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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 17
5
6 * Support for .gdb_index sections with version less than 7 has been
7 removed.
8
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.
12
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.
16
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
24 this invalid sharing.
25
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
32 first run.
33
34 * Support for stabs debug information has been removed.
35
36 * Support for the binary file format dbx has been removed.
37
38 * When connected to an extended-remote target GDB can now
39 automatically set the 'remote exec-file' in some cases. GDB will
40 auto set the remote exec-file only if the remote wasn't started with
41 an executable, and the user hasn't used 'set remote exec-file' to
42 set an executable. GDB will auto set the remote exec-file using the
43 current executable if the current executable has a 'target:' prefix,
44 or if the current executable is within the sysroot.
45
46 * GDB now adds all type symbols to the .gdb_index section. The index
47 version number has not increased as a consequence of this change.
48 This fixes an issue where GDB could fail to find a type when relying
49 on the index. Any existing indexes should be regenerated.
50 * Support for Floating Point Mode Register (FPMR) in AArch64.
51
52 * New targets
53
54 GNU/Linux/MicroBlaze (gdbserver) microblazeel-*linux*
55
56 * New commands
57
58 maintenance test-remote-args ARGS
59 Test splitting and joining of inferior arguments ARGS as they would
60 be split and joined when being passed to a remote target.
61
62 * Changed commands
63
64 maintenance info program-spaces
65 This command no longer displays the core file name.
66
67 info inferiors
68 If an inferior has a core file loaded, then this will be displayed
69 as an additional line under the inferior's table entry in the
70 output.
71
72 New command class for help
73 The new command class "essential" has been added, which is a set of
74 commands that we, as developers, believe would be close to a minimal
75 set of commands for a new user of GDB.
76
77 * Changed remote packets
78
79 single-inf-arg in qSupported
80 The new single-inf-arg feature within the qSupported packet allows
81 GDB to inform the stub that it would like to send the inferior
82 arguments as a single string within the vRun packet. The stub can
83 reply with the single-inf-arg feature to indicate that it is able to
84 accept arguments as a single string.
85
86 * New remote packets
87
88 qExecAndArgs
89 This packet returns the executable filename and argument string with
90 which the server was started. If no such information was given to
91 the server then this is reflected in the reply.
92
93 * Python API
94
95 ** New class gdb.Style for representing styles, a collection of
96 foreground and background gdb.Color objects, and an intensity.
97
98 ** New constants gdb.INTENSITY_NORMAL, gdb.INTENSITY_BOLD, and
99 gdb.INTENSITY_DIM for use with gdb.Style when representing
100 intensities.
101
102 ** New gdb.StyleParameterSet for creating custom style settings.
103 Use gdb.StyleParameterSet(NAME) to create 'set style NAME ...'
104 and 'show style NAME ...' parameters.
105
106 ** The gdb.write() function now takes an additional, optional,
107 'style' argument, which can be used to style the output.
108
109 ** New gdb.Corefile class which represents a loaded core file. This
110 has an attribute Corefile.filename, the file name of the loaded
111 core file, and a method Corefile.is_valid(), which returns False
112 when a Corefile object becomes invalid (e.g. when the core file
113 is unloaded). There is also Corefile.mapped_files() which
114 returns a list of CorefileMappedFile objects, representing files
115 that were mapped into the core file when it was created.
116
117 ** New gdb.CorefileMappedFile type representing a file that was
118 mapped when the core file was created. Has read-only attributes
119 filename (string), build_id (string), is_main_executable
120 (boolean), and regions (list of CorefileMappedFileRegion objects).
121
122 ** New gdb.CorefileMappedFileRegion type, which represents a mapped
123 region of a file (see gdb.CorefileMappedFile above). Has
124 read-only attributes start, end, and file_offset.
125
126 ** New Inferior.corefile attribute. This read only attribute
127 contains the gdb.Corefile object if a core file is loaded into
128 the inferior, otherwise, this contains None.
129
130 *** Changes in GDB 17
131
132 * Debugging Linux programs that use x86-64 or x86-64 with 32-bit pointer
133 size (X32) Shadow Stacks are now supported.
134
135 * Support for the shadow stack pointer register on x86-64 or x86-64 with
136 32-bit pointer size (X32) GNU/Linux.
137
138 * Debugger Adapter Protocol changes
139
140 ** GDB now supports the "completions" request.
141
142 * "set style" commands now supports numeric format for basic colors
143 from 0 to 255 and #RRGGBB format for TrueColor.
144
145 * New built-in convenience variable $_colorsupport provides comma-separated
146 list of color space names supported by terminal. Each color space name is one
147 of monochrome, ansi_8color, aixterm_16color, xterm_256color or rgb_24bit.
148 It is handy for conditionally using styling colors based on terminal features.
149 For example:
150
151 (gdb) if $_regex ($_colorsupport, ".*(^|,)rgb_24bit($|,).*")
152 >set style filename background #FACADE
153 >else
154 >if $_regex ($_colorsupport, ".*(^|,)xterm_256color($|,).*")
155 >set style filename background 224
156 >else
157 >set style filename background red
158 >end
159 >end
160
161 * UST (static tracepoint) support from gdbserver has been removed.
162
163 * Linux checkpoint code has been updated to work with multiple inferiors.
164
165 * The gcore and gdb-add-index scripts now have a -v or --version
166 option, which prints the version number, and then exits. As well as
167 a -h or --help option, which prints each options and a brief
168 description.
169
170 * The gcore script now has a -g option that lets you specify the GDB
171 binary invoked by gcore.
172
173 * On systems that support linker namespaces, the output of the command
174 "info sharedlibraries" may add one more column, NS, which identifies the
175 namespace into which the library was loaded, if more than one namespace
176 is active.
177
178 * New built-in convenience variables $linker_namespace_count and
179 $_linker_namespace. These show the number of active linker
180 namespaces, and the namespace to which the current location belongs to.
181 In systems that don't support linker namespaces, or if the inferior hasn't
182 started yet, these always return the integer 0.
183
184 * The 'org.gnu.gdb.i386.linux' target description feature can now
185 contain three additional registers which provide access to the TLS
186 related GDT entries on i386 (and x86-64 when compiling with -m32).
187
188 * Add record full support for rv64gc architectures
189
190 * Debugging Linux programs that use AArch64 Guarded Control Stacks is now
191 supported.
192
193 * New "--binary-output" command line option instructs GDB to set the
194 translation mode of its stdout/stderr to binary mode. This disables
195 Line Feed translation. MS-Windows only.
196
197 * The "catch syscall" command now works on riscv*-linux* targets.
198
199 * New commands
200
201 maintenance check psymtabs
202 Renamed from maintenance check-psymtabs
203
204 maintenance check symtabs
205 Renamed from maintenance check-symtabs
206
207 maintenance canonicalize
208 Show the canonical form of a C++ name.
209
210 set riscv numeric-register-names on|off
211 show riscv numeric-register-names
212 Controls whether GDB refers to risc-v registers by their numeric names
213 (e.g 'x1') or their abi names (e.g. 'ra').
214 Defaults to 'off', matching the old behaviour (abi names).
215
216 set style emoji on|off|auto
217 show style emoji
218 Controls whether GDB can display emoji. The default is "auto",
219 which means emoji will be displayed in some situations when
220 the host charset is UTF-8.
221
222 set style warning-prefix STRING
223 set style error-prefix STRING
224 These commands control the prefix that is printed before warnings
225 and errors, respectively. This functionality is intended for use
226 with emoji display, and so the prefixes are only displayed if emoji
227 styling is enabled.
228
229 info linker-namespaces
230 info linker-namespaces [[N]]
231 Print information about the given linker namespace (identified as N),
232 or about all the namespaces if no argument is given.
233
234 * Changed commands
235
236 info sharedlibrary
237 On Linux and FreeBSD, the addresses shown in the output of this
238 command are now for the full memory range allocated to the shared
239 library.
240
241 info threads [-gid] [-stopped] [-running] [ID]...
242 If no threads match the given ID(s) or filter options, GDB now prints
243
244 No threads matched.
245
246 without printing the provided arguments. The newly added '-stopped'
247 option makes GDB list the stopped threads only. Similarly,
248 '-running' makes GDB list the running threads only. If both options
249 are given together, both stopped and running threads are listed.
250 These new flags can be useful to get a reduced list when there is a
251 large number of threads.
252
253 * GDB-internal Thread Local Storage (TLS) support
254
255 ** Linux targets for the x86_64, aarch64, ppc64, s390x, and riscv
256 architectures now have GDB-internal support for TLS address
257 lookup in addition to that traditionally provided by the
258 libthread_db library. This internal support works for programs
259 linked against either the GLIBC or MUSL C libraries. For
260 programs linked against MUSL, this new internal support provides
261 new debug functionality, allowing access to TLS variables, due to
262 the fact that MUSL does not implement the libthread_db library.
263 Internal TLS support is also useful in cross-debugging
264 situations, debugging statically linked binaries, and debugging
265 programs linked against GLIBC 2.33 and earlier, but which are not
266 linked against libpthread.
267
268 ** The command 'maint set force-internal-tls-address-lookup on' may
269 be used to force the internal TLS lookup mechanisms to be used.
270 Otherwise, TLS lookup via libthread_db will still be preferred,
271 when available.
272
273 * Python API
274
275 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 3.4.
276
277 ** New class gdb.Color for dealing with colors.
278
279 ** New constant gdb.PARAM_COLOR represents color type of a
280 gdb.Parameter.value. Parameter's value is gdb.Color instance.
281
282 ** The memory_source argument (the second argument) has been removed
283 from gdb.disassembler.builtin_disassemble. This argument was
284 never used by GDB, and was added by mistake. The unused argument
285 was never documented in the GDB manual, so users should not have
286 been using it.
287
288 ** gdb.execute has an additional 'styling' argument. When True, then
289 output will be styled. The default for this argument is True
290 when output is going to standard output, and False when output is
291 going to a string.
292
293 ** Setting the documentation string (__doc__) of a gdb.Parameter
294 sub-class to the empty string, means GDB will only display the
295 set_doc or show_doc strings in the set/show help output.
296
297 ** New gdb.ParameterPrefix class. This can be used to create 'set'
298 and 'show' gdb.Command prefixes, suitable for use with new
299 gdb.Parameters.
300
301 ** Prefix commands (gdb.Command sub-classes) that don't have an
302 invoke method will now behave like builtin prefix commands when
303 invoked without a sub-command name. This means printing the help
304 text for all sub-commands, unless the prefix command is a 'show'
305 command, in which case the value of all sub-commands is printed.
306
307 ** New gdb.warning() function that takes a string and prints it as a
308 warning, with GDB's standard 'warning' prefix.
309
310 ** New attribute gdb.Value.is_unavailable, this checks for
311 unavailability like gdb.Value.is_optimized_out checks for
312 optimized out values.
313
314 * Guile API
315
316 ** New type <gdb:color> for dealing with colors.
317
318 ** New constant PARAM_COLOR represents color type of a value
319 of a <gdb:parameter> object. Parameter's value is <gdb::color> instance.
320
321 ** Eliding the #:doc string from make-parameter now means that GDB
322 will use a default documentation string. Setting #:doc to the
323 empty string for make-parameter means GDB will only display the
324 #:set_doc or #:show_doc strings in the set/show help output.
325
326 ** Prefix commands (using make-command) that don't have a #:invoke
327 property will now behave like builtin prefix commands when
328 invoked without a sub-command name. This means printing the help
329 text for all sub-commands, unless the prefix command is a 'show'
330 command, in which case the value of all sub-commands is printed.
331
332 * New remote packets
333
334 binary-upload in qSupported reply
335 If the stub sends back 'binary-upload+' in it's qSupported reply,
336 then GDB will, where possible, make use of the 'x' packet. If the
337 stub doesn't report this feature supported, then GDB will not use
338 the 'x' packet.
339
340 vFile:lstat
341 Return information about files on the remote system. Like
342 vFile:stat but if the filename is a symbolic link, return
343 information about the link itself, the file the link refers to.
344
345 * Changed remote packets
346
347 qXfer:threads:read
348 The XML that is sent as a response can now include an "id_str"
349 attribute for a thread element. The attribute indicates what GDB
350 should print as the target ID of the thread, for example in the
351 "info threads" command or when switching to the thread.
352
353 vFile:stat
354 Previously, gdbserver incorrectly implemented this packet using
355 lstat rather than stat. This has now been corrected. The
356 documentation has also been clarified.
357
358 * MI changes
359
360 ** The =library-unloaded event now includes the 'ranges' field, which
361 has the same meaning as for the =library-loaded event.
362
363 ** The =library-unloaded event now includes the 'still-in-use' field.
364 This field is 'true' when a library is unloaded (removed from the
365 inferior's list of loaded libraries), but the mapping within the
366 inferior's address space is retained, as the library was mapped
367 multiple times, and the same mapping was being reused. In all
368 other cases, this field will have the value 'false'.
369
370 * Support for stabs debugging format and the a.out/dbx object format is
371 deprecated, and will be removed in GDB 18.
372
373 * Configure changes
374
375 --enable-binary-file-formats=[FORMAT,...]
376 --enable-binary-file-formats=all
377 A user can now decide to only compile support for certain file formats.
378 The available formats at this point are: dbx, coff, xcoff, elf, mach-o
379 and mips. Some targets require specific file formats to be available,
380 and in such cases, the configure script will warn the user and add
381 support anyway. By default, all formats will be compiled in, to
382 continue the behavior from before adding the switch.
383
384 * A new configure option was added, allowing support for the compile
385 subsystem to be disabled at configure time, in the form of
386 --disable-gdb-compile.
387
388 * A new configure option was added, allowing support for DWARF debug
389 information to be disabled at configure time. The flag is
390 --disable-gdb-dwarf-support.
391
392 * A new configure option was added, allowing support for mdebug/ecoff
393 debug information to be disabled at configure time. The flag to do
394 that is --disable-gdb-mdebug-support.
395
396 * The Alpha target now supports target descriptions.
397
398 *** Changes in GDB 16
399
400 * Support for Nios II targets has been removed as this architecture
401 has been EOL'ed by Intel.
402
403 * GDB now supports watchpoints for tagged data pointers (see
404 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagged_pointer) on amd64, such as the
405 one used by the Linear Address Masking (LAM) feature provided by
406 Intel.
407
408 * Debugging support for Intel MPX has been removed. This includes the
409 removal of
410 ** MPX register support
411 ** the commands "show/set mpx bound" (deprecated since GDB 15)
412 ** i386 and amd64 implementation of the hooks report_signal_info and
413 get_siginfo_type.
414
415 * GDB now supports printing of asynchronous events from the Intel Processor
416 Trace during 'record instruction-history', 'record function-call-history'
417 and all stepping commands. This can be controlled with the new
418 "set record btrace pt event-tracing" command.
419
420 * GDB now supports printing of ptwrite payloads from the Intel Processor
421 Trace during 'record instruction-history', 'record function-call-history'
422 and all stepping commands. The payload is also accessible in Python as a
423 RecordAuxiliary object. Printing is customizable via a ptwrite filter
424 function in Python. By default, the raw ptwrite payload is printed for
425 each ptwrite that is encountered.
426
427 * For breakpoints that are created in the 'pending' state, any
428 'thread' or 'task' keywords are parsed at the time the breakpoint is
429 created, rather than at the time the breakpoint becomes non-pending.
430
431 * Thread-specific breakpoints are only inserted into the program space
432 in which the thread of interest is running. In most cases program
433 spaces are unique for each inferior, so this means that
434 thread-specific breakpoints will usually only be inserted for the
435 inferior containing the thread of interest. The breakpoint will
436 be hit no less than before.
437
438 * For ARM targets, the offset of the pc in the jmp_buf has been fixed to match
439 glibc 2.20 and later. This should only matter when not using libc probes.
440 This may cause breakage when using an incompatible libc, like uclibc or
441 newlib, or an older glibc.
442
443 * MTE (Memory Tagging Extension) debugging is now supported on AArch64 baremetal
444 targets.
445
446 * Remove support (native and remote) for QNX Neutrino (triplet
447 `i[3456]86-*-nto*`).
448
449 * In a record session, when a forward emulation reaches the end of the reverse
450 history, the warning message has been changed to indicate that the end of the
451 history has been reached. It also specifies that the forward execution can
452 continue, and the recording will also continue.
453
454 * The Ada 'Object_Size attribute is now supported.
455
456 * Support for process record/replay and reverse debugging on loongarch*-linux*
457 targets has been added.
458
459 * New bash script gstack uses GDB to print stack traces of running processes.
460
461 * Python API
462
463 ** Added gdb.record.clear. Clears the trace data of the current recording.
464 This forces re-decoding of the trace for successive commands.
465
466 ** Added the new event source gdb.tui_enabled.
467
468 ** New module gdb.missing_objfile that facilitates dealing with
469 missing objfiles when opening a core-file.
470
471 ** New function gdb.missing_objfile.register_handler that can
472 register an instance of a sub-class of
473 gdb.missing_debug.MissingObjfileHandler as a handler for missing
474 objfiles.
475
476 ** New class gdb.missing_objfile.MissingObjfileHandler which can be
477 sub-classed to create handlers for missing objfiles.
478
479 ** The 'signed' argument to gdb.Architecture.integer_type() will no
480 longer accept non-bool types.
481
482 ** The gdb.MICommand.installed property can only be set to True or
483 False.
484
485 ** The 'qualified' argument to gdb.Breakpoint constructor will no
486 longer accept non-bool types.
487
488 ** Added the gdb.Symbol.is_artificial attribute.
489
490 ** Added gdb.Block.subblocks. Returns a list of blocks contained in that
491 block.
492
493 ** Added gdb.Symbol.domain. Contains the domain of the symbol.
494
495 ** Added gdb.Architecture.void_type. Returns a gdb.Type representing "void"
496 type for that architecture.
497
498 * Debugger Adapter Protocol changes
499
500 ** The "scopes" request will now return a scope holding global
501 variables from the stack frame's compilation unit.
502
503 ** The "scopes" request will return a "returnValue" scope holding
504 the return value from the latest "stepOut" command, when
505 appropriate.
506
507 ** The "launch" and "attach" requests were rewritten in accordance
508 with some clarifications to the spec. Now they can be sent at
509 any time after the "initialized" event, but will not take effect
510 (or send a response) until after the "configurationDone" request
511 has been sent.
512
513 ** The "variables" request will not return artificial symbols.
514
515 * New commands
516
517 show jit-reader-directory
518 Show the name of the directory that "jit-reader-load" uses for
519 relative file names.
520
521 set style line-number foreground COLOR
522 set style line-number background COLOR
523 set style line-number intensity VALUE
524 Control the styling of line numbers printed by GDB.
525
526 set style command foreground COLOR
527 set style command background COLOR
528 set style command intensity VALUE
529 Control the styling of GDB commands when displayed by GDB.
530
531 set style title foreground COLOR
532 set style title background COLOR
533 set style title intensity VALUE
534 This style now applies to the header line of lists, for example the
535 first line of the output of "info breakpoints". Previous uses of
536 this style have been replaced with the new "command" style.
537
538 set warn-language-frame-mismatch [on|off]
539 show warn-language-frame-mismatch
540 Control the warning that is emitted when specifying a language that
541 does not match the current frame's language.
542
543 maintenance info inline-frames [ADDRESS]
544 New command which displays GDB's inline-frame information for the
545 current address, or for ADDRESS if specified. The output identifies
546 inlined frames which start at the specified address.
547
548 maintenance info blocks [ADDRESS]
549 New command which displays information about all of the blocks at
550 ADDRESS, or at the current address if ADDRESS is not given. Blocks
551 are listed starting at the inner global block out to the most inner
552 block.
553
554 maintenance frame-unwinder disable [-all | -name NAME | [-class] CLASS]
555 maintenance frame-unwinder enable [-all | -name NAME | [-class] CLASS]
556 Enable or disable frame unwinders. This is only meant to be used when
557 testing unwinders themselves, and you want to ensure that a fallback
558 algorithm won't obscure a regression. GDB is not expected to behave
559 well if you try to execute the inferior with unwinders disabled.
560
561 info missing-objfile-handlers
562 List all the registered missing-objfile handlers.
563
564 enable missing-objfile-handler LOCUS HANDLER
565 disable missing-objfile-handler LOCUS HANDLER
566 Enable or disable a missing-objfile handler with a name matching the
567 regular expression HANDLER, in LOCUS.
568
569 LOCUS can be 'global' to operate on global missing-objfile handler,
570 'progspace' to operate on handlers within the current program space,
571 or can be a regular expression which is matched against the filename
572 of the primary executable in each program space.
573
574 * Changed commands
575
576 remove-symbol-file
577 This command now supports file-name completion.
578
579 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
580 The ADDRESS expression can now be a full expression consisting of
581 multiple terms, e.g. 'function + 0x1000' (without quotes),
582 previously only a single term could be given.
583
584 target core
585 target exec
586 target tfile
587 target ctf
588 compile file
589 maint print c-tdesc
590 save gdb-index
591 These commands now require their filename argument to be quoted if
592 it contains white space or quote characters. If the argument
593 contains no such special characters then quoting is not required.
594
595 maintenance print remote-registers
596 Add an "Expedited" column to the output of the command. It indicates
597 which registers were included in the last stop reply packet received by
598 GDB.
599
600 maintenance info frame-unwinders
601 Add a CLASS column to the output. This class is a somewhat arbitrary
602 grouping of unwinders, based on which area of GDB adds the unwinder.
603 Also add an ENABLED column, that will show if the unwinder is enabled
604 or not.
605
606 maintenance set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
607 This command has been removed because the same functionality can be
608 achieved with maint frame-unwinder (enable|disable) DEBUGINFO.
609
610 maintenance show dwarf unwinders
611 This command has been removed since the functionality can be achieved
612 by checking the last column of maint info frame-unwinders.
613
614 show configuration
615 Now includes the version of GNU Readline library that GDB is using.
616
617 * New remote packets
618
619 vFile:stat
620 Return information about files on the remote system. Like
621 vFile:fstat but takes a filename rather than an open file
622 descriptor.
623
624 x addr,length
625 Given ADDR and LENGTH, fetch LENGTH units from the memory at address
626 ADDR and send the fetched data in binary format. This packet is
627 equivalent to 'm', except that the data in the response are in
628 binary format.
629
630 *** Changes in GDB 15
631
632 * The MPX commands "show/set mpx bound" have been deprecated, as Intel
633 listed MPX as removed in 2019.
634
635 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++17 compiler.
636 For example, GCC 9 or later.
637
638 * GDB index now contains information about the main function. This speeds up
639 startup when it is being used for some large binaries.
640
641 * On hosts where threading is available, DWARF reading is now done in
642 the background, resulting in faster startup. This can be controlled
643 using "maint set dwarf synchronous".
644
645 * Changed commands
646
647 disassemble
648 Attempting to use both the 'r' and 'b' flags with the disassemble
649 command will now give an error. Previously the 'b' flag would
650 always override the 'r' flag.
651
652 gcore
653 generate-core-file
654 GDB now generates sparse core files, on systems that support it.
655
656 maintenance info line-table
657 Add an EPILOGUE-BEGIN column to the output of the command. It indicates
658 if the line is considered the start of the epilogue, and thus a point at
659 which the frame can be considered destroyed.
660
661 set unwindonsignal on|off
662 show unwindonsignal
663 These commands are now aliases for the new set/show unwind-on-signal.
664
665 target record-full
666 This command now gives an error if any unexpected arguments are
667 found after the command.
668
669 list .
670 When using the command "list ." in a location that has no debug information
671 or no file loaded, GDB now says that there is no debug information to print
672 lines. This makes it more obvious that there is no information, as opposed
673 to implying there is no inferior loaded.
674
675 * New commands
676
677 info missing-debug-handler
678 List all the registered missing debug handlers.
679
680 enable missing-debug-handler LOCUS HANDLER
681 disable missing-debug-handler LOCUS HANDLER
682 Enable or disable a missing debug handler with a name matching the
683 regular expression HANDLER, in LOCUS.
684
685 LOCUS can be 'global' to operate on global missing debug handler,
686 'progspace' to operate on handlers within the current program space,
687 or can be a regular expression which is matched against the filename
688 of the primary executable in each program space.
689
690 maintenance info linux-lwps
691 List all LWPs under control of the linux-nat target.
692
693 set remote thread-options-packet
694 show remote thread-options-packet
695 Set/show the use of the thread options packet.
696
697 set direct-call-timeout SECONDS
698 show direct-call-timeout
699 set indirect-call-timeout SECONDS
700 show indirect-call-timeout
701 These new settings can be used to limit how long GDB will wait for
702 an inferior function call to complete. The direct timeout is used
703 for inferior function calls from e.g. 'call' and 'print' commands,
704 while the indirect timeout is used for inferior function calls from
705 within a conditional breakpoint expression.
706
707 The default for the direct timeout is unlimited, while the default
708 for the indirect timeout is 30 seconds.
709
710 These timeouts will only have an effect for targets that are
711 operating in async mode. For non-async targets the timeouts are
712 ignored, GDB will wait indefinitely for an inferior function to
713 complete, unless interrupted by the user using Ctrl-C.
714
715 set unwind-on-timeout on|off
716 show unwind-on-timeout
717 These commands control whether GDB should unwind the stack when a
718 timeout occurs during an inferior function call. The default is
719 off, in which case the inferior will remain in the frame where the
720 timeout occurred. When on, GDB will unwind the stack removing the
721 dummy frame that was added for the inferior call, and restoring the
722 inferior state to how it was before the inferior call started.
723
724 set unwind-on-signal on|off
725 show unwind-on-signal
726 These new commands replaces the existing set/show unwindonsignal. The
727 old command is maintained as an alias.
728
729 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
730
731 ** The --remote-debug and --event-loop-debug command line options
732 have been removed.
733
734 ** The --debug command line option now takes an optional comma
735 separated list of components to emit debug for. The currently
736 supported components are: all, threads, event-loop, and remote.
737 If no components are given then threads is assumed.
738
739 ** The 'monitor set remote-debug' and 'monitor set event-loop-debug'
740 command have been removed.
741
742 ** The 'monitor set debug 0|1' command has been extended to take a
743 component name, e.g.: 'monitor set debug COMPONENT off|on'.
744 Possible component names are: all, threads, event-loop, and
745 remote.
746
747 * Python API
748
749 ** New function gdb.notify_mi(NAME, DATA), that emits custom
750 GDB/MI async notification.
751
752 ** New read/write attribute gdb.Value.bytes that contains a bytes
753 object holding the contents of this value.
754
755 ** New module gdb.missing_debug that facilitates dealing with
756 objfiles that are missing any debug information.
757
758 ** New function gdb.missing_debug.register_handler that can register
759 an instance of a sub-class of gdb.missing_debug.MissingDebugInfo
760 as a handler for objfiles that are missing debug information.
761
762 ** New class gdb.missing_debug.MissingDebugInfo which can be
763 sub-classed to create handlers for objfiles with missing debug
764 information.
765
766 ** Stop events now have a "details" attribute that holds a
767 dictionary that carries the same information as an MI "*stopped"
768 event.
769
770 ** New function gdb.interrupt(), that interrupts GDB as if the user
771 typed control-c.
772
773 ** New gdb.InferiorThread.ptid_string attribute. This read-only
774 attribute contains the string that appears in the 'Target Id'
775 column of the 'info threads' command output.
776
777 ** It is no longer possible to create new gdb.Progspace object using
778 'gdb.Progspace()', this will result in a TypeError. Progspace
779 objects can still be obtained through calling other API
780 functions, for example 'gdb.current_progspace()'.
781
782 ** User defined attributes can be added to a gdb.Inferior object,
783 these will be stored in the object's new Inferior.__dict__
784 attribute.
785
786 ** User defined attributes can be added to a gdb.InferiorThread
787 object, these will be stored in the object's new
788 InferiorThread.__dict__ attribute.
789
790 ** New constants gdb.SYMBOL_TYPE_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTION_DOMAIN,
791 and gdb.SEARCH_*_DOMAIN corresponding to all the existing symbol
792 domains. Symbol lookup can now search in multiple domains at
793 once, and can also narrowly search for just a type or function.
794
795 * Debugger Adapter Protocol changes
796
797 ** GDB now emits the "process" event.
798
799 ** GDB now supports the "cancel" request.
800
801 ** The "attach" request now supports specifying the program.
802
803 ** New command "set debug dap-log-level" controls DAP logging.
804
805 ** The "set debug dap-log-file" command is now documented. This
806 command was available in GDB 14 but not documented.
807
808 * Guile API
809
810 ** New constants SYMBOL_TYPE_DOMAIN, SYMBOL_FUNCTION_DOMAIN, and
811 SEARCH_*_DOMAIN corresponding to all the existing symbol domains.
812 Symbol lookup can now search in multiple domains at once, and can
813 also narrowly search for just a type or function.
814
815 * New remote packets
816
817 New stop reason: clone
818 Indicates that a clone system call was executed.
819
820 QThreadOptions
821 Enable/disable optional event reporting, on a per-thread basis.
822 Currently supported options are GDB_THREAD_OPTION_CLONE, to enable
823 clone event reporting, and GDB_THREAD_OPTION_EXIT to enable thread
824 exit event reporting.
825
826 QThreadOptions in qSupported
827 The qSupported packet allows GDB to inform the stub it supports the
828 QThreadOptions packet, and the qSupported response can contain the
829 set of thread options the remote stub supports.
830
831 qIsAddressTagged
832 This new packet allows GDB to query the stub about a given address to check
833 if it is tagged or not. Many memory tagging-related GDB commands need to
834 perform this check before they read/write the allocation tag related to an
835 address. Currently, however, this is done through a 'vFile' request to read
836 the file /proc/<PID>/smaps and check if the address is in a region reported
837 as memory tagged. Since not all targets have a notion of what the smaps
838 file is about, this new packet provides a more generic way to perform such
839 a check.
840
841 *** Changes in GDB 14
842
843 * GDB now supports the AArch64 Scalable Matrix Extension 2 (SME2), which
844 includes a new 512 bit lookup table register named ZT0.
845
846 * GDB now supports the AArch64 Scalable Matrix Extension (SME), which includes
847 a new matrix register named ZA, a new thread register TPIDR2 and a new vector
848 length register SVG (streaming vector granule). GDB also supports tracking
849 ZA state across signal frames.
850
851 Some features are still under development or are dependent on ABI specs that
852 are still in alpha stage. For example, manual function calls with ZA state
853 don't have any special handling, and tracking of SVG changes based on
854 DWARF information is still not implemented, but there are plans to do so in
855 the future.
856
857 * GDB now recognizes the NO_COLOR environment variable and disables
858 styling according to the spec. See https://no-color.org/.
859 Styling can be re-enabled with "set style enabled on".
860
861 * The AArch64 'org.gnu.gdb.aarch64.pauth' Pointer Authentication feature string
862 has been deprecated in favor of the 'org.gnu.gdb.aarch64.pauth_v2' feature
863 string.
864
865 * GDB now has some support for integer types larger than 64 bits.
866
867 * Removed targets and native configurations
868
869 GDB no longer supports AIX 4.x, AIX 5.x and AIX 6.x. The minimum supported
870 AIX version is now AIX 7.1.
871
872 * Multi-target feature configuration
873
874 GDB now supports the individual configuration of remote targets' feature
875 sets. Based on the current selection of a target, the commands 'set remote
876 <name>-packet (on|off|auto)' and 'show remote <name>-packet' can be used to
877 configure a target's feature packet and to display its configuration,
878 respectively.
879
880 The individual packet sizes can be configured and shown using the commands
881 ** 'set remote memory-read-packet-size (number of bytes|fixed|limit)'
882 ** 'set remote memory-write-packet-size (number of bytes|fixed|limit)'
883 ** 'show remote memory-read-packet-size'
884 ** 'show remote memory-write-packet-size'.
885
886 The configuration of the packet itself, as well as the size of a memory-read
887 or memory-write packet applies to the currently selected target (if
888 available). If no target is selected, it applies to future remote
889 connections. Similarly, the show commands print the configuration of the
890 currently selected target. If no remote target is selected, the default
891 configuration for future connections is shown.
892
893 * GDB has initial built-in support for the Debugger Adapter Protocol.
894 This support requires that GDB be built with Python scripting
895 enabled.
896
897 * For the break command, multiple uses of the 'thread' or 'task'
898 keywords will now give an error instead of just using the thread or
899 task id from the last instance of the keyword. E.g.:
900 break foo thread 1 thread 2
901 will now give an error rather than using 'thread 2'.
902
903 * For the watch command, multiple uses of the 'task' keyword will now
904 give an error instead of just using the task id from the last
905 instance of the keyword. E.g.:
906 watch my_var task 1 task 2
907 will now give an error rather than using 'task 2'. The 'thread'
908 keyword already gave an error when used multiple times with the
909 watch command, this remains unchanged.
910
911 * The 'set print elements' setting now helps when printing large arrays.
912 If an array would otherwise exceed max-value-size, but 'print elements'
913 is set such that the size of elements to print is less than or equal
914 to 'max-value-size', GDB will now still print the array, however only
915 'max-value-size' worth of data will be added into the value history.
916
917 * For both the break and watch commands, it is now invalid to use both
918 the 'thread' and 'task' keywords within the same command. For
919 example the following commands will now give an error:
920 break foo thread 1 task 1
921 watch var thread 2 task 3
922
923 * The printf command now accepts a '%V' output format which will
924 format an expression just as the 'print' command would. Print
925 options can be placed within '[...]' after the '%V' to modify how
926 the value is printed. E.g:
927 printf "%V", some_array
928 printf "%V[-array-indexes on]", some_array
929 will print the array without, or with array indexes included, just
930 as the array would be printed by the 'print' command. This
931 functionality is also available for dprintf when dprintf-style is
932 'gdb'.
933
934 * When the printf command requires a string to be fetched from the
935 inferior, GDB now uses the existing 'max-value-size' setting to the
936 limit the memory allocated within GDB. The default 'max-value-size'
937 is 64k. To print longer strings you should increase
938 'max-value-size'.
939
940 * The Ada 2022 Enum_Rep and Enum_Val attributes are now supported.
941
942 * The Ada 2022 target name symbol ('@') is now supported by the Ada
943 expression parser.
944
945 * The 'list' command now accepts '.' as an argument, which tells GDB to
946 print the location around the point of execution within the current frame.
947 If the inferior hasn't started yet, the command will print around the
948 beginning of the 'main' function.
949
950 * Using the 'list' command with no arguments in a situation where the
951 command would attempt to list past the end of the file now warns the
952 user that the end of file has been reached, refers the user to the
953 newly added '.' argument
954
955 * Breakpoints can now be inferior-specific. This is similar to the
956 existing thread-specific breakpoint support. Breakpoint conditions
957 can include the 'inferior' keyword followed by an inferior id (as
958 displayed in the 'info inferiors' output). It is invalid to use the
959 'inferior' keyword with either the 'thread' or 'task' keywords when
960 creating a breakpoint.
961
962 * New convenience function "$_shell", to execute a shell command and
963 return the result. This lets you run shell commands in expressions.
964 Some examples:
965
966 (gdb) p $_shell("true")
967 $1 = 0
968 (gdb) p $_shell("false")
969 $2 = 1
970 (gdb) break func if $_shell("some command") == 0
971
972 * Configure changes
973
974 --additional-debug-dirs=PATHs
975
976 Provide a colon-separated list of additional directories to search for
977 separate debug info. These directories are added to the default value of
978 the 'debug-file-directory' GDB parameter.
979
980 * New commands
981
982 set debug breakpoint on|off
983 show debug breakpoint
984 Print additional debug messages about breakpoint insertion and removal.
985
986 maintenance print record-instruction [ N ]
987 Print the recorded information for a given instruction. If N is not given
988 prints how GDB would undo the last instruction executed. If N is negative,
989 prints how GDB would undo the N-th previous instruction, and if N is
990 positive, it prints how GDB will redo the N-th following instruction.
991
992 maintenance info frame-unwinders
993 List the frame unwinders currently in effect, starting with the highest
994 priority.
995
996 maintenance wait-for-index-cache
997 Wait until all pending writes to the index cache have completed.
998
999 set always-read-ctf on|off
1000 show always-read-ctf
1001 When off, CTF is only read if DWARF is not present. When on, CTF is
1002 read regardless of whether DWARF is present. Off by default.
1003
1004 info main
1005 Get main symbol to identify entry point into program.
1006
1007 set tui mouse-events [on|off]
1008 show tui mouse-events
1009 When on (default), mouse clicks control the TUI and can be accessed by
1010 Python extensions. When off, mouse clicks are handled by the terminal,
1011 enabling terminal-native text selection.
1012
1013 * MI changes
1014
1015 ** MI version 1 has been removed.
1016
1017 ** mi now reports 'no-history' as a stop reason when hitting the end of the
1018 reverse execution history.
1019
1020 ** When creating a thread-specific breakpoint using the '-p' option,
1021 the -break-insert command would report the 'thread' field twice in
1022 the reply. The content of both fields was always identical. This
1023 has now been fixed; the 'thread' field will be reported just once
1024 for thread-specific breakpoints, or not at all for breakpoints
1025 without a thread restriction. The same is also true for the 'task'
1026 field of an Ada task-specific breakpoint.
1027
1028 ** It is no longer possible to create a thread-specific breakpoint for
1029 a thread that doesn't exist using '-break-insert -p ID'. Creating
1030 breakpoints for non-existent threads is not allowed when using the
1031 CLI, that the MI allowed it was a long standing bug, which has now
1032 been fixed.
1033
1034 ** The '--simple-values' argument to the '-stack-list-arguments',
1035 '-stack-list-locals', '-stack-list-variables', and '-var-list-children'
1036 commands now takes reference types into account: that is, a value is now
1037 considered simple if it is neither an array, structure, or union, nor a
1038 reference to an array, structure, or union. (Previously all references were
1039 considered simple.) Support for this feature can be verified by using the
1040 '-list-features' command, which should contain "simple-values-ref-types".
1041
1042 ** The -break-insert command now accepts a '-g thread-group-id' option
1043 to allow for the creation of inferior-specific breakpoints.
1044
1045 ** The bkpt tuple, which appears in breakpoint-created notifications,
1046 and in the result of the -break-insert command can now include an
1047 optional 'inferior' field for both the main breakpoint, and each
1048 location, when the breakpoint is inferior-specific.
1049
1050 * Python API
1051
1052 ** gdb.ThreadExitedEvent added. Emits a ThreadEvent.
1053
1054 ** The gdb.unwinder.Unwinder.name attribute is now read-only.
1055
1056 ** The name argument passed to gdb.unwinder.Unwinder.__init__ must
1057 now be of type 'str' otherwise a TypeError will be raised.
1058
1059 ** The gdb.unwinder.Unwinder.enabled attribute can now only accept
1060 values of type 'bool'. Changing this attribute will now
1061 invalidate GDB's frame-cache, which means GDB will need to
1062 rebuild its frame-cache when next required - either with, or
1063 without the particular unwinder, depending on how 'enabled' was
1064 changed.
1065
1066 ** New methods added to the gdb.PendingFrame class. These methods
1067 have the same behavior as the corresponding methods on
1068 gdb.Frame. The new methods are:
1069
1070 - gdb.PendingFrame.name: Return the name for the frame's
1071 function, or None.
1072 - gdb.PendingFrame.is_valid: Return True if the pending frame
1073 object is valid.
1074 - gdb.PendingFrame.pc: Return the $pc register value for this
1075 frame.
1076 - gdb.PendingFrame.language: Return a string containing the
1077 language for this frame, or None.
1078 - gdb.PendingFrame.find_sal: Return a gdb.Symtab_and_line
1079 object for the current location within the pending frame, or
1080 None.
1081 - gdb.PendingFrame.block: Return a gdb.Block for the current
1082 pending frame, or None.
1083 - gdb.PendingFrame.function: Return a gdb.Symbol for the
1084 current pending frame, or None.
1085
1086 ** The frame-id passed to gdb.PendingFrame.create_unwind_info can
1087 now use either an integer or a gdb.Value object for each of its
1088 'sp', 'pc', and 'special' attributes.
1089
1090 ** A new class gdb.unwinder.FrameId has been added. Instances of
1091 this class are constructed with 'sp' (stack-pointer) and 'pc'
1092 (program-counter) values, and can be used as the frame-id when
1093 calling gdb.PendingFrame.create_unwind_info.
1094
1095 ** It is now no longer possible to sub-class the
1096 gdb.disassembler.DisassemblerResult type.
1097
1098 ** The Disassembler API from the gdb.disassembler module has been
1099 extended to include styling support:
1100
1101 - The DisassemblerResult class can now be initialized with a list
1102 of parts. Each part represents part of the disassembled
1103 instruction along with the associated style information. This
1104 list of parts can be accessed with the new
1105 DisassemblerResult.parts property.
1106
1107 - New constants gdb.disassembler.STYLE_* representing all the
1108 different styles part of an instruction might have.
1109
1110 - New methods DisassembleInfo.text_part and
1111 DisassembleInfo.address_part which are used to create the new
1112 styled parts of a disassembled instruction.
1113
1114 - Changes are backwards compatible, the older API can still be
1115 used to disassemble instructions without styling.
1116
1117 ** New function gdb.execute_mi(COMMAND, [ARG]...), that invokes a
1118 GDB/MI command and returns the output as a Python dictionary.
1119
1120 ** New function gdb.block_signals(). This returns a context manager
1121 that blocks any signals that GDB needs to handle itself.
1122
1123 ** New class gdb.Thread. This is a subclass of threading.Thread
1124 that calls gdb.block_signals in its "start" method.
1125
1126 ** gdb.parse_and_eval now has a new "global_context" parameter.
1127 This can be used to request that the parse only examine global
1128 symbols.
1129
1130 ** gdb.Inferior now has a new "arguments" attribute. This holds the
1131 command-line arguments to the inferior, if known.
1132
1133 ** gdb.Inferior now has a new "main_name" attribute. This holds the
1134 name of the inferior's "main", if known.
1135
1136 ** gdb.Inferior now has new methods "clear_env", "set_env", and
1137 "unset_env". These can be used to modify the inferior's
1138 environment before it is started.
1139
1140 ** gdb.Value now has the 'assign' method.
1141
1142 ** gdb.Value now has the 'to_array' method. This converts an
1143 array-like Value to an array.
1144
1145 ** gdb.Progspace now has the new method "objfile_for_address". This
1146 returns the gdb.Objfile, if any, that covers a given address.
1147
1148 ** gdb.Breakpoint now has an "inferior" attribute. If the
1149 Breakpoint object is inferior specific then this attribute holds
1150 the inferior-id (an integer). If the Breakpoint object is not
1151 inferior specific, then this field contains None. This field can
1152 be written too.
1153
1154 ** gdb.Type now has the "is_array_like" and "is_string_like"
1155 methods. These reflect GDB's internal idea of whether a type
1156 might be array- or string-like, even if they do not have the
1157 corresponding type code.
1158
1159 ** gdb.ValuePrinter is a new class that can be used as the base
1160 class for the result of applying a pretty-printer. As a base
1161 class, it signals to gdb that the printer may implement new
1162 pretty-printer methods.
1163
1164 ** New attribute Progspace.symbol_file. This attribute holds the
1165 gdb.Objfile that corresponds to Progspace.filename (when
1166 Progspace.filename is not None), otherwise, this attribute is
1167 itself None.
1168
1169 ** New attribute Progspace.executable_filename. This attribute
1170 holds a string containing a file name set by the "exec-file" or
1171 "file" commands, or None if no executable file is set. This
1172 isn't the exact string passed by the user to these commands; the
1173 file name will have been partially resolved to an absolute file
1174 name.
1175
1176 ** A new executable_changed event registry is available. This event
1177 emits ExecutableChangedEvent objects, which have 'progspace' (a
1178 gdb.Progspace) and 'reload' (a Boolean) attributes. This event
1179 is emitted when gdb.Progspace.executable_filename changes.
1180
1181 ** New event registries gdb.events.new_progspace and
1182 gdb.events.free_progspace, these emit NewProgspaceEvent and
1183 FreeProgspaceEvent event types respectively. Both of these event
1184 types have a single 'progspace' attribute, which is the
1185 gdb.Progspace that is either being added to GDB, or removed from
1186 GDB.
1187
1188 ** gdb.LazyString now implements the __str__ method.
1189
1190 ** New method gdb.Frame.static_link that returns the outer frame
1191 of a nested function frame.
1192
1193 *** Changes in GDB 13
1194
1195 * MI version 1 is deprecated, and will be removed in GDB 14.
1196
1197 * GDB now supports dumping memory tag data for AArch64 MTE. It also supports
1198 reading memory tag data for AArch64 MTE from core files generated by
1199 the gcore command or the Linux kernel.
1200
1201 When a process uses memory-mapped pages protected by memory tags (for
1202 example, AArch64 MTE), this additional information will be recorded in
1203 the core file in the event of a crash or if GDB generates a core file
1204 from the current process state. GDB will show this additional information
1205 automatically, or through one of the memory-tag subcommands.
1206
1207 * Scheduler-locking and new threads
1208
1209 When scheduler-locking is in effect, only the current thread may run
1210 when the inferior is resumed. However, previously, new threads
1211 created by the resumed thread would still be able to run free. Now,
1212 they are held stopped.
1213
1214 * "info breakpoints" now displays enabled breakpoint locations of
1215 disabled breakpoints as in the "y-" state. For example:
1216
1217 (gdb) info breakpoints
1218 Num Type Disp Enb Address What
1219 1 breakpoint keep n <MULTIPLE>
1220 1.1 y- 0x00000000000011b6 in ...
1221 1.2 y- 0x00000000000011c2 in ...
1222 1.3 n 0x00000000000011ce in ...
1223
1224 * Support for Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on FreeBSD arm and
1225 aarch64 architectures.
1226
1227 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on FreeBSD/Aarch64.
1228
1229 * Remove support for building against Python 2, it is now only possible to
1230 build GDB against Python 3.
1231
1232 * DBX mode has been removed.
1233
1234 * GDB now honours the DWARF prologue_end line-table entry flag the compiler can
1235 emit to indicate where a breakpoint should be placed to break in a function
1236 past its prologue.
1237
1238 * Completion now also offers "NUMBER" for "set" commands that accept
1239 a numeric argument and the "unlimited" keyword. For example:
1240
1241 (gdb) set width <TAB>
1242 NUMBER unlimited
1243
1244 and consequently:
1245
1246 (gdb) complete set width
1247 set width NUMBER
1248 set width unlimited
1249
1250 * Disassembler styling using libopcodes. GDB now supports
1251 disassembler styling using libopcodes. This is only available for
1252 some targets (currently x86 and RISC-V). For unsupported targets
1253 Python Pygments is still used. For supported targets, libopcodes
1254 styling is used by default.
1255
1256 * The Windows native target now supports target async.
1257
1258 * gdb now supports zstd compressed debug sections (ELFCOMPRESS_ZSTD) for ELF.
1259
1260 * The format of 'disassemble /r' and 'record instruction-history /r'
1261 has changed. The instruction bytes could now be grouped together,
1262 and displayed in the endianness of the instruction. This is the
1263 same layout as used by GNU objdump when disassembling.
1264
1265 There is now 'disassemble /b' and 'record instruction-history /b'
1266 which will always display the instructions bytes one at a time in
1267 memory order, that is, the byte at the lowest address first.
1268
1269 For both /r and /b GDB is now better at using whitespace in order to
1270 align the disassembled instruction text.
1271
1272 * The TUI no longer styles the source and assembly code highlighted by
1273 the current position indicator by default. You can however
1274 re-enable styling using the new "set style tui-current-position"
1275 command.
1276
1277 * New convenience variable $_inferior_thread_count contains the number
1278 of live threads in the current inferior.
1279
1280 * When a breakpoint with multiple code locations is hit, GDB now prints
1281 the code location using the syntax <breakpoint_number>.<location_number>
1282 such as in:
1283 Thread 1 "zeoes" hit Breakpoint 2.3, some_func () at zeoes.c:8
1284
1285 * When a breakpoint is hit, GDB now sets the convenience variables $_hit_bpnum
1286 and $_hit_locno to the hit breakpoint number and code location number.
1287 This allows to disable the last hit breakpoint using
1288 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum
1289 or disable only the specific breakpoint code location using
1290 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum.$_hit_locno
1291 These commands can be used inside the command list of a breakpoint to
1292 automatically disable the just encountered breakpoint (or the just
1293 encountered specific breakpoint code location).
1294 When a breakpoint has only one location, $_hit_locno is set to 1 so that
1295 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum.$_hit_locno
1296 and
1297 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum
1298 are both disabling the breakpoint.
1299
1300 * New commands
1301
1302 maintenance set ignore-prologue-end-flag on|off
1303 maintenance show ignore-prologue-end-flag
1304 This setting, which is off by default, controls whether GDB ignores the
1305 PROLOGUE-END flag from the line-table when skipping prologue. This can be
1306 used to force GDB to use prologue analyzers if the line-table is constructed
1307 from erroneous debug information.
1308
1309 set print nibbles [on|off]
1310 show print nibbles
1311 This controls whether the 'print/t' command will display binary values
1312 in groups of four bits, known as "nibbles". The default is 'off'.
1313
1314 maintenance set libopcodes-styling on|off
1315 maintenance show libopcodes-styling
1316 These can be used to force off libopcodes based styling, the Python
1317 Pygments styling will then be used instead.
1318
1319 set style disassembler comment
1320 show style disassembler comment
1321 set style disassembler immediate
1322 show style disassembler immediate
1323 set style disassembler mnemonic
1324 show style disassembler mnemonic
1325 set style disassembler register
1326 show style disassembler register
1327 set style disassembler address
1328 show style disassembler address
1329 set style disassembler symbol
1330 show style disassembler symbol
1331 For targets that support libopcodes based styling, these settings
1332 control how various aspects of the disassembler output are styled.
1333 The 'disassembler address' and 'disassembler symbol' styles are
1334 aliases for the 'address' and 'function' styles respectively.
1335
1336 maintenance print frame-id [ LEVEL ]
1337 Print GDB's internal frame-id for the frame at LEVEL. If LEVEL is
1338 not given, then print the frame-id for the currently selected frame.
1339
1340 set debug infcall on|off
1341 show debug infcall
1342 Print additional debug messages about inferior function calls.
1343
1344 set debug solib on|off
1345 show debug solib
1346 Print additional debug messages about shared library handling.
1347
1348 set style tui-current-position [on|off]
1349 Whether to style the source and assembly code highlighted by the
1350 TUI's current position indicator. The default is off.
1351
1352 set print characters LIMIT
1353 show print characters
1354 This new setting is like 'set print elements', but controls how many
1355 characters of a string are printed. This functionality used to be
1356 covered by 'set print elements', but it can be controlled separately
1357 now. LIMIT can be set to a numerical value to request that particular
1358 character count, to 'unlimited' to print all characters of a string,
1359 or to 'elements', which is also the default, to follow the setting of
1360 'set print elements' as it used to be.
1361
1362 print -characters LIMIT
1363 This new option to the 'print' command has the same effect as a temporary
1364 use of 'set print characters'.
1365
1366 * Changed commands
1367
1368 document user-defined
1369 It is now possible to document user-defined aliases.
1370 When a user-defined alias is documented, the help and apropos commands
1371 use the provided documentation instead of the documentation of the
1372 aliased command.
1373 Documenting a user-defined alias is particularly useful when the alias
1374 is a set of nested 'with' commands to avoid showing the help of
1375 the with command for an alias that will in fact launch the
1376 last command given in the nested commands.
1377
1378 maintenance info line-table
1379 Add a PROLOGUE-END column to the output which indicates that an
1380 entry corresponds to an address where a breakpoint should be placed
1381 to be at the first instruction past a function's prologue.
1382
1383 * Removed commands
1384
1385 set debug aix-solib on|off
1386 show debug aix-solib
1387 set debug solib-frv on|off
1388 show debug solib-frv
1389 Removed in favor of "set/show debug solib".
1390
1391 maintenance info program-spaces
1392 This command now includes a 'Core File' column which indicates the
1393 name of the core file associated with each program space.
1394
1395 * New targets
1396
1397 GNU/Linux/LoongArch (gdbserver) loongarch*-*-linux*
1398
1399 GNU/Linux/CSKY (gdbserver) csky*-*linux*
1400
1401 AMDGPU amdgcn-*-*
1402
1403 * MI changes
1404
1405 ** The async record stating the stopped reason 'breakpoint-hit' now
1406 contains an optional field locno giving the code location number
1407 when the breakpoint has multiple code locations.
1408
1409 * Python API
1410
1411 ** GDB will now reformat the doc string for gdb.Command and
1412 gdb.Parameter sub-classes to remove unnecessary leading
1413 whitespace from each line before using the string as the help
1414 output.
1415
1416 ** New function gdb.format_address(ADDRESS, PROGSPACE, ARCHITECTURE),
1417 that formats ADDRESS as 'address <symbol+offset>', where symbol is
1418 looked up in PROGSPACE, and ARCHITECTURE is used to format address.
1419 This is the same format that GDB uses when printing address, symbol,
1420 and offset information from the disassembler.
1421
1422 ** New function gdb.current_language that returns the name of the
1423 current language. Unlike gdb.parameter('language'), this will
1424 never return 'auto'.
1425
1426 ** New method gdb.Frame.language that returns the name of the
1427 frame's language.
1428
1429 ** New Python API for wrapping GDB's disassembler:
1430
1431 - gdb.disassembler.register_disassembler(DISASSEMBLER, ARCH).
1432 DISASSEMBLER is a sub-class of gdb.disassembler.Disassembler.
1433 ARCH is either None or a string containing a bfd architecture
1434 name. DISASSEMBLER is registered as a disassembler for
1435 architecture ARCH, or for all architectures if ARCH is None.
1436 The previous disassembler registered for ARCH is returned, this
1437 can be None if no previous disassembler was registered.
1438
1439 - gdb.disassembler.Disassembler is the class from which all
1440 disassemblers should inherit. Its constructor takes a string,
1441 a name for the disassembler, which is currently only used in
1442 some debug output. Sub-classes should override the __call__
1443 method to perform disassembly, invoking __call__ on this base
1444 class will raise an exception.
1445
1446 - gdb.disassembler.DisassembleInfo is the class used to describe
1447 a single disassembly request from GDB. An instance of this
1448 class is passed to the __call__ method of
1449 gdb.disassembler.Disassembler and has the following read-only
1450 attributes: 'address', and 'architecture', as well as the
1451 following method: 'read_memory'.
1452
1453 - gdb.disassembler.builtin_disassemble(INFO, MEMORY_SOURCE),
1454 calls GDB's builtin disassembler on INFO, which is a
1455 gdb.disassembler.DisassembleInfo object. MEMORY_SOURCE is
1456 optional, its default value is None. If MEMORY_SOURCE is not
1457 None then it must be an object that has a 'read_memory' method.
1458
1459 - gdb.disassembler.DisassemblerResult is a class that can be used
1460 to wrap the result of a call to a Disassembler. It has
1461 read-only attributes 'length' and 'string'.
1462
1463 ** gdb.Objfile now has an attribute named "is_file". This is True
1464 if the objfile comes from a file, and False otherwise.
1465
1466 ** New function gdb.print_options that returns a dictionary of the
1467 prevailing print options, in the form accepted by
1468 gdb.Value.format_string.
1469
1470 ** gdb.Value.format_string now uses the format provided by 'print',
1471 if it is called during a 'print' or other similar operation.
1472
1473 ** gdb.Value.format_string now accepts the 'summary' keyword. This
1474 can be used to request a shorter representation of a value, the
1475 way that 'set print frame-arguments scalars' does.
1476
1477 ** New Python type gdb.BreakpointLocation.
1478 The new attribute 'locations' of gdb.Breakpoint returns a list of
1479 gdb.BreakpointLocation objects specifying the locations where the
1480 breakpoint is inserted into the debuggee.
1481
1482 ** The gdb.register_window_type method now restricts the set of
1483 acceptable window names. The first character of a window's name
1484 must start with a character in the set [a-zA-Z], every subsequent
1485 character of a window's name must be in the set [-_.a-zA-Z0-9].
1486
1487 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1488
1489 ** GDBserver is now supported on LoongArch GNU/Linux.
1490
1491 ** GDBserver is now supported on CSKY GNU/Linux.
1492
1493 * LoongArch floating-point support
1494
1495 GDB now supports floating-point on LoongArch GNU/Linux.
1496
1497 * AMD GPU ROCm debugging support
1498
1499 GDB now supports debugging programs offloaded to AMD GPUs using the ROCm
1500 platform.
1501
1502 *** Changes in GDB 12
1503
1504 * DBX mode is deprecated, and will be removed in GDB 13
1505
1506 * GDB 12 is the last release of GDB that will support building against
1507 Python 2. From GDB 13, it will only be possible to build GDB itself
1508 with Python 3 support.
1509
1510 * The disable-randomization setting now works on Windows.
1511
1512 * Improved C++ template support
1513
1514 GDB now treats functions/types involving C++ templates like it does function
1515 overloads. Users may omit parameter lists to set breakpoints on families of
1516 template functions, including types/functions composed of multiple template types:
1517
1518 (gdb) break template_func(template_1, int)
1519
1520 The above will set breakpoints at every function `template_func' where
1521 the first function parameter is any template type named `template_1' and
1522 the second function parameter is `int'.
1523
1524 TAB completion also gains similar improvements.
1525
1526 * The FreeBSD native target now supports async mode.
1527
1528 * Configure changes
1529
1530 --enable-threading
1531
1532 Enable or disable multithreaded symbol loading. This is enabled
1533 by default, but passing --disable-threading or --enable-threading=no
1534 to configure will disable it.
1535
1536 Disabling this can cause a performance penalty when there are a lot of
1537 symbols to load, but is useful for debugging purposes.
1538
1539 * New commands
1540
1541 maint set backtrace-on-fatal-signal on|off
1542 maint show backtrace-on-fatal-signal
1543 This setting is 'on' by default. When 'on' GDB will print a limited
1544 backtrace to stderr in the situation where GDB terminates with a
1545 fatal signal. This only supported on some platforms where the
1546 backtrace and backtrace_symbols_fd functions are available.
1547
1548 set source open on|off
1549 show source open
1550 This setting, which is on by default, controls whether GDB will try
1551 to open source code files. Switching this off will stop GDB trying
1552 to open and read source code files, which can be useful if the files
1553 are located over a slow network connection.
1554
1555 set varsize-limit
1556 show varsize-limit
1557 These are now deprecated aliases for "set max-value-size" and
1558 "show max-value-size".
1559
1560 task apply [all | TASK-IDS...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
1561 Like "thread apply", but applies COMMAND to Ada tasks.
1562
1563 watch [...] task ID
1564 Watchpoints can now be restricted to a specific Ada task.
1565
1566 maint set internal-error backtrace on|off
1567 maint show internal-error backtrace
1568 maint set internal-warning backtrace on|off
1569 maint show internal-warning backtrace
1570 GDB can now print a backtrace of itself when it encounters either an
1571 internal-error, or an internal-warning. This is on by default for
1572 internal-error and off by default for internal-warning.
1573
1574 set logging on|off
1575 Deprecated and replaced by "set logging enabled on|off".
1576
1577 set logging enabled on|off
1578 show logging enabled
1579 These commands set or show whether logging is enabled or disabled.
1580
1581 exit
1582 You can now exit GDB by using the new command "exit", in addition to
1583 the existing "quit" command.
1584
1585 set debug threads on|off
1586 show debug threads
1587 Print additional debug messages about thread creation and deletion.
1588
1589 set debug linux-nat on|off
1590 show debug linux-nat
1591 These new commands replaced the old 'set debug lin-lwp' and 'show
1592 debug lin-lwp' respectively. Turning this setting on prints debug
1593 messages relating to GDB's handling of native Linux inferiors.
1594
1595 maint flush source-cache
1596 Flush the contents of the source code cache.
1597
1598 maint set gnu-source-highlight enabled on|off
1599 maint show gnu-source-highlight enabled
1600 Whether GDB should use the GNU Source Highlight library for adding
1601 styling to source code. When off, the library will not be used, even
1602 when available. When GNU Source Highlight isn't used, or can't add
1603 styling to a particular source file, then the Python Pygments
1604 library will be used instead.
1605
1606 set suppress-cli-notifications (on|off)
1607 show suppress-cli-notifications
1608 This controls whether printing the notifications is suppressed for CLI.
1609 CLI notifications occur when you change the selected context
1610 (i.e., the current inferior, thread and/or the frame), or when
1611 the program being debugged stops (e.g., because of hitting a
1612 breakpoint, completing source-stepping, an interrupt, etc.).
1613
1614 set style disassembler enabled on|off
1615 show style disassembler enabled
1616 If GDB is compiled with Python support, and the Python Pygments
1617 package is available, then, when this setting is on, disassembler
1618 output will have styling applied.
1619
1620 set ada source-charset
1621 show ada source-charset
1622 Set the character set encoding that is assumed for Ada symbols. Valid
1623 values for this follow the values that can be passed to the GNAT
1624 compiler via the '-gnati' option. The default is ISO-8859-1.
1625
1626 tui layout
1627 tui focus
1628 tui refresh
1629 tui window height
1630 These are the new names for the old 'layout', 'focus', 'refresh',
1631 and 'winheight' tui commands respectively. The old names still
1632 exist as aliases to these new commands.
1633
1634 tui window width
1635 winwidth
1636 The new command 'tui window width', and the alias 'winwidth' allow
1637 the width of a tui window to be adjusted when windows are laid out
1638 in horizontal mode.
1639
1640 set debug tui on|off
1641 show debug tui
1642 Control the display of debug output about GDB's tui.
1643
1644 * Changed commands
1645
1646 print
1647 Printing of floating-point values with base-modifying formats like
1648 /x has been changed to display the underlying bytes of the value in
1649 the desired base. This was GDB's documented behavior, but was never
1650 implemented correctly.
1651
1652 maint packet
1653 This command can now print a reply, if the reply includes
1654 non-printable characters. Any non-printable characters are printed
1655 as escaped hex, e.g. \x?? where '??' is replaces with the value of
1656 the non-printable character.
1657
1658 clone-inferior
1659 The clone-inferior command now ensures that the TTY, CMD and ARGS
1660 settings are copied from the original inferior to the new one.
1661 All modifications to the environment variables done using the 'set
1662 environment' or 'unset environment' commands are also copied to the new
1663 inferior.
1664
1665 set debug lin-lwp on|off
1666 show debug lin-lwp
1667 These commands have been removed from GDB. The new command 'set
1668 debug linux-nat' and 'show debug linux-nat' should be used
1669 instead.
1670
1671 info win
1672 This command now includes information about the width of the tui
1673 windows in its output.
1674
1675 layout
1676 focus
1677 refresh
1678 winheight
1679 These commands are now aliases for the 'tui layout', 'tui focus',
1680 'tui refresh', and 'tui window height' commands respectively.
1681
1682 * GDB's Ada parser now supports an extension for specifying the exact
1683 byte contents of a floating-point literal. This can be useful for
1684 setting floating-point registers to a precise value without loss of
1685 precision. The syntax is an extension of the based literal syntax.
1686 Use, e.g., "16lf#0123abcd#" -- the number of "l"s controls the width
1687 of the floating-point type, and the "f" is the marker for floating
1688 point.
1689
1690 * MI changes
1691
1692 ** The '-add-inferior' with no option flags now inherits the
1693 connection of the current inferior, this restores the behavior of
1694 GDB as it was prior to GDB 10.
1695
1696 ** The '-add-inferior' command now accepts a '--no-connection'
1697 option, which causes the new inferior to start without a
1698 connection.
1699
1700 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 4 (-i=mi4).
1701
1702 ** The "script" field in breakpoint output (which is syntactically
1703 incorrect in MI 3 and below) has changed in MI 4 to become a list.
1704 This affects the following commands and events:
1705
1706 - -break-insert
1707 - -break-info
1708 - =breakpoint-created
1709 - =breakpoint-modified
1710
1711 The -fix-breakpoint-script-output command can be used to enable
1712 this behavior with previous MI versions.
1713
1714 * New targets
1715
1716 GNU/Linux/LoongArch loongarch*-*-linux*
1717
1718 * Removed targets
1719
1720 S+core score-*-*
1721
1722 * Python API
1723
1724 ** New function gdb.add_history(), which takes a gdb.Value object
1725 and adds the value it represents to GDB's history list. An
1726 integer, the index of the new item in the history list, is
1727 returned.
1728
1729 ** New function gdb.history_count(), which returns the number of
1730 values in GDB's value history.
1731
1732 ** New gdb.events.gdb_exiting event. This event is called with a
1733 gdb.GdbExitingEvent object which has the read-only attribute
1734 'exit_code', which contains the value of the GDB exit code. This
1735 event is triggered once GDB decides it is going to exit, but
1736 before GDB starts to clean up its internal state.
1737
1738 ** New function gdb.architecture_names(), which returns a list
1739 containing all of the possible Architecture.name() values. Each
1740 entry is a string.
1741
1742 ** New function gdb.Architecture.integer_type(), which returns an
1743 integer type given a size and a signed-ness.
1744
1745 ** New gdb.TargetConnection object type that represents a connection
1746 (as displayed by the 'info connections' command). A sub-class,
1747 gdb.RemoteTargetConnection, is used to represent 'remote' and
1748 'extended-remote' connections.
1749
1750 ** The gdb.Inferior type now has a 'connection' property which is an
1751 instance of gdb.TargetConnection, the connection used by this
1752 inferior. This can be None if the inferior has no connection.
1753
1754 ** New 'gdb.events.connection_removed' event registry, which emits a
1755 'gdb.ConnectionEvent' when a connection is removed from GDB.
1756 This event has a 'connection' property, a gdb.TargetConnection
1757 object for the connection being removed.
1758
1759 ** New gdb.connections() function that returns a list of all
1760 currently active connections.
1761
1762 ** New gdb.RemoteTargetConnection.send_packet(PACKET) method. This
1763 is equivalent to the existing 'maint packet' CLI command; it
1764 allows a user specified packet to be sent to the remote target.
1765
1766 ** New function gdb.host_charset(), returns a string, which is the
1767 name of the current host charset.
1768
1769 ** New gdb.set_parameter(NAME, VALUE). This sets the gdb parameter
1770 NAME to VALUE.
1771
1772 ** New gdb.with_parameter(NAME, VALUE). This returns a context
1773 manager that temporarily sets the gdb parameter NAME to VALUE,
1774 then resets it when the context is exited.
1775
1776 ** The gdb.Value.format_string method now takes a 'styling'
1777 argument, which is a boolean. When true, the returned string can
1778 include escape sequences to apply styling. The styling will only
1779 be present if styling is otherwise turned on in GDB (see 'help
1780 set styling'). When false, which is the default if the argument
1781 is not given, then no styling is applied to the returned string.
1782
1783 ** New read-only attribute gdb.InferiorThread.details, which is
1784 either a string, containing additional, target specific thread
1785 state information, or None, if there is no such additional
1786 information.
1787
1788 ** New read-only attribute gdb.Type.is_scalar, which is True for
1789 scalar types, and False for all other types.
1790
1791 ** New read-only attribute gdb.Type.is_signed. This attribute
1792 should only be read when Type.is_scalar is True, and will be True
1793 for signed types, and False for all other types. Attempting to
1794 read this attribute for non-scalar types will raise a ValueError.
1795
1796 ** It is now possible to add GDB/MI commands implemented in Python.
1797
1798 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1799
1800 ** GDBserver is now supported on OpenRISC GNU/Linux.
1801
1802 * New native configurations
1803
1804 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
1805
1806 *** Changes in GDB 11
1807
1808 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
1809 for the ARC target.
1810
1811 * GDB now supports general memory tagging functionality if the underlying
1812 architecture supports the proper primitives and hooks. Currently this is
1813 enabled only for AArch64 MTE.
1814
1815 This includes:
1816
1817 - Additional information when the inferior crashes with a SIGSEGV caused by
1818 a memory tag violation.
1819
1820 - A new modifier 'm' for the "x" command, which displays allocation tags for a
1821 particular memory range.
1822
1823 - Display of memory tag mismatches by "print", for addresses and
1824 pointers, if memory tagging is supported by the architecture.
1825
1826 * Building GDB now requires GMP (The GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic
1827 Library).
1828
1829 * MI changes
1830
1831 ** '-break-insert --qualified' and '-dprintf-insert --qualified'
1832
1833 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
1834 new "--qualified" option that makes GDB interpret a specified
1835 function name as a complete fully-qualified name. This is the
1836 equivalent of the CLI's "break -qualified" and "dprintf
1837 -qualified".
1838
1839 ** '-break-insert --force-condition' and '-dprintf-insert --force-condition'
1840
1841 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
1842 '--force-condition' flag to forcibly define a condition even when
1843 the condition is invalid at all locations of the breakpoint. This
1844 is equivalent to the '-force-condition' flag of the CLI's "break"
1845 command.
1846
1847 ** '-break-condition --force'
1848
1849 The MI -break-condition command now supports a '--force' flag to
1850 forcibly define a condition even when the condition is invalid at
1851 all locations of the selected breakpoint. This is equivalent to
1852 the '-force' flag of the CLI's "cond" command.
1853
1854 ** '-file-list-exec-source-files [--group-by-objfile]
1855 [--basename | --dirname]
1856 [--] [REGEXP]'
1857
1858 The existing -file-list-exec-source-files command now takes an
1859 optional REGEXP which is used to filter the source files that are
1860 included in the results.
1861
1862 By default REGEXP is matched against the full filename of the
1863 source file. When one of --basename or --dirname is given then
1864 REGEXP is only matched against the specified part of the full
1865 source filename.
1866
1867 When the optional --group-by-objfile flag is used the output
1868 format is changed, the results are now a list of object files
1869 (executable and libraries) with the source files that are
1870 associated with each object file.
1871
1872 The results from -file-list-exec-source-files now include a
1873 'debug-fully-read' field which takes the value 'true' or 'false'.
1874 A 'true' value indicates the source file is from a compilation
1875 unit that has had its debug information fully read in by GDB, a
1876 value of 'false' indicates GDB has only performed a partial scan
1877 of the debug information so far.
1878
1879 * GDB now supports core file debugging for x86_64 Cygwin programs.
1880
1881 * GDB will now look for the .gdbinit file in a config directory before
1882 looking for ~/.gdbinit. The file is searched for in the following
1883 locations: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.config/gdb/gdbinit,
1884 $HOME/.gdbinit. On Apple hosts the search order is instead:
1885 $HOME/Library/Preferences/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.gdbinit.
1886
1887 * GDB now supports fixed point types which are described in DWARF
1888 as base types with a fixed-point encoding. Additionally, support
1889 for the DW_AT_GNU_numerator and DW_AT_GNU_denominator has also
1890 been added.
1891
1892 For Ada, this allows support for fixed point types without requiring
1893 the use of the GNAT encoding (based on information added to the type's
1894 name following a GNAT-specific format).
1895
1896 * GDB will now load and process commands from ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit
1897 or ~/.gdbearlyinit if these files are present. These files are
1898 processed earlier than any of the other initialization files and
1899 can affect parts of GDB's startup that previously had already been
1900 completed before the initialization files were read, for example
1901 styling of the initial GDB greeting.
1902
1903 * GDB now has two new options "--early-init-command" and
1904 "--early-init-eval-command" with corresponding short options "-eix"
1905 and "-eiex" that allow options (that would normally appear in a
1906 gdbearlyinit file) to be passed on the command line.
1907
1908 * For RISC-V targets, the target feature "org.gnu.gdb.riscv.vector" is
1909 now understood by GDB, and can be used to describe the vector
1910 registers of a target. The precise requirements of this register
1911 feature are documented in the GDB manual.
1912
1913 * For ARM targets, the "org.gnu.gdb.arm.m-profile-mve" feature is now
1914 supported by GDB and describes a new VPR register from the ARM MVE
1915 (Helium) extension. See the GDB manual for more information.
1916
1917 * TUI improvements
1918
1919 ** TUI windows now support mouse actions. The mouse wheel scrolls
1920 the appropriate window.
1921
1922 ** Key combinations that do not have a specific action on the
1923 focused window are passed to GDB. For example, you now can use
1924 Ctrl-Left/Ctrl-Right to move between words in the command window
1925 regardless of which window is in focus. Previously you would
1926 need to focus on the command window for such key combinations to
1927 work.
1928
1929 * New commands
1930
1931 set debug event-loop
1932 show debug event-loop
1933 Control the display of debug output about GDB's event loop.
1934
1935 set print memory-tag-violations
1936 show print memory-tag-violations
1937 Control whether to display additional information about memory tag violations
1938 when printing pointers and addresses. Architecture support for memory
1939 tagging is required for this option to have an effect.
1940
1941 maintenance flush symbol-cache
1942 maintenance flush register-cache
1943 These new commands are equivalent to the already existing commands
1944 'maintenance flush-symbol-cache' and 'flushregs' respectively.
1945
1946 maintenance flush dcache
1947 A new command to flush the dcache.
1948
1949 maintenance info target-sections
1950 Print GDB's internal target sections table.
1951
1952 maintenance info jit
1953 Print the JIT code objects in the inferior known to GDB.
1954
1955 memory-tag show-logical-tag POINTER
1956 Print the logical tag for POINTER.
1957 memory-tag with-logical-tag POINTER TAG
1958 Print POINTER with logical tag TAG.
1959 memory-tag show-allocation-tag ADDRESS
1960 Print the allocation tag for ADDRESS.
1961 memory-tag set-allocation-tag ADDRESS LENGTH TAGS
1962 Set the allocation tag for [ADDRESS, ADDRESS + LENGTH) to TAGS.
1963 memory-tag check POINTER
1964 Validate that POINTER's logical tag matches the allocation tag.
1965
1966 set startup-quietly on|off
1967 show startup-quietly
1968 When 'on', this causes GDB to act as if "-silent" were passed on the
1969 command line. This command needs to be added to an early
1970 initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to
1971 affect GDB.
1972
1973 set print type hex on|off
1974 show print type hex
1975 When 'on', the 'ptype' command uses hexadecimal notation to print sizes
1976 and offsets of struct members. When 'off', decimal notation is used.
1977
1978 set python ignore-environment on|off
1979 show python ignore-environment
1980 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to ignore any
1981 environment variables that would otherwise affect how Python
1982 behaves. This command needs to be added to an early initialization
1983 file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to affect GDB.
1984
1985 set python dont-write-bytecode auto|on|off
1986 show python dont-write-bytecode
1987 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to not write any
1988 byte-code (.pyc files) to disk. This command needs to be added to
1989 an early initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in
1990 order to affect GDB. When 'off' byte-code will always be written.
1991 When set to 'auto' (the default) Python will check the
1992 PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE environment variable.
1993
1994 * Changed commands
1995
1996 break [PROBE_MODIFIER] [LOCATION] [thread THREADNUM]
1997 [-force-condition] [if CONDITION]
1998 This command would previously refuse setting a breakpoint if the
1999 CONDITION expression is invalid at a location. It now accepts and
2000 defines the breakpoint if there is at least one location at which
2001 the CONDITION is valid. The locations for which the CONDITION is
2002 invalid, are automatically disabled. If CONDITION is invalid at all
2003 of the locations, setting the breakpoint is still rejected. However,
2004 the '-force-condition' flag can be used in this case for forcing GDB to
2005 define the breakpoint, making all the current locations automatically
2006 disabled. This may be useful if the user knows the condition will
2007 become meaningful at a future location, e.g. due to a shared library
2008 load.
2009
2010 condition [-force] N COND
2011 The behavior of this command is changed the same way for the 'break'
2012 command as explained above. The '-force' flag can be used to force
2013 GDB into defining the condition even when COND is invalid for all the
2014 current locations of breakpoint N.
2015
2016 flushregs
2017 maintenance flush-symbol-cache
2018 These commands are deprecated in favor of the new commands
2019 'maintenance flush register-cache' and 'maintenance flush
2020 symbol-cache' respectively.
2021
2022 set style version foreground COLOR
2023 set style version background COLOR
2024 set style version intensity VALUE
2025 Control the styling of GDB's version number text.
2026
2027 inferior [ID]
2028 When the ID parameter is omitted, then this command prints information
2029 about the current inferior. When the ID parameter is present, the
2030 behavior of the command is unchanged and have the inferior ID become
2031 the current inferior.
2032
2033 maintenance info sections
2034 The ALLOBJ keyword has been replaced with an -all-objects command
2035 line flag. It is now possible to filter which sections are printed
2036 even when -all-objects is passed.
2037
2038 ptype[/FLAGS] TYPE | EXPRESSION
2039 The 'ptype' command has two new flags. When '/x' is set, hexadecimal
2040 notation is used when printing sizes and offsets of struct members.
2041 When '/d' is set, decimal notation is used when printing sizes and
2042 offsets of struct members. Default behavior is given by 'show print
2043 type hex'.
2044
2045 info sources
2046 The info sources command output has been restructured. The results
2047 are now based around a list of objfiles (executable and libraries),
2048 and for each objfile the source files that are part of that objfile
2049 are listed.
2050
2051 * Removed targets and native configurations
2052
2053 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
2054
2055 * New remote packets
2056
2057 qMemTags
2058 Request the remote to send allocation tags for a particular memory range.
2059 QMemTags
2060 Request the remote to store the specified allocation tags to the requested
2061 memory range.
2062
2063 * Guile API
2064
2065 ** Improved support for rvalue reference values:
2066 TYPE_CODE_RVALUE_REF is now exported as part of the API and the
2067 value-referenced-value procedure now handles rvalue reference
2068 values.
2069
2070 ** New procedures for obtaining value variants:
2071 value-reference-value, value-rvalue-reference-value and
2072 value-const-value.
2073
2074 ** Temporary breakpoints can now be created with make-breakpoint and
2075 tested for using breakpoint-temporary?.
2076
2077 * Python API
2078
2079 ** Inferior objects now contain a read-only 'connection_num' attribute that
2080 gives the connection number as seen in 'info connections' and
2081 'info inferiors'.
2082
2083 ** New method gdb.Frame.level() which returns the stack level of the
2084 frame object.
2085
2086 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.level() which returns the stack level
2087 of the frame object.
2088
2089 ** When hitting a catchpoint, the Python API will now emit a
2090 gdb.BreakpointEvent rather than a gdb.StopEvent. The
2091 gdb.Breakpoint attached to the event will have type BP_CATCHPOINT.
2092
2093 ** Python TUI windows can now receive mouse click events. If the
2094 Window object implements the click method, it is called for each
2095 mouse click event in this window.
2096
2097 *** Changes in GDB 10
2098
2099 * There are new feature names for ARC targets: "org.gnu.gdb.arc.core"
2100 and "org.gnu.gdb.arc.aux". The old names are still supported but
2101 must be considered obsolete. They will be deprecated after some
2102 grace period.
2103
2104 * Help and apropos commands will now show the documentation of a
2105 command only once, even if that command has one or more aliases.
2106 These commands now show the command name, then all of its aliases,
2107 and finally the description of the command.
2108
2109 * 'help aliases' now shows only the user defined aliases. GDB predefined
2110 aliases are shown together with their aliased command.
2111
2112 * GDB now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing ELF/DWARF
2113 debugging information as well as source code.
2114
2115 When built with debuginfod, GDB can automatically query debuginfod
2116 servers for the separate debug files and source code of the executable
2117 being debugged.
2118
2119 To build GDB with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure (this
2120 requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library).
2121
2122 debuginfod is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178.
2123
2124 You can get the latest version from https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
2125
2126 * Multi-target debugging support
2127
2128 GDB now supports debugging multiple target connections
2129 simultaneously. For example, you can now have each inferior
2130 connected to different remote servers running in different machines,
2131 or have one inferior debugging a local native process, an inferior
2132 debugging a core dump, etc.
2133
2134 This support is experimental and comes with some limitations -- you
2135 can only resume multiple targets simultaneously if all targets
2136 support non-stop mode, and all remote stubs or servers must support
2137 the same set of remote protocol features exactly. See also "info
2138 connections" and "add-inferior -no-connection" below, and "maint set
2139 target-non-stop" in the user manual.
2140
2141 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2142
2143 ** GDBserver is now supported on ARC GNU/Linux.
2144
2145 ** GDBserver is now supported on RISC-V GNU/Linux.
2146
2147 ** GDBserver no longer supports these host triplets:
2148
2149 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2150 powerpc-*-lynxos*
2151 i[34567]86-*-nto*
2152 bfin-*-*linux*
2153 crisv32-*-linux*
2154 cris-*-linux*
2155 m32r*-*-linux*
2156 tilegx-*-linux*
2157 arm*-*-mingw32ce*
2158 i[34567]86-*-mingw32ce*
2159
2160 * Debugging MS-Windows processes now sets $_exitsignal when the
2161 inferior is terminated by a signal, instead of setting $_exitcode.
2162
2163 * Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
2164 that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
2165 performance for programs with many symbols.
2166
2167 * The $_siginfo convenience variable now also works on Windows targets,
2168 and will display the EXCEPTION_RECORD of the last handled exception.
2169
2170 * TUI windows can now be arranged horizontally.
2171
2172 * The command history filename can now be set to the empty string
2173 either using 'set history filename' or by setting 'GDBHISTFILE=' in
2174 the environment. The effect of setting this filename to the empty
2175 string is that GDB will not try to load any previous command
2176 history.
2177
2178 * On Windows targets, it is now possible to debug 32-bit programs with a
2179 64-bit GDB.
2180
2181 * New commands
2182
2183 set exec-file-mismatch -- Set exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
2184 show exec-file-mismatch -- Show exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
2185 Set or show the option 'exec-file-mismatch'. When GDB attaches to a
2186 running process, this new option indicates whether to detect
2187 a mismatch between the current executable file loaded by GDB and the
2188 executable file used to start the process. If 'ask', the default,
2189 display a warning and ask the user whether to load the process
2190 executable file; if 'warn', just display a warning; if 'off', don't
2191 attempt to detect a mismatch.
2192
2193 tui new-layout NAME WINDOW WEIGHT [WINDOW WEIGHT]...
2194 Define a new TUI layout, specifying its name and the windows that
2195 will be displayed.
2196
2197 maintenance print xml-tdesc [FILE]
2198 Prints the current target description as an XML document. If the
2199 optional FILE is provided (which is an XML target description) then
2200 the target description is read from FILE into GDB, and then
2201 reprinted.
2202
2203 maintenance print core-file-backed-mappings
2204 Prints file-backed mappings loaded from a core file's note section.
2205 Output is expected to be similar to that of "info proc mappings".
2206
2207 set debug fortran-array-slicing on|off
2208 show debug fortran-array-slicing
2209 Print debugging when taking slices of Fortran arrays.
2210
2211 set fortran repack-array-slices on|off
2212 show fortran repack-array-slices
2213 When taking slices from Fortran arrays and strings, if the slice is
2214 non-contiguous within the original value then, when this option is
2215 on, the new value will be repacked into a single contiguous value.
2216 When this option is off, then the value returned will consist of a
2217 descriptor that describes the slice within the memory of the
2218 original parent value.
2219
2220 * Changed commands
2221
2222 alias [-a] [--] ALIAS = COMMAND [DEFAULT-ARGS...]
2223 The alias command can now specify default args for an alias.
2224 GDB automatically prepends the alias default args to the argument list
2225 provided explicitly by the user.
2226 For example, to have a backtrace with full details, you can define
2227 an alias 'bt_ALL' as
2228 'alias bt_ALL = backtrace -entry-values both -frame-arg all
2229 -past-main -past-entry -full'.
2230 Alias default arguments can also use a set of nested 'with' commands,
2231 e.g. 'alias pp10 = with print pretty -- with print elem 10 -- print'
2232 defines the alias pp10 that will pretty print a maximum of 10 elements
2233 of the given expression (if the expression is an array).
2234
2235 * New targets
2236
2237 GNU/Linux/RISC-V (gdbserver) riscv*-*-linux*
2238 BPF bpf-unknown-none
2239 Z80 z80-unknown-*
2240
2241 * Python API
2242
2243 ** gdb.register_window_type can be used to implement new TUI windows
2244 in Python.
2245
2246 ** Dynamic types can now be queried. gdb.Type has a new attribute,
2247 "dynamic", and gdb.Type.sizeof can be None for a dynamic type. A
2248 field of a dynamic type may have None for its "bitpos" attribute
2249 as well.
2250
2251 ** Commands written in Python can be in the "TUI" help class by
2252 registering with the new constant gdb.COMMAND_TUI.
2253
2254 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.architecture () to retrieve the
2255 architecture of the pending frame.
2256
2257 ** New gdb.Architecture.registers method that returns a
2258 gdb.RegisterDescriptorIterator object, an iterator that returns
2259 gdb.RegisterDescriptor objects. The new RegisterDescriptor is a
2260 way to query the registers available for an architecture.
2261
2262 ** New gdb.Architecture.register_groups method that returns a
2263 gdb.RegisterGroupIterator object, an iterator that returns
2264 gdb.RegisterGroup objects. The new RegisterGroup is a way to
2265 discover the available register groups.
2266
2267 * Guile API
2268
2269 ** GDB can now be built with GNU Guile 3.0 and 2.2 in addition to 2.0.
2270
2271 ** Procedures 'memory-port-read-buffer-size',
2272 'set-memory-port-read-buffer-size!', 'memory-port-write-buffer-size',
2273 and 'set-memory-port-write-buffer-size!' are deprecated. When
2274 using Guile 2.2 and later, users who need to control the size of
2275 a memory port's internal buffer can use the 'setvbuf' procedure.
2276
2277 *** Changes in GDB 9
2278
2279 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
2280
2281 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
2282 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
2283 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
2284 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
2285 such as in system-wide init files.
2286
2287 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
2288 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
2289 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
2290 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
2291 current GDB settings.
2292
2293 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
2294 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
2295 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
2296 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
2297
2298 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
2299 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
2300 postfix [PAC].
2301
2302 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
2303 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
2304
2305 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
2306 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
2307 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
2308
2309 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
2310 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
2311 commands.
2312
2313 * Command names can now use the . character.
2314
2315 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
2316
2317 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
2318 messages.
2319
2320 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
2321
2322 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
2323 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
2324
2325 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
2326 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
2327 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
2328
2329 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
2330
2331 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
2332 not visible in the current scope.
2333
2334 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
2335 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
2336 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
2337 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
2338 compiled with support for that language.
2339
2340 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
2341 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
2342 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
2343
2344 * Python API
2345
2346 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
2347 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
2348 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
2349 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
2350 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
2351
2352 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
2353 type was defined in.
2354
2355 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
2356 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
2357 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
2358 is given.
2359
2360 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
2361 symbols with static linkage.
2362
2363 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
2364 all static symbols with static linkage.
2365
2366 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
2367 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
2368
2369 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
2370 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
2371
2372 * New commands
2373
2374 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
2375 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
2376 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
2377 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
2378 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
2379 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
2380 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
2381
2382 define-prefix COMMAND
2383 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
2384
2385 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
2386 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
2387 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
2388 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
2389 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
2390 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
2391 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
2392 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
2393 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
2394 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
2395 of array elements to print.
2396
2397 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
2398 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
2399
2400 set may-call-functions [on|off]
2401 show may-call-functions
2402 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
2403 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
2404 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
2405 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
2406 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
2407 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
2408 in the program.
2409
2410 set print finish [on|off]
2411 show print finish
2412 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
2413 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
2414 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
2415 default is `on'.
2416
2417 set print max-depth
2418 show print max-depth
2419 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
2420 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
2421 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
2422 the old behavior back.
2423
2424 set print raw-values [on|off]
2425 show print raw-values
2426 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
2427 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
2428 of commands. The default is 'off'.
2429
2430 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
2431 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
2432 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
2433
2434 set style title foreground COLOR
2435 set style title background COLOR
2436 set style title intensity VALUE
2437 Control the styling of titles.
2438
2439 set style highlight foreground COLOR
2440 set style highlight background COLOR
2441 set style highlight intensity VALUE
2442 Control the styling of highlightings.
2443
2444 maint set worker-threads
2445 maint show worker-threads
2446 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
2447 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
2448 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
2449 the names of linker symbols.
2450
2451 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
2452 set style tui-border background COLOR
2453 Control the styling of TUI borders.
2454
2455 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
2456 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
2457 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
2458
2459 maint set test-settings KIND
2460 maint show test-settings KIND
2461 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
2462 infrastructure.
2463
2464 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
2465 maint show tui-resize-message
2466 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
2467 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
2468 TUI.
2469
2470 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
2471 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
2472 show print frame-info
2473 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
2474 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behavior of 'backtrace',
2475 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
2476 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
2477
2478 set tui compact-source
2479 show tui compact-source
2480
2481 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
2482 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
2483 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
2484 line numbers from the source.
2485
2486 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
2487 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
2488 no REGEXP is given.
2489
2490 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
2491 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
2492 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
2493 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
2494 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
2495 matches against the function name.
2496
2497 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
2498 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
2499 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
2500 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
2501 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
2502 against the variable name.
2503
2504 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
2505 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
2506 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
2507 "set debug remote".
2508 The default is 512 bytes.
2509
2510 info connections
2511 Lists the target connections currently in use.
2512
2513 * Changed commands
2514
2515 help
2516 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
2517 readability of its output by styling the classes and
2518 command names.
2519
2520 apropos [-v] REGEXP
2521 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
2522 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
2523 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
2524 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
2525 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
2526
2527 printf
2528 eval
2529 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
2530 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
2531 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
2532 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
2533
2534 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
2535 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
2536 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
2537 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
2538 parts of the files.
2539
2540 show style
2541 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
2542 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
2543 the user visualize the different styles.
2544
2545 set print frame-arguments
2546 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
2547 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
2548
2549 set print raw-frame-arguments
2550 show print raw-frame-arguments
2551
2552 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
2553 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
2554 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
2555 release.
2556
2557 add-inferior [-no-connection]
2558 The add-inferior command now supports a "-no-connection" flag that
2559 makes the new inferior start with no target connection associated.
2560 By default, the new inferior inherits the target connection of the
2561 current inferior. See also "info connections".
2562
2563 info inferior
2564 This command's output now includes a new "Connection" column
2565 indicating which target connection an inferior is bound to. See
2566 "info connections" above.
2567
2568 maint test-options require-delimiter
2569 maint test-options unknown-is-error
2570 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
2571 maint show test-options-completion-result
2572 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
2573 framework.
2574
2575 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
2576 These commands are now case-sensitive.
2577
2578 * New command options, command completion
2579
2580 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
2581 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
2582 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
2583 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
2584 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
2585 number of commands got support for new command options in this
2586 release:
2587
2588 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
2589 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
2590 set by "set print" subcommands:
2591
2592 -address [on|off]
2593 -array [on|off]
2594 -array-indexes [on|off]
2595 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
2596 -null-stop [on|off]
2597 -object [on|off]
2598 -pretty [on|off]
2599 -raw-values [on|off]
2600 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
2601 -static-members [on|off]
2602 -symbol [on|off]
2603 -union [on|off]
2604 -vtbl [on|off]
2605
2606 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
2607 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
2608 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
2609 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
2610
2611 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
2612 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
2613 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
2614
2615 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
2616 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
2617 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
2618 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
2619 |location-and-address|short-location
2620 -past-main [on|off]
2621 -past-entry [on|off]
2622
2623 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
2624 exposed as command options too:
2625
2626 -full
2627 -no-filters
2628 -hide
2629
2630 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
2631 support the following options:
2632
2633 -past-main [on|off]
2634 -past-entry [on|off]
2635
2636 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
2637 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
2638
2639 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
2640 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
2641 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
2642 like for example:
2643
2644 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
2645
2646 The above is equivalent to:
2647
2648 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
2649
2650 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
2651 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
2652 variables" and "info functions".
2653
2654 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
2655 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
2656 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
2657 from the results.
2658
2659 * Completion improvements
2660
2661 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
2662 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
2663 abbreviated.
2664
2665 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
2666 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
2667 commands.
2668
2669 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
2670 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
2671 completes on filenames.
2672
2673 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
2674 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
2675
2676 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
2677
2678 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
2679 elements unlimited".
2680
2681 * New MI commands
2682
2683 -complete
2684 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2685 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
2686 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
2687
2688 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
2689 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
2690 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
2691
2692 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
2693 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
2694 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
2695
2696 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
2697 modules' command.
2698
2699 -symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
2700 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
2701 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
2702
2703 * Other MI changes
2704
2705 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
2706
2707 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
2708 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
2709 the following commands and events:
2710
2711 - -break-insert
2712 - -break-info
2713 - =breakpoint-created
2714 - =breakpoint-modified
2715
2716 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
2717 this behavior with previous MI versions.
2718
2719 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
2720 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
2721 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
2722 present.
2723
2724 * Testsuite
2725
2726 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
2727 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
2728 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
2729 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
2730
2731 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
2732
2733 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
2734 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
2735
2736 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
2737
2738 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
2739 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
2740
2741 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
2742 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
2743 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
2744
2745 * Removed targets and native configurations
2746
2747 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
2748 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
2749 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
2750
2751 * New Simulators
2752
2753 TI PRU pru-*-elf
2754
2755 * Removed targets and native configurations
2756
2757 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
2758 sparc*-*-solaris2.10
2759
2760 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
2761
2762 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
2763 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
2764 HTM registers.
2765
2766 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
2767 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
2768 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
2769 and operators.
2770
2771 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
2772 (the C++ plug-in).
2773
2774 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
2775 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
2776 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
2777
2778 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
2779 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
2780
2781 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
2782 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2783 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2784 in the GDB user manual.
2785
2786 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
2787 executed failed.
2788
2789 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
2790
2791 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
2792 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
2793 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
2794 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
2795 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
2796 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
2797 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
2798 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
2799 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
2800 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
2801 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
2802 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
2803
2804 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
2805 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
2806 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
2807 information.
2808
2809 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
2810 lucid.
2811
2812 * New commands
2813
2814 set debug compile-cplus-types
2815 show debug compile-cplus-types
2816 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
2817 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiling
2818 for other languages.
2819
2820 set debug skip
2821 show debug skip
2822 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
2823 displayed.
2824
2825 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
2826 Apply a command to some frames.
2827 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
2828 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
2829
2830 taas COMMAND
2831 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
2832 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
2833
2834 faas COMMAND
2835 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
2836 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
2837
2838 tfaas COMMAND
2839 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
2840 output).
2841 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
2842
2843 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
2844 maint show dwarf unwinders
2845 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
2846
2847 info proc files
2848 Display a list of open files for a process.
2849
2850 * Changed commands
2851
2852 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
2853 These commands all now take a frame specification which
2854 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
2855 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
2856 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
2857 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
2858 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
2859
2860 target remote FILENAME
2861 target extended-remote FILENAME
2862 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
2863 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
2864
2865 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
2866 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
2867 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
2868 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
2869 These commands can now print only the searched entities
2870 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
2871 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
2872 printing headers or information messages.
2873
2874 info functions
2875 info types
2876 info variables
2877 rbreak
2878 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
2879 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
2880 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
2881 the shown entities.
2882
2883 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
2884 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
2885 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
2886 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
2887
2888 set tui tab-width NCHARS
2889 show tui tab-width NCHARS
2890 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
2891
2892 set style enabled [on|off]
2893 show style enabled
2894 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
2895 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
2896
2897 set style sources [on|off]
2898 show style sources
2899 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
2900 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
2901 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
2902
2903 set style filename foreground COLOR
2904 set style filename background COLOR
2905 set style filename intensity VALUE
2906 Control the styling of file names.
2907
2908 set style function foreground COLOR
2909 set style function background COLOR
2910 set style function intensity VALUE
2911 Control the styling of function names.
2912
2913 set style variable foreground COLOR
2914 set style variable background COLOR
2915 set style variable intensity VALUE
2916 Control the styling of variable names.
2917
2918 set style address foreground COLOR
2919 set style address background COLOR
2920 set style address intensity VALUE
2921 Control the styling of addresses.
2922
2923 * MI changes
2924
2925 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
2926 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
2927 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
2928 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
2929 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
2930
2931 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
2932 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
2933
2934 * New native configurations
2935
2936 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
2937 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
2938
2939 * New targets
2940
2941 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
2942 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
2943 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
2944 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
2945 NXP S12Z s12z-*-elf
2946 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
2947
2948 * Removed targets
2949
2950 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
2951 before Windows XP.
2952
2953 * Python API
2954
2955 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
2956
2957 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
2958 space associated to that inferior.
2959
2960 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
2961 of objfiles associated to that program space.
2962
2963 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
2964 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
2965 the gdb core.
2966
2967 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
2968 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
2969 correct and did not work properly.
2970
2971 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
2972 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
2973
2974 * Configure changes
2975
2976 --enable-ubsan
2977
2978 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
2979 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
2980 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
2981 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
2982 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
2983
2984 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
2985
2986 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
2987 for the MIPS target.
2988
2989 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
2990 offset to all sections.
2991
2992 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
2993 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
2994 address of individual sections using '-s'.
2995
2996 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
2997 (address of the text section).
2998
2999 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
3000 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
3001 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
3002 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
3003 default.
3004
3005 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
3006 for the rest of the current command.
3007
3008 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
3009 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
3010
3011 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
3012 files created on FreeBSD systems.
3013
3014 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
3015 alignof.
3016
3017 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
3018 the vector length while the process is running.
3019
3020 * New commands
3021
3022 set debug fbsd-nat
3023 show debug fbsd-nat
3024 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
3025
3026 set|show varsize-limit
3027 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
3028 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
3029 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
3030
3031 set|show record btrace cpu
3032 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
3033 branch trace decode.
3034
3035 maint check libthread-db
3036 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
3037 library
3038
3039 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
3040 maint show check-libthread-db
3041 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
3042 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
3043 perform such checks.
3044
3045 * Python API
3046
3047 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
3048
3049 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
3050 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
3051
3052 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
3053
3054 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
3055 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
3056 of convenience variables.
3057
3058 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
3059 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
3060 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
3061
3062 * New targets
3063
3064 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
3065
3066 * Removed targets and native configurations
3067
3068 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
3069 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
3070 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
3071 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
3072
3073 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
3074
3075 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
3076 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
3077 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
3078 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
3079 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
3080 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
3081 reported.
3082
3083 * Configure changes
3084
3085 --enable-codesign=CERT
3086 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
3087 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
3088 gdb to work properly.
3089
3090 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
3091 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
3092
3093 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
3094
3095 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
3096 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
3097 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
3098
3099 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
3100 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
3101
3102 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
3103 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
3104 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
3105 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
3106 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
3107
3108 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
3109 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
3110 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
3111 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
3112
3113 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
3114 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
3115
3116 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
3117 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
3118 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
3119
3120 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
3121 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
3122 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
3123
3124 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
3125 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
3126 environment" command.
3127
3128 * Completion improvements
3129
3130 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
3131 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
3132 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
3133 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
3134 correctly:
3135
3136 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
3137 (gdb) b function(int)
3138
3139 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
3140 C++ anonymous namespaces:
3141
3142 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
3143 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
3144 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
3145 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
3146
3147 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
3148 completion support, that better understands what you're
3149 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
3150 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
3151 setting a breakpoint.
3152
3153 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
3154
3155 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
3156
3157 * New command line options (gcore)
3158
3159 -a
3160 Dump all memory mappings.
3161
3162 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
3163
3164 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
3165 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
3166 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
3167
3168 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
3169
3170 A::B::func()
3171 B::func()
3172
3173 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
3174 on both symbols.
3175
3176 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
3177 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
3178 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
3179 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
3180 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
3181 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
3182 a breakpoint from Python.
3183
3184 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
3185
3186 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
3187 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
3188 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
3189
3190 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
3191
3192 function[abi:cxx11](int)
3193 ^^^^^^^^^^^
3194
3195 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
3196 no tag, like:
3197
3198 (gdb) b function(int)
3199
3200 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
3201
3202 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
3203
3204 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
3205
3206 * Python Scripting
3207
3208 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
3209 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
3210 description of these.
3211
3212 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
3213 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
3214 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
3215
3216 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
3217 manual for a further description of this feature.
3218
3219
3220 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3221
3222 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
3223 specified initial working directory.
3224
3225 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
3226 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
3227
3228 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
3229 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
3230
3231 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
3232 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
3233
3234 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
3235 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
3236 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
3237 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
3238 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
3239
3240 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
3241 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
3242 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
3243
3244 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
3245 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
3246 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
3247 in the *stopped notification.
3248
3249 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
3250 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
3251
3252 * New remote packets
3253
3254 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
3255 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
3256 the inferior when starting it.
3257
3258 QEnvironmentUnset
3259 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
3260 before starting the remote inferior.
3261
3262 QEnvironmentReset
3263 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
3264 user-set environment variables should be unset).
3265
3266 QStartupWithShell
3267 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
3268
3269 QSetWorkingDir
3270 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
3271 working directory.
3272
3273 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
3274 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
3275
3276 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
3277 filter the tests to be run.
3278
3279 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
3280 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
3281
3282 * New commands
3283
3284 set|show cwd
3285 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
3286
3287 set|show compile-gcc
3288 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
3289 with the 'compile' commands.
3290
3291 set debug separate-debug-file
3292 show debug separate-debug-file
3293 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
3294
3295 set dump-excluded-mappings
3296 show dump-excluded-mappings
3297 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
3298 dumped when generating a core file.
3299
3300 maint info selftests
3301 List the registered selftests.
3302
3303 starti
3304 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
3305
3306 set|show debug or1k
3307 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
3308
3309 set|show print type nested-type-limit
3310 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
3311 type printer will show.
3312
3313 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
3314 `o' for nexti.
3315
3316 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
3317
3318 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
3319 'int'.
3320
3321 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
3322 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
3323 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
3324 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
3325
3326 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
3327 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
3328 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
3329 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
3330 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
3331 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
3332
3333 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
3334 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
3335 unless you tell it the variable's type:
3336
3337 (gdb) p var
3338 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
3339 (gdb) p (float) var
3340 $3 = 3.14
3341
3342 * New native configurations
3343
3344 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
3345 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
3346
3347 * New targets
3348
3349 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
3350 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
3351 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
3352
3353 * Removed targets and native configurations
3354
3355 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
3356
3357 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
3358
3359 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
3360 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
3361 available in future Intel CPUs.
3362
3363 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
3364
3365 * Python Scripting
3366
3367 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
3368 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
3369
3370 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
3371 instructions.
3372
3373 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
3374
3375 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
3376
3377 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
3378 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
3379 removed.
3380
3381 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
3382
3383 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
3384 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
3385
3386 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
3387
3388 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
3389 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
3390 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
3391 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
3392 features.
3393
3394 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
3395
3396 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
3397 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
3398 debugger.
3399
3400 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
3401
3402 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
3403 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
3404
3405 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
3406
3407 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
3408
3409 define mycommand
3410 set $i = 0
3411 while $i < $argc
3412 eval "print $arg%d", $i
3413 set $i = $i + 1
3414 end
3415 end
3416
3417 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
3418
3419 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
3420 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
3421
3422 * New native configurations
3423
3424 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
3425
3426 * New targets
3427
3428 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
3429 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
3430
3431 * Removed targets and native configurations
3432
3433 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3434 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
3435
3436 * New commands
3437
3438 flash-erase
3439 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
3440
3441 maint print arc arc-instruction address
3442 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
3443
3444 * New options
3445
3446 set disassembler-options
3447 show disassembler-options
3448 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
3449 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
3450 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
3451 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
3452 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
3453
3454 * New MI commands
3455
3456 -target-flash-erase
3457 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
3458 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
3459
3460 -file-list-shared-libraries
3461 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
3462 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
3463
3464 -catch-handlers
3465 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
3466 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
3467
3468 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
3469
3470 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
3471
3472 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
3473 default. One must now explicitly configure with
3474 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
3475 option will be removed in a future release.
3476
3477 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
3478 GDB connection.
3479
3480 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
3481 memory backward from the given address. For example:
3482
3483 (gdb) bt
3484 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
3485 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
3486 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
3487 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
3488 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
3489 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
3490 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
3491 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
3492 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
3493
3494 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
3495 arrays of dynamic types.
3496
3497 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
3498 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
3499 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
3500 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
3501 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
3502 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
3503
3504 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
3505 descriptions.
3506
3507 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
3508 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
3509 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
3510
3511 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
3512
3513 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
3514 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
3515 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
3516 signal received and code location.
3517
3518 For example:
3519
3520 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
3521 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
3522 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
3523 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
3524
3525 * Rust language support.
3526 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
3527 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
3528 Rust.
3529
3530 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
3531
3532 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
3533 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
3534 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
3535 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
3536 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
3537 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
3538 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
3539 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
3540 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
3541 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
3542 line.
3543
3544 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
3545
3546 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
3547 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
3548
3549 * New commands
3550
3551 skip -file file
3552 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
3553 skip -function function
3554 skip -rfunction regular-expression
3555 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
3556 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
3557 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
3558
3559 maint info line-table REGEXP
3560 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data structure.
3561
3562 maint selftest
3563 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
3564
3565 new-ui INTERP TTY
3566 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
3567 using the TTY file for input/output.
3568
3569 * Python Scripting
3570
3571 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
3572 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
3573 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
3574 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
3575 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
3576
3577 signal-event EVENTID
3578 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
3579 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
3580 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
3581 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
3582 signalling an event.
3583
3584 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
3585 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
3586 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
3587
3588 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
3589 been removed:
3590
3591 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
3592 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
3593 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
3594 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
3595 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
3596 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
3597
3598 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
3599 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
3600 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
3601 bytecode into native code.
3602
3603 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
3604 recording. For example:
3605
3606 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
3607
3608 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
3609
3610 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
3611
3612 * New targets
3613
3614 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
3615
3616 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
3617
3618 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
3619
3620 * Per-inferior thread numbers
3621
3622 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
3623 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
3624 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
3625
3626 (gdb) info threads
3627 Id Target Id Frame
3628 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
3629 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
3630 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
3631 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
3632
3633 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
3634 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
3635 are no longer unique between inferiors.
3636
3637 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
3638 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
3639 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
3640
3641 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
3642 IDs.
3643
3644 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
3645 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
3646
3647 (gdb) thread 2.1
3648 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
3649 (gdb)
3650
3651 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
3652 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
3653 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
3654 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
3655 threads 2.*".
3656
3657 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
3658 all threads.
3659
3660 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
3661 the current thread.
3662
3663 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
3664 current inferior.
3665
3666 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
3667 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
3668 example:
3669
3670 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
3671 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
3672
3673 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
3674
3675 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
3676
3677 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
3678 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
3679
3680 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
3681 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
3682 clients.
3683
3684 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
3685 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
3686 at the same time.
3687
3688 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
3689 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
3690 into native code.
3691
3692 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
3693
3694 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
3695 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
3696 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
3697
3698 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
3699 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
3700
3701 * New commands
3702
3703 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
3704 maint show target-non-stop
3705 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
3706 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
3707 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
3708
3709 maint set bfd-sharing
3710 maint show bfd-sharing
3711 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
3712
3713 set debug bfd-cache
3714 show debug bfd-cache
3715 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
3716
3717 set debug fbsd-lwp
3718 show debug fbsd-lwp
3719 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
3720
3721 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
3722 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
3723 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
3724
3725 set remote thread-events
3726 show remote thread-events
3727 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
3728
3729 set ada print-signatures on|off
3730 show ada print-signatures"
3731 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
3732 selection menus. It is activated (@code{on}) by default.
3733
3734 set max-value-size
3735 show max-value-size
3736 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
3737 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
3738 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
3739
3740 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
3741 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
3742 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
3743 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
3744 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
3745 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
3746
3747 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
3748 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
3749
3750 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
3751 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
3752
3753 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
3754
3755 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
3756 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
3757 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
3758 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
3759 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
3760 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
3761
3762 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
3763 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
3764
3765 catch handlers
3766 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
3767
3768 * New remote packets
3769
3770 exec stop reason
3771 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
3772
3773 exec-events feature in qSupported
3774 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
3775 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
3776 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
3777 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
3778
3779 vCtrlC
3780 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
3781 non-stop mode.
3782
3783 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
3784 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
3785
3786 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
3787 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
3788
3789 QThreadEvents
3790 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
3791 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
3792 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
3793 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
3794 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
3795 stop for that same thread.
3796
3797 N stop reply
3798 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
3799 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
3800 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
3801
3802 QCatchSyscalls
3803 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
3804 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
3805
3806 syscall_entry stop reason
3807 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
3808
3809 syscall_return stop reason
3810 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
3811
3812 * Extended-remote exec events
3813
3814 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
3815 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
3816 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
3817
3818 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
3819 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
3820 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
3821
3822 * Thread names in remote protocol
3823
3824 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
3825 thread.
3826
3827 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
3828
3829 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
3830 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
3831 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
3832 fork and exec catchpoints.
3833
3834 * Remote syscall events
3835
3836 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
3837 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
3838
3839 set remote catch-syscall-packet
3840 show remote catch-syscall-packet
3841 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
3842
3843 * MI changes
3844
3845 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
3846 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
3847 left.
3848
3849 * Python Scripting
3850
3851 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
3852 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
3853 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
3854 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
3855 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
3856 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
3857
3858 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
3859
3860 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
3861 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
3862 including advance SIMD instructions.
3863
3864 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
3865
3866 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
3867 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
3868 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
3869 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
3870 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
3871 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
3872 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
3873
3874 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
3875 cpu information :
3876 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
3877
3878 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
3879 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
3880 remote serial I/O.
3881
3882 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
3883 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
3884 and may include things like its command line arguments.
3885
3886 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
3887 is now available on all platforms.
3888
3889 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
3890 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
3891 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
3892 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
3893 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
3894 backward compatibility.
3895
3896 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
3897 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
3898 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
3899 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
3900
3901 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
3902 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
3903 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
3904 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
3905 packets" below.
3906
3907 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
3908
3909 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
3910
3911 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
3912 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
3913 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
3914 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
3915 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
3916 See "New remote packets" below.
3917
3918 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
3919 available register groups, including target specific groups.
3920
3921 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
3922 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
3923 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
3924 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
3925 are ignored.
3926
3927 * Guile Scripting
3928
3929 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
3930
3931 * Python Scripting
3932
3933 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
3934 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
3935 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
3936 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
3937 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
3938 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
3939 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
3940 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
3941 "const" version of the value respectively.
3942
3943 * New commands
3944
3945 maint print symbol-cache
3946 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
3947
3948 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
3949 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
3950
3951 maint flush-symbol-cache
3952 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
3953
3954 record btrace bts
3955 record bts
3956 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
3957
3958 compile print
3959 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
3960
3961 tui enable
3962 tui disable
3963 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
3964
3965 show mpx bound
3966 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
3967 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
3968
3969 record btrace pt
3970 record pt
3971 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
3972
3973 maint info btrace
3974 Print information about branch tracing internals.
3975
3976 maint btrace packet-history
3977 Print the raw branch tracing data.
3978
3979 maint btrace clear-packet-history
3980 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
3981
3982 maint btrace clear
3983 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
3984 anew by the next "record" command.
3985
3986 * New options
3987
3988 set debug dwarf-die
3989 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
3990 show debug dwarf-die
3991 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
3992
3993 set debug dwarf-read
3994 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
3995 show debug dwarf-read
3996 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
3997
3998 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
3999 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
4000 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
4001 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
4002
4003 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
4004 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
4005 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
4006 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
4007
4008 set debug dwarf-line
4009 show debug dwarf-line
4010 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
4011
4012 set max-completions
4013 show max-completions
4014 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
4015 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
4016 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
4017 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
4018
4019 set history remove-duplicates
4020 show history remove-duplicates
4021 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
4022
4023 maint set symbol-cache-size
4024 maint show symbol-cache-size
4025 Control the size of the symbol cache.
4026
4027 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
4028 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
4029 BTS format.
4030 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
4031 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
4032
4033 set debug linux-namespaces
4034 show debug linux-namespaces
4035 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
4036
4037 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
4038 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
4039 Intel Processor Trace format.
4040 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
4041 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
4042
4043 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
4044 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
4045 packet history.
4046
4047 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
4048 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
4049
4050 * Python/Guile scripting
4051
4052 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
4053 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
4054
4055 * New remote packets
4056
4057 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
4058 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
4059
4060 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
4061 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
4062
4063 Qbtrace:pt
4064 Enable Intel Processor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
4065 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
4066 qSupported query.
4067
4068 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
4069 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
4070 Trace format.
4071
4072 swbreak stop reason
4073 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
4074 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
4075 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
4076 mode operation.
4077
4078 hwbreak stop reason
4079 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
4080 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
4081
4082 vFile:fstat:
4083 Return information about files on the remote system.
4084
4085 qXfer:exec-file:read
4086 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
4087 create a process running on the remote system.
4088
4089 vFile:setfs:
4090 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
4091 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
4092 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
4093 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
4094
4095 fork stop reason
4096 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
4097
4098 vfork stop reason
4099 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
4100
4101 vforkdone stop reason
4102 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
4103 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
4104
4105 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
4106 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
4107 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
4108 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
4109 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
4110 whether these features are enabled.
4111
4112 * Extended-remote fork events
4113
4114 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
4115 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
4116 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
4117 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
4118
4119 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
4120 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
4121 the btrace record target.
4122 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
4123
4124 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
4125 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
4126
4127 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
4128 targets.
4129
4130 * Removed command line options
4131
4132 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
4133
4134 * Removed targets and native configurations
4135
4136 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
4137 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
4138
4139 * New configure options
4140
4141 --with-intel-pt
4142 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
4143 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
4144
4145 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
4146 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
4147 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
4148 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
4149
4150 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
4151
4152 * Python Scripting
4153
4154 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
4155
4156 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
4157
4158 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
4159
4160 * Python Scripting
4161
4162 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
4163 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
4164 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
4165 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
4166 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
4167 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
4168 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
4169 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
4170 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
4171 selecting a new file to debug.
4172 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
4173 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
4174
4175 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
4176 inferior.
4177
4178 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
4179 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
4180 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
4181 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
4182
4183 * New Python-based convenience functions:
4184
4185 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
4186 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
4187 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
4188 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
4189
4190 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
4191 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
4192 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
4193 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
4194 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
4195 interface with this new feature are:
4196
4197 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
4198 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
4199
4200 * New commands
4201
4202 demangle [-l language] [--] name
4203 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
4204 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
4205 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
4206 as "maint demangler-warning".
4207
4208 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
4209 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
4210
4211 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
4212 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
4213 scripts.
4214
4215 maint print user-registers
4216 List all currently available "user" registers.
4217
4218 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
4219 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
4220 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
4221
4222 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
4223 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
4224 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
4225 provided.
4226
4227 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
4228 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
4229 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
4230 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
4231 at resume time.
4232
4233 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
4234 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
4235 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
4236 switched threads meanwhile.
4237
4238 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
4239
4240 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
4241 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
4242 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
4243 is now the default mode.
4244
4245 * New options
4246
4247 set debug symbol-lookup
4248 show debug symbol-lookup
4249 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
4250
4251 * MI changes
4252
4253 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
4254 inferiors that have exited.
4255
4256 * New targets
4257
4258 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
4259
4260 * Removed targets
4261
4262 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4263
4264 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
4265 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
4266 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
4267 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
4268 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
4269
4270 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
4271 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
4272 its alias "share", instead.
4273
4274 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
4275
4276 * New command line options
4277
4278 -D data-directory
4279 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
4280
4281 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
4282 as specified in ISO C99.
4283
4284 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
4285 with or without disassembly.
4286
4287 * Guile scripting
4288
4289 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
4290 available is determined at configure time.
4291 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
4292 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
4293
4294 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4295
4296 guile [code]
4297 gu [code]
4298 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
4299
4300 guile-repl
4301 gr
4302 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
4303
4304 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
4305 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
4306
4307 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
4308 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
4309
4310 * New options
4311
4312 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
4313 show print symbol-loading
4314 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
4315 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
4316 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
4317 becomes less useful.
4318
4319 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
4320 show guile print-stack
4321 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
4322
4323 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
4324 show auto-load guile-scripts
4325 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
4326
4327 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
4328 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
4329 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
4330 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
4331 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
4332 usage of this option.
4333
4334 set auto-connect-native-target
4335
4336 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
4337 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
4338 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
4339
4340 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
4341 show record btrace replay-memory-access
4342 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
4343
4344 maint set target-async (on|off)
4345 maint show target-async
4346 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
4347 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
4348 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
4349 occurring only in synchronous mode.
4350
4351 set mi-async (on|off)
4352 show mi-async
4353 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
4354 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
4355
4356 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
4357 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
4358
4359 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
4360 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
4361 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
4362 "set target-async on" command.
4363
4364 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
4365
4366 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
4367 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
4368 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
4369 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
4370 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
4371
4372 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
4373 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
4374 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
4375
4376 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
4377 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
4378 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
4379 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
4380 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
4381 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
4382 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
4383
4384 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
4385 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
4386
4387 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
4388 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
4389 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
4390
4391 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
4392 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
4393 memory or registers.
4394
4395 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
4396
4397 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
4398 remote. It now works with all targets.
4399
4400 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
4401 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
4402 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
4403 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
4404 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
4405 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
4406 as these commands previously either threw an error, or were
4407 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
4408 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
4409 target-stack".
4410
4411 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
4412 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
4413 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
4414
4415 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
4416
4417 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
4418 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
4419 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
4420
4421 * New remote packets
4422
4423 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
4424 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
4425 branch trace incrementally.
4426
4427 * Python Scripting
4428
4429 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
4430 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
4431 available.
4432 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
4433 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
4434 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
4435 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
4436 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
4437
4438 * New targets
4439 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
4440
4441 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
4442 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
4443 its alias "share", instead.
4444
4445 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
4446 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
4447 instead.
4448
4449 * MI changes
4450
4451 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
4452 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
4453 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
4454 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
4455 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
4456 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
4457 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
4458 commands and CLI execution commands.
4459
4460 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
4461
4462 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
4463 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
4464 recording has been added.
4465
4466 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
4467
4468 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
4469 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
4470
4471 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
4472 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
4473 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
4474 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
4475 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
4476 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
4477 "void".
4478
4479 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
4480
4481 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
4482
4483 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
4484 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
4485 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
4486 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
4487
4488 (gdb) p $rax
4489 $1 = <not saved>
4490
4491 (gdb) info registers rax
4492 rax <not saved>
4493
4494 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
4495 "*value not available*".
4496
4497 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
4498 to binaries.
4499
4500 * Python scripting
4501
4502 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
4503 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
4504 ** Line tables representation has been added.
4505 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
4506 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
4507 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
4508
4509 * New targets
4510
4511 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
4512 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
4513 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
4514
4515 * Removed native configurations
4516
4517 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
4518 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
4519
4520 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
4521 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
4522 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
4523 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
4524 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
4525 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
4526 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
4527
4528 * New commands:
4529 catch rethrow
4530 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
4531 maint check-psymtabs
4532 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
4533 maint check-symtabs
4534 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
4535 maint expand-symtabs
4536 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
4537
4538 show configuration
4539 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
4540
4541 maint set|show per-command
4542 maint set|show per-command space
4543 maint set|show per-command time
4544 maint set|show per-command symtab
4545 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
4546
4547 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
4548 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
4549 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
4550 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
4551 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
4552
4553 info exceptions
4554 info exceptions REGEXP
4555 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
4556 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
4557 are listed.
4558
4559 * New options
4560
4561 set debug symfile off|on
4562 show debug symfile
4563 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
4564 symbol tables within those files
4565
4566 set print raw frame-arguments
4567 show print raw frame-arguments
4568 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
4569 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
4570
4571 set remote trace-status-packet
4572 show remote trace-status-packet
4573 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
4574
4575 set debug nios2
4576 show debug nios2
4577 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
4578
4579 set range-stepping
4580 show range-stepping
4581 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
4582
4583 set startup-with-shell
4584 show startup-with-shell
4585 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
4586 directly.
4587
4588 set code-cache
4589 show code-cache
4590 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
4591 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
4592
4593 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
4594 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
4595 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
4596 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
4597 "set height 0".
4598
4599 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
4600 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
4601 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
4602
4603 * New command-line options
4604 --configuration
4605 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
4606
4607 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
4608 buffer in Common Trace Format.
4609
4610 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
4611 GDB command gcore.
4612
4613 * GDB now implements the C++ 'typeid' operator.
4614
4615 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
4616 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
4617
4618 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
4619 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
4620
4621 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
4622 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
4623 due to an uncaught signal.
4624
4625 * MI changes
4626
4627 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
4628 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
4629 command, which should contain "language-option".
4630
4631 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
4632 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
4633
4634 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
4635 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
4636 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
4637 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
4638 "undefined-command-error-code".
4639
4640 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
4641 Trace Format now.
4642
4643 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
4644
4645 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
4646 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
4647 are displayed.
4648
4649 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
4650 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
4651
4652 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
4653 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
4654 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
4655
4656 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
4657 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
4658 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
4659 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
4660 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
4661 "exec-run-start-option".
4662
4663 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
4664 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
4665
4666 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
4667 the new "info exceptions" command.
4668
4669 * New system-wide configuration scripts
4670 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
4671 configuration scripts for the following systems:
4672 ** ElinOS
4673 ** Wind River Linux
4674
4675 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
4676 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
4677 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
4678 below.
4679
4680 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
4681 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
4682
4683 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
4684 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
4685 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
4686
4687 * New remote packets
4688
4689 vCont;r
4690
4691 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
4692 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
4693 involvemement at each single-step.
4694
4695 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
4696 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
4697 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
4698 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
4699 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
4700 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
4701 speedup.
4702
4703 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
4704
4705 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
4706 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
4707
4708 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
4709 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
4710 trace state variables.
4711
4712 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
4713 target.
4714
4715 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
4716 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
4717
4718 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
4719
4720 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
4721 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
4722 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
4723 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4724
4725 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
4726
4727 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
4728 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
4729 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
4730 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
4731
4732 set|show record full insn-number-max
4733 set|show record full stop-at-limit
4734 set|show record full memory-query
4735
4736 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
4737 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
4738 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
4739 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
4740 This new recording method can be enabled using:
4741
4742 record btrace
4743
4744 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
4745 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
4746
4747 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
4748 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
4749 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
4750
4751 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
4752 instruction granularity
4753
4754 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
4755 function granularity
4756
4757 * New native configurations
4758
4759 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
4760 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
4761 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
4762 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
4763
4764 * New targets
4765
4766 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
4767 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
4768 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
4769 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
4770 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
4771
4772 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
4773 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
4774 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
4775 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
4776 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
4777 --data-directory command-line option.
4778
4779 * New command line options:
4780
4781 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
4782 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
4783
4784 * Removed command line options
4785
4786 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
4787 Emacs.
4788
4789 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
4790 type formatting.
4791
4792 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
4793
4794 * Python scripting
4795
4796 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
4797
4798 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
4799
4800 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
4801
4802 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
4803
4804 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
4805 of architecture in the Python API.
4806
4807 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
4808 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
4809
4810 * New Python-based convenience functions:
4811
4812 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
4813 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
4814 ** $_strlen(str)
4815 ** $_regex(str, regex)
4816
4817 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
4818 given an argument.
4819
4820 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
4821 default for GCC since November 2000.
4822
4823 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
4824
4825 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
4826 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
4827
4828 * New configure options
4829
4830 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
4831 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
4832 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
4833 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
4834 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
4835 options allow the user to override that default.
4836 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
4837 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
4838 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
4839
4840 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4841
4842 catch signal
4843 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
4844 conditions to be attached.
4845
4846 maint info bfds
4847 List the BFDs known to GDB.
4848
4849 python-interactive [command]
4850 pi [command]
4851 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
4852 and print the result of expressions.
4853
4854 py [command]
4855 "py" is a new alias for "python".
4856
4857 enable type-printer [name]...
4858 disable type-printer [name]...
4859 Enable or disable type printers.
4860
4861 * Removed commands
4862
4863 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
4864 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
4865 instead.
4866
4867 * New options
4868
4869 set print type methods (on|off)
4870 show print type methods
4871 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
4872 The default is to show them.
4873
4874 set print type typedefs (on|off)
4875 show print type typedefs
4876 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
4877 The default is to show them.
4878
4879 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
4880 show filename-display
4881 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
4882 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
4883
4884 set trace-buffer-size
4885 show trace-buffer-size
4886 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
4887
4888 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
4889 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
4890 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
4891
4892 set debug aarch64
4893 show debug aarch64
4894 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
4895 The default is off.
4896
4897 set debug coff-pe-read
4898 show debug coff-pe-read
4899 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
4900 exported symbols.
4901
4902 set debug mach-o
4903 show debug mach-o
4904 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
4905 processing.
4906
4907 set debug notification
4908 show debug notification
4909 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
4910
4911 * MI changes
4912
4913 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
4914 "=cmd-param-changed".
4915 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
4916 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
4917 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
4918 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
4919 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
4920 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
4921 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
4922 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
4923 "=memory-changed".
4924 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
4925 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
4926 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
4927 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
4928 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
4929 library load/unload events.
4930 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
4931 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
4932 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
4933 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
4934 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
4935 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
4936 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
4937 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
4938
4939 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
4940 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
4941 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
4942 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
4943
4944 * New remote packets
4945
4946 QTBuffer:size
4947 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
4948 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
4949
4950 Qbtrace:bts
4951 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
4952 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
4953 qSupported query.
4954
4955 Qbtrace:off
4956 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
4957 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
4958
4959 qXfer:btrace:read
4960 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
4961 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
4962
4963 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
4964
4965 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
4966 for more x32 ABI info.
4967
4968 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
4969
4970 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
4971
4972 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
4973 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
4974 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
4975 "info os files" lists file descriptors
4976 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
4977 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
4978 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
4979 "info os msg" lists message queues
4980 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
4981
4982 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
4983 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
4984 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
4985 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
4986 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
4987 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
4988
4989 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
4990 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
4991 record/replay support.
4992
4993 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
4994
4995 * Python scripting
4996
4997 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
4998 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
4999
5000 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
5001
5002 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
5003 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
5004
5005 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
5006
5007 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
5008 the source at which the symbol was defined.
5009
5010 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
5011 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
5012 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
5013 symbol's value.
5014
5015 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
5016 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
5017
5018 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
5019 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
5020 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
5021
5022 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
5023 object associated with a PC value.
5024
5025 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
5026 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
5027
5028 * Go language support.
5029 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
5030 language.
5031
5032 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
5033 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
5034
5035 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
5036 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
5037
5038 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
5039 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
5040 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
5041 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
5042 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
5043 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
5044
5045 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
5046 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
5047 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
5048 build/libcpp/expr.c.
5049
5050 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
5051 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
5052
5053 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
5054 since December 2007.
5055
5056 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
5057 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
5058 command does. For instance:
5059
5060 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
5061
5062 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
5063 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
5064 created, using the "condition" command.
5065
5066 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
5067 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
5068
5069 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
5070
5071 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
5072 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
5073 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
5074 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
5075 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
5076 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
5077 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
5078 files with older .gdb_index sections.
5079
5080 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
5081 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
5082 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
5083 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
5084 the .gdb_index section.
5085
5086 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
5087
5088 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
5089 target.
5090
5091 * MI changes
5092
5093 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
5094
5095 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
5096
5097 * New commands
5098
5099 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
5100 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
5101 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
5102
5103 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
5104 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
5105
5106 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
5107 several hits.
5108
5109 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
5110 C++ and Java objects.
5111
5112 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
5113 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
5114 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
5115 configured with '--with-python'.
5116
5117 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
5118 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
5119 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
5120 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
5121 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
5122 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
5123 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
5124
5125 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
5126 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
5127 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
5128 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
5129
5130 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
5131 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
5132 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
5133 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compile time.
5134
5135 ** "set print symbol"
5136 "show print symbol"
5137 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
5138 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
5139 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
5140
5141 * Deprecated commands
5142
5143 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
5144 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
5145
5146 * New targets
5147
5148 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
5149 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
5150
5151 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
5152 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
5153 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
5154 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
5155 evaluates to true.
5156
5157 * New options
5158
5159 set mips compression
5160 show mips compression
5161 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
5162 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
5163 mips16
5164 micromips
5165 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
5166
5167 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
5168 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
5169 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
5170 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
5171 available mode.
5172 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
5173 target.
5174
5175 set auto-load off
5176 Disable auto-loading globally.
5177
5178 show auto-load
5179 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
5180
5181 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
5182 show auto-load gdb-scripts
5183 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
5184
5185 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
5186 show auto-load python-scripts
5187 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
5188
5189 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
5190 show auto-load local-gdbinit
5191 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
5192
5193 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
5194 show auto-load libthread-db
5195 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
5196
5197 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
5198 show auto-load scripts-directory
5199 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
5200 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
5201 of the directories listed by this option.
5202 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
5203
5204 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
5205 show auto-load safe-path
5206 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
5207 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
5208
5209 set debug auto-load on|off
5210 show debug auto-load
5211 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
5212
5213 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
5214 show dprintf-style
5215 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
5216 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
5217 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
5218 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
5219
5220 set dprintf-function <expr>
5221 show dprintf-function
5222 set dprintf-channel <expr>
5223 show dprintf-channel
5224 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
5225 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
5226
5227 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
5228 show disconnected-dprintf
5229 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
5230 after GDB disconnects.
5231
5232 * New configure options
5233
5234 --with-auto-load-dir
5235 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
5236 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
5237 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
5238 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
5239 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
5240
5241 --with-auto-load-safe-path
5242 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
5243 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
5244
5245 --without-auto-load-safe-path
5246 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
5247 security feature.
5248
5249 * New remote packets
5250
5251 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
5252
5253 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
5254 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
5255 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
5256 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
5257
5258 QProgramSignals:
5259
5260 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
5261 program without GDB involvement.
5262
5263 * New command line options
5264
5265 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
5266 before loading inferior.
5267 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
5268 execute it before loading inferior.
5269
5270 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
5271
5272 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
5273 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
5274 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
5275 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
5276 inferior changes.
5277
5278 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
5279 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
5280
5281 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
5282 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
5283 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
5284 target hardware watchpoint.
5285
5286 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
5287 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
5288 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
5289 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
5290
5291 * Python scripting
5292
5293 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
5294 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
5295 existing one.
5296
5297 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
5298 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
5299 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
5300 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
5301 now "message", which just prints the error message without
5302 the stack trace.
5303
5304 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
5305 Python API.
5306
5307 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
5308 modules library. This module provides functionality for
5309 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
5310 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
5311 corresponding value.
5312
5313 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
5314 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
5315 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
5316 on GDB start-up.
5317
5318 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
5319 static_block will return the global and static blocks
5320 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
5321 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
5322
5323 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
5324
5325 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
5326 "gdb.breakpoints".
5327
5328 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
5329 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
5330 available in the CLI.
5331
5332 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
5333 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
5334 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
5335 "some_type.items()".
5336
5337 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
5338 new object file.
5339
5340 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
5341 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
5342 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
5343 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
5344 any anonymous fields.
5345
5346 * MI changes
5347
5348 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
5349 "solib-event".
5350
5351 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
5352 "=breakpoint-modified".
5353
5354 ** New command -ada-task-info.
5355
5356 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
5357 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
5358 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
5359 lives.
5360
5361 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
5362 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
5363 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
5364 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
5365 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
5366
5367 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
5368 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
5369
5370 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
5371 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
5372 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
5373 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
5374 use this option to specify where to find it.
5375
5376 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
5377 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
5378 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
5379 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
5380 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
5381 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
5382 section in the user manual for more details.
5383
5384 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
5385 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
5386 become available after that.
5387
5388 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
5389
5390 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
5391 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
5392 gcc version 4.7.
5393
5394 * New commands
5395
5396 !SHELL COMMAND
5397 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
5398 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
5399
5400 * Changed commands
5401
5402 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
5403 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
5404 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
5405
5406 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
5407 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
5408 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
5409
5410 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
5411 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
5412 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
5413 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
5414 name starts with a hyphen.
5415
5416 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
5417 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
5418 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
5419 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
5420 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
5421 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
5422 number of bytes that will be collected.
5423
5424 tstart [NOTES]
5425 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
5426 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
5427 setting the variable trace-notes.
5428
5429 tstop [NOTES]
5430 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
5431 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
5432 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
5433 trace-stop-notes.
5434
5435 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
5436 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
5437 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
5438 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
5439 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
5440 is running.
5441
5442 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
5443 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
5444 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
5445
5446 * New options
5447
5448 set debug dwarf2-read
5449 show debug dwarf2-read
5450 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
5451 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
5452
5453 set debug symtab-create
5454 show debug symtab-create
5455 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
5456 creation. The default is off.
5457
5458 set extended-prompt
5459 show extended-prompt
5460 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
5461 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
5462 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
5463 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
5464 prompt is displayed.
5465
5466 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
5467 show print entry-values
5468 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
5469 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
5470 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
5471
5472 set debug entry-values
5473 show debug entry-values
5474 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
5475 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
5476
5477 set basenames-may-differ
5478 show basenames-may-differ
5479 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
5480 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
5481 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
5482 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
5483 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
5484 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
5485 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
5486 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
5487
5488 set trace-user
5489 show trace-user
5490 set trace-notes
5491 show trace-notes
5492 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
5493 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
5494 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
5495 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
5496
5497 set trace-stop-notes
5498 show trace-stop-notes
5499 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
5500 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
5501 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
5502 started by someone else.
5503
5504 * New remote packets
5505
5506 QTEnable
5507
5508 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
5509
5510 QTDisable
5511
5512 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
5513
5514 QTNotes
5515
5516 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
5517
5518 qTP
5519
5520 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
5521
5522 qTMinFTPILen
5523
5524 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
5525 be placed.
5526
5527 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
5528 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
5529
5530 * New targets
5531
5532 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
5533
5534 * New Simulators
5535
5536 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
5537
5538 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
5539
5540 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
5541
5542 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
5543
5544 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
5545 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
5546 matches the given regular expression.
5547
5548 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
5549
5550 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
5551 dumping the instruction opcodes.
5552
5553 * New command line options
5554
5555 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
5556 This is mostly for testing purposes.
5557
5558 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
5559 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
5560
5561 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
5562 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
5563 source path list instead of augmenting it.
5564
5565 * GDB now understands thread names.
5566
5567 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
5568 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
5569
5570 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
5571 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
5572
5573 * OpenCL C
5574 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
5575 has been integrated into GDB.
5576
5577 * Python scripting
5578
5579 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
5580 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
5581 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
5582
5583 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
5584 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
5585 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
5586 and allows for more dynamic content.
5587
5588 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
5589 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
5590 have an is_valid method.
5591
5592 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
5593 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
5594 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
5595
5596 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
5597
5598 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
5599 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
5600 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
5601 that function like so:
5602
5603 result = some_value (10,20)
5604
5605 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
5606 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
5607 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
5608
5609 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
5610 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
5611 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
5612 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
5613 New function: register_pretty_printer.
5614
5615 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
5616 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
5617
5618 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
5619
5620 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
5621 selected thread.
5622
5623 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
5624 holds the thread's name.
5625
5626 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
5627 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
5628 occurring in the process being debugged.
5629 The following events are currently supported:
5630 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
5631 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
5632 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
5633
5634 * C++ Improvements:
5635
5636 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
5637 instantiation. For example, if you have:
5638
5639 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
5640
5641 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
5642 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
5643 was added to GCC 4.5.
5644
5645 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
5646 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
5647 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
5648 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
5649 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
5650 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
5651
5652 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
5653 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
5654 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
5655 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
5656 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
5657
5658 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
5659 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
5660 execution to a label.
5661
5662 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
5663 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
5664 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
5665 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
5666
5667 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
5668 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
5669 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
5670 of scope.
5671
5672 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
5673
5674 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
5675 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
5676 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
5677 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
5678 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
5679 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
5680
5681 (gdb) info threads
5682 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
5683
5684 While now you see this:
5685
5686 (gdb) info threads
5687 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
5688
5689 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
5690 dumps.
5691
5692 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
5693 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
5694 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
5695 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
5696
5697 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
5698 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
5699 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
5700 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
5701 section in the user manual for more details.
5702
5703 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
5704
5705 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
5706 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
5707
5708 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
5709
5710 * New native configurations
5711
5712 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
5713
5714 * New targets:
5715
5716 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
5717
5718 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
5719 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
5720 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
5721 in the GDB user manual.
5722
5723 * Guile support was removed.
5724
5725 * New features in the GNU simulator
5726
5727 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
5728
5729 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
5730
5731 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
5732
5733 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
5734
5735 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
5736 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
5737 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
5738 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
5739 was always disabled for such configurations.
5740
5741 * C++ Improvements:
5742
5743 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
5744
5745 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
5746 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
5747 For example:
5748 namespace A
5749 {
5750 class B { };
5751 void foo (B) { }
5752 }
5753 ...
5754 A::B b
5755 foo(b)
5756 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
5757 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
5758 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
5759
5760 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
5761
5762 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
5763 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
5764 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
5765 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
5766 entry.
5767 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
5768 mentioned flavors of operators.
5769
5770 ** static const class members
5771
5772 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
5773 class definition has been fixed.
5774
5775 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
5776
5777 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
5778 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
5779 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
5780 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
5781 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
5782 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
5783
5784 * Static tracepoints
5785
5786 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
5787 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
5788 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
5789 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
5790 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
5791 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
5792 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
5793 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
5794 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
5795 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
5796 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
5797 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
5798 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
5799 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
5800 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
5801 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
5802 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
5803 the "New remote packets" section below.
5804
5805 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
5806
5807 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
5808 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
5809 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
5810 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
5811
5812 * Observer mode
5813
5814 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
5815 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
5816 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
5817 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
5818 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
5819 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
5820 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
5821
5822 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
5823 current thread.
5824
5825 * New remote packets
5826
5827 qGetTIBAddr
5828
5829 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
5830
5831 qRelocInsn
5832
5833 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
5834 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
5835 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
5836 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
5837 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
5838 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
5839
5840 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
5841
5842 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
5843
5844 qTSTMat
5845
5846 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
5847 program.
5848
5849 qXfer:statictrace:read
5850
5851 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
5852 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
5853 to gdb's qSupported query.
5854
5855 QAllow
5856
5857 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
5858
5859 QTDPsrc
5860
5861 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
5862 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
5863
5864 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
5865 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
5866 a directory.
5867
5868 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
5869
5870 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
5871 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
5872 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
5873 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
5874
5875 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
5876 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
5877 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
5878 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
5879 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
5880 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
5881 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
5882
5883 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
5884 for static tracepoints support.
5885
5886 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
5887
5888 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
5889 it understands register description.
5890
5891 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
5892
5893 * X86 general purpose registers
5894
5895 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
5896 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
5897 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
5898 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
5899 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
5900
5901 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
5902 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
5903 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
5904 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
5905 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
5906 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
5907
5908 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
5909 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
5910 in the specified file.
5911
5912 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
5913 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
5914 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
5915 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
5916 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
5917 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
5918 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
5919 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
5920 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
5921 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
5922
5923 * New commands
5924
5925 eval template, expressions...
5926 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
5927 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
5928
5929 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
5930 show target-file-system-kind
5931 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
5932 names.
5933
5934 save breakpoints <filename>
5935 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
5936 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
5937 definitions, use the `source' command.
5938
5939 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
5940 is now deprecated.
5941
5942 info static-tracepoint-markers
5943 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
5944
5945 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
5946 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
5947 function, line, address, or marker ID.
5948
5949 set observer on|off
5950 show observer
5951 Enable and disable observer mode.
5952
5953 set may-write-registers on|off
5954 set may-write-memory on|off
5955 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
5956 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
5957 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
5958 set may-interrupt on|off
5959 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
5960 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
5961 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
5962 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
5963 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
5964 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
5965 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
5966
5967 set record memory-query on|off
5968 show record memory-query
5969 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
5970 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
5971
5972 * Changed commands
5973
5974 disassemble
5975 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
5976
5977 * Python scripting
5978
5979 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
5980 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
5981 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
5982 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
5983 GDB using Python' in the manual.
5984
5985 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
5986 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
5987 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
5988 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
5989
5990 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
5991 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
5992
5993 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
5994
5995 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
5996
5997 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
5998
5999 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
6000 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
6001 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
6002
6003 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
6004 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
6005 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
6006 regular breakpoints.
6007
6008 * New targets
6009
6010 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
6011
6012 * D language support.
6013 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
6014 language.
6015
6016 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
6017 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
6018 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
6019 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
6020 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
6021
6022 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
6023 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
6024 conditions of the form:
6025
6026 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
6027
6028 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
6029 interface mentioned above.
6030
6031 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
6032
6033 * C++ Improvements
6034
6035 ** Namespace Support
6036
6037 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
6038 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
6039 namespace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
6040 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namespace C=A; ) the user can
6041 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
6042
6043 ** Bug Fixes
6044
6045 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
6046 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
6047 qualified name.
6048
6049 ** Cast Operators
6050
6051 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
6052 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
6053
6054 * New targets
6055
6056 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
6057 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
6058
6059 * New Simulators
6060
6061 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
6062 Renesas RX rx
6063
6064 * Multi-program debugging.
6065
6066 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
6067 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
6068 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
6069 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
6070 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
6071 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
6072 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
6073 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
6074
6075 * New tracing features
6076
6077 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
6078
6079 ** Trace state variables
6080
6081 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
6082 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
6083 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
6084 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
6085 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
6086 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
6087 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
6088 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
6089 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
6090 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
6091
6092 ** Fast tracepoints
6093
6094 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
6095 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
6096 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
6097 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
6098 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
6099 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
6100 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
6101 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
6102 the regular trace command.
6103
6104 ** Disconnected tracing
6105
6106 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
6107 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
6108 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
6109 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
6110 connection is lost unexpectedly.
6111
6112 ** Trace files
6113
6114 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
6115 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
6116 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
6117 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
6118 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
6119 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
6120 <name>".
6121
6122 ** Circular trace buffer
6123
6124 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
6125 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
6126 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
6127 not be available for all target agents.
6128
6129 * Changed commands
6130
6131 disassemble
6132 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
6133 the arguments to be comma-separated.
6134
6135 info variables
6136 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
6137 which only declare a variable are not shown.
6138
6139 source
6140 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
6141 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
6142 support.
6143
6144 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
6145 "set script-extension" (see below).
6146
6147 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
6148
6149 record save [<FILENAME>]
6150 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
6151 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
6152
6153 record restore <FILENAME>
6154 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
6155 earlier time, for replay debugging.
6156
6157 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
6158 Add a new inferior.
6159
6160 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
6161 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
6162 inferior has loaded.
6163
6164 remove-inferior ID
6165 Remove an inferior.
6166
6167 maint info program-spaces
6168 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
6169
6170 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
6171 show remote interrupt-sequence
6172 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
6173 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
6174 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
6175 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
6176 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
6177
6178 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
6179 show remote interrupt-on-connect
6180 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
6181 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
6182 Linux kernel.
6183
6184 set remotebreak [on | off]
6185 show remotebreak
6186 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
6187
6188 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
6189 Create or modify a trace state variable.
6190
6191 info tvariables
6192 List trace state variables and their values.
6193
6194 delete tvariable $NAME ...
6195 Delete one or more trace state variables.
6196
6197 teval EXPR, ...
6198 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
6199 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
6200
6201 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
6202 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
6203
6204 * New expression syntax
6205
6206 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
6207 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
6208
6209 * New options
6210
6211 set follow-exec-mode new|same
6212 show follow-exec-mode
6213 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
6214 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
6215 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
6216
6217 set default-collect EXPR, ...
6218 show default-collect
6219 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
6220 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
6221 such as registers or a critical global variable.
6222
6223 set disconnected-tracing
6224 show disconnected-tracing
6225 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
6226 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
6227 upon disconnection.
6228
6229 set circular-trace-buffer
6230 show circular-trace-buffer
6231 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
6232 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
6233 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
6234 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
6235
6236 set script-extension off|soft|strict
6237 show script-extension
6238 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
6239 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
6240 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
6241 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
6242 evaluation failed.
6243 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
6244
6245 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
6246 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
6247 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
6248 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
6249 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
6250 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
6251 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
6252 is on.
6253
6254 * Python API Improvements
6255
6256 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
6257 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
6258 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
6259
6260 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
6261 `is_base_class' attribute.
6262
6263 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
6264
6265 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
6266 evaluate an expression.
6267
6268 * New remote packets
6269
6270 QTDV
6271 Define a trace state variable.
6272
6273 qTV
6274 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
6275
6276 QTDisconnected
6277 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
6278
6279 QTBuffer:circular
6280 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
6281
6282 qTfP, qTsP
6283 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
6284
6285 * Bug fixes
6286
6287 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
6288
6289 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
6290 much more reliable. In particular:
6291 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
6292 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
6293 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
6294 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
6295 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
6296 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
6297 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
6298 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
6299 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
6300 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
6301 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
6302 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
6303 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
6304 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
6305 non-threaded programs.
6306
6307 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
6308 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
6309 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
6310 executable program.
6311
6312 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
6313
6314 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
6315 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
6316 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
6317 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
6318 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
6319
6320 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
6321 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
6322 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
6323 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
6324 for tracepoint actions.
6325
6326 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
6327 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
6328 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
6329
6330 * Process record and replay
6331
6332 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
6333 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
6334 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
6335 execute commands.
6336
6337 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
6338 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
6339 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
6340 reverse execution.
6341
6342 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
6343 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
6344 2.6.28 or later.
6345
6346 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
6347 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
6348 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
6349 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
6350 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
6351 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
6352 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
6353 the installation instructions for more information.
6354
6355 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
6356 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
6357 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
6358 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
6359
6360 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
6361 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
6362
6363 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
6364 now complete on file names.
6365
6366 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
6367 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
6368 For instance, consider:
6369
6370 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
6371 # struct example variable;
6372 (gdb) p variable.
6373
6374 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
6375 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
6376
6377 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
6378 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
6379
6380 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
6381 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
6382 macros.
6383
6384 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
6385 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
6386 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
6387
6388 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
6389 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
6390 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
6391 and simulator targets may also provide them.
6392
6393 * New remote packets
6394
6395 qSearch:memory:
6396 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
6397
6398 QStartNoAckMode
6399 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
6400 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
6401 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
6402
6403 vKill
6404 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
6405 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
6406
6407 qXfer:osdata:read
6408 Obtains additional operating system information
6409
6410 qXfer:siginfo:read
6411 qXfer:siginfo:write
6412 Read or write additional signal information.
6413
6414 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
6415
6416 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
6417 packet that permitted the stub to pass a process id was removed.
6418 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
6419
6420 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
6421 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
6422
6423 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
6424 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
6425 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
6426
6427 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
6428 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
6429
6430 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
6431
6432 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
6433
6434 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
6435 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
6436
6437 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote protocol packet now allows passing a
6438 list of section offsets.
6439
6440 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
6441 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
6442 have also been fixed.
6443
6444 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
6445 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
6446 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
6447
6448 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
6449 example, given:
6450
6451 template<typename T> class C { };
6452 C<char const *> c;
6453
6454 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
6455
6456 ptype C<char const *>
6457 ptype C<char const*>
6458 ptype C<const char *>
6459 ptype C<const char*>
6460
6461 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
6462
6463 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
6464 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
6465
6466 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
6467 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
6468 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
6469
6470 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
6471 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
6472
6473 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
6474 gdbserver.
6475
6476 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
6477 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
6478
6479 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
6480 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
6481 as appropriate.
6482
6483 * Python scripting
6484
6485 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
6486 available is determined at configure time.
6487
6488 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
6489
6490 * Ada tasking support
6491
6492 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
6493 been introduced:
6494
6495 info tasks
6496 Print the list of Ada tasks.
6497 info task N
6498 Print detailed information about task number N.
6499 task
6500 Print the task number of the current task.
6501 task N
6502 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
6503
6504 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
6505 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
6506
6507 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
6508
6509 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
6510 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
6511 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
6512 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
6513 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
6514 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
6515 below.
6516
6517 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
6518 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
6519 information.
6520
6521 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
6522 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
6523 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
6524 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
6525 more information.
6526
6527 * Multi-architecture debugging.
6528
6529 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
6530 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
6531 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
6532 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
6533 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
6534
6535 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
6536 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
6537 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
6538 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
6539 --enable-targets configure option.
6540
6541 * Non-stop mode debugging.
6542
6543 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
6544 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
6545 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
6546 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
6547 section in the user manual for more information.
6548
6549 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
6550 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
6551 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
6552 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
6553 extensions on linux targets.
6554
6555 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
6556
6557 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
6558 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
6559 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
6560 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
6561 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
6562 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
6563 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
6564 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
6565 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
6566
6567 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
6568 val1 [, val2, ...]
6569 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
6570
6571 maint set python print-stack
6572 maint show python print-stack
6573 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
6574
6575 python [CODE]
6576 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
6577
6578 macro define
6579 macro list
6580 macro undef
6581 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
6582 interactively.
6583
6584 info os processes
6585 Show operating system information about processes.
6586
6587 info inferiors
6588 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
6589
6590 inferior NUM
6591 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
6592
6593 detach inferior NUM
6594 Detach from inferior number NUM.
6595
6596 kill inferior NUM
6597 Kill inferior number NUM.
6598
6599 * New options
6600
6601 set spu stop-on-load
6602 show spu stop-on-load
6603 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
6604
6605 set spu auto-flush-cache
6606 show spu auto-flush-cache
6607 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
6608 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
6609
6610 set sh calling-convention
6611 show sh calling-convention
6612 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
6613
6614 set debug timestamp
6615 show debug timestamp
6616 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
6617
6618 set disassemble-next-line
6619 show disassemble-next-line
6620 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
6621 the debuggee stops.
6622
6623 set remote noack-packet
6624 show remote noack-packet
6625 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
6626 under "New remote packets."
6627
6628 set remote query-attached-packet
6629 show remote query-attached-packet
6630 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
6631
6632 set remote read-siginfo-object
6633 show remote read-siginfo-object
6634 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
6635 packet.
6636
6637 set remote write-siginfo-object
6638 show remote write-siginfo-object
6639 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
6640 packet.
6641
6642 set remote reverse-continue
6643 show remote reverse-continue
6644 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
6645
6646 set remote reverse-step
6647 show remote reverse-step
6648 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
6649
6650 set displaced-stepping
6651 show displaced-stepping
6652 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
6653 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
6654 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
6655
6656 set debug displaced
6657 show debug displaced
6658 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
6659
6660 maint set internal-error
6661 maint show internal-error
6662 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
6663
6664 maint set internal-warning
6665 maint show internal-warning
6666 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
6667
6668 set exec-wrapper
6669 show exec-wrapper
6670 unset exec-wrapper
6671 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
6672
6673 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
6674 show multiple-symbols
6675 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
6676 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
6677 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
6678
6679 set breakpoint always-inserted
6680 show breakpoint always-inserted
6681 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
6682 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
6683 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
6684
6685 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
6686 show arm fallback-mode
6687 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
6688 show arm force-mode
6689 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
6690 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
6691 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
6692 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
6693
6694 set arm unwind-secure-frames
6695 Enable unwinding from Non-secure to Secure mode on Cortex-M with
6696 Security extension.
6697 This can trigger security exceptions when unwinding exception stacks.
6698
6699 set disable-randomization
6700 show disable-randomization
6701 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
6702 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
6703 multiple debugging sessions.
6704
6705 set non-stop
6706 show non-stop
6707 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
6708 a breakpoint.
6709
6710 set target-async
6711 show target-async
6712 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
6713 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
6714 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
6715 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
6716
6717 set target-wide-charset
6718 show target-wide-charset
6719 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
6720 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
6721
6722 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
6723 show tcp auto-retry
6724 set tcp connect-timeout
6725 show tcp connect-timeout
6726 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
6727 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
6728 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
6729
6730 set libthread-db-search-path
6731 show libthread-db-search-path
6732 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
6733 libthread_db.
6734
6735 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
6736 show schedule-multiple
6737 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
6738 the current process.
6739
6740 set stack-cache
6741 show stack-cache
6742 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
6743 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
6744 affecting correctness.
6745
6746 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
6747 show interactive-mode
6748 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
6749 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
6750 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
6751 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
6752 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
6753
6754 * Removed commands
6755
6756 info forks
6757 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
6758 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
6759 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
6760 command.
6761
6762 fork NUM
6763 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
6764 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
6765 alias for the `fork' command.
6766
6767 process PID
6768 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
6769 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
6770 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
6771
6772 delete fork NUM
6773 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
6774 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
6775 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
6776 fork' command.
6777
6778 detach fork NUM
6779 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
6780 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
6781 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
6782 fork' command.
6783
6784 * New native configurations
6785
6786 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
6787
6788 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
6789
6790 * New targets
6791
6792 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
6793 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
6794 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
6795 S+core 3 score-*-*
6796
6797 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
6798 (mingw32ce) debugging.
6799
6800 * Removed commands
6801
6802 catch load
6803 catch unload
6804 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
6805
6806 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
6807
6808 * New native configurations
6809
6810 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
6811 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
6812
6813 * New targets
6814
6815 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
6816 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
6817
6818 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
6819
6820 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
6821 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
6822 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
6823 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
6824
6825 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
6826 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
6827
6828 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
6829 is resolved.
6830
6831 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
6832 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
6833 and in inlined functions.
6834
6835 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
6836 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
6837 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
6838
6839 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
6840
6841 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
6842 registers on PowerPC targets.
6843
6844 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
6845 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
6846
6847 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
6848 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
6849
6850 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
6851 extended-remote mode.
6852
6853 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
6854 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
6855 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
6856 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
6857
6858 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
6859 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
6860 target architectures.
6861
6862 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
6863 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
6864 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
6865 stored in two consecutive float registers.
6866
6867 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
6868 breakpoints now.
6869
6870 * Improved support for debugging Ada
6871 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
6872 include:
6873 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
6874 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
6875 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
6876 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
6877 of an assignment
6878 - Improved command completion in Ada
6879 - Several bug fixes
6880
6881 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
6882 process.
6883
6884 * New commands
6885
6886 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
6887 show print frame-arguments
6888 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
6889 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
6890
6891 remote put
6892 remote get
6893 remote delete
6894 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
6895
6896 * New MI commands
6897
6898 -target-file-put
6899 -target-file-get
6900 -target-file-delete
6901 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
6902
6903 * New remote packets
6904
6905 vFile:open:
6906 vFile:close:
6907 vFile:pread:
6908 vFile:pwrite:
6909 vFile:unlink:
6910 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
6911
6912 vAttach
6913 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
6914 mode.
6915
6916 vRun
6917 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
6918
6919 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
6920
6921 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
6922 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
6923 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
6924
6925 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
6926 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
6927 -Bsymbolic linker option.
6928
6929 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
6930 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
6931 is not supported.
6932
6933 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
6934 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
6935
6936 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
6937 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
6938
6939 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
6940
6941 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
6942 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
6943 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
6944
6945 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
6946 automatically displayed as character or string data.
6947
6948 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
6949 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
6950 as strings.
6951
6952 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
6953 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
6954 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
6955
6956 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
6957 iWMMXt coprocessor.
6958
6959 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
6960 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
6961 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
6962
6963 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
6964
6965 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
6966
6967 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
6968 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
6969 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
6970
6971 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
6972 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
6973
6974 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
6975 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
6976 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
6977 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
6978 Windows and SymbianOS).
6979
6980 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
6981 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
6982
6983 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
6984 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
6985
6986 * New commands
6987
6988 set remoteflow
6989 show remoteflow
6990 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
6991 when debugging using remote targets.
6992
6993 set mem inaccessible-by-default
6994 show mem inaccessible-by-default
6995 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
6996 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
6997 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
6998 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
6999 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
7000
7001 set breakpoint auto-hw
7002 show breakpoint auto-hw
7003 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
7004 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
7005 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
7006 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
7007 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
7008 including "next" and "finish".
7009
7010 catch exception
7011 catch exception unhandled
7012 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
7013
7014 catch assert
7015 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
7016
7017 set sysroot
7018 show sysroot
7019 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
7020 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
7021 an alias to "set sysroot".
7022
7023 info spu
7024 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
7025 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
7026 architecture.
7027
7028 * New native configurations
7029
7030 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
7031
7032 set tdesc filename
7033 unset tdesc filename
7034 show tdesc filename
7035 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
7036 not query the target for its built-in description.
7037
7038 * New targets
7039
7040 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
7041 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
7042 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
7043
7044 * New remote packets
7045
7046 QPassSignals:
7047 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
7048 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
7049
7050 qXfer:features:read:
7051 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
7052 features.
7053
7054 qXfer:spu:read:
7055 qXfer:spu:write:
7056 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
7057 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
7058
7059 qXfer:libraries:read:
7060 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
7061 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
7062 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
7063 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
7064
7065 * Removed targets
7066
7067 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
7068
7069 alpha*-*-osf1*
7070 alpha*-*-osf2*
7071 d10v-*-*
7072 hppa*-*-hiux*
7073 i[34567]86-ncr-*
7074 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
7075 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
7076 i[34567]86-*-netware*
7077 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
7078 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
7079 i[34567]86-*-sco*
7080 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
7081 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
7082 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
7083 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
7084 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
7085 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
7086 i[34567]86-*-isc*
7087 m68*-cisco*-*
7088 m68*-tandem-*
7089 mips*-*-pe
7090 rs6000-*-lynxos*
7091 sh*-*-pe
7092
7093 * Other removed features
7094
7095 target abug
7096 target cpu32bug
7097 target est
7098 target rom68k
7099
7100 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
7101
7102 target hms
7103 target e7000
7104 target sh3
7105 target sh3e
7106
7107 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
7108 H8/300.
7109
7110 target ocd
7111
7112 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
7113 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
7114 interfaces.
7115
7116 DWARF 1 support
7117
7118 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
7119 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
7120
7121 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
7122
7123 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
7124 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
7125 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
7126 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
7127
7128 MIPS ".pdr" sections
7129
7130 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
7131 in debugging information.
7132
7133 Scheme support
7134
7135 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
7136 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
7137
7138 set mips stack-arg-size
7139 set mips saved-gpreg-size
7140
7141 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
7142
7143 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
7144
7145 * New targets
7146
7147 Xtensa xtensa-elf
7148 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
7149
7150 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
7151 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
7152 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
7153
7154 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
7155 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
7156 supported.
7157
7158 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
7159 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
7160
7161 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
7162 stub provides the required support.
7163
7164 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
7165 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
7166
7167 * New commands
7168
7169 set substitute-path
7170 unset substitute-path
7171 show substitute-path
7172 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
7173 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
7174 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
7175 between compilation and debugging.
7176
7177 set trace-commands
7178 show trace-commands
7179 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
7180 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
7181 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
7182
7183 * REMOVED features
7184
7185 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
7186
7187 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
7188 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
7189
7190 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
7191
7192 * New remote packets
7193
7194 qSupported:
7195 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
7196 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
7197 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
7198 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
7199 target.
7200
7201 qXfer:auxv:read:
7202 Fetch an OS auxiliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
7203 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
7204
7205 qXfer:memory-map:read:
7206 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
7207 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
7208
7209 vFlashErase:
7210 vFlashWrite:
7211 vFlashDone:
7212 Erase and program a flash memory device.
7213
7214 * Removed remote packets
7215
7216 qPart:auxv:read:
7217 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
7218 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
7219
7220 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
7221
7222 * New targets
7223
7224 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
7225
7226 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
7227
7228 * New commands
7229
7230 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
7231 only if it doesn't already have a value.
7232
7233 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
7234
7235 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
7236
7237 restart <n> Return the program state to a
7238 previously saved state.
7239
7240 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
7241
7242 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
7243
7244 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
7245 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
7246
7247 info forks List forks of the user program that
7248 are available to be debugged.
7249
7250 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
7251 forks of the user program that are
7252 available to be debugged.
7253
7254 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
7255 that are available to be debugged (and
7256 kill the forked process).
7257
7258 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
7259 that are available to be debugged (and
7260 allow the process to continue).
7261
7262 * New architecture
7263
7264 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
7265
7266 * Improved Windows host support
7267
7268 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
7269 native console support, and remote communications using either
7270 network sockets or serial ports.
7271
7272 * Improved Modula-2 language support
7273
7274 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
7275 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
7276 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
7277 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
7278 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
7279 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
7280
7281 * REMOVED features
7282
7283 The ARM rdi-share module.
7284
7285 The Netware NLM debug server.
7286
7287 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
7288
7289 * New native configurations
7290
7291 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
7292 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
7293
7294 * New targets
7295
7296 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
7297
7298 * New command line options
7299
7300 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
7301 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
7302 the child (debugged) program exited with.
7303 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
7304 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
7305 specified multiple times and in conjunction
7306 with the --command (-x) option.
7307
7308 * Deprecated commands removed
7309
7310 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
7311 removed:
7312
7313 Command Replacement
7314 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
7315 othernames set arm disassembler
7316 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
7317 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
7318 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
7319 regs info registers
7320
7321 * New BSD user-level threads support
7322
7323 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
7324 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
7325 configurations are:
7326
7327 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
7328 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
7329 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
7330
7331 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
7332 are not yet supported.
7333
7334 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
7335 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
7336
7337 * REMOVED configurations and files
7338
7339 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
7340 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
7341 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
7342
7343 * New "set print array-indexes" command
7344
7345 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
7346 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
7347 behavior.
7348
7349 * VAX floating point support
7350
7351 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
7352
7353 * User-defined command support
7354
7355 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
7356 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
7357 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
7358
7359 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
7360
7361 * New command line option
7362
7363 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
7364 debugging.
7365
7366 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
7367
7368 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
7369 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
7370 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
7371 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
7372 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
7373
7374 * Internationalization
7375
7376 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
7377 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
7378 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
7379
7380 * Ada
7381
7382 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
7383 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
7384 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
7385
7386 * New native configurations
7387
7388 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
7389
7390 * Remote 'p' packet
7391
7392 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
7393 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
7394
7395 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
7396
7397 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
7398 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
7399 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
7400 i386 application).
7401
7402 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the registers[]
7403 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
7404 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
7405 configurations:
7406
7407 hppa-*-hpux
7408 ia64-*-aix
7409 mips-*-irix*
7410 *-*-lynx
7411 mips-*-linux-gnu
7412 sds protocol
7413 xdr protocol
7414 powerpc bdm protocol
7415
7416 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
7417 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
7418
7419 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7420
7421 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7422 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7423 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7424 permanently REMOVED.
7425
7426 h8300-*-*
7427 mcore-*-*
7428 mn10300-*-*
7429 ns32k-*-*
7430 sh64-*-*
7431 v850-*-*
7432
7433 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
7434
7435 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
7436
7437 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
7438 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
7439 been fixed.
7440
7441 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
7442
7443 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
7444 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
7445 IRIX long double values).
7446
7447 * VAX and "next"
7448
7449 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
7450 command. This problem has been fixed.
7451
7452 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
7453
7454 * Fix for ``many threads''
7455
7456 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
7457 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
7458 error message:
7459
7460 ptrace: No such process.
7461 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
7462
7463 This problem has been fixed.
7464
7465 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
7466
7467 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
7468 GDB to dump core).
7469
7470 * New ``start'' command.
7471
7472 This command runs the program until the beginning of the main procedure.
7473
7474 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
7475
7476 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
7477 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
7478 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
7479
7480 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
7481 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
7482 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
7483 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
7484 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
7485 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
7486 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
7487 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
7488 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
7489
7490 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
7491
7492 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
7493 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
7494 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
7495 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
7496 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
7497
7498 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
7499 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
7500 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
7501
7502 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
7503
7504 * New native configurations
7505
7506 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
7507 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
7508 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
7509 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
7510 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
7511 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
7512 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
7513
7514 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
7515
7516 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
7517 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
7518 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
7519 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
7520 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
7521 work, was also included.
7522
7523 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
7524 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
7525
7526 h8300-*-*
7527 mcore-*-*
7528 mn10300-*-*
7529 ns32k-*-*
7530 sh64-*-*
7531 v850-*-*
7532 xstormy16-*-*
7533
7534 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
7535 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
7536
7537 * REMOVED configurations and files
7538
7539 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
7540 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
7541 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
7542 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
7543 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
7544 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
7545 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
7546 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
7547 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
7548 sonymips mips-sony-*
7549 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
7550
7551 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
7552
7553 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
7554
7555 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
7556 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
7557 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
7558 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
7559 with GDB".
7560
7561 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
7562
7563 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
7564 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
7565 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
7566 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
7567 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
7568 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
7569 are created.
7570
7571 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
7572
7573 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
7574
7575 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
7576 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
7577 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
7578
7579 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
7580
7581 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
7582 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
7583
7584 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
7585
7586 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
7587 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
7588 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
7589
7590 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
7591
7592 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
7593 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
7594
7595 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
7596
7597 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
7598 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
7599 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
7600
7601 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
7602
7603 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
7604 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
7605 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
7606
7607 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
7608
7609 * Removed --with-mmalloc
7610
7611 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
7612 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
7613
7614 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
7615
7616 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
7617 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
7618 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
7619 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
7620
7621 * Revised SPARC target
7622
7623 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
7624 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
7625 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
7626 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
7627 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
7628
7629 * New C++ demangler
7630
7631 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
7632 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
7633 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
7634 programs.
7635
7636 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
7637
7638 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
7639 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
7640 encountered these.
7641
7642 * C++ nested types and namespaces
7643
7644 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
7645 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
7646 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
7647 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
7648 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
7649 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
7650 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
7651 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
7652 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
7653
7654 * New native configurations
7655
7656 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
7657 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
7658 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
7659 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
7660 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
7661
7662 * New debugging protocols
7663
7664 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
7665
7666 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
7667
7668 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
7669 and its very obscure effect on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
7670 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
7671
7672 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7673
7674 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7675 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7676 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7677 permanently REMOVED.
7678
7679 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
7680 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
7681 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
7682 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
7683 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
7684 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
7685 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
7686 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
7687 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
7688 sonymips mips-sony-*
7689 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
7690
7691 * REMOVED configurations and files
7692
7693 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
7694 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7695 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
7696 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
7697 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
7698 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
7699 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
7700 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
7701 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
7702 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
7703 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
7704 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
7705 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
7706 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
7707 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
7708 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7709 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7710
7711 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
7712
7713 * Objective-C
7714
7715 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
7716 integrated into GDB.
7717
7718 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
7719
7720 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
7721 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
7722 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
7723 backtraces.
7724
7725 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
7726 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
7727 DWARF 2 CFI support.
7728
7729 * Hosted file I/O.
7730
7731 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
7732 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
7733 remote protocol documentation for details.
7734
7735 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
7736
7737 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
7738 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
7739 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
7740 ppc32 on ppc64).
7741
7742 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
7743
7744 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
7745 per-thread variables.
7746
7747 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
7748
7749 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
7750 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
7751
7752 * Separate debug info.
7753
7754 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
7755 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
7756 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
7757 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
7758 and optional debug files.
7759
7760 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
7761
7762 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
7763 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
7764 debugger.
7765
7766 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
7767 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
7768
7769 * Java
7770
7771 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
7772 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
7773 considered "usable".
7774
7775 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
7776
7777 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
7778 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
7779 kernel.
7780
7781 * GDB supports logging output to a file
7782
7783 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
7784 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
7785
7786 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
7787
7788 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
7789 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
7790 command.
7791
7792 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
7793
7794 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
7795 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
7796
7797 * Profiling support
7798
7799 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
7800 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
7801 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
7802 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
7803 data, for more informative profiling results.
7804
7805 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
7806
7807 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
7808 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
7809 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
7810
7811 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
7812 removed.
7813
7814 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
7815 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
7816 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
7817 in a subsequent -var-update.
7818
7819 * New native configurations.
7820
7821 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
7822
7823 * Multi-arched targets.
7824
7825 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
7826 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
7827
7828 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7829
7830 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7831 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7832 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7833 permanently REMOVED.
7834
7835 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
7836 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
7837 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
7838 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
7839 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
7840 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
7841 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
7842 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
7843 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
7844 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
7845 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7846 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7847
7848 * REMOVED configurations and files
7849
7850 V850EA ISA
7851 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7852 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7853 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
7854 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
7855 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
7856 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
7857 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
7858 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
7859 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
7860 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
7861 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7862 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
7863 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
7864
7865 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
7866
7867 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
7868 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
7869 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
7870 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
7871 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
7872
7873 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
7874
7875 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
7876
7877 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
7878 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
7879 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
7880 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
7881 shared libs like mad''.
7882
7883 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
7884
7885 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
7886 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
7887 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
7888 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
7889
7890 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
7891
7892 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
7893 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
7894 they expand.
7895
7896 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
7897 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
7898
7899 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
7900 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
7901
7902 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
7903 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
7904 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
7905 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
7906
7907 * Multi-arched targets.
7908
7909 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
7910 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
7911 NEC V850 v850-*-*
7912 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
7913 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
7914 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
7915
7916 * New targets.
7917
7918 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
7919
7920
7921 * New native configurations
7922
7923 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
7924 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
7925 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
7926 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
7927
7928 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7929
7930 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7931 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7932 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7933 permanently REMOVED.
7934
7935 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
7936 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
7937 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7938 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7939 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7940 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
7941 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
7942 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
7943 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
7944 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
7945 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
7946 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
7947 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
7948
7949 * OBSOLETE languages
7950
7951 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
7952
7953 * REMOVED configurations and files
7954
7955 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
7956 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
7957 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7958 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7959 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7960
7961 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
7962
7963 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
7964
7965 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
7966 commands. The default is 1024.
7967
7968 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
7969
7970 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
7971
7972 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
7973
7974 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
7975 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
7976 from a file into memory (restore).
7977
7978 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
7979
7980 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
7981 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
7982 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
7983
7984 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
7985
7986 * New targets.
7987
7988 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
7989
7990 * Bug fixes
7991
7992 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
7993 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
7994 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
7995
7996 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
7997 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
7998 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
7999
8000 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
8001 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
8002 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
8003
8004 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
8005 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
8006 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
8007
8008 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
8009
8010 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
8011
8012 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
8013 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
8014 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
8015 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
8016 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
8017 (notably embedded) targets.
8018
8019 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
8020
8021 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
8022 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
8023 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
8024 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
8025
8026 * New command line option
8027
8028 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
8029
8030 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
8031
8032 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
8033 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
8034 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
8035 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
8036 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
8037 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
8038 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
8039 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
8040 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
8041 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
8042
8043 * Changes in ARM configurations.
8044
8045 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
8046 configuration is fully multi-arch.
8047
8048 * New native configurations
8049
8050 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
8051 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
8052 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
8053 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
8054
8055 * New targets
8056
8057 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
8058
8059 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
8060
8061 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
8062 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
8063 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
8064 permanently REMOVED.
8065
8066 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
8067 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
8068 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
8069 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
8070 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
8071
8072 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
8073
8074 * REMOVED configurations and files
8075
8076 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
8077 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
8078 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
8079 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
8080 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
8081 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
8082 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
8083 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
8084 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
8085 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
8086 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
8087 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
8088 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
8089
8090 * Changes to command line processing
8091
8092 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
8093 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
8094
8095 * Changes to key bindings
8096
8097 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
8098
8099 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
8100
8101 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
8102
8103 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
8104 corrupted.
8105
8106 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
8107
8108 Numerous documentation fixes.
8109
8110 Numerous testsuite fixes.
8111
8112 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
8113
8114 * New native configurations
8115
8116 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
8117 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
8118 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
8119 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
8120 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
8121 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
8122
8123 * New targets
8124
8125 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
8126 CRIS cris-axis
8127 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
8128
8129 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
8130
8131 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
8132 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
8133 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
8134 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
8135 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
8136 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
8137 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
8138 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
8139 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
8140 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
8141 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
8142 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
8143 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
8144 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
8145
8146 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
8147 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
8148
8149 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
8150 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
8151 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
8152 permanently REMOVED.
8153
8154 * REMOVED configurations and files
8155
8156 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
8157 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
8158 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
8159 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
8160 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
8161 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
8162
8163 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
8164
8165 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
8166 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
8167 present.
8168
8169 * Other news:
8170
8171 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
8172
8173 * The MI enabled by default.
8174
8175 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
8176 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
8177 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
8178 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
8179 which is now deprecated.
8180
8181 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
8182
8183 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
8184 main features are supported:
8185
8186 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
8187
8188 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
8189 extension;
8190
8191 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
8192
8193 - a Pascal expression parser.
8194
8195 However, some important features are not yet supported.
8196
8197 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
8198
8199 - there are some problems with boolean types;
8200
8201 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
8202 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
8203
8204 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
8205
8206 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
8207
8208 * Changes in completion.
8209
8210 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
8211 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
8212 users expect at the shell prompt.
8213
8214 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
8215 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
8216 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
8217 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
8218 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
8219 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
8220 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
8221
8222 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
8223
8224 * New platform-independent commands:
8225
8226 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
8227 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
8228 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
8229
8230 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
8231
8232 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
8233 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
8234 many threads as your system allows you to have.
8235
8236 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
8237
8238 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
8239 multi-threaded programs though.
8240
8241 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
8242
8243 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
8244
8245 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
8246 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
8247 supported.)
8248
8249 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
8250
8251 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
8252 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
8253 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
8254 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
8255 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
8256 registers.
8257
8258 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
8259 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
8260 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
8261
8262 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
8263
8264 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
8265 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
8266
8267 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
8268 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
8269 IDT.
8270
8271 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
8272 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
8273 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
8274 a given linear address.
8275
8276 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
8277 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
8278 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
8279
8280 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
8281
8282 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
8283
8284 * Changes in documentation.
8285
8286 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
8287 Documentation License.
8288
8289 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
8290 manual.
8291
8292 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
8293
8294 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
8295 manual.
8296
8297 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
8298 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
8299 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
8300
8301 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
8302
8303 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
8304 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
8305 contents of this file.
8306
8307 * gdba.el deleted
8308
8309 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
8310
8311 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
8312
8313 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
8314
8315 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
8316 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
8317 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
8318 greater level of detail.
8319
8320 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
8321
8322 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
8323 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
8324 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
8325 written.
8326
8327 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
8328
8329 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
8330 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
8331 machines ``out of the box''.
8332
8333 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
8334 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
8335 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
8336 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
8337 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
8338
8339 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
8340 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
8341 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
8342 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
8343 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
8344
8345 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
8346 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
8347 also works.
8348
8349 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
8350 GDB.
8351
8352 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
8353 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
8354 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
8355 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
8356
8357 * New native configurations
8358
8359 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
8360 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
8361
8362 * New targets
8363
8364 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
8365 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
8366 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
8367 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
8368
8369 * OBSOLETE configurations
8370
8371 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
8372 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
8373 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
8374 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
8375 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
8376
8377 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
8378 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
8379 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
8380 be permanently REMOVED.
8381
8382 * Gould support removed
8383
8384 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
8385
8386 * New features for SVR4
8387
8388 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
8389 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
8390 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
8391
8392 * Many C++ enhancements
8393
8394 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
8395 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
8396
8397 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
8398
8399 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
8400 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
8401 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
8402 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
8403
8404 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
8405 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
8406
8407 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
8408
8409 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
8410 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transferred as 32
8411 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
8412
8413 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
8414 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
8415
8416 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
8417
8418 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
8419 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
8420 include ``set remote P-packet''.
8421
8422 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
8423
8424 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
8425 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
8426 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
8427
8428 * ``apropos'' command added.
8429
8430 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
8431 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
8432 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
8433
8434 * New MI interface
8435
8436 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
8437 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
8438 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
8439 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
8440 enabled by configuring with:
8441
8442 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
8443
8444 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
8445
8446 * New native configurations
8447
8448 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
8449 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
8450 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
8451
8452 * New targets
8453
8454 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
8455 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
8456 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
8457
8458 * OBSOLETE configurations
8459
8460 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
8461
8462 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
8463 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
8464 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
8465 be permanently REMOVED.
8466
8467 * ANSI/ISO C
8468
8469 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
8470 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
8471 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
8472 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
8473 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
8474 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
8475 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
8476 already.
8477
8478 * Readline 2.2
8479
8480 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
8481
8482 * set extension-language
8483
8484 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
8485 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
8486 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
8487 set extension-language .c c++
8488 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
8489 and their associated languages.
8490
8491 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
8492
8493 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
8494 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
8495 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
8496
8497 set processor NAME
8498
8499 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
8500 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
8501
8502 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
8503 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
8504 403 IBM PowerPC 403
8505 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
8506 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
8507 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
8508 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
8509 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
8510 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
8511 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
8512 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
8513
8514 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
8515 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
8516 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
8517 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
8518
8519 * HP-UX support
8520
8521 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
8522 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
8523 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
8524 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
8525 for xdb and dbx commands.
8526
8527 * Catchpoints
8528
8529 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
8530 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
8531 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
8532
8533 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
8534 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
8535 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
8536
8537 * Debugging across forks
8538
8539 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
8540 in the inferior.
8541
8542 * TUI
8543
8544 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
8545 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
8546 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
8547
8548 * GDB remote protocol additions
8549
8550 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
8551 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
8552 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
8553 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
8554
8555 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
8556 full 64-bit address. The command
8557
8558 set remoteaddresssize 32
8559
8560 can be used to revert to the old behavior. For existing remote stubs
8561 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
8562 will be discarded.
8563
8564 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
8565 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
8566
8567 maint packet heythere
8568
8569 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
8570 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
8571 time.
8572
8573 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
8574 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
8575 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
8576
8577 * Tracing can collect general expressions
8578
8579 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
8580 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
8581 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
8582
8583 * mask-address variable for Mips
8584
8585 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
8586 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
8587 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
8588
8589 * Higher serial baud rates
8590
8591 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
8592 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
8593 to achieve all of these rates.)
8594
8595 * i960 simulator
8596
8597 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
8598 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
8599
8600
8601 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
8602
8603 * New native configurations
8604
8605 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
8606 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
8607 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
8608 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
8609 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
8610 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
8611 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
8612
8613 * New targets
8614
8615 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
8616 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
8617 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
8618 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
8619 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
8620 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
8621 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
8622 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
8623 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
8624 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
8625 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
8626
8627 * New debugging protocols
8628
8629 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
8630 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
8631 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
8632 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
8633 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
8634 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
8635
8636 * DWARF 2
8637
8638 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
8639 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
8640 information.
8641
8642 * Java frontend
8643
8644 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
8645 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
8646
8647 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
8648
8649 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
8650 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
8651 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
8652
8653 * Live range splitting
8654
8655 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
8656 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
8657 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
8658
8659 * Hurd support
8660
8661 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
8662 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
8663
8664 * ARM Thumb support
8665
8666 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
8667 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
8668 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
8669 accordingly.
8670
8671 * MIPS16 support
8672
8673 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
8674 instruction set.
8675
8676 * Overlay support
8677
8678 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
8679 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
8680 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
8681 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
8682 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
8683 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
8684
8685 * info symbol
8686
8687 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
8688 the symbol at the specified address.
8689
8690 * Trace support
8691
8692 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
8693 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
8694 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
8695 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
8696 file tracepoint.c for more details.
8697
8698 * MIPS simulator
8699
8700 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
8701 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
8702 of most MIPS variants.
8703
8704 * Sparc simulator
8705
8706 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
8707 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
8708 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
8709
8710 * set architecture
8711
8712 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
8713 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
8714 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
8715 the possible architectures.
8716
8717 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
8718
8719 * New native configurations
8720
8721 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
8722 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
8723 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
8724 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
8725 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
8726 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
8727
8728 * New targets
8729
8730 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
8731 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
8732 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
8733 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
8734 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
8735 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
8736 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
8737
8738 * PowerPC simulator
8739
8740 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
8741 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
8742 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
8743 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
8744 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
8745
8746 * Solaris 2.5
8747
8748 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
8749
8750 * Windows 95/NT native
8751
8752 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
8753 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
8754 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
8755 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
8756 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
8757
8758 * dont-repeat command
8759
8760 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
8761 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
8762 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
8763 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
8764
8765 * Send break instead of ^C
8766
8767 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
8768 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
8769 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
8770
8771 * Remote protocol timeout
8772
8773 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
8774 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
8775 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
8776
8777 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
8778
8779 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
8780 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
8781 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
8782 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
8783 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
8784
8785 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
8786 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
8787 automatically on hpux10.
8788
8789 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
8790
8791 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
8792
8793 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
8794
8795 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
8796 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
8797 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
8798 every character. The default value is 1050.
8799
8800 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
8801
8802 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
8803 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
8804 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
8805 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
8806 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
8807 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
8808
8809 * Speedups for remote debugging
8810
8811 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
8812 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
8813 and more efficient S-record downloading.
8814
8815 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
8816
8817 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
8818 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
8819
8820 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
8821
8822 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
8823
8824 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
8825 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
8826
8827 * Remote targets use caching
8828
8829 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
8830 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
8831 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
8832 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
8833 off' turns the data cache off.
8834
8835 * Remote targets may have threads
8836
8837 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
8838 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
8839 gdb/remote.c for details.
8840
8841 * NetROM support
8842
8843 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
8844 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
8845 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
8846 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
8847 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
8848 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
8849 sequence is something like
8850
8851 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
8852 load <prog>
8853 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
8854
8855 * Macintosh host
8856
8857 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
8858 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
8859 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
8860 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
8861 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
8862 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
8863 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
8864 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
8865
8866 * Autoconf
8867
8868 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
8869 but does simplify configuration and building.
8870
8871 * hpux10
8872
8873 GDB now supports hpux10.
8874
8875 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
8876
8877 * New native configurations
8878
8879 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
8880 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
8881 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
8882 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
8883
8884 * New targets
8885
8886 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
8887 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
8888 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
8889 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
8890 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
8891
8892 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
8893
8894 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
8895 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
8896 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
8897 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
8898 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
8899
8900 * Arguments to user-defined commands
8901
8902 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
8903 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
8904 trivial example:
8905 define adder
8906 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
8907
8908 To execute the command use:
8909 adder 1 2 3
8910
8911 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
8912 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
8913 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
8914
8915 * New `if' and `while' commands
8916
8917 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
8918 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
8919 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
8920 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
8921 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
8922 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
8923 if the expression is zero.
8924
8925 * Fortran source language mode
8926
8927 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
8928 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
8929 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
8930 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
8931 Fortran compilers.
8932
8933 * Better HPUX support
8934
8935 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
8936 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
8937 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
8938 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
8939 that behavior do the following before running the program:
8940
8941 adb -w a.out
8942 __dld_flags?W 0x5
8943 control-d
8944
8945 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
8946 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
8947
8948 adb -w a.out
8949 __dld_flags?W 0x4
8950 control-d
8951
8952 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
8953 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
8954 external linkage.
8955
8956 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
8957 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
8958
8959 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
8960
8961 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
8962 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
8963 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
8964 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
8965 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
8966 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
8967
8968 * New DOS host serial code
8969
8970 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
8971 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
8972 a PC's serial port.
8973
8974 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
8975
8976 * New "complete" command
8977
8978 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
8979 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
8980
8981 * Trailing space optional in prompt
8982
8983 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
8984 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
8985
8986 * Breakpoint hit counts
8987
8988 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
8989 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
8990 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
8991 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
8992 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
8993 that breakpoint.
8994
8995 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
8996
8997 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
8998 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
8999 arrays actually contain only short strings.
9000
9001 * Shared library breakpoints
9002
9003 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
9004 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
9005
9006 * Hardware watchpoints
9007
9008 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
9009 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
9010
9011 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
9012
9013 * Annotations
9014
9015 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
9016 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
9017
9018 * Improved Irix 5 support
9019
9020 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
9021
9022 * Improved HPPA support
9023
9024 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
9025
9026 * New native configurations
9027
9028 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
9029 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
9030 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
9031 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
9032
9033 * New targets
9034
9035 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
9036 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
9037 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
9038
9039 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
9040
9041 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
9042 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
9043
9044 * Fixes
9045
9046 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
9047 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
9048
9049 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
9050
9051 * Irix 5 is now supported
9052
9053 * HPPA support
9054
9055 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
9056 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
9057 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
9058 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
9059 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
9060
9061
9062 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
9063
9064 * User visible changes:
9065
9066 * Remote Debugging
9067
9068 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
9069 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
9070 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
9071 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
9072 debugging info for the mips target).
9073
9074 * DEC Alpha native support
9075
9076 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
9077 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
9078 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
9079 Alpha-specific notes.
9080
9081 * Preliminary thread implementation
9082
9083 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
9084
9085 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
9086
9087 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
9088 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
9089 for details).
9090
9091 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
9092
9093 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
9094 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
9095 call methods, ...etc.
9096
9097 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
9098
9099 * User visible changes:
9100
9101 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
9102 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
9103 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
9104 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
9105
9106 Filename completion now works.
9107
9108 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
9109 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
9110 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
9111
9112 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
9113 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
9114 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
9115 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
9116 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
9117
9118 * DEC alpha support
9119
9120 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
9121 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
9122
9123
9124 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
9125
9126 * Testsuite
9127
9128 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
9129 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
9130 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
9131
9132 * C++ demangling
9133
9134 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
9135 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
9136 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
9137 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
9138 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
9139
9140 * Simulators
9141
9142 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
9143 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
9144 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
9145
9146 * New targets supported
9147
9148 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
9149 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
9150 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
9151 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
9152 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
9153
9154 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
9155 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
9156 GO32 memory extender.
9157
9158 * New remote protocols
9159
9160 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
9161
9162 * New source languages supported
9163
9164 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
9165 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
9166 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publicly available.
9167
9168
9169 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
9170
9171 * HP Precision Architecture supported
9172
9173 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
9174 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
9175 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
9176 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
9177 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
9178 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
9179
9180 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
9181
9182 * Faster and better demangling
9183
9184 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
9185 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
9186 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
9187 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
9188 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
9189 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
9190 symbol lookups.
9191
9192 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
9193 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
9194 compiler does not actually implement.
9195
9196 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
9197
9198 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
9199 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
9200 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
9201 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
9202 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
9203 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
9204 fix.
9205
9206 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
9207 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
9208
9209 * Improved configure script
9210
9211 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
9212 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
9213 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
9214 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
9215
9216 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
9217 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
9218 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
9219 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
9220 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
9221 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
9222
9223 * Documentation improvements
9224
9225 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
9226 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
9227 before submitting changes.
9228
9229 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
9230 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
9231 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
9232 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
9233 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
9234
9235 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
9236 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
9237 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
9238 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
9239 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
9240 around this problem.
9241
9242 * New features
9243
9244 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
9245 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
9246 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
9247 the target program.
9248
9249 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
9250 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
9251
9252 * New native hosts supported
9253
9254 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
9255 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
9256
9257 * New targets supported
9258
9259 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
9260
9261 * New file formats supported
9262
9263 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
9264 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
9265
9266 * Major bug fixes
9267
9268 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
9269
9270 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
9271 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
9272
9273 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
9274 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
9275 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
9276
9277 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
9278 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
9279
9280 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
9281 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
9282 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
9283 libraries.
9284
9285 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
9286 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
9287 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
9288 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
9289 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
9290
9291 * Internal improvements
9292
9293 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
9294 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
9295
9296 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
9297 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
9298 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
9299 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
9300 shared code that handles any of them.
9301
9302 * New command line options
9303
9304 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
9305
9306 * Mmalloc licensing
9307
9308 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
9309 General Public License.
9310
9311 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
9312
9313 * Host/native/target split
9314
9315 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
9316 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
9317 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
9318 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
9319 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
9320
9321 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
9322 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
9323 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
9324 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
9325 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
9326 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
9327 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
9328
9329 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
9330 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
9331 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
9332
9333 * New hosts supported
9334
9335 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
9336 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
9337 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
9338
9339 * New targets supported
9340
9341 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
9342 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
9343
9344 * New native hosts supported
9345
9346 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
9347 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
9348 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
9349
9350 * New file formats supported
9351
9352 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
9353 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
9354 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
9355
9356 * New commands
9357
9358 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
9359 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
9360 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
9361
9362 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
9363
9364 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
9365 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
9366 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
9367 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
9368
9369 * C++ improvements
9370
9371 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
9372 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
9373 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
9374
9375 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
9376
9377 * Major bug fixes
9378
9379 The crash that occurred when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
9380 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
9381 by the compiler.
9382
9383 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
9384 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
9385
9386 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
9387 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
9388 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
9389 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
9390 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
9391 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
9392
9393 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
9394 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
9395 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
9396 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
9397
9398 * AMD 29k support
9399
9400 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
9401 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
9402 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
9403 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
9404 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
9405
9406 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
9407 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
9408 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
9409 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
9410
9411 * Remote interfaces
9412
9413 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
9414 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
9415 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
9416 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
9417 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
9418 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
9419 each instruction being stepped through.
9420
9421 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
9422 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
9423
9424 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
9425 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
9426 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
9427 processor with a serial port.
9428
9429 * Configuration
9430
9431 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
9432 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
9433 supported, and what files each one uses.
9434
9435 * Library changes
9436
9437 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
9438 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
9439 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
9440 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
9441
9442 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
9443 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
9444 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
9445 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
9446
9447 * Documentation
9448
9449 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
9450 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
9451 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
9452 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
9453 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
9454 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
9455
9456 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
9457
9458
9459 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
9460
9461 * Better support for C++ function names
9462
9463 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
9464 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
9465 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
9466 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
9467 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
9468
9469 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
9470 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
9471 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
9472 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
9473 for the list of formats.
9474
9475 * G++ symbol mangling problem
9476
9477 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
9478 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
9479 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
9480 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compiling gdb/symtab.c. The
9481 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
9482 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
9483 this problem.)
9484
9485 * New 'maintenance' command
9486
9487 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
9488 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
9489 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
9490
9491 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
9492 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
9493 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
9494 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
9495 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
9496 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
9497
9498 The following commands are new:
9499
9500 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
9501 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
9502 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
9503
9504 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
9505
9506 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
9507 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
9508 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
9509 read after argv processing.
9510
9511 * New hosts supported
9512
9513 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
9514
9515 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
9516
9517 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
9518 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
9519 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
9520 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
9521 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
9522 It costs extra.
9523
9524 * New targets supported
9525
9526 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
9527
9528 * More smarts about finding #include files
9529
9530 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
9531 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
9532 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
9533 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
9534 the one that contains your sources.
9535
9536 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
9537 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
9538 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
9539
9540 * Interesting infernals change
9541
9542 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
9543 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
9544 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
9545 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
9546
9547 * Bug fixes (of course!)
9548
9549 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
9550 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
9551 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
9552
9553 See the ChangeLog for details.
9554
9555 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
9556
9557 * New machines supported (host and target)
9558
9559 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
9560
9561 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
9562
9563 * New malloc package
9564
9565 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
9566 Mmalloc is capable of handling multiple heaps of memory. It is also
9567 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
9568 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
9569 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
9570 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
9571
9572 * info proc
9573
9574 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
9575 'help info proc' for details.
9576
9577 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
9578
9579 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
9580 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
9581 possible.
9582
9583 * File name changes for MS-DOS
9584
9585 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
9586 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
9587 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
9588 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
9589 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
9590 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
9591
9592 * Cross byte order fixes
9593
9594 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
9595 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
9596
9597 * New -mapped and -readnow options
9598
9599 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
9600 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
9601 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
9602 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
9603 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
9604 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
9605 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
9606 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
9607 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
9608 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
9609
9610 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
9611 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
9612 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
9613 slower, but makes future operations faster.
9614
9615 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
9616 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
9617 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
9618 use is:
9619
9620 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
9621
9622 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
9623 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
9624 shared across multiple host platforms.
9625
9626 * longjmp() handling
9627
9628 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
9629 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
9630 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
9631 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
9632
9633 * Solaris 2.0
9634
9635 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
9636 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
9637 reading symbols.
9638
9639 * Bug fixes
9640
9641 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
9642 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
9643 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
9644
9645 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
9646
9647 * New machines supported (host and target)
9648
9649 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
9650 (except core files)
9651 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
9652 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
9653
9654 * New machines supported (target)
9655
9656 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
9657
9658 * C++ support
9659
9660 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
9661 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
9662 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
9663
9664 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
9665 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
9666 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
9667 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
9668 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
9669 released.
9670
9671 * New features for SVR4
9672
9673 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
9674 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
9675 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
9676
9677 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
9678 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
9679 it prints the address mappings of the process.
9680
9681 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
9682 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were required (if any).
9683
9684 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
9685
9686 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
9687 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
9688 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
9689 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
9690 same code linked statically.
9691
9692 * New Getopt
9693
9694 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
9695 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
9696 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
9697 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicitly
9698 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
9699 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
9700
9701 * Bugs fixed
9702
9703 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
9704 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
9705 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
9706
9707
9708 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
9709
9710 * New machines supported (host and target)
9711
9712 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
9713 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
9714 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
9715
9716 * Almost SCO Unix support
9717
9718 We had hoped to support:
9719 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
9720 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
9721 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
9722 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
9723
9724 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
9725
9726 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
9727 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
9728 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
9729 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
9730 required (if any).
9731
9732 * New Readline
9733
9734 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
9735 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
9736 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
9737
9738 * Bugs fixed
9739
9740 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
9741 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
9742 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
9743
9744 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
9745
9746 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
9747 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
9748 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
9749
9750 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
9751 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
9752 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
9753 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
9754 version 2.
9755
9756 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
9757 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
9758 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
9759 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
9760 situation somewhat.
9761
9762 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
9763 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
9764 methods.
9765
9766 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
9767 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
9768 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
9769
9770
9771 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
9772
9773 * Improved configuration
9774
9775 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
9776 Porting BFD is simpler.
9777
9778 * Stepping improved
9779
9780 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
9781 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
9782 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
9783 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
9784
9785 * Bug fixing
9786
9787 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
9788
9789 * New host supported (not target)
9790
9791 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
9792
9793
9794 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
9795
9796 * Multiple source language support
9797
9798 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
9799 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
9800 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
9801 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
9802 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
9803 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
9804
9805 * GDB and Modula-2
9806
9807 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
9808 currently under development at the State University of New York at
9809 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
9810 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
9811
9812 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
9813 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
9814 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
9815
9816 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
9817 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
9818
9819 * set write on/off
9820
9821 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
9822 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
9823 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
9824 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
9825 effect immediately.
9826
9827 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
9828
9829 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
9830 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
9831 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
9832 examining core files.
9833
9834 * set listsize
9835
9836 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
9837 The default is 10.
9838
9839 * New machines supported (host and target)
9840
9841 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
9842 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
9843 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
9844
9845 * New hosts supported (not targets)
9846
9847 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
9848
9849 * New targets supported (not hosts)
9850
9851 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
9852 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
9853 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
9854
9855 * New remote interfaces
9856
9857 AMD 29000 Adapt
9858 AMD 29000 Minimon
9859
9860
9861 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
9862
9863 * New Facilities
9864
9865 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
9866
9867 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
9868 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
9869 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
9870 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
9871 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
9872 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
9873 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
9874 stub on the target system.
9875
9876 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
9877
9878 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
9879 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
9880 object file types such as a.out and coff.
9881
9882 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
9883 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
9884
9885
9886 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
9887
9888 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
9889 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
9890
9891 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
9892 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
9893 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
9894
9895 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
9896 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
9897 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
9898 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
9899
9900 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
9901 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
9902 it is already running. Default is ON.
9903
9904 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
9905 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
9906 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
9907 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
9908 Default is ON.
9909
9910 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
9911 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
9912 or the value of the environment variable
9913 GDBHISTFILE.
9914
9915 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
9916 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
9917 HISTSIZE.
9918
9919 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
9920 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
9921 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
9922
9923 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
9924 history expansion will be performed on
9925 command line input. The default is OFF.
9926
9927 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
9928 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
9929 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
9930
9931 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
9932 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
9933 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
9934 variable TERM.
9935
9936 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
9937 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
9938 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
9939 variable TERM.
9940
9941 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
9942 ``set width'' instead.
9943
9944 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
9945 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
9946 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
9947 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
9948
9949 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
9950 is OFF.
9951
9952 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
9953 "raw" form if off.
9954
9955 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
9956 like instructions.
9957
9958 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
9959
9960
9961 * Support for Epoch Environment.
9962
9963 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
9964 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
9965 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
9966 window.
9967
9968
9969 * Support for Shared Libraries
9970
9971 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
9972 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
9973 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
9974 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
9975 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
9976 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
9977 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
9978 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
9979
9980 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
9981 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
9982 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
9983
9984 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
9985
9986
9987 * Watchpoints
9988
9989 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
9990 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
9991 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
9992 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
9993 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
9994 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
9995
9996 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
9997
9998 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
9999
10000 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
10001 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
10002 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
10003
10004
10005 * C++ multiple inheritance
10006
10007 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
10008 for C++ programs.
10009
10010 * C++ exception handling
10011
10012 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
10013 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
10014 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
10015 handler's context).
10016
10017 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
10018 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
10019 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
10020
10021 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
10022 current stack frame.
10023
10024
10025 * Minor command changes
10026
10027 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
10028 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
10029 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
10030
10031 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
10032 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
10033 frames without printing.
10034
10035 * New directory command
10036
10037 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
10038 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
10039 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
10040 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
10041 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
10042
10043 * Configuring GDB for compilation
10044
10045 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
10046 for more details.
10047
10048 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
10049 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
10050 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
10051 where the program that you are debugging will run.