-only attribute
1707 'exit_code', which contains the value of the GDB exit code. This
1708 event is triggered once GDB decides it is going to exit, but
1709 before GDB starts to clean up its internal state.
1711 ** New function gdb.architecture_names(), which returns a list
1712 containing all of the possible Architecture.name() values. Each
1715 ** New function gdb.Architecture.integer_type(), which returns an
1716 integer type given a size and a signed-ness.
1718 ** New gdb.TargetConnection object type that represents a connection
1719 (as displayed by the 'info connections' command). A sub-class,
1720 gdb.RemoteTargetConnection, is used to represent 'remote' and
1721 'extended-remote' connections.
1723 ** The gdb.Inferior type now has a 'connection' property which is an
1724 instance of gdb.TargetConnection, the connection used by this
1725 inferior. This can be None if the inferior has no connection.
1727 ** New 'gdb.events.connection_removed' event registry, which emits a
1728 'gdb.ConnectionEvent' when a connection is removed from GDB.
1729 This event has a 'connection' property, a gdb.TargetConnection
1730 object for the connection being removed.
1732 ** New gdb.connections() function that returns a list of all
1733 currently active connections.
1735 ** New gdb.RemoteTargetConnection.send_packet(PACKET) method. This
1736 is equivalent to the existing 'maint packet' CLI command; it
1737 allows a user specified packet to be sent to the remote target.
1739 ** New function gdb.host_charset(), returns a string, which is the
1740 name of the current host charset.
1742 ** New gdb.set_parameter(NAME, VALUE). This sets the gdb parameter
1745 ** New gdb.with_parameter(NAME, VALUE). This returns a context
1746 manager that temporarily sets the gdb parameter NAME to VALUE,
1747 then resets it when the context is exited.
1749 ** The gdb.Value.format_string method now takes a 'styling'
1750 argument, which is a boolean. When true, the returned string can
1751 include escape sequences to apply styling. The styling will only
1752 be present if styling is otherwise turned on in GDB (see 'help
1753 set styling'). When false, which is the default if the argument
1754 is not given, then no styling is applied to the returned string.
1756 ** New read-only attribute gdb.InferiorThread.details, which is
1757 either a string, containing additional, target specific thread
1758 state information, or None, if there is no such additional
1761 ** New read-only attribute gdb.Type.is_scalar, which is True for
1762 scalar types, and False for all other types.
1764 ** New read-only attribute gdb.Type.is_signed. This attribute
1765 should only be read when Type.is_scalar is True, and will be True
1766 for signed types, and False for all other types. Attempting to
1767 read this attribute for non-scalar types will raise a ValueError.
1769 ** It is now possible to add GDB/MI commands implemented in Python.
1771 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1773 ** GDBserver is now supported on OpenRISC GNU/Linux.
1775 * New native configurations
1777 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
1779 *** Changes in GDB 11
1781 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
1784 * GDB now supports general memory tagging functionality if the underlying
1785 architecture supports the proper primitives and hooks. Currently this is
1786 enabled only for AArch64 MTE.
1790 - Additional information when the inferior crashes with a SIGSEGV caused by
1791 a memory tag violation.
1793 - A new modifier 'm' for the "x" command, which displays allocation tags for a
1794 particular memory range.
1796 - Display of memory tag mismatches by "print", for addresses and
1797 pointers, if memory tagging is supported by the architecture.
1799 * Building GDB now requires GMP (The GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic
1804 ** '-break-insert --qualified' and '-dprintf-insert --qualified'
1806 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
1807 new "--qualified" option that makes GDB interpret a specified
1808 function name as a complete fully-qualified name. This is the
1809 equivalent of the CLI's "break -qualified" and "dprintf
1812 ** '-break-insert --force-condition' and '-dprintf-insert --force-condition'
1814 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
1815 '--force-condition' flag to forcibly define a condition even when
1816 the condition is invalid at all locations of the breakpoint. This
1817 is equivalent to the '-force-condition' flag of the CLI's "break"
1820 ** '-break-condition --force'
1822 The MI -break-condition command now supports a '--force' flag to
1823 forcibly define a condition even when the condition is invalid at
1824 all locations of the selected breakpoint. This is equivalent to
1825 the '-force' flag of the CLI's "cond" command.
1827 ** '-file-list-exec-source-files [--group-by-objfile]
1828 [--basename | --dirname]
1831 The existing -file-list-exec-source-files command now takes an
1832 optional REGEXP which is used to filter the source files that are
1833 included in the results.
1835 By default REGEXP is matched against the full filename of the
1836 source file. When one of --basename or --dirname is given then
1837 REGEXP is only matched against the specified part of the full
1840 When the optional --group-by-objfile flag is used the output
1841 format is changed, the results are now a list of object files
1842 (executable and libraries) with the source files that are
1843 associated with each object file.
1845 The results from -file-list-exec-source-files now include a
1846 'debug-fully-read' field which takes the value 'true' or 'false'.
1847 A 'true' value indicates the source file is from a compilation
1848 unit that has had its debug information fully read in by GDB, a
1849 value of 'false' indicates GDB has only performed a partial scan
1850 of the debug information so far.
1852 * GDB now supports core file debugging for x86_64 Cygwin programs.
1854 * GDB will now look for the .gdbinit file in a config directory before
1855 looking for ~/.gdbinit. The file is searched for in the following
1856 locations: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.config/gdb/gdbinit,
1857 $HOME/.gdbinit. On Apple hosts the search order is instead:
1858 $HOME/Library/Preferences/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.gdbinit.
1860 * GDB now supports fixed point types which are described in DWARF
1861 as base types with a fixed-point encoding. Additionally, support
1862 for the DW_AT_GNU_numerator and DW_AT_GNU_denominator has also
1865 For Ada, this allows support for fixed point types without requiring
1866 the use of the GNAT encoding (based on information added to the type's
1867 name following a GNAT-specific format).
1869 * GDB will now load and process commands from ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit
1870 or ~/.gdbearlyinit if these files are present. These files are
1871 processed earlier than any of the other initialization files and
1872 can affect parts of GDB's startup that previously had already been
1873 completed before the initialization files were read, for example
1874 styling of the initial GDB greeting.
1876 * GDB now has two new options "--early-init-command" and
1877 "--early-init-eval-command" with corresponding short options "-eix"
1878 and "-eiex" that allow options (that would normally appear in a
1879 gdbearlyinit file) to be passed on the command line.
1881 * For RISC-V targets, the target feature "org.gnu.gdb.riscv.vector" is
1882 now understood by GDB, and can be used to describe the vector
1883 registers of a target. The precise requirements of this register
1884 feature are documented in the GDB manual.
1886 * For ARM targets, the "org.gnu.gdb.arm.m-profile-mve" feature is now
1887 supported by GDB and describes a new VPR register from the ARM MVE
1888 (Helium) extension. See the GDB manual for more information.
1892 ** TUI windows now support mouse actions. The mouse wheel scrolls
1893 the appropriate window.
1895 ** Key combinations that do not have a specific action on the
1896 focused window are passed to GDB. For example, you now can use
1897 Ctrl-Left/Ctrl-Right to move between words in the command window
1898 regardless of which window is in focus. Previously you would
1899 need to focus on the command window for such key combinations to
1904 set debug event-loop
1905 show debug event-loop
1906 Control the display of debug output about GDB's event loop.
1908 set print memory-tag-violations
1909 show print memory-tag-violations
1910 Control whether to display additional information about memory tag violations
1911 when printing pointers and addresses. Architecture support for memory
1912 tagging is required for this option to have an effect.
1914 maintenance flush symbol-cache
1915 maintenance flush register-cache
1916 These new commands are equivalent to the already existing commands
1917 'maintenance flush-symbol-cache' and 'flushregs' respectively.
1919 maintenance flush dcache
1920 A new command to flush the dcache.
1922 maintenance info target-sections
1923 Print GDB's internal target sections table.
1925 maintenance info jit
1926 Print the JIT code objects in the inferior known to GDB.
1928 memory-tag show-logical-tag POINTER
1929 Print the logical tag for POINTER.
1930 memory-tag with-logical-tag POINTER TAG
1931 Print POINTER with logical tag TAG.
1932 memory-tag show-allocation-tag ADDRESS
1933 Print the allocation tag for ADDRESS.
1934 memory-tag set-allocation-tag ADDRESS LENGTH TAGS
1935 Set the allocation tag for [ADDRESS, ADDRESS + LENGTH) to TAGS.
1936 memory-tag check POINTER
1937 Validate that POINTER's logical tag matches the allocation tag.
1939 set startup-quietly on|off
1940 show startup-quietly
1941 When 'on', this causes GDB to act as if "-silent" were passed on the
1942 command line. This command needs to be added to an early
1943 initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to
1946 set print type hex on|off
1948 When 'on', the 'ptype' command uses hexadecimal notation to print sizes
1949 and offsets of struct members. When 'off', decimal notation is used.
1951 set python ignore-environment on|off
1952 show python ignore-environment
1953 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to ignore any
1954 environment variables that would otherwise affect how Python
1955 behaves. This command needs to be added to an early initialization
1956 file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to affect GDB.
1958 set python dont-write-bytecode auto|on|off
1959 show python dont-write-bytecode
1960 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to not write any
1961 byte-code (.pyc files) to disk. This command needs to be added to
1962 an early initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in
1963 order to affect GDB. When 'off' byte-code will always be written.
1964 When set to 'auto' (the default) Python will check the
1965 PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE environment variable.
1969 break [PROBE_MODIFIER] [LOCATION] [thread THREADNUM]
1970 [-force-condition] [if CONDITION]
1971 This command would previously refuse setting a breakpoint if the
1972 CONDITION expression is invalid at a location. It now accepts and
1973 defines the breakpoint if there is at least one location at which
1974 the CONDITION is valid. The locations for which the CONDITION is
1975 invalid, are automatically disabled. If CONDITION is invalid at all
1976 of the locations, setting the breakpoint is still rejected. However,
1977 the '-force-condition' flag can be used in this case for forcing GDB to
1978 define the breakpoint, making all the current locations automatically
1979 disabled. This may be useful if the user knows the condition will
1980 become meaningful at a future location, e.g. due to a shared library
1983 condition [-force] N COND
1984 The behavior of this command is changed the same way for the 'break'
1985 command as explained above. The '-force' flag can be used to force
1986 GDB into defining the condition even when COND is invalid for all the
1987 current locations of breakpoint N.
1990 maintenance flush-symbol-cache
1991 These commands are deprecated in favor of the new commands
1992 'maintenance flush register-cache' and 'maintenance flush
1993 symbol-cache' respectively.
1995 set style version foreground COLOR
1996 set style version background COLOR
1997 set style version intensity VALUE
1998 Control the styling of GDB's version number text.
2001 When the ID parameter is omitted, then this command prints information
2002 about the current inferior. When the ID parameter is present, the
2003 behavior of the command is unchanged and have the inferior ID become
2004 the current inferior.
2006 maintenance info sections
2007 The ALLOBJ keyword has been replaced with an -all-objects command
2008 line flag. It is now possible to filter which sections are printed
2009 even when -all-objects is passed.
2011 ptype[/FLAGS] TYPE | EXPRESSION
2012 The 'ptype' command has two new flags. When '/x' is set, hexadecimal
2013 notation is used when printing sizes and offsets of struct members.
2014 When '/d' is set, decimal notation is used when printing sizes and
2015 offsets of struct members. Default behavior is given by 'show print
2019 The info sources command output has been restructured. The results
2020 are now based around a list of objfiles (executable and libraries),
2021 and for each objfile the source files that are part of that objfile
2024 * Removed targets and native configurations
2026 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
2028 * New remote packets
2031 Request the remote to send allocation tags for a particular memory range.
2033 Request the remote to store the specified allocation tags to the requested
2038 ** Improved support for rvalue reference values:
2039 TYPE_CODE_RVALUE_REF is now exported as part of the API and the
2040 value-referenced-value procedure now handles rvalue reference
2043 ** New procedures for obtaining value variants:
2044 value-reference-value, value-rvalue-reference-value and
2047 ** Temporary breakpoints can now be created with make-breakpoint and
2048 tested for using breakpoint-temporary?.
2052 ** Inferior objects now contain a read-only 'connection_num' attribute that
2053 gives the connection number as seen in 'info connections' and
2056 ** New method gdb.Frame.level() which returns the stack level of the
2059 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.level() which returns the stack level
2060 of the frame object.
2062 ** When hitting a catchpoint, the Python API will now emit a
2063 gdb.BreakpointEvent rather than a gdb.StopEvent. The
2064 gdb.Breakpoint attached to the event will have type BP_CATCHPOINT.
2066 ** Python TUI windows can now receive mouse click events. If the
2067 Window object implements the click method, it is called for each
2068 mouse click event in this window.
2070 *** Changes in GDB 10
2072 * There are new feature names for ARC targets: "org.gnu.gdb.arc.core"
2073 and "org.gnu.gdb.arc.aux". The old names are still supported but
2074 must be considered obsolete. They will be deprecated after some
2077 * Help and apropos commands will now show the documentation of a
2078 command only once, even if that command has one or more aliases.
2079 These commands now show the command name, then all of its aliases,
2080 and finally the description of the command.
2082 * 'help aliases' now shows only the user defined aliases. GDB predefined
2083 aliases are shown together with their aliased command.
2085 * GDB now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing ELF/DWARF
2086 debugging information as well as source code.
2088 When built with debuginfod, GDB can automatically query debuginfod
2089 servers for the separate debug files and source code of the executable
2092 To build GDB with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure (this
2093 requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library).
2095 debuginfod is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178.
2097 You can get the latest version from https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
2099 * Multi-target debugging support
2101 GDB now supports debugging multiple target connections
2102 simultaneously. For example, you can now have each inferior
2103 connected to different remote servers running in different machines,
2104 or have one inferior debugging a local native process, an inferior
2105 debugging a core dump, etc.
2107 This support is experimental and comes with some limitations -- you
2108 can only resume multiple targets simultaneously if all targets
2109 support non-stop mode, and all remote stubs or servers must support
2110 the same set of remote protocol features exactly. See also "info
2111 connections" and "add-inferior -no-connection" below, and "maint set
2112 target-non-stop" in the user manual.
2114 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2116 ** GDBserver is now supported on ARC GNU/Linux.
2118 ** GDBserver is now supported on RISC-V GNU/Linux.
2120 ** GDBserver no longer supports these host triplets:
2122 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2131 i[34567]86-*-mingw32ce*
2133 * Debugging MS-Windows processes now sets $_exitsignal when the
2134 inferior is terminated by a signal, instead of setting $_exitcode.
2136 * Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
2137 that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
2138 performance for programs with many symbols.
2140 * The $_siginfo convenience variable now also works on Windows targets,
2141 and will display the EXCEPTION_RECORD of the last handled exception.
2143 * TUI windows can now be arranged horizontally.
2145 * The command history filename can now be set to the empty string
2146 either using 'set history filename' or by setting 'GDBHISTFILE=' in
2147 the environment. The effect of setting this filename to the empty
2148 string is that GDB will not try to load any previous command
2151 * On Windows targets, it is now possible to debug 32-bit programs with a
2156 set exec-file-mismatch -- Set exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
2157 show exec-file-mismatch -- Show exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
2158 Set or show the option 'exec-file-mismatch'. When GDB attaches to a
2159 running process, this new option indicates whether to detect
2160 a mismatch between the current executable file loaded by GDB and the
2161 executable file used to start the process. If 'ask', the default,
2162 display a warning and ask the user whether to load the process
2163 executable file; if 'warn', just display a warning; if 'off', don't
2164 attempt to detect a mismatch.
2166 tui new-layout NAME WINDOW WEIGHT [WINDOW WEIGHT]...
2167 Define a new TUI layout, specifying its name and the windows that
2170 maintenance print xml-tdesc [FILE]
2171 Prints the current target description as an XML document. If the
2172 optional FILE is provided (which is an XML target description) then
2173 the target description is read from FILE into GDB, and then
2176 maintenance print core-file-backed-mappings
2177 Prints file-backed mappings loaded from a core file's note section.
2178 Output is expected to be similar to that of "info proc mappings".
2180 set debug fortran-array-slicing on|off
2181 show debug fortran-array-slicing
2182 Print debugging when taking slices of Fortran arrays.
2184 set fortran repack-array-slices on|off
2185 show fortran repack-array-slices
2186 When taking slices from Fortran arrays and strings, if the slice is
2187 non-contiguous within the original value then, when this option is
2188 on, the new value will be repacked into a single contiguous value.
2189 When this option is off, then the value returned will consist of a
2190 descriptor that describes the slice within the memory of the
2191 original parent value.
2195 alias [-a] [--] ALIAS = COMMAND [DEFAULT-ARGS...]
2196 The alias command can now specify default args for an alias.
2197 GDB automatically prepends the alias default args to the argument list
2198 provided explicitly by the user.
2199 For example, to have a backtrace with full details, you can define
2200 an alias 'bt_ALL' as
2201 'alias bt_ALL = backtrace -entry-values both -frame-arg all
2202 -past-main -past-entry -full'.
2203 Alias default arguments can also use a set of nested 'with' commands,
2204 e.g. 'alias pp10 = with print pretty -- with print elem 10 -- print'
2205 defines the alias pp10 that will pretty print a maximum of 10 elements
2206 of the given expression (if the expression is an array).
2210 GNU/Linux/RISC-V (gdbserver) riscv*-*-linux*
2211 BPF bpf-unknown-none
2216 ** gdb.register_window_type can be used to implement new TUI windows
2219 ** Dynamic types can now be queried. gdb.Type has a new attribute,
2220 "dynamic", and gdb.Type.sizeof can be None for a dynamic type. A
2221 field of a dynamic type may have None for its "bitpos" attribute
2224 ** Commands written in Python can be in the "TUI" help class by
2225 registering with the new constant gdb.COMMAND_TUI.
2227 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.architecture () to retrieve the
2228 architecture of the pending frame.
2230 ** New gdb.Architecture.registers method that returns a
2231 gdb.RegisterDescriptorIterator object, an iterator that returns
2232 gdb.RegisterDescriptor objects. The new RegisterDescriptor is a
2233 way to query the registers available for an architecture.
2235 ** New gdb.Architecture.register_groups method that returns a
2236 gdb.RegisterGroupIterator object, an iterator that returns
2237 gdb.RegisterGroup objects. The new RegisterGroup is a way to
2238 discover the available register groups.
2242 ** GDB can now be built with GNU Guile 3.0 and 2.2 in addition to 2.0.
2244 ** Procedures 'memory-port-read-buffer-size',
2245 'set-memory-port-read-buffer-size!', 'memory-port-write-buffer-size',
2246 and 'set-memory-port-write-buffer-size!' are deprecated. When
2247 using Guile 2.2 and later, users who need to control the size of
2248 a memory port's internal buffer can use the 'setvbuf' procedure.
2250 *** Changes in GDB 9
2252 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
2254 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
2255 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
2256 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
2257 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
2258 such as in system-wide init files.
2260 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
2261 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
2262 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
2263 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
2264 current GDB settings.
2266 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
2267 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
2268 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
2269 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
2271 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
2272 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
2275 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
2276 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
2278 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
2279 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
2280 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
2282 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
2283 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
2286 * Command names can now use the . character.
2288 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
2290 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
2293 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
2295 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
2296 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
2298 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
2299 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
2300 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
2302 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
2304 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
2305 not visible in the current scope.
2307 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
2308 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
2309 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
2310 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
2311 compiled with support for that language.
2313 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
2314 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
2315 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
2319 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
2320 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
2321 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
2322 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
2323 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
2325 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
2326 type was defined in.
2328 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
2329 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
2330 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
2333 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
2334 symbols with static linkage.
2336 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
2337 all static symbols with static linkage.
2339 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
2340 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
2342 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
2343 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
2347 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
2348 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
2349 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
2350 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
2351 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
2352 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
2353 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
2355 define-prefix COMMAND
2356 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
2358 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
2359 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
2360 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
2361 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
2362 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
2363 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
2364 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
2365 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
2366 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
2367 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
2368 of array elements to print.
2370 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
2371 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
2373 set may-call-functions [on|off]
2374 show may-call-functions
2375 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
2376 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
2377 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
2378 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
2379 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
2380 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
2383 set print finish [on|off]
2385 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
2386 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
2387 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
2391 show print max-depth
2392 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
2393 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
2394 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
2395 the old behavior back.
2397 set print raw-values [on|off]
2398 show print raw-values
2399 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
2400 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
2401 of commands. The default is 'off'.
2403 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
2404 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
2405 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
2407 set style title foreground COLOR
2408 set style title background COLOR
2409 set style title intensity VALUE
2410 Control the styling of titles.
2412 set style highlight foreground COLOR
2413 set style highlight background COLOR
2414 set style highlight intensity VALUE
2415 Control the styling of highlightings.
2417 maint set worker-threads
2418 maint show worker-threads
2419 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
2420 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
2421 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
2422 the names of linker symbols.
2424 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
2425 set style tui-border background COLOR
2426 Control the styling of TUI borders.
2428 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
2429 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
2430 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
2432 maint set test-settings KIND
2433 maint show test-settings KIND
2434 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
2437 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
2438 maint show tui-resize-message
2439 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
2440 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
2443 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
2444 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
2445 show print frame-info
2446 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
2447 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behavior of 'backtrace',
2448 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
2449 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
2451 set tui compact-source
2452 show tui compact-source
2454 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
2455 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
2456 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
2457 line numbers from the source.
2459 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
2460 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
2463 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
2464 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
2465 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
2466 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
2467 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
2468 matches against the function name.
2470 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
2471 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
2472 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
2473 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
2474 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
2475 against the variable name.
2477 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
2478 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
2479 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
2481 The default is 512 bytes.
2484 Lists the target connections currently in use.
2489 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
2490 readability of its output by styling the classes and
2494 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
2495 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
2496 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
2497 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
2498 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
2502 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
2503 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
2504 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
2505 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
2507 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
2508 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
2509 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
2510 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
2514 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
2515 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
2516 the user visualize the different styles.
2518 set print frame-arguments
2519 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
2520 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
2522 set print raw-frame-arguments
2523 show print raw-frame-arguments
2525 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
2526 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
2527 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
2530 add-inferior [-no-connection]
2531 The add-inferior command now supports a "-no-connection" flag that
2532 makes the new inferior start with no target connection associated.
2533 By default, the new inferior inherits the target connection of the
2534 current inferior. See also "info connections".
2537 This command's output now includes a new "Connection" column
2538 indicating which target connection an inferior is bound to. See
2539 "info connections" above.
2541 maint test-options require-delimiter
2542 maint test-options unknown-is-error
2543 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
2544 maint show test-options-completion-result
2545 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
2548 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
2549 These commands are now case-sensitive.
2551 * New command options, command completion
2553 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
2554 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
2555 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
2556 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
2557 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
2558 number of commands got support for new command options in this
2561 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
2562 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
2563 set by "set print" subcommands:
2567 -array-indexes [on|off]
2568 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
2572 -raw-values [on|off]
2573 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
2574 -static-members [on|off]
2579 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
2580 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
2581 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
2582 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
2584 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
2585 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
2586 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
2588 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
2589 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
2590 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
2591 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
2592 |location-and-address|short-location
2594 -past-entry [on|off]
2596 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
2597 exposed as command options too:
2603 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
2604 support the following options:
2607 -past-entry [on|off]
2609 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
2610 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
2612 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
2613 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
2614 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
2617 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
2619 The above is equivalent to:
2621 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
2623 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
2624 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
2625 variables" and "info functions".
2627 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
2628 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
2629 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
2632 * Completion improvements
2634 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
2635 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
2638 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
2639 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
2642 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
2643 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
2644 completes on filenames.
2646 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
2647 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
2649 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
2651 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
2652 elements unlimited".
2657 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2658 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
2659 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
2661 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
2662 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
2663 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
2665 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
2666 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
2667 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
2669 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
2672 -symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
2673 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
2674 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
2678 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
2680 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
2681 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
2682 the following commands and events:
2686 - =breakpoint-created
2687 - =breakpoint-modified
2689 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
2690 this behavior with previous MI versions.
2692 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
2693 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
2694 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
2699 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
2700 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
2701 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
2702 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
2704 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
2706 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
2707 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
2709 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
2711 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
2712 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
2714 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
2715 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
2716 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
2718 * Removed targets and native configurations
2720 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
2721 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
2722 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
2728 * Removed targets and native configurations
2730 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
2731 sparc*-*-solaris2.10
2733 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
2735 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
2736 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
2739 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
2740 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
2741 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
2744 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
2747 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
2748 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
2749 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
2751 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
2752 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
2754 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
2755 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2756 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2757 in the GDB user manual.
2759 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
2762 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
2764 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
2765 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
2766 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
2767 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
2768 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
2769 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
2770 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
2771 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
2772 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
2773 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
2774 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
2775 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
2777 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
2778 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
2779 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
2782 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
2787 set debug compile-cplus-types
2788 show debug compile-cplus-types
2789 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
2790 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiling
2791 for other languages.
2795 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
2798 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
2799 Apply a command to some frames.
2800 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
2801 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
2804 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
2805 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
2808 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
2809 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
2812 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
2814 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
2816 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
2817 maint show dwarf unwinders
2818 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
2821 Display a list of open files for a process.
2825 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
2826 These commands all now take a frame specification which
2827 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
2828 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
2829 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
2830 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
2831 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
2833 target remote FILENAME
2834 target extended-remote FILENAME
2835 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
2836 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
2838 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
2839 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
2840 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
2841 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
2842 These commands can now print only the searched entities
2843 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
2844 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
2845 printing headers or information messages.
2851 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
2852 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
2853 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
2856 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
2857 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
2858 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
2859 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
2861 set tui tab-width NCHARS
2862 show tui tab-width NCHARS
2863 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
2865 set style enabled [on|off]
2867 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
2868 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
2870 set style sources [on|off]
2872 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
2873 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
2874 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
2876 set style filename foreground COLOR
2877 set style filename background COLOR
2878 set style filename intensity VALUE
2879 Control the styling of file names.
2881 set style function foreground COLOR
2882 set style function background COLOR
2883 set style function intensity VALUE
2884 Control the styling of function names.
2886 set style variable foreground COLOR
2887 set style variable background COLOR
2888 set style variable intensity VALUE
2889 Control the styling of variable names.
2891 set style address foreground COLOR
2892 set style address background COLOR
2893 set style address intensity VALUE
2894 Control the styling of addresses.
2898 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
2899 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
2900 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
2901 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
2902 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
2904 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
2905 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
2907 * New native configurations
2909 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
2910 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
2914 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
2915 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
2916 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
2917 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
2919 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
2923 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
2928 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
2930 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
2931 space associated to that inferior.
2933 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
2934 of objfiles associated to that program space.
2936 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
2937 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
2940 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
2941 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
2942 correct and did not work properly.
2944 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
2945 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
2951 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
2952 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
2953 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
2954 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
2955 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
2957 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
2959 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
2960 for the MIPS target.
2962 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
2963 offset to all sections.
2965 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
2966 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
2967 address of individual sections using '-s'.
2969 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
2970 (address of the text section).
2972 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
2973 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
2974 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
2975 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
2978 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
2979 for the rest of the current command.
2981 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
2982 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
2984 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
2985 files created on FreeBSD systems.
2987 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
2990 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
2991 the vector length while the process is running.
2997 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
2999 set|show varsize-limit
3000 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
3001 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
3002 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
3004 set|show record btrace cpu
3005 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
3006 branch trace decode.
3008 maint check libthread-db
3009 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
3012 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
3013 maint show check-libthread-db
3014 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
3015 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
3016 perform such checks.
3020 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
3022 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
3023 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
3025 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
3027 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
3028 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
3029 of convenience variables.
3031 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
3032 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
3033 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
3037 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
3039 * Removed targets and native configurations
3041 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
3042 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
3043 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
3044 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
3046 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
3048 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
3049 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
3050 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
3051 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
3052 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
3053 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
3058 --enable-codesign=CERT
3059 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
3060 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
3061 gdb to work properly.
3063 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
3064 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
3066 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
3068 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
3069 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
3070 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
3072 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
3073 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
3075 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
3076 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
3077 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
3078 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
3079 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
3081 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
3082 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
3083 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
3084 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
3086 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
3087 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
3089 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
3090 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
3091 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
3093 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
3094 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
3095 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
3097 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
3098 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
3099 environment" command.
3101 * Completion improvements
3103 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
3104 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
3105 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
3106 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
3109 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
3110 (gdb) b function(int)
3112 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
3113 C++ anonymous namespaces:
3116 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
3117 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
3118 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
3120 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
3121 completion support, that better understands what you're
3122 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
3123 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
3124 setting a breakpoint.
3126 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
3128 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
3130 * New command line options (gcore)
3133 Dump all memory mappings.
3135 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
3137 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
3138 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
3139 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
3141 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
3146 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
3149 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
3150 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
3151 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
3152 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
3153 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
3154 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
3155 a breakpoint from Python.
3157 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
3159 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
3160 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
3161 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
3163 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
3165 function[abi:cxx11](int)
3168 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
3171 (gdb) b function(int)
3173 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
3175 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
3177 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
3181 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
3182 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
3183 description of these.
3185 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
3186 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
3187 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
3189 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
3190 manual for a further description of this feature.
3193 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3195 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
3196 specified initial working directory.
3198 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
3199 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
3201 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
3202 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
3204 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
3205 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
3207 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
3208 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
3209 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
3210 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
3211 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
3213 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
3214 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
3215 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
3217 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
3218 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
3219 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
3220 in the *stopped notification.
3222 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
3223 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
3225 * New remote packets
3227 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
3228 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
3229 the inferior when starting it.
3232 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
3233 before starting the remote inferior.
3236 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
3237 user-set environment variables should be unset).
3240 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
3243 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
3246 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
3247 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
3249 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
3250 filter the tests to be run.
3252 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
3253 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
3258 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
3260 set|show compile-gcc
3261 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
3262 with the 'compile' commands.
3264 set debug separate-debug-file
3265 show debug separate-debug-file
3266 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
3268 set dump-excluded-mappings
3269 show dump-excluded-mappings
3270 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
3271 dumped when generating a core file.
3273 maint info selftests
3274 List the registered selftests.
3277 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
3280 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
3282 set|show print type nested-type-limit
3283 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
3284 type printer will show.
3286 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
3289 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
3291 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
3294 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
3295 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
3296 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
3297 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
3299 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
3300 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
3301 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
3302 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
3303 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
3304 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
3306 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
3307 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
3308 unless you tell it the variable's type:
3311 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
3315 * New native configurations
3317 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
3318 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
3322 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
3323 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
3324 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
3326 * Removed targets and native configurations
3328 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
3330 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
3332 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
3333 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
3334 available in future Intel CPUs.
3336 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
3340 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
3341 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
3343 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
3346 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
3348 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
3350 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
3351 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
3354 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
3356 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
3357 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
3359 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
3361 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
3362 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
3363 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
3364 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
3367 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
3369 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
3370 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
3373 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
3375 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
3376 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
3378 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
3380 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
3385 eval "print $arg%d", $i
3390 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
3392 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
3393 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
3395 * New native configurations
3397 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
3401 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
3402 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
3404 * Removed targets and native configurations
3406 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3407 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
3412 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
3414 maint print arc arc-instruction address
3415 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
3419 set disassembler-options
3420 show disassembler-options
3421 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
3422 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
3423 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
3424 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
3425 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
3430 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
3431 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
3433 -file-list-shared-libraries
3434 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
3435 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
3438 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
3439 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
3441 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
3443 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
3445 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
3446 default. One must now explicitly configure with
3447 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
3448 option will be removed in a future release.
3450 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
3453 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
3454 memory backward from the given address. For example:
3457 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
3458 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
3459 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
3460 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
3461 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
3462 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
3463 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
3464 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
3465 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
3467 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
3468 arrays of dynamic types.
3470 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
3471 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
3472 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
3473 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
3474 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
3475 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
3477 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
3480 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
3481 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
3482 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
3484 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
3486 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
3487 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
3488 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
3489 signal received and code location.
3493 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
3494 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
3495 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
3496 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
3498 * Rust language support.
3499 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
3500 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
3503 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
3505 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
3506 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
3507 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
3508 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
3509 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
3510 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
3511 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
3512 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
3513 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
3514 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
3517 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
3519 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
3520 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
3525 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
3526 skip -function function
3527 skip -rfunction regular-expression
3528 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
3529 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
3530 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
3532 maint info line-table REGEXP
3533 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data structure.
3536 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
3539 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
3540 using the TTY file for input/output.
3544 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
3545 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
3546 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
3547 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
3548 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
3550 signal-event EVENTID
3551 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
3552 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
3553 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
3554 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
3555 signalling an event.
3557 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
3558 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
3559 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
3561 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
3564 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
3565 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
3566 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
3567 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
3568 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
3569 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
3571 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
3572 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
3573 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
3574 bytecode into native code.
3576 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
3577 recording. For example:
3579 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
3581 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
3583 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
3587 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
3589 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
3591 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
3593 * Per-inferior thread numbers
3595 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
3596 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
3597 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
3601 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
3602 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
3603 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
3604 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
3606 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
3607 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
3608 are no longer unique between inferiors.
3610 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
3611 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
3612 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
3614 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
3617 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
3618 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
3621 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
3624 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
3625 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
3626 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
3627 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
3630 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
3633 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
3636 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
3639 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
3640 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
3643 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
3644 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
3646 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
3648 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
3650 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
3651 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
3653 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
3654 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
3657 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
3658 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
3661 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
3662 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
3665 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
3667 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
3668 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
3669 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
3671 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
3672 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
3676 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
3677 maint show target-non-stop
3678 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
3679 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
3680 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
3682 maint set bfd-sharing
3683 maint show bfd-sharing
3684 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
3687 show debug bfd-cache
3688 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
3692 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
3694 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
3695 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
3696 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
3698 set remote thread-events
3699 show remote thread-events
3700 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
3702 set ada print-signatures on|off
3703 show ada print-signatures"
3704 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
3705 selection menus. It is activated (@code{on}) by default.
3709 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
3710 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
3711 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
3713 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
3714 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
3715 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
3716 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
3717 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
3718 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
3720 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
3721 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
3723 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
3724 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
3726 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
3728 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
3729 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
3730 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
3731 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
3732 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
3733 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
3735 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
3736 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
3739 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
3741 * New remote packets
3744 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
3746 exec-events feature in qSupported
3747 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
3748 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
3749 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
3750 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
3753 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
3756 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
3757 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
3759 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
3760 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
3763 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
3764 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
3765 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
3766 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
3767 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
3768 stop for that same thread.
3771 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
3772 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
3773 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
3776 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
3777 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
3779 syscall_entry stop reason
3780 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
3782 syscall_return stop reason
3783 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
3785 * Extended-remote exec events
3787 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
3788 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
3789 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
3791 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
3792 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
3793 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
3795 * Thread names in remote protocol
3797 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
3800 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
3802 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
3803 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
3804 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
3805 fork and exec catchpoints.
3807 * Remote syscall events
3809 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
3810 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
3812 set remote catch-syscall-packet
3813 show remote catch-syscall-packet
3814 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
3818 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
3819 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
3824 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
3825 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
3826 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
3827 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
3828 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
3829 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
3831 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
3833 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
3834 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
3835 including advance SIMD instructions.
3837 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
3839 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
3840 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
3841 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
3842 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
3843 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
3844 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
3845 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
3847 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
3849 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
3851 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
3852 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
3855 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
3856 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
3857 and may include things like its command line arguments.
3859 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
3860 is now available on all platforms.
3862 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
3863 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
3864 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
3865 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
3866 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
3867 backward compatibility.
3869 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
3870 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
3871 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
3872 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
3874 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
3875 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
3876 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
3877 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
3880 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
3882 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
3884 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
3885 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
3886 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
3887 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
3888 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
3889 See "New remote packets" below.
3891 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
3892 available register groups, including target specific groups.
3894 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
3895 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
3896 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
3897 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
3902 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
3906 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
3907 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
3908 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
3909 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
3910 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
3911 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
3912 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
3913 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
3914 "const" version of the value respectively.
3918 maint print symbol-cache
3919 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
3921 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
3922 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
3924 maint flush-symbol-cache
3925 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
3929 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
3932 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
3936 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
3939 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
3940 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
3944 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
3947 Print information about branch tracing internals.
3949 maint btrace packet-history
3950 Print the raw branch tracing data.
3952 maint btrace clear-packet-history
3953 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
3956 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
3957 anew by the next "record" command.
3962 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
3963 show debug dwarf-die
3964 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
3966 set debug dwarf-read
3967 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
3968 show debug dwarf-read
3969 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
3971 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
3972 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
3973 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
3974 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
3976 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
3977 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
3978 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
3979 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
3981 set debug dwarf-line
3982 show debug dwarf-line
3983 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
3986 show max-completions
3987 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
3988 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
3989 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
3990 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
3992 set history remove-duplicates
3993 show history remove-duplicates
3994 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
3996 maint set symbol-cache-size
3997 maint show symbol-cache-size
3998 Control the size of the symbol cache.
4000 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
4001 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
4003 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
4004 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
4006 set debug linux-namespaces
4007 show debug linux-namespaces
4008 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
4010 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
4011 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
4012 Intel Processor Trace format.
4013 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
4014 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
4016 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
4017 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
4020 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
4021 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
4023 * Python/Guile scripting
4025 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
4026 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
4028 * New remote packets
4030 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
4031 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
4033 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
4034 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
4037 Enable Intel Processor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
4038 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
4041 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
4042 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
4046 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
4047 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
4048 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
4052 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
4053 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
4056 Return information about files on the remote system.
4058 qXfer:exec-file:read
4059 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
4060 create a process running on the remote system.
4063 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
4064 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
4065 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
4066 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
4069 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
4072 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
4074 vforkdone stop reason
4075 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
4076 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
4078 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
4079 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
4080 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
4081 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
4082 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
4083 whether these features are enabled.
4085 * Extended-remote fork events
4087 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
4088 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
4089 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
4090 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
4092 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
4093 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
4094 the btrace record target.
4095 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
4097 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
4098 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
4100 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
4103 * Removed command line options
4105 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
4107 * Removed targets and native configurations
4109 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
4110 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
4112 * New configure options
4115 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
4116 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
4118 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
4119 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
4120 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
4121 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
4123 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
4127 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
4129 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
4131 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
4135 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
4136 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
4137 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
4138 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
4139 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
4140 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
4141 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
4142 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
4143 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
4144 selecting a new file to debug.
4145 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
4146 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
4148 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
4151 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
4152 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
4153 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
4154 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
4156 * New Python-based convenience functions:
4158 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
4159 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
4160 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
4161 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
4163 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
4164 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
4165 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
4166 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
4167 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
4168 interface with this new feature are:
4170 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
4171 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
4175 demangle [-l language] [--] name
4176 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
4177 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
4178 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
4179 as "maint demangler-warning".
4181 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
4182 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
4184 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
4185 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
4188 maint print user-registers
4189 List all currently available "user" registers.
4191 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
4192 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
4193 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
4195 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
4196 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
4197 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
4200 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
4201 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
4202 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
4203 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
4206 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
4207 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
4208 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
4209 switched threads meanwhile.
4211 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
4213 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
4214 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
4215 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
4216 is now the default mode.
4220 set debug symbol-lookup
4221 show debug symbol-lookup
4222 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
4226 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
4227 inferiors that have exited.
4231 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
4235 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4237 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
4238 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
4239 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
4240 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
4241 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
4243 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
4244 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
4245 its alias "share", instead.
4247 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
4249 * New command line options
4252 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
4254 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
4255 as specified in ISO C99.
4257 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
4258 with or without disassembly.
4262 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
4263 available is determined at configure time.
4264 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
4265 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
4267 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4271 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
4275 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
4277 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
4278 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
4280 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
4281 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
4285 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
4286 show print symbol-loading
4287 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
4288 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
4289 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
4290 becomes less useful.
4292 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
4293 show guile print-stack
4294 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
4296 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
4297 show auto-load guile-scripts
4298 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
4300 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
4301 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
4302 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
4303 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
4304 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
4305 usage of this option.
4307 set auto-connect-native-target
4309 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
4310 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
4311 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
4313 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
4314 show record btrace replay-memory-access
4315 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
4317 maint set target-async (on|off)
4318 maint show target-async
4319 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
4320 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
4321 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
4322 occurring only in synchronous mode.
4324 set mi-async (on|off)
4326 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
4327 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
4329 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
4330 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
4332 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
4333 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
4334 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
4335 "set target-async on" command.
4337 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
4339 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
4340 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
4341 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
4342 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
4343 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
4345 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
4346 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
4347 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
4349 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
4350 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
4351 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
4352 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
4353 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
4354 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
4355 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
4357 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
4358 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
4360 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
4361 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
4362 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
4364 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
4365 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
4366 memory or registers.
4368 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
4370 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
4371 remote. It now works with all targets.
4373 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
4374 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
4375 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
4376 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
4377 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
4378 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
4379 as these commands previously either threw an error, or were
4380 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
4381 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
4384 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
4385 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
4386 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
4388 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
4390 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
4391 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
4392 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
4394 * New remote packets
4396 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
4397 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
4398 branch trace incrementally.
4402 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
4403 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
4405 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
4406 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
4407 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
4408 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
4409 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
4412 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
4414 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
4415 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
4416 its alias "share", instead.
4418 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
4419 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
4424 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
4425 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
4426 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
4427 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
4428 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
4429 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
4430 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
4431 commands and CLI execution commands.
4433 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
4435 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
4436 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
4437 recording has been added.
4439 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
4441 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
4442 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
4444 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
4445 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
4446 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
4447 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
4448 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
4449 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
4452 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
4454 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
4456 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
4457 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
4458 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
4459 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
4464 (gdb) info registers rax
4467 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
4468 "*value not available*".
4470 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
4475 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
4476 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
4477 ** Line tables representation has been added.
4478 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
4479 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
4480 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
4484 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
4485 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
4486 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
4488 * Removed native configurations
4490 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
4491 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
4493 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
4494 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
4495 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
4496 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
4497 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
4498 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
4499 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
4503 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
4504 maint check-psymtabs
4505 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
4507 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
4508 maint expand-symtabs
4509 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
4512 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
4514 maint set|show per-command
4515 maint set|show per-command space
4516 maint set|show per-command time
4517 maint set|show per-command symtab
4518 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
4520 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
4521 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
4522 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
4523 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
4524 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
4527 info exceptions REGEXP
4528 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
4529 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
4534 set debug symfile off|on
4536 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
4537 symbol tables within those files
4539 set print raw frame-arguments
4540 show print raw frame-arguments
4541 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
4542 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
4544 set remote trace-status-packet
4545 show remote trace-status-packet
4546 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
4550 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
4554 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
4556 set startup-with-shell
4557 show startup-with-shell
4558 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
4563 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
4564 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
4566 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
4567 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
4568 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
4569 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
4572 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
4573 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
4574 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
4576 * New command-line options
4578 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
4580 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
4581 buffer in Common Trace Format.
4583 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
4586 * GDB now implements the C++ 'typeid' operator.
4588 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
4589 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
4591 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
4592 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
4594 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
4595 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
4596 due to an uncaught signal.
4600 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
4601 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
4602 command, which should contain "language-option".
4604 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
4605 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
4607 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
4608 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
4609 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
4610 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
4611 "undefined-command-error-code".
4613 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
4616 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
4618 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
4619 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
4622 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
4623 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
4625 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
4626 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
4627 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
4629 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
4630 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
4631 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
4632 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
4633 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
4634 "exec-run-start-option".
4636 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
4637 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
4639 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
4640 the new "info exceptions" command.
4642 * New system-wide configuration scripts
4643 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
4644 configuration scripts for the following systems:
4648 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
4649 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
4650 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
4653 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
4654 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
4656 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
4657 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
4658 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
4660 * New remote packets
4664 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
4665 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
4666 involvemement at each single-step.
4668 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
4669 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
4670 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
4671 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
4672 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
4673 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
4676 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
4678 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
4679 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
4681 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
4682 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
4683 trace state variables.
4685 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
4688 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
4689 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
4691 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
4693 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
4694 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
4695 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
4696 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4698 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
4700 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
4701 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
4702 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
4703 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
4705 set|show record full insn-number-max
4706 set|show record full stop-at-limit
4707 set|show record full memory-query
4709 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
4710 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
4711 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
4712 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
4713 This new recording method can be enabled using:
4717 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
4718 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
4720 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
4721 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
4722 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
4724 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
4725 instruction granularity
4727 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
4728 function granularity
4730 * New native configurations
4732 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
4733 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
4734 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
4735 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
4739 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
4740 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
4741 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
4742 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
4743 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
4745 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
4746 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
4747 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
4748 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
4749 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
4750 --data-directory command-line option.
4752 * New command line options:
4754 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
4755 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
4757 * Removed command line options
4759 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
4762 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
4765 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
4769 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
4771 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
4773 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
4775 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
4777 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
4778 of architecture in the Python API.
4780 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
4781 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
4783 * New Python-based convenience functions:
4785 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
4786 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
4788 ** $_regex(str, regex)
4790 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
4793 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
4794 default for GCC since November 2000.
4796 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
4798 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
4799 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
4801 * New configure options
4803 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
4804 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
4805 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
4806 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
4807 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
4808 options allow the user to override that default.
4809 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
4810 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
4811 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
4813 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4816 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
4817 conditions to be attached.
4820 List the BFDs known to GDB.
4822 python-interactive [command]
4824 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
4825 and print the result of expressions.
4828 "py" is a new alias for "python".
4830 enable type-printer [name]...
4831 disable type-printer [name]...
4832 Enable or disable type printers.
4836 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
4837 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
4842 set print type methods (on|off)
4843 show print type methods
4844 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
4845 The default is to show them.
4847 set print type typedefs (on|off)
4848 show print type typedefs
4849 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
4850 The default is to show them.
4852 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
4853 show filename-display
4854 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
4855 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
4857 set trace-buffer-size
4858 show trace-buffer-size
4859 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
4861 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
4862 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
4863 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
4867 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
4870 set debug coff-pe-read
4871 show debug coff-pe-read
4872 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
4877 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
4880 set debug notification
4881 show debug notification
4882 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
4886 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
4887 "=cmd-param-changed".
4888 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
4889 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
4890 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
4891 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
4892 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
4893 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
4894 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
4895 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
4897 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
4898 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
4899 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
4900 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
4901 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
4902 library load/unload events.
4903 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
4904 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
4905 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
4906 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
4907 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
4908 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
4909 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
4910 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
4912 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
4913 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
4914 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
4915 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
4917 * New remote packets
4920 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
4921 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
4924 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
4925 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
4929 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
4930 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
4933 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
4934 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
4936 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
4938 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
4939 for more x32 ABI info.
4941 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
4943 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
4945 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
4946 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
4947 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
4948 "info os files" lists file descriptors
4949 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
4950 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
4951 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
4952 "info os msg" lists message queues
4953 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
4955 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
4956 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
4957 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
4958 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
4959 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
4960 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
4962 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
4963 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
4964 record/replay support.
4966 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
4970 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
4973 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
4975 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
4976 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
4978 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
4980 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
4981 the source at which the symbol was defined.
4983 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
4984 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
4985 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
4988 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
4989 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
4991 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
4992 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
4993 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
4995 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
4996 object associated with a PC value.
4998 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
4999 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
5001 * Go language support.
5002 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
5005 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
5006 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
5008 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
5009 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
5011 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
5012 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
5013 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
5014 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
5015 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
5018 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
5019 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
5020 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
5021 build/libcpp/expr.c.
5023 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
5024 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
5026 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
5027 since December 2007.
5029 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
5030 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
5031 command does. For instance:
5033 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
5035 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
5036 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
5037 created, using the "condition" command.
5039 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
5040 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
5042 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
5044 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
5045 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
5046 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
5047 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
5048 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
5049 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
5050 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
5051 files with older .gdb_index sections.
5053 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
5054 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
5055 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
5056 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
5057 the .gdb_index section.
5059 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
5061 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
5066 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
5068 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
5072 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
5073 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
5074 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
5076 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
5077 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
5079 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
5082 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
5083 C++ and Java objects.
5085 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
5086 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
5087 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
5088 configured with '--with-python'.
5090 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
5091 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
5092 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
5093 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
5094 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
5095 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
5096 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
5098 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
5099 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
5100 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
5101 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
5103 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
5104 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
5105 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
5106 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compile time.
5108 ** "set print symbol"
5110 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
5111 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
5112 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
5114 * Deprecated commands
5116 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
5117 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
5121 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
5122 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
5124 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
5125 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
5126 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
5127 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
5132 set mips compression
5133 show mips compression
5134 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
5135 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
5138 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
5140 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
5141 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
5142 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
5143 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
5145 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
5149 Disable auto-loading globally.
5152 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
5154 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
5155 show auto-load gdb-scripts
5156 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
5158 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
5159 show auto-load python-scripts
5160 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
5162 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
5163 show auto-load local-gdbinit
5164 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
5166 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
5167 show auto-load libthread-db
5168 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
5170 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
5171 show auto-load scripts-directory
5172 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
5173 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
5174 of the directories listed by this option.
5175 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
5177 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
5178 show auto-load safe-path
5179 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
5180 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
5182 set debug auto-load on|off
5183 show debug auto-load
5184 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
5186 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
5188 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
5189 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
5190 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
5191 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
5193 set dprintf-function <expr>
5194 show dprintf-function
5195 set dprintf-channel <expr>
5196 show dprintf-channel
5197 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
5198 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
5200 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
5201 show disconnected-dprintf
5202 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
5203 after GDB disconnects.
5205 * New configure options
5207 --with-auto-load-dir
5208 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
5209 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
5210 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
5211 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
5212 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
5214 --with-auto-load-safe-path
5215 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
5216 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
5218 --without-auto-load-safe-path
5219 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
5222 * New remote packets
5224 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
5226 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
5227 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
5228 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
5229 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
5233 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
5234 program without GDB involvement.
5236 * New command line options
5238 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
5239 before loading inferior.
5240 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
5241 execute it before loading inferior.
5243 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
5245 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
5246 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
5247 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
5248 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
5251 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
5252 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
5254 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
5255 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
5256 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
5257 target hardware watchpoint.
5259 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
5260 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
5261 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
5262 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
5266 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
5267 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
5270 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
5271 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
5272 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
5273 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
5274 now "message", which just prints the error message without
5277 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
5280 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
5281 modules library. This module provides functionality for
5282 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
5283 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
5284 corresponding value.
5286 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
5287 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
5288 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
5291 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
5292 static_block will return the global and static blocks
5293 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
5294 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
5296 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
5298 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
5301 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
5302 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
5303 available in the CLI.
5305 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
5306 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
5307 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
5308 "some_type.items()".
5310 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
5313 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
5314 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
5315 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
5316 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
5317 any anonymous fields.
5321 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
5324 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
5325 "=breakpoint-modified".
5327 ** New command -ada-task-info.
5329 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
5330 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
5331 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
5334 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
5335 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
5336 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
5337 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
5338 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
5340 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
5341 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
5343 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
5344 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
5345 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
5346 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
5347 use this option to specify where to find it.
5349 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
5350 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
5351 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
5352 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
5353 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
5354 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
5355 section in the user manual for more details.
5357 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
5358 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
5359 become available after that.
5361 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
5363 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
5364 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
5370 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
5371 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
5375 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
5376 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
5377 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
5379 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
5380 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
5381 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
5383 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
5384 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
5385 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
5386 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
5387 name starts with a hyphen.
5389 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
5390 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
5391 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
5392 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
5393 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
5394 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
5395 number of bytes that will be collected.
5398 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
5399 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
5400 setting the variable trace-notes.
5403 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
5404 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
5405 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
5408 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
5409 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
5410 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
5411 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
5412 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
5415 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
5416 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
5417 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
5421 set debug dwarf2-read
5422 show debug dwarf2-read
5423 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
5424 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
5426 set debug symtab-create
5427 show debug symtab-create
5428 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
5429 creation. The default is off.
5432 show extended-prompt
5433 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
5434 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
5435 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
5436 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
5437 prompt is displayed.
5439 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
5440 show print entry-values
5441 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
5442 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
5443 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
5445 set debug entry-values
5446 show debug entry-values
5447 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
5448 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
5450 set basenames-may-differ
5451 show basenames-may-differ
5452 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
5453 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
5454 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
5455 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
5456 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
5457 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
5458 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
5459 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
5465 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
5466 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
5467 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
5468 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
5470 set trace-stop-notes
5471 show trace-stop-notes
5472 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
5473 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
5474 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
5475 started by someone else.
5477 * New remote packets
5481 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
5485 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
5489 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
5493 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
5497 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
5500 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
5501 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
5505 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
5509 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
5511 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
5513 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
5515 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
5517 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
5518 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
5519 matches the given regular expression.
5521 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
5523 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
5524 dumping the instruction opcodes.
5526 * New command line options
5528 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
5529 This is mostly for testing purposes.
5531 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
5532 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
5534 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
5535 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
5536 source path list instead of augmenting it.
5538 * GDB now understands thread names.
5540 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
5541 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
5543 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
5544 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
5547 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
5548 has been integrated into GDB.
5552 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
5553 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
5554 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
5556 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
5557 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
5558 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
5559 and allows for more dynamic content.
5561 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
5562 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
5563 have an is_valid method.
5565 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
5566 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
5567 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
5569 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
5571 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
5572 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
5573 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
5574 that function like so:
5576 result = some_value (10,20)
5578 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
5579 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
5580 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
5582 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
5583 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
5584 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
5585 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
5586 New function: register_pretty_printer.
5588 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
5589 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
5591 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
5593 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
5596 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
5597 holds the thread's name.
5599 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
5600 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
5601 occurring in the process being debugged.
5602 The following events are currently supported:
5603 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
5604 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
5605 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
5609 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
5610 instantiation. For example, if you have:
5612 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
5614 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
5615 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
5616 was added to GCC 4.5.
5618 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
5619 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
5620 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
5621 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
5622 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
5623 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
5625 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
5626 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
5627 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
5628 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
5629 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
5631 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
5632 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
5633 execution to a label.
5635 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
5636 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
5637 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
5638 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
5640 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
5641 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
5642 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
5645 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
5647 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
5648 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
5649 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
5650 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
5651 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
5652 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
5655 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
5657 While now you see this:
5660 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
5662 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
5665 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
5666 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
5667 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
5668 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
5670 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
5671 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
5672 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
5673 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
5674 section in the user manual for more details.
5676 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
5678 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
5679 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
5681 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
5683 * New native configurations
5685 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
5689 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
5691 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
5692 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
5693 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
5694 in the GDB user manual.
5696 * Guile support was removed.
5698 * New features in the GNU simulator
5700 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
5702 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
5704 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
5706 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
5708 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
5709 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
5710 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
5711 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
5712 was always disabled for such configurations.
5716 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
5718 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
5719 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
5729 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
5730 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
5731 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
5733 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
5735 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
5736 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
5737 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
5738 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
5740 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
5741 mentioned flavors of operators.
5743 ** static const class members
5745 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
5746 class definition has been fixed.
5748 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
5750 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
5751 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
5752 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
5753 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
5754 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
5755 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
5757 * Static tracepoints
5759 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
5760 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
5761 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
5762 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
5763 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
5764 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
5765 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
5766 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
5767 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
5768 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
5769 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
5770 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
5771 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
5772 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
5773 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
5774 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
5775 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
5776 the "New remote packets" section below.
5778 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
5780 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
5781 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
5782 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
5783 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
5787 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
5788 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
5789 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
5790 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
5791 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
5792 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
5793 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
5795 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
5798 * New remote packets
5802 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
5806 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
5807 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
5808 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
5809 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
5810 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
5811 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
5815 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
5819 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
5822 qXfer:statictrace:read
5824 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
5825 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
5826 to gdb's qSupported query.
5830 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
5834 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
5835 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
5837 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
5838 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
5841 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
5843 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
5844 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
5845 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
5846 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
5848 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
5849 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
5850 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
5851 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
5852 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
5853 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
5854 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
5856 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
5857 for static tracepoints support.
5859 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
5861 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
5862 it understands register description.
5864 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
5866 * X86 general purpose registers
5868 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
5869 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
5870 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
5871 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
5872 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
5874 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
5875 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
5876 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
5877 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
5878 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
5879 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
5881 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
5882 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
5883 in the specified file.
5885 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
5886 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
5887 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
5888 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
5889 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
5890 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
5891 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
5892 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
5893 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
5894 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
5898 eval template, expressions...
5899 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
5900 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
5902 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
5903 show target-file-system-kind
5904 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
5907 save breakpoints <filename>
5908 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
5909 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
5910 definitions, use the `source' command.
5912 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
5915 info static-tracepoint-markers
5916 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
5918 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
5919 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
5920 function, line, address, or marker ID.
5924 Enable and disable observer mode.
5926 set may-write-registers on|off
5927 set may-write-memory on|off
5928 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
5929 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
5930 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
5931 set may-interrupt on|off
5932 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
5933 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
5934 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
5935 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
5936 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
5937 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
5938 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
5940 set record memory-query on|off
5941 show record memory-query
5942 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
5943 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
5948 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
5952 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
5953 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
5954 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
5955 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
5956 GDB using Python' in the manual.
5958 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
5959 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
5960 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
5961 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
5963 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
5964 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
5966 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
5968 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
5970 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
5972 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
5973 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
5974 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
5976 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
5977 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
5978 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
5979 regular breakpoints.
5983 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
5985 * D language support.
5986 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
5989 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
5990 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
5991 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
5992 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
5993 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
5995 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
5996 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
5997 conditions of the form:
5999 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
6001 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
6002 interface mentioned above.
6004 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
6008 ** Namespace Support
6010 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
6011 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
6012 namespace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
6013 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namespace C=A; ) the user can
6014 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
6018 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
6019 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
6024 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
6025 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
6029 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
6034 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
6037 * Multi-program debugging.
6039 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
6040 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
6041 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
6042 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
6043 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
6044 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
6045 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
6046 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
6048 * New tracing features
6050 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
6052 ** Trace state variables
6054 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
6055 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
6056 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
6057 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
6058 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
6059 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
6060 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
6061 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
6062 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
6063 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
6067 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
6068 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
6069 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
6070 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
6071 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
6072 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
6073 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
6074 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
6075 the regular trace command.
6077 ** Disconnected tracing
6079 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
6080 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
6081 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
6082 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
6083 connection is lost unexpectedly.
6087 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
6088 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
6089 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
6090 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
6091 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
6092 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
6095 ** Circular trace buffer
6097 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
6098 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
6099 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
6100 not be available for all target agents.
6105 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
6106 the arguments to be comma-separated.
6109 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
6110 which only declare a variable are not shown.
6113 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
6114 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
6117 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
6118 "set script-extension" (see below).
6120 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
6122 record save [<FILENAME>]
6123 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
6124 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
6126 record restore <FILENAME>
6127 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
6128 earlier time, for replay debugging.
6130 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
6133 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
6134 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
6135 inferior has loaded.
6140 maint info program-spaces
6141 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
6143 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
6144 show remote interrupt-sequence
6145 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
6146 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
6147 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
6148 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
6149 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
6151 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
6152 show remote interrupt-on-connect
6153 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
6154 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
6157 set remotebreak [on | off]
6159 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
6161 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
6162 Create or modify a trace state variable.
6165 List trace state variables and their values.
6167 delete tvariable $NAME ...
6168 Delete one or more trace state variables.
6171 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
6172 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
6174 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
6175 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
6177 * New expression syntax
6179 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
6180 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
6184 set follow-exec-mode new|same
6185 show follow-exec-mode
6186 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
6187 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
6188 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
6190 set default-collect EXPR, ...
6191 show default-collect
6192 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
6193 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
6194 such as registers or a critical global variable.
6196 set disconnected-tracing
6197 show disconnected-tracing
6198 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
6199 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
6202 set circular-trace-buffer
6203 show circular-trace-buffer
6204 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
6205 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
6206 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
6207 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
6209 set script-extension off|soft|strict
6210 show script-extension
6211 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
6212 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
6213 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
6214 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
6216 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
6218 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
6219 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
6220 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
6221 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
6222 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
6223 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
6224 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
6227 * Python API Improvements
6229 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
6230 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
6231 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
6233 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
6234 `is_base_class' attribute.
6236 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
6238 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
6239 evaluate an expression.
6241 * New remote packets
6244 Define a trace state variable.
6247 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
6250 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
6253 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
6256 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
6260 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
6262 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
6263 much more reliable. In particular:
6264 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
6265 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
6266 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
6267 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
6268 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
6269 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
6270 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
6271 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
6272 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
6273 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
6274 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
6275 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
6276 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
6277 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
6278 non-threaded programs.
6280 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
6281 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
6282 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
6285 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
6287 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
6288 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
6289 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
6290 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
6291 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
6293 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
6294 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
6295 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
6296 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
6297 for tracepoint actions.
6299 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
6300 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
6301 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
6303 * Process record and replay
6305 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
6306 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
6307 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
6310 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
6311 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
6312 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
6315 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
6316 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
6319 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
6320 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
6321 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
6322 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
6323 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
6324 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
6325 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
6326 the installation instructions for more information.
6328 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
6329 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
6330 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
6331 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
6333 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
6334 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
6336 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
6337 now complete on file names.
6339 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
6340 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
6341 For instance, consider:
6343 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
6344 # struct example variable;
6347 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
6348 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
6350 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
6351 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
6353 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
6354 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
6357 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
6358 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
6359 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
6361 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
6362 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
6363 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
6364 and simulator targets may also provide them.
6366 * New remote packets
6369 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
6372 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
6373 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
6374 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
6377 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
6378 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
6381 Obtains additional operating system information
6385 Read or write additional signal information.
6387 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
6389 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
6390 packet that permitted the stub to pass a process id was removed.
6391 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
6393 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
6394 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
6396 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
6397 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
6398 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
6400 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
6401 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
6403 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
6405 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
6407 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
6408 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
6410 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote protocol packet now allows passing a
6411 list of section offsets.
6413 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
6414 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
6415 have also been fixed.
6417 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
6418 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
6419 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
6421 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
6424 template<typename T> class C { };
6427 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
6429 ptype C<char const *>
6430 ptype C<char const*>
6431 ptype C<const char *>
6432 ptype C<const char*>
6434 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
6436 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
6437 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
6439 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
6440 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
6441 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
6443 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
6444 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
6446 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
6449 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
6450 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
6452 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
6453 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
6458 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
6459 available is determined at configure time.
6461 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
6463 * Ada tasking support
6465 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
6469 Print the list of Ada tasks.
6471 Print detailed information about task number N.
6473 Print the task number of the current task.
6475 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
6477 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
6478 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
6480 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
6482 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
6483 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
6484 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
6485 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
6486 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
6487 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
6490 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
6491 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
6494 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
6495 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
6496 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
6497 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
6500 * Multi-architecture debugging.
6502 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
6503 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
6504 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
6505 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
6506 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
6508 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
6509 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
6510 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
6511 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
6512 --enable-targets configure option.
6514 * Non-stop mode debugging.
6516 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
6517 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
6518 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
6519 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
6520 section in the user manual for more information.
6522 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
6523 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
6524 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
6525 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
6526 extensions on linux targets.
6528 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
6530 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
6531 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
6532 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
6533 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
6534 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
6535 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
6536 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
6537 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
6538 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
6540 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
6542 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
6544 maint set python print-stack
6545 maint show python print-stack
6546 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
6549 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
6554 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
6558 Show operating system information about processes.
6561 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
6564 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
6567 Detach from inferior number NUM.
6570 Kill inferior number NUM.
6574 set spu stop-on-load
6575 show spu stop-on-load
6576 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
6578 set spu auto-flush-cache
6579 show spu auto-flush-cache
6580 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
6581 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
6583 set sh calling-convention
6584 show sh calling-convention
6585 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
6588 show debug timestamp
6589 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
6591 set disassemble-next-line
6592 show disassemble-next-line
6593 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
6596 set remote noack-packet
6597 show remote noack-packet
6598 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
6599 under "New remote packets."
6601 set remote query-attached-packet
6602 show remote query-attached-packet
6603 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
6605 set remote read-siginfo-object
6606 show remote read-siginfo-object
6607 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
6610 set remote write-siginfo-object
6611 show remote write-siginfo-object
6612 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
6615 set remote reverse-continue
6616 show remote reverse-continue
6617 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
6619 set remote reverse-step
6620 show remote reverse-step
6621 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
6623 set displaced-stepping
6624 show displaced-stepping
6625 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
6626 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
6627 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
6630 show debug displaced
6631 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
6633 maint set internal-error
6634 maint show internal-error
6635 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
6637 maint set internal-warning
6638 maint show internal-warning
6639 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
6644 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
6646 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
6647 show multiple-symbols
6648 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
6649 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
6650 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
6652 set breakpoint always-inserted
6653 show breakpoint always-inserted
6654 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
6655 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
6656 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
6658 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
6659 show arm fallback-mode
6660 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
6662 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
6663 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
6664 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
6665 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
6667 set arm unwind-secure-frames
6668 Enable unwinding from Non-secure to Secure mode on Cortex-M with
6670 This can trigger security exceptions when unwinding exception stacks.
6672 set disable-randomization
6673 show disable-randomization
6674 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
6675 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
6676 multiple debugging sessions.
6680 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
6685 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
6686 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
6687 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
6688 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
6690 set target-wide-charset
6691 show target-wide-charset
6692 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
6693 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
6695 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
6697 set tcp connect-timeout
6698 show tcp connect-timeout
6699 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
6700 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
6701 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
6703 set libthread-db-search-path
6704 show libthread-db-search-path
6705 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
6708 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
6709 show schedule-multiple
6710 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
6711 the current process.
6715 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
6716 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
6717 affecting correctness.
6719 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
6720 show interactive-mode
6721 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
6722 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
6723 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
6724 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
6725 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
6730 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
6731 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
6732 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
6736 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
6737 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
6738 alias for the `fork' command.
6741 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
6742 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
6743 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
6746 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
6747 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
6748 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
6752 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
6753 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
6754 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
6757 * New native configurations
6759 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
6761 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
6765 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
6766 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
6767 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
6770 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
6771 (mingw32ce) debugging.
6777 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
6779 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
6781 * New native configurations
6783 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
6784 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
6788 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
6789 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
6791 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
6793 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
6794 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
6795 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
6796 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
6798 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
6799 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
6801 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
6804 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
6805 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
6806 and in inlined functions.
6808 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
6809 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
6810 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
6812 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
6814 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
6815 registers on PowerPC targets.
6817 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
6818 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
6820 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
6821 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
6823 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
6824 extended-remote mode.
6826 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
6827 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
6828 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
6829 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
6831 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
6832 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
6833 target architectures.
6835 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
6836 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
6837 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
6838 stored in two consecutive float registers.
6840 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
6843 * Improved support for debugging Ada
6844 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
6846 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
6847 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
6848 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
6849 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
6851 - Improved command completion in Ada
6854 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
6859 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
6860 show print frame-arguments
6861 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
6862 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
6867 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
6874 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
6876 * New remote packets
6883 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
6886 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
6890 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
6892 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
6894 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
6895 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
6896 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
6898 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
6899 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
6900 -Bsymbolic linker option.
6902 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
6903 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
6906 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
6907 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
6909 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
6910 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
6912 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
6914 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
6915 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
6916 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
6918 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
6919 automatically displayed as character or string data.
6921 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
6922 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
6925 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
6926 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
6927 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
6929 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
6932 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
6933 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
6934 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
6936 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
6938 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
6940 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
6941 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
6942 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
6944 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
6945 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
6947 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
6948 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
6949 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
6950 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
6951 Windows and SymbianOS).
6953 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
6954 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
6956 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
6957 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
6963 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
6964 when debugging using remote targets.
6966 set mem inaccessible-by-default
6967 show mem inaccessible-by-default
6968 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
6969 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
6970 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
6971 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
6972 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
6974 set breakpoint auto-hw
6975 show breakpoint auto-hw
6976 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
6977 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
6978 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
6979 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
6980 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
6981 including "next" and "finish".
6984 catch exception unhandled
6985 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
6988 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
6992 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
6993 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
6994 an alias to "set sysroot".
6997 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
6998 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
7001 * New native configurations
7003 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
7006 unset tdesc filename
7008 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
7009 not query the target for its built-in description.
7013 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
7014 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
7015 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
7017 * New remote packets
7020 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
7021 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
7023 qXfer:features:read:
7024 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
7029 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
7030 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
7032 qXfer:libraries:read:
7033 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
7034 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
7035 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
7036 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
7040 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
7048 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
7049 i[34567]86-*-netware*
7050 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
7051 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
7053 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
7056 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
7057 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
7066 * Other removed features
7073 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
7080 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
7085 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
7086 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
7091 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
7092 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
7094 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
7096 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
7097 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
7098 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
7099 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
7101 MIPS ".pdr" sections
7103 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
7104 in debugging information.
7108 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
7109 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
7111 set mips stack-arg-size
7112 set mips saved-gpreg-size
7114 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
7116 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
7121 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
7123 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
7124 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
7125 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
7127 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
7128 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
7131 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
7132 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
7134 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
7135 stub provides the required support.
7137 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
7138 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
7143 unset substitute-path
7144 show substitute-path
7145 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
7146 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
7147 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
7148 between compilation and debugging.
7152 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
7153 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
7154 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
7158 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
7160 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
7161 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
7163 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
7165 * New remote packets
7168 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
7169 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
7170 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
7171 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
7175 Fetch an OS auxiliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
7176 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
7178 qXfer:memory-map:read:
7179 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
7180 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
7185 Erase and program a flash memory device.
7187 * Removed remote packets
7190 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
7191 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
7193 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
7197 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
7199 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
7203 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
7204 only if it doesn't already have a value.
7206 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
7208 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
7210 restart <n> Return the program state to a
7211 previously saved state.
7213 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
7215 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
7217 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
7218 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
7220 info forks List forks of the user program that
7221 are available to be debugged.
7223 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
7224 forks of the user program that are
7225 available to be debugged.
7227 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
7228 that are available to be debugged (and
7229 kill the forked process).
7231 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
7232 that are available to be debugged (and
7233 allow the process to continue).
7237 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
7239 * Improved Windows host support
7241 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
7242 native console support, and remote communications using either
7243 network sockets or serial ports.
7245 * Improved Modula-2 language support
7247 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
7248 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
7249 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
7250 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
7251 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
7252 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
7256 The ARM rdi-share module.
7258 The Netware NLM debug server.
7260 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
7262 * New native configurations
7264 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
7265 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
7269 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
7271 * New command line options
7273 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
7274 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
7275 the child (debugged) program exited with.
7276 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
7277 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
7278 specified multiple times and in conjunction
7279 with the --command (-x) option.
7281 * Deprecated commands removed
7283 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
7287 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
7288 othernames set arm disassembler
7289 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
7290 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
7291 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
7294 * New BSD user-level threads support
7296 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
7297 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
7300 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
7301 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
7302 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
7304 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
7305 are not yet supported.
7307 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
7308 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
7310 * REMOVED configurations and files
7312 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
7313 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
7314 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
7316 * New "set print array-indexes" command
7318 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
7319 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
7322 * VAX floating point support
7324 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
7326 * User-defined command support
7328 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
7329 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
7330 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
7332 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
7334 * New command line option
7336 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
7339 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
7341 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
7342 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
7343 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
7344 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
7345 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
7347 * Internationalization
7349 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
7350 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
7351 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
7355 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
7356 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
7357 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
7359 * New native configurations
7361 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
7365 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
7366 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
7368 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
7370 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
7371 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
7372 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
7375 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the registers[]
7376 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
7377 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
7387 powerpc bdm protocol
7389 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
7390 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
7392 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7394 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7395 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7396 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7397 permanently REMOVED.
7406 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
7408 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
7410 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
7411 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
7414 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
7416 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
7417 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
7418 IRIX long double values).
7422 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
7423 command. This problem has been fixed.
7425 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
7427 * Fix for ``many threads''
7429 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
7430 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
7433 ptrace: No such process.
7434 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
7436 This problem has been fixed.
7438 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
7440 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
7443 * New ``start'' command.
7445 This command runs the program until the beginning of the main procedure.
7447 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
7449 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
7450 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
7451 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
7453 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
7454 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
7455 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
7456 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
7457 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
7458 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
7459 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
7460 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
7461 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
7463 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
7465 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
7466 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
7467 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
7468 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
7469 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
7471 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
7472 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
7473 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
7475 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
7477 * New native configurations
7479 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
7480 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
7481 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
7482 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
7483 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
7484 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
7485 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
7487 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
7489 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
7490 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
7491 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
7492 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
7493 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
7494 work, was also included.
7496 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
7497 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
7507 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
7508 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
7510 * REMOVED configurations and files
7512 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
7513 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
7514 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
7515 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
7516 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
7517 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
7518 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
7519 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
7520 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
7521 sonymips mips-sony-*
7522 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
7524 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
7526 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
7528 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
7529 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
7530 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
7531 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
7534 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
7536 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
7537 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
7538 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
7539 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
7540 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
7541 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
7544 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
7546 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
7548 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
7549 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
7550 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
7552 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
7554 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
7555 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
7557 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
7559 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
7560 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
7561 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
7563 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
7565 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
7566 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
7568 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
7570 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
7571 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
7572 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
7574 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
7576 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
7577 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
7578 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
7580 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
7582 * Removed --with-mmalloc
7584 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
7585 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
7587 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
7589 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
7590 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
7591 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
7592 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
7594 * Revised SPARC target
7596 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
7597 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
7598 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
7599 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
7600 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
7604 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
7605 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
7606 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
7609 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
7611 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
7612 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
7615 * C++ nested types and namespaces
7617 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
7618 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
7619 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
7620 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
7621 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
7622 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
7623 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
7624 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
7625 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
7627 * New native configurations
7629 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
7630 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
7631 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
7632 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
7633 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
7635 * New debugging protocols
7637 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
7639 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
7641 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
7642 and its very obscure effect on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
7643 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
7645 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7647 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7648 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7649 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7650 permanently REMOVED.
7652 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
7653 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
7654 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
7655 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
7656 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
7657 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
7658 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
7659 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
7660 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
7661 sonymips mips-sony-*
7662 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
7664 * REMOVED configurations and files
7666 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
7667 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7668 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
7669 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
7670 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
7671 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
7672 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
7673 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
7674 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
7675 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
7676 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
7677 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
7678 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
7679 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
7680 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
7681 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7682 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7684 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
7688 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
7689 integrated into GDB.
7691 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
7693 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
7694 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
7695 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
7698 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
7699 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
7700 DWARF 2 CFI support.
7704 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
7705 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
7706 remote protocol documentation for details.
7708 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
7710 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
7711 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
7712 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
7715 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
7717 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
7718 per-thread variables.
7720 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
7722 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
7723 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
7725 * Separate debug info.
7727 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
7728 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
7729 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
7730 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
7731 and optional debug files.
7733 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
7735 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
7736 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
7739 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
7740 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
7744 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
7745 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
7746 considered "usable".
7748 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
7750 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
7751 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
7754 * GDB supports logging output to a file
7756 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
7757 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
7759 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
7761 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
7762 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
7765 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
7767 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
7768 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
7772 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
7773 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
7774 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
7775 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
7776 data, for more informative profiling results.
7778 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
7780 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
7781 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
7782 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
7784 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
7787 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
7788 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
7789 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
7790 in a subsequent -var-update.
7792 * New native configurations.
7794 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
7796 * Multi-arched targets.
7798 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
7799 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
7801 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7803 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7804 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7805 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7806 permanently REMOVED.
7808 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
7809 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
7810 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
7811 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
7812 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
7813 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
7814 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
7815 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
7816 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
7817 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
7818 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7819 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7821 * REMOVED configurations and files
7824 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7825 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7826 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
7827 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
7828 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
7829 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
7831 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
7832 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
7833 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
7834 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7835 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
7836 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
7838 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
7840 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
7841 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
7842 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
7843 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
7844 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
7846 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
7848 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
7850 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
7851 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
7852 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
7853 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
7854 shared libs like mad''.
7856 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
7858 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
7859 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
7860 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
7861 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
7863 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
7865 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
7866 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
7869 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
7870 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
7872 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
7873 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
7875 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
7876 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
7877 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
7878 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
7880 * Multi-arched targets.
7882 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
7883 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
7885 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
7886 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
7887 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
7891 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
7894 * New native configurations
7896 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
7897 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
7898 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
7899 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
7901 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7903 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7904 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7905 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7906 permanently REMOVED.
7908 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
7909 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
7910 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7911 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7912 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7913 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
7914 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
7915 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
7916 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
7917 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
7919 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
7920 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
7922 * OBSOLETE languages
7924 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
7926 * REMOVED configurations and files
7928 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
7929 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
7930 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7931 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7932 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7934 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
7936 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
7938 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
7939 commands. The default is 1024.
7941 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
7943 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
7945 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
7947 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
7948 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
7949 from a file into memory (restore).
7951 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
7953 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
7954 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
7955 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
7957 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
7965 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
7966 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
7967 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
7969 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
7970 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
7971 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
7973 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
7974 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
7975 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
7977 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
7978 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
7979 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
7981 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
7983 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
7985 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
7986 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
7987 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
7988 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
7989 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
7990 (notably embedded) targets.
7992 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
7994 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
7995 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
7996 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
7997 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
7999 * New command line option
8001 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
8003 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
8005 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
8006 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
8007 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
8008 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
8009 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
8010 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
8011 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
8012 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
8013 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
8014 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
8016 * Changes in ARM configurations.
8018 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
8019 configuration is fully multi-arch.
8021 * New native configurations
8023 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
8024 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
8025 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
8026 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
8030 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
8032 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
8034 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
8035 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
8036 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
8037 permanently REMOVED.
8039 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
8040 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
8041 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
8042 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
8043 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
8045 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
8047 * REMOVED configurations and files
8049 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
8051 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
8052 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
8053 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
8054 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
8055 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
8056 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
8057 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
8058 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
8059 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
8060 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
8061 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
8063 * Changes to command line processing
8065 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
8066 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
8068 * Changes to key bindings
8070 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
8072 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
8074 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
8076 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
8079 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
8081 Numerous documentation fixes.
8083 Numerous testsuite fixes.
8085 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
8087 * New native configurations
8089 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
8090 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
8091 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
8092 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
8093 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
8094 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
8098 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
8100 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
8102 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
8104 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
8105 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
8106 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
8107 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
8108 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
8110 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
8111 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
8112 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
8113 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
8114 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
8115 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
8116 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
8117 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
8119 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
8120 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
8122 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
8123 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
8124 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
8125 permanently REMOVED.
8127 * REMOVED configurations and files
8129 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
8130 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
8132 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
8136 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
8138 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
8139 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
8144 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
8146 * The MI enabled by default.
8148 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
8149 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
8150 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
8151 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
8152 which is now deprecated.
8154 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
8156 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
8157 main features are supported:
8159 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
8161 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
8164 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
8166 - a Pascal expression parser.
8168 However, some important features are not yet supported.
8170 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
8172 - there are some problems with boolean types;
8174 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
8175 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
8177 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
8179 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
8181 * Changes in completion.
8183 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
8184 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
8185 users expect at the shell prompt.
8187 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
8188 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
8189 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
8190 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
8191 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
8192 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
8193 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
8195 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
8197 * New platform-independent commands:
8199 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
8200 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
8201 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
8203 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
8205 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
8206 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
8207 many threads as your system allows you to have.
8209 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
8211 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
8212 multi-threaded programs though.
8214 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
8216 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
8218 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
8219 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
8222 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
8224 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
8225 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
8226 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
8227 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
8228 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
8231 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
8232 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
8233 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
8235 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
8237 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
8238 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
8240 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
8241 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
8244 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
8245 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
8246 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
8247 a given linear address.
8249 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
8250 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
8251 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
8253 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
8255 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
8257 * Changes in documentation.
8259 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
8260 Documentation License.
8262 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
8265 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
8267 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
8270 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
8271 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
8272 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
8274 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
8276 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
8277 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
8278 contents of this file.
8282 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
8284 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
8286 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
8288 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
8289 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
8290 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
8291 greater level of detail.
8293 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
8295 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
8296 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
8297 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
8300 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
8302 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
8303 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
8304 machines ``out of the box''.
8306 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
8307 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
8308 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
8309 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
8310 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
8312 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
8313 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
8314 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
8315 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
8316 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
8318 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
8319 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
8322 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
8325 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
8326 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
8327 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
8328 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
8330 * New native configurations
8332 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
8333 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
8337 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
8338 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
8339 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
8340 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
8342 * OBSOLETE configurations
8344 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
8345 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
8347 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
8350 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
8351 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
8352 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
8353 be permanently REMOVED.
8355 * Gould support removed
8357 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
8359 * New features for SVR4
8361 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
8362 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
8363 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
8365 * Many C++ enhancements
8367 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
8368 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
8370 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
8372 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
8373 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
8374 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
8375 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
8377 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
8378 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
8380 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
8382 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
8383 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transferred as 32
8384 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
8386 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
8387 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
8389 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
8391 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
8392 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
8393 include ``set remote P-packet''.
8395 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
8397 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
8398 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
8399 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
8401 * ``apropos'' command added.
8403 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
8404 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
8405 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
8409 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
8410 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
8411 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
8412 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
8413 enabled by configuring with:
8415 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
8417 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
8419 * New native configurations
8421 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
8422 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
8423 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
8427 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
8428 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
8429 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
8431 * OBSOLETE configurations
8433 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
8435 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
8436 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
8437 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
8438 be permanently REMOVED.
8442 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
8443 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
8444 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
8445 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
8446 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
8447 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
8448 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
8453 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
8455 * set extension-language
8457 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
8458 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
8459 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
8460 set extension-language .c c++
8461 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
8462 and their associated languages.
8464 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
8466 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
8467 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
8468 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
8472 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
8473 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
8475 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
8476 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
8478 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
8479 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
8480 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
8481 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
8482 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
8483 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
8484 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
8485 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
8487 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
8488 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
8489 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
8490 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
8494 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
8495 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
8496 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
8497 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
8498 for xdb and dbx commands.
8502 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
8503 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
8504 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
8506 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
8507 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
8508 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
8510 * Debugging across forks
8512 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
8517 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
8518 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
8519 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
8521 * GDB remote protocol additions
8523 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
8524 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
8525 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
8526 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
8528 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
8529 full 64-bit address. The command
8531 set remoteaddresssize 32
8533 can be used to revert to the old behavior. For existing remote stubs
8534 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
8537 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
8538 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
8540 maint packet heythere
8542 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
8543 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
8546 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
8547 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
8548 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
8550 * Tracing can collect general expressions
8552 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
8553 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
8554 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
8556 * mask-address variable for Mips
8558 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
8559 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
8560 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
8562 * Higher serial baud rates
8564 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
8565 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
8566 to achieve all of these rates.)
8570 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
8571 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
8574 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
8576 * New native configurations
8578 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
8579 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
8580 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
8581 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
8582 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
8583 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
8584 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
8588 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
8589 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
8590 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
8591 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
8592 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
8593 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
8594 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
8595 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
8596 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
8597 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
8598 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
8600 * New debugging protocols
8602 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
8603 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
8604 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
8605 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
8606 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
8607 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
8611 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
8612 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
8617 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
8618 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
8620 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
8622 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
8623 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
8624 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
8626 * Live range splitting
8628 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
8629 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
8630 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
8634 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
8635 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
8639 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
8640 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
8641 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
8646 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
8651 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
8652 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
8653 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
8654 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
8655 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
8656 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
8660 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
8661 the symbol at the specified address.
8665 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
8666 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
8667 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
8668 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
8669 file tracepoint.c for more details.
8673 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
8674 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
8675 of most MIPS variants.
8679 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
8680 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
8681 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
8685 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
8686 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
8687 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
8688 the possible architectures.
8690 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
8692 * New native configurations
8694 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
8695 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
8696 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
8697 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
8698 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
8699 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
8703 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
8704 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
8705 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
8706 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
8707 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
8709 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
8713 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
8714 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
8715 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
8716 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
8717 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
8721 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
8723 * Windows 95/NT native
8725 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
8726 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
8727 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
8728 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
8729 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
8731 * dont-repeat command
8733 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
8734 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
8735 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
8736 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
8738 * Send break instead of ^C
8740 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
8741 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
8742 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
8744 * Remote protocol timeout
8746 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
8747 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
8748 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
8750 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
8752 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
8753 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
8754 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
8755 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
8756 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
8758 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
8759 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
8760 automatically on hpux10.
8762 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
8764 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
8766 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
8768 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
8769 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
8770 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
8771 every character. The default value is 1050.
8773 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
8775 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
8776 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
8777 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
8778 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
8779 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
8780 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
8782 * Speedups for remote debugging
8784 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
8785 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
8786 and more efficient S-record downloading.
8788 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
8790 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
8791 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
8793 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
8795 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
8797 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
8798 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
8800 * Remote targets use caching
8802 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
8803 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
8804 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
8805 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
8806 off' turns the data cache off.
8808 * Remote targets may have threads
8810 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
8811 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
8812 gdb/remote.c for details.
8816 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
8817 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
8818 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
8819 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
8820 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
8821 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
8822 sequence is something like
8824 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
8826 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
8830 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
8831 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
8832 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
8833 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
8834 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
8835 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
8836 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
8837 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
8841 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
8842 but does simplify configuration and building.
8846 GDB now supports hpux10.
8848 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
8850 * New native configurations
8852 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
8853 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
8854 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
8855 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
8859 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
8860 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
8861 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
8862 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
8865 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
8867 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
8868 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
8869 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
8870 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
8871 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
8873 * Arguments to user-defined commands
8875 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
8876 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
8879 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
8881 To execute the command use:
8884 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
8885 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
8886 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
8888 * New `if' and `while' commands
8890 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
8891 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
8892 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
8893 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
8894 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
8895 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
8896 if the expression is zero.
8898 * Fortran source language mode
8900 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
8901 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
8902 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
8903 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
8906 * Better HPUX support
8908 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
8909 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
8910 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
8911 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
8912 that behavior do the following before running the program:
8918 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
8919 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
8925 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
8926 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
8929 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
8930 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
8932 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
8934 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
8935 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
8936 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
8937 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
8938 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
8939 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
8941 * New DOS host serial code
8943 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
8944 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
8947 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
8949 * New "complete" command
8951 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
8952 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
8954 * Trailing space optional in prompt
8956 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
8957 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
8959 * Breakpoint hit counts
8961 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
8962 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
8963 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
8964 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
8965 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
8968 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
8970 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
8971 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
8972 arrays actually contain only short strings.
8974 * Shared library breakpoints
8976 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
8977 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
8979 * Hardware watchpoints
8981 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
8982 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
8984 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
8988 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
8989 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
8991 * Improved Irix 5 support
8993 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
8995 * Improved HPPA support
8997 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
8999 * New native configurations
9001 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
9002 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
9003 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
9004 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
9008 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
9009 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
9012 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
9014 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
9015 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
9019 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
9020 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
9022 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
9024 * Irix 5 is now supported
9028 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
9029 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
9030 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
9031 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
9032 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
9035 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
9037 * User visible changes:
9041 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
9042 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
9043 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
9044 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
9045 debugging info for the mips target).
9047 * DEC Alpha native support
9049 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
9050 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
9051 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
9052 Alpha-specific notes.
9054 * Preliminary thread implementation
9056 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
9058 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
9060 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
9061 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
9064 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
9066 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
9067 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
9068 call methods, ...etc.
9070 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
9072 * User visible changes:
9074 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
9075 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
9076 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
9077 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
9079 Filename completion now works.
9081 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
9082 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
9083 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
9085 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
9086 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
9087 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
9088 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
9089 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
9093 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
9094 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
9097 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
9101 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
9102 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
9103 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
9107 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
9108 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
9109 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
9110 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
9111 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
9115 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
9116 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
9117 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
9119 * New targets supported
9121 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
9122 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
9123 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
9124 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
9125 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
9127 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
9128 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
9129 GO32 memory extender.
9131 * New remote protocols
9133 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
9135 * New source languages supported
9137 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
9138 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
9139 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publicly available.
9142 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
9144 * HP Precision Architecture supported
9146 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
9147 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
9148 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
9149 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
9150 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
9151 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
9153 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
9155 * Faster and better demangling
9157 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
9158 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
9159 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
9160 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
9161 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
9162 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
9165 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
9166 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
9167 compiler does not actually implement.
9169 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
9171 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
9172 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
9173 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
9174 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
9175 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
9176 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
9179 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
9180 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
9182 * Improved configure script
9184 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
9185 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
9186 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
9187 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
9189 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
9190 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
9191 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
9192 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
9193 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
9194 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
9196 * Documentation improvements
9198 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
9199 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
9200 before submitting changes.
9202 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
9203 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
9204 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
9205 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
9206 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
9208 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
9209 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
9210 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
9211 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
9212 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
9213 around this problem.
9217 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
9218 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
9219 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
9222 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
9223 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
9225 * New native hosts supported
9227 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
9228 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
9230 * New targets supported
9232 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
9234 * New file formats supported
9236 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
9237 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
9241 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
9243 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
9244 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
9246 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
9247 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
9248 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
9250 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
9251 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
9253 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
9254 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
9255 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
9258 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
9259 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
9260 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
9261 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
9262 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
9264 * Internal improvements
9266 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
9267 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
9269 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
9270 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
9271 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
9272 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
9273 shared code that handles any of them.
9275 * New command line options
9277 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
9281 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
9282 General Public License.
9284 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
9286 * Host/native/target split
9288 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
9289 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
9290 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
9291 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
9292 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
9294 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
9295 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
9296 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
9297 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
9298 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
9299 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
9300 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
9302 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
9303 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
9304 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
9306 * New hosts supported
9308 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
9309 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
9310 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
9312 * New targets supported
9314 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
9315 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
9317 * New native hosts supported
9319 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
9320 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
9321 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
9323 * New file formats supported
9325 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
9326 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
9327 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
9331 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
9332 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
9333 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
9335 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
9337 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
9338 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
9339 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
9340 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
9344 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
9345 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
9346 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
9348 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
9352 The crash that occurred when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
9353 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
9356 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
9357 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
9359 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
9360 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
9361 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
9362 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
9363 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
9364 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
9366 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
9367 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
9368 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
9369 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
9373 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
9374 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
9375 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
9376 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
9377 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
9379 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
9380 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
9381 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
9382 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
9386 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
9387 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
9388 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
9389 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
9390 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
9391 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
9392 each instruction being stepped through.
9394 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
9395 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
9397 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
9398 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
9399 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
9400 processor with a serial port.
9404 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
9405 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
9406 supported, and what files each one uses.
9410 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
9411 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
9412 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
9413 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
9415 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
9416 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
9417 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
9418 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
9422 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
9423 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
9424 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
9425 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
9426 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
9427 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
9429 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
9432 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
9434 * Better support for C++ function names
9436 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
9437 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
9438 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
9439 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
9440 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
9442 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
9443 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
9444 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
9445 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
9446 for the list of formats.
9448 * G++ symbol mangling problem
9450 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
9451 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
9452 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
9453 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compiling gdb/symtab.c. The
9454 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
9455 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
9458 * New 'maintenance' command
9460 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
9461 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
9462 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
9464 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
9465 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
9466 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
9467 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
9468 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
9469 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
9471 The following commands are new:
9473 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
9474 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
9475 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
9477 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
9479 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
9480 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
9481 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
9482 read after argv processing.
9484 * New hosts supported
9486 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
9488 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
9490 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
9491 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
9492 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
9493 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
9494 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
9497 * New targets supported
9499 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
9501 * More smarts about finding #include files
9503 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
9504 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
9505 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
9506 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
9507 the one that contains your sources.
9509 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
9510 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
9511 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
9513 * Interesting infernals change
9515 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
9516 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
9517 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
9518 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
9520 * Bug fixes (of course!)
9522 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
9523 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
9524 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
9526 See the ChangeLog for details.
9528 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
9530 * New machines supported (host and target)
9532 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
9534 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
9536 * New malloc package
9538 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
9539 Mmalloc is capable of handling multiple heaps of memory. It is also
9540 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
9541 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
9542 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
9543 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
9547 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
9548 'help info proc' for details.
9550 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
9552 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
9553 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
9556 * File name changes for MS-DOS
9558 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
9559 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
9560 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
9561 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
9562 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
9563 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
9565 * Cross byte order fixes
9567 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
9568 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
9570 * New -mapped and -readnow options
9572 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
9573 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
9574 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
9575 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
9576 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
9577 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
9578 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
9579 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
9580 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
9581 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
9583 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
9584 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
9585 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
9586 slower, but makes future operations faster.
9588 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
9589 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
9590 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
9593 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
9595 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
9596 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
9597 shared across multiple host platforms.
9599 * longjmp() handling
9601 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
9602 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
9603 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
9604 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
9608 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
9609 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
9614 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
9615 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
9616 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
9618 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
9620 * New machines supported (host and target)
9622 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
9624 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
9625 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
9627 * New machines supported (target)
9629 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
9633 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
9634 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
9635 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
9637 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
9638 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
9639 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
9640 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
9641 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
9644 * New features for SVR4
9646 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
9647 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
9648 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
9650 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
9651 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
9652 it prints the address mappings of the process.
9654 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
9655 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were required (if any).
9657 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
9659 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
9660 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
9661 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
9662 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
9663 same code linked statically.
9667 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
9668 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
9669 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
9670 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicitly
9671 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
9672 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
9676 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
9677 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
9678 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
9681 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
9683 * New machines supported (host and target)
9685 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
9686 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
9687 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
9689 * Almost SCO Unix support
9691 We had hoped to support:
9692 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
9693 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
9694 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
9695 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
9697 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
9699 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
9700 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
9701 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
9702 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
9707 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
9708 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
9709 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
9713 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
9714 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
9715 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
9717 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
9719 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
9720 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
9721 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
9723 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
9724 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
9725 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
9726 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
9729 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
9730 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
9731 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
9732 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
9735 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
9736 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
9739 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
9740 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
9741 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
9744 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
9746 * Improved configuration
9748 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
9749 Porting BFD is simpler.
9753 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
9754 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
9755 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
9756 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
9760 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
9762 * New host supported (not target)
9764 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
9767 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
9769 * Multiple source language support
9771 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
9772 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
9773 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
9774 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
9775 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
9776 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
9780 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
9781 currently under development at the State University of New York at
9782 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
9783 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
9785 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
9786 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
9787 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
9789 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
9790 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
9794 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
9795 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
9796 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
9797 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
9800 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
9802 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
9803 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
9804 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
9805 examining core files.
9809 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
9812 * New machines supported (host and target)
9814 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
9815 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
9816 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
9818 * New hosts supported (not targets)
9820 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
9822 * New targets supported (not hosts)
9824 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
9825 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
9826 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
9828 * New remote interfaces
9834 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
9838 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
9840 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
9841 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
9842 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
9843 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
9844 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
9845 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
9846 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
9847 stub on the target system.
9849 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
9851 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
9852 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
9853 object file types such as a.out and coff.
9855 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
9856 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
9859 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
9861 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
9862 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
9864 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
9865 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
9866 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
9868 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
9869 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
9870 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
9871 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
9873 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
9874 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
9875 it is already running. Default is ON.
9877 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
9878 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
9879 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
9880 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
9883 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
9884 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
9885 or the value of the environment variable
9888 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
9889 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
9892 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
9893 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
9894 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
9896 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
9897 history expansion will be performed on
9898 command line input. The default is OFF.
9900 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
9901 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
9902 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
9904 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
9905 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
9906 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
9909 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
9910 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
9911 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
9914 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
9915 ``set width'' instead.
9917 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
9918 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
9919 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
9920 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
9922 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
9925 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
9928 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
9931 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
9934 * Support for Epoch Environment.
9936 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
9937 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
9938 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
9942 * Support for Shared Libraries
9944 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
9945 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
9946 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
9947 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
9948 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
9949 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
9950 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
9951 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
9953 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
9954 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
9955 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
9957 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
9962 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
9963 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
9964 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
9965 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
9966 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
9967 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
9969 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
9971 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
9973 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
9974 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
9975 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
9978 * C++ multiple inheritance
9980 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
9983 * C++ exception handling
9985 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
9986 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
9987 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
9990 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
9991 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
9992 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
9994 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
9995 current stack frame.
9998 * Minor command changes
10000 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
10001 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
10002 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
10004 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
10005 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
10006 frames without printing.
10008 * New directory command
10010 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
10011 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
10012 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
10013 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
10014 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
10016 * Configuring GDB for compilation
10018 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
10021 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
10022 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
10023 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
10024 where the program that you are debugging will run.