1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.6
6 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
7 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
8 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
9 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
10 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
11 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
14 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
16 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
20 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
24 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
25 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
26 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
30 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
32 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
34 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
36 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
39 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
41 maint set|show per-command
42 maint set|show per-command space
43 maint set|show per-command time
44 maint set|show per-command symtab
45 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
49 set print raw frame-arguments
50 show print raw frame-arguments
51 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
52 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
54 set remote trace-status-packet
55 show remote trace-status-packet
56 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
60 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
64 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
66 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
67 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
68 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
69 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
72 * New command-line options
74 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
76 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
77 buffer in Common Trace Format.
79 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
82 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
84 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
85 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
87 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
88 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
92 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
95 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
97 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
98 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
101 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
102 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
104 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
105 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
106 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
108 * New system-wide configuration scripts
109 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
110 configuration scripts for the following systems:
114 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
115 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
116 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
119 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
120 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
122 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
123 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
124 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
130 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
131 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
132 involvemement at each single-step.
134 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
135 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
136 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
137 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
138 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
139 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
142 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
144 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
145 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
147 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
148 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
149 trace state variables.
151 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
154 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
155 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
157 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
159 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
161 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
162 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
163 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
164 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
166 set|show record full insn-number-max
167 set|show record full stop-at-limit
168 set|show record full memory-query
170 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
171 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
172 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
173 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
174 This new recording method can be enabled using:
178 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
179 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
181 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
182 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
183 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
185 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
186 instruction granularity
188 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
191 * New native configurations
193 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
194 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
195 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
196 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
200 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
201 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
202 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
203 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
204 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
206 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
207 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
208 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
209 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
210 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
211 --data-directory command-line option.
213 * New command line options:
215 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
216 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
218 * Removed command line options
220 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
223 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
226 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
230 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
232 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
234 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
236 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
238 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
239 of architecture in the Python API.
241 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
242 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
244 * New Python-based convenience functions:
246 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
247 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
249 ** $_regex(str, regex)
251 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
254 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
255 default for GCC since November 2000.
257 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
259 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
260 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
262 * New configure options
264 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
265 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
266 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
267 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
268 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
269 options allow the user to override that default.
270 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
271 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
272 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
274 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
277 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
278 conditions to be attached.
281 List the BFDs known to GDB.
283 python-interactive [command]
285 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
286 and print the result of expressions.
289 "py" is a new alias for "python".
291 enable type-printer [name]...
292 disable type-printer [name]...
293 Enable or disable type printers.
297 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
298 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
303 set print type methods (on|off)
304 show print type methods
305 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
306 The default is to show them.
308 set print type typedefs (on|off)
309 show print type typedefs
310 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
311 The default is to show them.
313 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
314 show filename-display
315 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
316 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
318 set trace-buffer-size
319 show trace-buffer-size
320 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
322 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
323 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
324 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
328 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
331 set debug coff-pe-read
332 show debug coff-pe-read
333 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
338 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
341 set debug notification
342 show debug notification
343 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
347 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
348 "=cmd-param-changed".
349 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
350 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
351 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
352 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
353 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
354 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
355 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
356 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
358 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
359 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
360 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
361 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
362 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
363 library load/unload events.
364 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
365 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
366 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
367 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
368 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
369 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
370 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
371 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
373 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
374 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
375 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
376 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
381 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
382 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
385 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
386 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
390 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
391 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
394 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
395 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
397 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
399 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
400 for more x32 ABI info.
402 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
404 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
406 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
407 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
408 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
409 "info os files" lists file descriptors
410 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
411 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
412 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
413 "info os msg" lists message queues
414 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
416 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
417 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
418 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
419 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
420 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
421 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
423 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
424 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
425 record/replay support.
427 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
431 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
434 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
436 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
437 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
439 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
441 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
442 the source at which the symbol was defined.
444 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
445 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
446 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
449 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
450 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
452 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
453 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
454 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
456 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
457 object associated with a PC value.
459 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
460 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
462 * Go language support.
463 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
466 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
467 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
469 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
470 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
472 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
473 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
474 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
475 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
476 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
479 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
480 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
481 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
484 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
485 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
487 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
490 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
491 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
492 command does. For instance:
494 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
496 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
497 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
498 created, using the "condition" command.
500 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
501 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
503 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
505 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
506 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
507 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
508 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
509 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
510 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
511 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
512 files with older .gdb_index sections.
514 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
515 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
516 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
517 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
518 the .gdb_index section.
520 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
522 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
527 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
529 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
533 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
534 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
535 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
537 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
538 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
540 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
543 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
544 C++ and Java objects.
546 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
547 can be used to reccursively explore values and types of
548 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
549 configured with '--with-python'.
551 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
552 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
553 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
554 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
555 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
556 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
557 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
559 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
560 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
561 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
562 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
564 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
565 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
566 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
567 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
569 ** "set print symbol"
571 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
572 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
573 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
575 * Deprecated commands
577 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
578 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
582 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
583 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
585 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
586 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
587 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
588 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
594 show mips compression
595 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
596 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
599 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
601 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
602 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
603 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
604 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
606 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
610 Disable auto-loading globally.
613 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
615 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
616 show auto-load gdb-scripts
617 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
619 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
620 show auto-load python-scripts
621 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
623 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
624 show auto-load local-gdbinit
625 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
627 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
628 show auto-load libthread-db
629 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
631 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
632 show auto-load scripts-directory
633 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
634 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
635 of the directories listed by this option.
636 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
638 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
639 show auto-load safe-path
640 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
641 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
643 set debug auto-load on|off
645 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
647 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
649 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
650 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
651 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
652 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
654 set dprintf-function <expr>
655 show dprintf-function
656 set dprintf-channel <expr>
658 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
659 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
661 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
662 show disconnected-dprintf
663 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
664 after GDB disconnects.
666 * New configure options
669 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
670 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
671 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
672 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
673 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
675 --with-auto-load-safe-path
676 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
677 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
679 --without-auto-load-safe-path
680 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
685 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
687 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
688 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
689 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
690 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
694 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
695 program without GDB involvement.
697 * New command line options
699 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
700 before loading inferior.
701 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
702 execute it before loading inferior.
704 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
706 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
707 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
708 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
709 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
712 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
713 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
715 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
716 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
717 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
718 target hardware watchpoint.
720 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
721 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
722 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
723 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
727 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
728 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
731 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
732 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
733 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
734 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
735 now "message", which just prints the error message without
738 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
741 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
742 modules library. This module provides functionality for
743 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
744 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
747 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
748 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
749 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
752 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
753 static_block will return the global and static blocks
754 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
755 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
757 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
759 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
762 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
763 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
764 available in the CLI.
766 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
767 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
768 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
771 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
774 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
775 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
776 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
777 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
778 any anonymous fields.
782 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
785 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
786 "=breakpoint-modified".
788 ** New command -ada-task-info.
790 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
791 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
792 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
795 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
796 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
797 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
798 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
799 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
801 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
802 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
804 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
805 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
806 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
807 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
808 use this option to specify where to find it.
810 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
811 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
812 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
813 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
814 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
815 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
816 section in the user manual for more details.
818 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
819 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
820 become available after that.
822 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
824 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
825 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
831 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
832 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
836 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
837 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
838 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
840 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
841 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
842 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
844 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
845 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
846 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
847 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
848 name starts with a hyphen.
850 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
851 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
852 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
853 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
854 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
855 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
856 number of bytes that will be collected.
859 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
860 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
861 setting the variable trace-notes.
864 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
865 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
866 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
869 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
870 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
871 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
872 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
873 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
876 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
877 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
878 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
882 set debug dwarf2-read
883 show debug dwarf2-read
884 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
885 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
887 set debug symtab-create
888 show debug symtab-create
889 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
890 creation. The default is off.
894 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
895 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
896 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
897 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
900 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
901 show print entry-values
902 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
903 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
904 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
906 set debug entry-values
907 show debug entry-values
908 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
909 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
911 set basenames-may-differ
912 show basenames-may-differ
913 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
914 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
915 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
916 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
917 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
918 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
919 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
920 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
926 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
927 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
928 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
929 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
932 show trace-stop-notes
933 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
934 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
935 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
936 started by someone else.
942 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
946 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
950 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
954 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
958 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
961 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
962 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
966 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
970 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
972 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
974 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
976 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
978 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
979 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
980 matches the given regular expression.
982 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
984 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
985 dumping the instruction opcodes.
987 * New command line options
989 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
990 This is mostly for testing purposes.
992 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
993 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
995 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
996 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
997 source path list instead of augmenting it.
999 * GDB now understands thread names.
1001 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
1002 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
1004 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
1005 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
1008 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
1009 has been integrated into GDB.
1013 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
1014 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
1015 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
1017 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1018 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
1019 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
1020 and allows for more dynamic content.
1022 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
1023 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
1024 have an is_valid method.
1026 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1027 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
1028 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
1030 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
1032 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
1033 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
1034 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
1035 that function like so:
1037 result = some_value (10,20)
1039 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
1040 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
1041 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
1043 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
1044 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
1045 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
1046 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
1047 New function: register_pretty_printer.
1049 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
1050 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
1052 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
1054 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
1057 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
1058 holds the thread's name.
1060 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
1061 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
1062 occurring in the process being debugged.
1063 The following events are currently supported:
1064 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
1065 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
1066 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
1070 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
1071 instantiation. For example, if you have:
1073 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
1075 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
1076 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
1077 was added to GCC 4.5.
1079 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
1080 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
1081 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
1082 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
1083 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
1084 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
1086 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
1087 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
1088 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
1089 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
1090 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
1092 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
1093 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
1094 execution to a label.
1096 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
1097 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
1098 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
1099 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
1101 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
1102 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
1103 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
1106 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
1108 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
1109 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
1110 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
1111 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
1112 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
1113 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
1116 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
1118 While now you see this:
1121 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
1123 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
1126 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
1127 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
1128 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
1129 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
1131 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1132 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
1133 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
1134 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1135 section in the user manual for more details.
1137 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1139 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
1140 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
1142 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
1144 * New native configurations
1146 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1150 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
1152 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
1153 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1154 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1155 in the GDB user manual.
1157 * Guile support was removed.
1159 * New features in the GNU simulator
1161 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
1163 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
1165 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
1167 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
1169 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
1170 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
1171 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
1172 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
1173 was always disabled for such configurations.
1177 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
1179 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
1180 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
1190 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
1191 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
1192 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
1194 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
1196 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
1197 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
1198 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
1199 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
1201 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
1202 mentioned flavors of operators.
1204 ** static const class members
1206 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
1207 class definition has been fixed.
1209 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
1211 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
1212 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
1213 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
1214 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
1215 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
1216 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
1218 * Static tracepoints
1220 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
1221 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
1222 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
1223 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
1224 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
1225 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
1226 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
1227 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
1228 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
1229 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
1230 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
1231 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
1232 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
1233 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
1234 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
1235 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
1236 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
1237 the "New remote packets" section below.
1239 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
1241 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
1242 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
1243 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
1244 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
1248 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
1249 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
1250 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
1251 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
1252 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
1253 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
1254 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
1256 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
1259 * New remote packets
1263 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1267 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1268 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1269 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1270 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1271 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1272 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1276 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1280 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1283 qXfer:statictrace:read
1285 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1286 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1287 to gdb's qSupported query.
1291 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1295 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1296 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1298 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1299 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1302 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1304 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1305 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1306 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1307 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1309 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1310 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1311 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1312 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1313 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1314 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1315 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1317 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1318 for static tracepoints support.
1320 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1322 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1323 it understands register description.
1325 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1327 * X86 general purpose registers
1329 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1330 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1331 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1332 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1333 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1335 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
1336 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1337 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1338 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1339 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1340 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
1342 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1343 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1344 in the specified file.
1346 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1347 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1348 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1349 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1350 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1351 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1352 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1353 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1354 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1355 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1359 eval template, expressions...
1360 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1361 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1363 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1364 show target-file-system-kind
1365 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1368 save breakpoints <filename>
1369 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1370 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1371 definitions, use the `source' command.
1373 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1376 info static-tracepoint-markers
1377 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1379 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1380 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1381 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1385 Enable and disable observer mode.
1387 set may-write-registers on|off
1388 set may-write-memory on|off
1389 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1390 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1391 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1392 set may-interrupt on|off
1393 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1394 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1395 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1396 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1397 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1398 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1399 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1401 set record memory-query on|off
1402 show record memory-query
1403 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1404 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1409 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1413 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1414 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1415 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1416 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1417 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1419 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
1420 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1421 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1422 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
1424 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
1425 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1427 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
1429 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
1431 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1433 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1434 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1435 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1437 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1438 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1439 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1440 regular breakpoints.
1444 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1446 * D language support.
1447 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1450 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1451 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1452 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1453 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1454 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1456 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1457 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1458 conditions of the form:
1460 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1462 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1463 interface mentioned above.
1465 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
1469 ** Namespace Support
1471 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1472 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1473 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1474 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1475 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1479 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1480 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1485 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1486 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1490 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
1495 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
1498 * Multi-program debugging.
1500 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1501 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1502 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1503 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1504 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1505 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1506 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1507 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1509 * New tracing features
1511 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1513 ** Trace state variables
1515 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1516 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1517 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1518 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1519 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1520 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1521 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1522 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1523 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1524 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
1528 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1529 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1530 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1531 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1532 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1533 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1534 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1535 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1536 the regular trace command.
1538 ** Disconnected tracing
1540 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1541 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1542 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1543 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1544 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1548 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1549 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1550 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1551 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1552 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1553 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1556 ** Circular trace buffer
1558 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1559 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1560 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1561 not be available for all target agents.
1566 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1567 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1570 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1571 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1574 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1575 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1578 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1579 "set script-extension" (see below).
1581 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1583 record save [<FILENAME>]
1584 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1585 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1587 record restore <FILENAME>
1588 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1589 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1591 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1594 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1595 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1596 inferior has loaded.
1601 maint info program-spaces
1602 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1604 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1605 show remote interrupt-sequence
1606 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1607 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1608 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1609 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1610 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1612 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1613 show remote interrupt-on-connect
1614 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1615 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1618 set remotebreak [on | off]
1620 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1622 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1623 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1626 List trace state variables and their values.
1628 delete tvariable $NAME ...
1629 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1632 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1633 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1635 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1636 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1638 * New expression syntax
1640 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1641 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1645 set follow-exec-mode new|same
1646 show follow-exec-mode
1647 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
1648 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
1649 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
1651 set default-collect EXPR, ...
1652 show default-collect
1653 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
1654 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
1655 such as registers or a critical global variable.
1657 set disconnected-tracing
1658 show disconnected-tracing
1659 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1660 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1663 set circular-trace-buffer
1664 show circular-trace-buffer
1665 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1666 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1667 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1668 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1670 set script-extension off|soft|strict
1671 show script-extension
1672 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1673 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1674 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1675 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1677 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1679 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1680 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1681 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1682 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1683 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1684 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1685 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1688 * Python API Improvements
1690 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1691 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1692 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1694 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1695 `is_base_class' attribute.
1697 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1699 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1700 evaluate an expression.
1702 * New remote packets
1705 Define a trace state variable.
1708 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1711 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1714 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1717 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1721 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1723 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1724 much more reliable. In particular:
1725 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1726 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1727 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1728 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1729 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1730 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1731 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1732 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1733 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1734 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1735 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1736 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1737 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1738 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1739 non-threaded programs.
1741 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1742 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1743 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1746 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
1748 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1749 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1750 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1751 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1752 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1754 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1755 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1756 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1757 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1758 for tracepoint actions.
1760 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1761 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1762 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
1764 * Process record and replay
1766 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1767 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1768 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1771 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1772 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1773 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1776 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1777 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
1780 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1781 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1782 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1783 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1784 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1785 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1786 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1787 the installation instructions for more information.
1789 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1790 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1791 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1792 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1794 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1795 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1797 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1798 now complete on file names.
1800 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1801 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1802 For instance, consider:
1804 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1805 # struct example variable;
1808 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1809 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1811 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1812 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1814 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1815 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1818 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
1819 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1820 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1822 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1823 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1824 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1825 and simulator targets may also provide them.
1827 * New remote packets
1830 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1833 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1834 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1835 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1838 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1839 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1842 Obtains additional operating system information
1846 Read or write additional signal information.
1848 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1850 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1851 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1852 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1854 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
1855 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
1857 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
1858 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1859 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
1861 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1862 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1864 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1866 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1868 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1869 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1871 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
1872 list of section offsets.
1874 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1875 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1876 have also been fixed.
1878 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
1879 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1880 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
1882 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1885 template<typename T> class C { };
1888 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1890 ptype C<char const *>
1891 ptype C<char const*>
1892 ptype C<const char *>
1893 ptype C<const char*>
1895 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1897 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1898 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1900 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1901 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1902 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1904 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1905 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1907 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1910 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1911 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1913 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1914 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1919 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1920 available is determined at configure time.
1922 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1924 * Ada tasking support
1926 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1930 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1932 Print detailed information about task number N.
1934 Print the task number of the current task.
1936 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1938 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1939 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1941 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1943 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1944 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1945 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1946 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1947 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1948 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1951 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1952 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1955 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1956 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1957 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1958 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1961 * Multi-architecture debugging.
1963 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1964 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1965 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1966 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1967 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1969 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1970 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1971 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1972 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1973 --enable-targets configure option.
1975 * Non-stop mode debugging.
1977 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1978 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1979 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1980 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1981 section in the user manual for more information.
1983 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1984 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1985 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1986 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1987 extensions on linux targets.
1989 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1991 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1992 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1993 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1994 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1995 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1996 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1997 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1998 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1999 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
2001 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
2003 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2005 maint set python print-stack
2006 maint show python print-stack
2007 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
2010 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
2015 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
2019 Show operating system information about processes.
2022 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
2025 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
2028 Detach from inferior number NUM.
2031 Kill inferior number NUM.
2035 set spu stop-on-load
2036 show spu stop-on-load
2037 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2039 set spu auto-flush-cache
2040 show spu auto-flush-cache
2041 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
2042 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2044 set sh calling-convention
2045 show sh calling-convention
2046 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
2049 show debug timestamp
2050 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
2052 set disassemble-next-line
2053 show disassemble-next-line
2054 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
2057 set remote noack-packet
2058 show remote noack-packet
2059 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
2060 under "New remote packets."
2062 set remote query-attached-packet
2063 show remote query-attached-packet
2064 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
2066 set remote read-siginfo-object
2067 show remote read-siginfo-object
2068 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
2071 set remote write-siginfo-object
2072 show remote write-siginfo-object
2073 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
2076 set remote reverse-continue
2077 show remote reverse-continue
2078 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
2080 set remote reverse-step
2081 show remote reverse-step
2082 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
2084 set displaced-stepping
2085 show displaced-stepping
2086 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
2087 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
2088 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
2091 show debug displaced
2092 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
2094 maint set internal-error
2095 maint show internal-error
2096 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
2098 maint set internal-warning
2099 maint show internal-warning
2100 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
2105 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2107 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
2108 show multiple-symbols
2109 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
2110 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
2111 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
2113 set breakpoint always-inserted
2114 show breakpoint always-inserted
2115 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
2116 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
2117 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
2119 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2120 show arm fallback-mode
2121 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2123 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
2124 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
2125 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
2126 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
2128 set disable-randomization
2129 show disable-randomization
2130 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
2131 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
2132 multiple debugging sessions.
2136 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
2141 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
2142 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
2143 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
2144 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
2146 set target-wide-charset
2147 show target-wide-charset
2148 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
2149 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
2151 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
2153 set tcp connect-timeout
2154 show tcp connect-timeout
2155 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
2156 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
2157 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
2159 set libthread-db-search-path
2160 show libthread-db-search-path
2161 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
2164 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
2165 show schedule-multiple
2166 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
2167 the current process.
2171 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
2172 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
2173 affecting correctness.
2175 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
2176 show interactive-mode
2177 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
2178 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
2179 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
2180 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
2181 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
2186 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
2187 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
2188 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
2192 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
2193 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
2194 alias for the `fork' command.
2197 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
2198 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
2199 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
2202 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
2203 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
2204 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
2208 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
2209 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
2210 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
2213 * New native configurations
2215 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
2217 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
2221 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
2222 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
2223 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
2226 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
2227 (mingw32ce) debugging.
2233 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
2235 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
2237 * New native configurations
2239 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
2240 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
2244 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
2245 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
2247 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2249 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
2250 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
2251 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
2252 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
2254 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
2255 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
2257 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
2260 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
2261 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
2262 and in inlined functions.
2264 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2265 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2266 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2268 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2270 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2271 registers on PowerPC targets.
2273 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2274 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2276 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2277 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2279 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2280 extended-remote mode.
2282 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
2283 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2284 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2285 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
2287 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2288 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2289 target architectures.
2291 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2292 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2293 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2294 stored in two consecutive float registers.
2296 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2299 * Improved support for debugging Ada
2300 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2302 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2303 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2304 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2305 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2307 - Improved command completion in Ada
2310 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2315 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2316 show print frame-arguments
2317 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2318 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2323 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2330 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2332 * New remote packets
2339 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
2342 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2346 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2348 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
2350 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2351 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2352 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2354 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2355 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2356 -Bsymbolic linker option.
2358 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2359 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2362 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2363 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2365 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
2366 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
2368 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2370 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2371 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2372 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2374 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2375 automatically displayed as character or string data.
2377 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2378 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2381 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2382 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
2383 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
2385 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2388 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2389 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2390 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2392 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2394 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2396 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2397 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2398 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2400 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2401 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2403 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2404 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2405 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2406 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2407 Windows and SymbianOS).
2409 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2410 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
2412 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2413 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
2419 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2420 when debugging using remote targets.
2422 set mem inaccessible-by-default
2423 show mem inaccessible-by-default
2424 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2425 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2426 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2427 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2428 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2430 set breakpoint auto-hw
2431 show breakpoint auto-hw
2432 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2433 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2434 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2435 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2436 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2437 including "next" and "finish".
2440 catch exception unhandled
2441 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2444 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2448 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2449 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2450 an alias to "set sysroot".
2453 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2454 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2457 * New native configurations
2459 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2462 unset tdesc filename
2464 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2465 not query the target for its built-in description.
2469 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
2470 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
2471 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
2473 * New remote packets
2476 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2477 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2479 qXfer:features:read:
2480 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2485 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2486 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2488 qXfer:libraries:read:
2489 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2490 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2491 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2492 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2496 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2504 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2505 i[34567]86-*-netware*
2506 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2507 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2509 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2512 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2513 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2522 * Other removed features
2529 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2536 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2541 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2542 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2547 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2548 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2550 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2552 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2553 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2554 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2555 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2557 MIPS ".pdr" sections
2559 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2560 in debugging information.
2564 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2565 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2567 set mips stack-arg-size
2568 set mips saved-gpreg-size
2570 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2572 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
2577 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
2579 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2580 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2581 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2583 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2584 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2587 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2588 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2590 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2591 stub provides the required support.
2593 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2594 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2599 unset substitute-path
2600 show substitute-path
2601 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2602 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2603 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2604 between compilation and debugging.
2608 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2609 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2610 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2614 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2616 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2617 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2619 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2621 * New remote packets
2624 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2625 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2626 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2627 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2631 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2632 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2634 qXfer:memory-map:read:
2635 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2636 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2641 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2643 * Removed remote packets
2646 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
2647 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
2649 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
2653 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
2655 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2659 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2660 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2662 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2664 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2666 restart <n> Return the program state to a
2667 previously saved state.
2669 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2671 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2673 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2674 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2676 info forks List forks of the user program that
2677 are available to be debugged.
2679 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2680 forks of the user program that are
2681 available to be debugged.
2683 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2684 that are available to be debugged (and
2685 kill the forked process).
2687 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2688 that are available to be debugged (and
2689 allow the process to continue).
2693 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2695 * Improved Windows host support
2697 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2698 native console support, and remote communications using either
2699 network sockets or serial ports.
2701 * Improved Modula-2 language support
2703 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2704 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2705 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2706 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2707 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2708 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2712 The ARM rdi-share module.
2714 The Netware NLM debug server.
2716 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
2718 * New native configurations
2720 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
2721 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2725 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2727 * New command line options
2729 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2730 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2731 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2732 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2733 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2734 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2735 with the --command (-x) option.
2737 * Deprecated commands removed
2739 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2743 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2744 othernames set arm disassembler
2745 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2746 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2747 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2750 * New BSD user-level threads support
2752 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2753 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2756 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2757 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2758 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2760 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2761 are not yet supported.
2763 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2764 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2766 * REMOVED configurations and files
2768 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
2769 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2770 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
2772 * New "set print array-indexes" command
2774 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2775 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2778 * VAX floating point support
2780 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2782 * User-defined command support
2784 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2785 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2786 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2788 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2790 * New command line option
2792 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2795 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2797 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2798 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2799 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2800 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2801 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
2803 * Internationalization
2805 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2806 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2807 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2811 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2812 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2813 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2815 * New native configurations
2817 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2821 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2822 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2824 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2826 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2827 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2828 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2831 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2832 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2833 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2843 powerpc bdm protocol
2845 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2846 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2848 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2850 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2851 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2852 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2853 permanently REMOVED.
2862 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2864 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2866 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2867 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2870 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2872 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2873 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2874 IRIX long double values).
2878 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2879 command. This problem has been fixed.
2881 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
2883 * Fix for ``many threads''
2885 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2886 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2889 ptrace: No such process.
2890 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2892 This problem has been fixed.
2894 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2896 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2899 * New ``start'' command.
2901 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2903 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2905 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2906 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2907 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2909 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2910 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2911 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2912 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2913 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2914 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2915 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2916 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2917 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2919 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
2921 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2922 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2923 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2924 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2925 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2927 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2928 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2929 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
2931 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2933 * New native configurations
2935 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
2936 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
2937 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2938 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
2939 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
2940 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
2941 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
2943 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2945 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2946 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2947 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2948 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2949 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2950 work, was also included.
2952 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2953 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2963 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2964 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2966 * REMOVED configurations and files
2968 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2969 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2970 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2971 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2972 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2973 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2974 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2975 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2976 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2977 sonymips mips-sony-*
2978 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2980 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2982 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2984 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2985 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2986 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2987 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2990 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2992 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2993 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2994 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2995 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2996 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2997 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
3000 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
3002 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
3004 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
3005 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
3006 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
3008 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
3010 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
3011 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
3013 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
3015 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
3016 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
3017 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
3019 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
3021 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
3022 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
3024 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
3026 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
3027 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
3028 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
3030 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
3032 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
3033 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
3034 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
3036 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
3038 * Removed --with-mmalloc
3040 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
3041 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
3043 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
3045 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
3046 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
3047 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
3048 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
3050 * Revised SPARC target
3052 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
3053 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
3054 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
3055 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
3056 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
3060 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
3061 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
3062 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
3065 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3067 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
3068 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
3071 * C++ nested types and namespaces
3073 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
3074 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
3075 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
3076 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
3077 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
3078 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
3079 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
3080 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
3081 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
3083 * New native configurations
3085 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
3086 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3087 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
3088 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3089 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
3091 * New debugging protocols
3093 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
3095 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
3097 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
3098 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
3099 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
3101 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3103 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3104 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3105 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3106 permanently REMOVED.
3108 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3109 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3110 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3111 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3112 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3113 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3114 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3115 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3116 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3117 sonymips mips-sony-*
3118 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3120 * REMOVED configurations and files
3122 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3123 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3124 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3125 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3126 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3127 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3128 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3129 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3130 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
3131 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
3132 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3133 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3134 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
3135 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
3136 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
3137 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3138 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3140 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
3144 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
3145 integrated into GDB.
3147 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
3149 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
3150 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
3151 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
3154 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
3155 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
3156 DWARF 2 CFI support.
3160 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
3161 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
3162 remote protocol documentation for details.
3164 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
3166 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
3167 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
3168 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
3171 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
3173 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
3174 per-thread variables.
3176 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
3178 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
3179 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
3181 * Separate debug info.
3183 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
3184 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
3185 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
3186 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
3187 and optional debug files.
3189 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3191 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
3192 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
3195 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
3196 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
3200 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
3201 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
3202 considered "useable".
3204 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
3206 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
3207 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
3210 * GDB supports logging output to a file
3212 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
3213 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
3215 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
3217 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
3218 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
3221 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
3223 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
3224 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
3228 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
3229 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
3230 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
3231 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
3232 data, for more informative profiling results.
3234 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
3236 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
3237 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
3238 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
3240 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
3243 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
3244 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
3245 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
3246 in a subsequent -var-update.
3248 * New native configurations.
3250 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3252 * Multi-arched targets.
3254 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
3255 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3257 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3259 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3260 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3261 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3262 permanently REMOVED.
3264 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3265 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3266 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3267 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3268 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3269 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3270 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
3271 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3272 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3273 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
3274 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3275 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3277 * REMOVED configurations and files
3280 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3281 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3282 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3283 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3284 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3285 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3287 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3288 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3289 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3290 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3291 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3292 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3294 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
3296 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3297 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3298 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3299 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3300 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3302 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
3304 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3306 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3307 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3308 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3309 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3310 shared libs like mad''.
3312 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
3314 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3315 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3316 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3317 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
3319 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3321 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3322 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3325 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3326 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3328 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3329 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3331 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3332 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3333 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3334 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3336 * Multi-arched targets.
3338 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3339 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
3341 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
3342 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3343 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3347 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3350 * New native configurations
3352 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
3353 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
3354 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
3355 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
3357 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3359 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3360 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3361 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3362 permanently REMOVED.
3364 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3365 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3366 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3367 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3368 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3369 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3370 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3371 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3372 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3373 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3375 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3376 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3378 * OBSOLETE languages
3380 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3382 * REMOVED configurations and files
3384 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3385 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3386 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3387 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3388 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3390 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3392 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3394 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3395 commands. The default is 1024.
3397 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3399 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3401 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3403 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3404 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3405 from a file into memory (restore).
3407 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3409 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3410 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3411 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3413 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3421 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3422 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3423 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3425 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3426 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3427 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3429 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3430 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3431 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3433 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3434 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3435 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3437 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
3439 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3441 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3442 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3443 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3444 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3445 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3446 (notably embedded) targets.
3448 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3450 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3451 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3452 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3453 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
3455 * New command line option
3457 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3459 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3461 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3462 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3463 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3464 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3465 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3466 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3467 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3468 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3469 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3470 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3472 * Changes in ARM configurations.
3474 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3475 configuration is fully multi-arch.
3477 * New native configurations
3479 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
3480 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
3481 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
3482 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
3486 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3488 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3490 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3491 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3492 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3493 permanently REMOVED.
3495 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3496 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3497 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3498 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3499 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3501 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3503 * REMOVED configurations and files
3505 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3507 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3508 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3509 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3510 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3511 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3512 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3513 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3514 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3515 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3516 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3517 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
3519 * Changes to command line processing
3521 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3522 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3524 * Changes to key bindings
3526 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3528 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3530 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3532 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3535 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3537 Numerous documentation fixes.
3539 Numerous testsuite fixes.
3541 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
3543 * New native configurations
3545 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3546 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
3547 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
3548 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3549 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
3550 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
3554 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
3556 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
3558 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3560 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
3561 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3562 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3563 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3564 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3566 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3567 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3568 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3569 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3570 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3571 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3572 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3573 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
3575 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3576 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3578 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3579 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3580 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3581 permanently REMOVED.
3583 * REMOVED configurations and files
3585 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3586 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3588 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3592 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
3594 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
3595 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3600 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3602 * The MI enabled by default.
3604 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3605 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3606 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3607 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3608 which is now deprecated.
3610 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3612 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3613 main features are supported:
3615 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3617 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3620 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3622 - a Pascal expression parser.
3624 However, some important features are not yet supported.
3626 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3628 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3630 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3631 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3633 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3635 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3637 * Changes in completion.
3639 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3640 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3641 users expect at the shell prompt.
3643 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3644 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3645 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
3646 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
3647 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
3648 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
3649 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
3651 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
3653 * New platform-independent commands:
3655 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
3656 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
3657 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
3659 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3661 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3662 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3663 many threads as your system allows you to have.
3665 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3667 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3668 multi-threaded programs though.
3670 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
3672 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3674 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3675 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3678 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3680 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3681 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3682 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3683 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3684 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3687 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3688 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3689 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3691 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3693 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3694 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3696 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3697 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3700 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3701 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3702 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3703 a given linear address.
3705 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3706 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3707 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3709 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3711 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3713 * Changes in documentation.
3715 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3716 Documentation License.
3718 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3721 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3723 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3726 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3727 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3728 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3730 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3732 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3733 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3734 contents of this file.
3738 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
3740 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
3742 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3744 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3745 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3746 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3747 greater level of detail.
3749 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3751 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3752 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3753 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3756 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3758 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3759 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3760 machines ``out of the box''.
3762 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3763 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3764 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3765 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3766 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3768 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3769 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3770 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3771 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3772 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3774 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3775 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3778 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3781 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3782 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3783 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3784 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3786 * New native configurations
3788 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
3789 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3793 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
3794 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3795 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
3796 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3798 * OBSOLETE configurations
3800 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3801 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3803 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3806 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3807 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3808 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3809 be permanently REMOVED.
3811 * Gould support removed
3813 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3815 * New features for SVR4
3817 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3818 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3819 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3821 * Many C++ enhancements
3823 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3824 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3826 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3828 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3829 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3830 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3831 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3833 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3834 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3836 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
3838 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3839 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3840 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3842 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3843 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3845 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3847 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3848 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3849 include ``set remote P-packet''.
3851 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3853 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3854 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3855 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3857 * ``apropos'' command added.
3859 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3860 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3861 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3865 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3866 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
3867 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3868 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3869 enabled by configuring with:
3871 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3873 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3875 * New native configurations
3877 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3878 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
3879 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
3883 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3884 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3885 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3887 * OBSOLETE configurations
3889 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3891 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3892 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3893 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3894 be permanently REMOVED.
3898 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3899 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3900 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3901 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3902 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3903 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3904 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3909 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3911 * set extension-language
3913 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3914 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3915 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3916 set extension-language .c c++
3917 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3918 and their associated languages.
3920 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3922 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3923 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3924 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3928 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3929 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3931 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3932 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3934 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3935 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3936 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3937 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3938 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3939 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3940 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3941 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3943 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3944 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3945 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3946 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3950 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3951 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3952 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3953 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3954 for xdb and dbx commands.
3958 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3959 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3960 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3962 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3963 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3964 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3966 * Debugging across forks
3968 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3973 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3974 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3975 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3977 * GDB remote protocol additions
3979 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3980 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3981 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3982 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3984 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3985 full 64-bit address. The command
3987 set remoteaddresssize 32
3989 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3990 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3993 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3994 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3996 maint packet heythere
3998 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3999 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
4002 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
4003 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
4004 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
4006 * Tracing can collect general expressions
4008 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
4009 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
4010 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
4012 * mask-address variable for Mips
4014 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
4015 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
4016 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
4018 * Higher serial baud rates
4020 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
4021 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
4022 to achieve all of these rates.)
4026 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
4027 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
4030 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
4032 * New native configurations
4034 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
4035 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
4036 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4037 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4038 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4039 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
4040 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
4044 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4045 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
4046 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4047 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
4048 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
4049 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
4050 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
4051 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
4052 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4053 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4054 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
4056 * New debugging protocols
4058 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
4059 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
4060 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
4061 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4062 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4063 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4067 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
4068 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
4073 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
4074 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
4076 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
4078 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
4079 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
4080 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
4082 * Live range splitting
4084 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
4085 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
4086 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
4090 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
4091 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
4095 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
4096 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
4097 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
4102 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
4107 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
4108 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
4109 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
4110 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
4111 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
4112 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
4116 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
4117 the symbol at the specified address.
4121 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
4122 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
4123 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
4124 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
4125 file tracepoint.c for more details.
4129 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
4130 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
4131 of most MIPS variants.
4135 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
4136 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
4137 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
4141 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
4142 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
4143 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
4144 the possible architectures.
4146 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
4148 * New native configurations
4150 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
4151 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
4152 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
4153 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
4154 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4155 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
4159 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
4160 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4161 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
4162 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
4163 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
4165 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4169 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
4170 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
4171 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
4172 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
4173 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
4177 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
4179 * Windows 95/NT native
4181 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
4182 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
4183 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
4184 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
4185 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
4187 * dont-repeat command
4189 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
4190 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
4191 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
4192 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
4194 * Send break instead of ^C
4196 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
4197 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
4198 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
4200 * Remote protocol timeout
4202 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
4203 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
4204 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
4206 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
4208 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
4209 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
4210 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
4211 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
4212 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
4214 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
4215 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
4216 automatically on hpux10.
4218 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
4220 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
4222 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
4224 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
4225 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
4226 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
4227 every character. The default value is 1050.
4229 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
4231 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
4232 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
4233 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
4234 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
4235 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
4236 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
4238 * Speedups for remote debugging
4240 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
4241 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
4242 and more efficient S-record downloading.
4244 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
4246 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
4247 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
4249 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
4251 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
4253 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
4254 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
4256 * Remote targets use caching
4258 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
4259 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
4260 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
4261 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
4262 off' turns the the data cache off.
4264 * Remote targets may have threads
4266 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4267 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4268 gdb/remote.c for details.
4272 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4273 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4274 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4275 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4276 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4277 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4278 sequence is something like
4280 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4282 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4286 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4287 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4288 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4289 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4290 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4291 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4292 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4293 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4297 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4298 but does simplify configuration and building.
4302 GDB now supports hpux10.
4304 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4306 * New native configurations
4308 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4309 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4310 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4311 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4315 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4316 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4317 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4318 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4321 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4323 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4324 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4325 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4326 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4327 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4329 * Arguments to user-defined commands
4331 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4332 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4335 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4337 To execute the command use:
4340 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4341 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4342 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4344 * New `if' and `while' commands
4346 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4347 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4348 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4349 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4350 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4351 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4352 if the expression is zero.
4354 * Fortran source language mode
4356 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4357 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4358 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4359 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4362 * Better HPUX support
4364 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4365 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4366 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4367 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4368 that behavior do the following before running the program:
4374 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4375 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4381 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4382 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4385 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4386 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4388 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4390 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4391 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4392 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4393 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4394 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4395 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4397 * New DOS host serial code
4399 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4400 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4403 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4405 * New "complete" command
4407 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4408 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4410 * Trailing space optional in prompt
4412 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4413 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4415 * Breakpoint hit counts
4417 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4418 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4419 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4420 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4421 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4424 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4426 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4427 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4428 arrays actually contain only short strings.
4430 * Shared library breakpoints
4432 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4433 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4435 * Hardware watchpoints
4437 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4438 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4440 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
4444 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4445 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4447 * Improved Irix 5 support
4449 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4451 * Improved HPPA support
4453 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4455 * New native configurations
4457 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4458 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4459 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4460 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4464 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4465 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4468 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4470 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4471 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4475 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4476 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4478 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4480 * Irix 5 is now supported
4484 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4485 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4486 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4487 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4488 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4491 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4493 * User visible changes:
4497 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4498 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4499 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4500 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4501 debugging info for the mips target).
4503 * DEC Alpha native support
4505 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4506 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4507 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4508 Alpha-specific notes.
4510 * Preliminary thread implementation
4512 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4514 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
4516 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4517 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4520 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4522 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4523 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4524 call methods, ...etc.
4526 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4528 * User visible changes:
4530 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4531 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4532 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4533 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4535 Filename completion now works.
4537 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4538 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4539 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4541 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4542 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4543 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4544 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4545 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4549 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4550 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4553 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4557 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4558 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4559 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4563 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4564 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4565 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4566 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4567 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4571 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4572 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4573 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4575 * New targets supported
4577 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4578 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4579 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4580 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4581 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4583 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4584 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4585 GO32 memory extender.
4587 * New remote protocols
4589 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4591 * New source languages supported
4593 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4594 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4595 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4598 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4600 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4602 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4603 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4604 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4605 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4606 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4607 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4609 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4611 * Faster and better demangling
4613 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4614 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4615 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4616 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4617 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4618 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4621 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4622 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4623 compiler does not actually implement.
4625 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4627 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4628 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4629 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4630 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4631 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4632 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4635 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4636 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4638 * Improved configure script
4640 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4641 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4642 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4643 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4645 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
4646 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
4647 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
4648 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
4649 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
4650 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
4652 * Documentation improvements
4654 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
4655 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
4656 before submitting changes.
4658 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4659 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4660 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4661 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4662 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4664 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4665 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4666 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4667 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4668 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4669 around this problem.
4673 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4674 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4675 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4678 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4679 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4681 * New native hosts supported
4683 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4684 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4686 * New targets supported
4688 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4690 * New file formats supported
4692 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4693 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4697 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4699 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4700 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4702 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4703 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4704 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4706 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4707 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4709 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4710 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4711 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4714 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4715 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4716 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4717 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4718 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4720 * Internal improvements
4722 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4723 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4725 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4726 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4727 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4728 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4729 shared code that handles any of them.
4731 * New command line options
4733 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4737 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4738 General Public License.
4740 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4742 * Host/native/target split
4744 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4745 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4746 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4747 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4748 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4750 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4751 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4752 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4753 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4754 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4755 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4756 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4758 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4759 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4760 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4762 * New hosts supported
4764 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4765 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4766 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4768 * New targets supported
4770 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4771 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4773 * New native hosts supported
4775 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4776 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4777 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4779 * New file formats supported
4781 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4782 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4783 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4787 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4788 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4789 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4791 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4793 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4794 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4795 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4796 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4800 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4801 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4802 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4804 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4808 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4809 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4812 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4813 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4815 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4816 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4817 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4818 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4819 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4820 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4822 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4823 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4824 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4825 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4829 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4830 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4831 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4832 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4833 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4835 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4836 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4837 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4838 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4842 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4843 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4844 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4845 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4846 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4847 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4848 each instruction being stepped through.
4850 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4851 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4853 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4854 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4855 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4856 processor with a serial port.
4860 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4861 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4862 supported, and what files each one uses.
4866 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4867 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4868 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4869 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4871 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4872 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4873 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4874 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4878 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4879 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4880 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4881 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4882 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4883 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4885 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4888 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4890 * Better support for C++ function names
4892 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4893 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4894 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4895 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4896 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4898 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4899 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4900 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4901 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4902 for the list of formats.
4904 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4906 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4907 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4908 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4909 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4910 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4911 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4914 * New 'maintenance' command
4916 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4917 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4918 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4920 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4921 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4922 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4923 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4924 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4925 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4927 The following commands are new:
4929 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4930 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4931 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4933 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4935 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4936 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4937 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4938 read after argv processing.
4940 * New hosts supported
4942 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4944 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
4946 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4947 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4948 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4949 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4950 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4953 * New targets supported
4955 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4957 * More smarts about finding #include files
4959 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4960 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4961 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4962 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4963 the one that contains your sources.
4965 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4966 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4967 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4969 * Interesting infernals change
4971 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4972 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4973 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4974 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4976 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4978 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4979 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4980 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4982 See the ChangeLog for details.
4984 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4986 * New machines supported (host and target)
4988 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4990 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4992 * New malloc package
4994 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4995 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4996 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4997 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4998 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4999 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
5003 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
5004 'help info proc' for details.
5006 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
5008 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
5009 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
5012 * File name changes for MS-DOS
5014 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
5015 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
5016 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
5017 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
5018 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
5019 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
5021 * Cross byte order fixes
5023 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
5024 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
5026 * New -mapped and -readnow options
5028 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
5029 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
5030 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
5031 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
5032 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
5033 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
5034 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
5035 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
5036 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
5037 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
5039 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
5040 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
5041 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
5042 slower, but makes future operations faster.
5044 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
5045 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
5046 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
5049 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
5051 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
5052 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
5053 shared across multiple host platforms.
5055 * longjmp() handling
5057 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
5058 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
5059 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
5060 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
5064 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
5065 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
5070 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
5071 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
5072 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
5074 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
5076 * New machines supported (host and target)
5078 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5080 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
5081 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
5083 * New machines supported (target)
5085 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5089 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
5090 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
5091 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
5093 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
5094 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
5095 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
5096 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
5097 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
5100 * New features for SVR4
5102 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
5103 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
5104 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
5106 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
5107 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
5108 it prints the address mappings of the process.
5110 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
5111 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
5113 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
5115 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
5116 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
5117 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
5118 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
5119 same code linked statically.
5123 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
5124 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
5125 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
5126 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
5127 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
5128 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
5132 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5133 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5134 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5137 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
5139 * New machines supported (host and target)
5141 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
5142 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
5143 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5145 * Almost SCO Unix support
5147 We had hoped to support:
5148 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5149 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
5150 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
5151 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
5153 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
5155 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
5156 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
5157 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
5158 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
5163 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
5164 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
5165 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
5169 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5170 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5171 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5173 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
5175 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
5176 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
5177 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
5179 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
5180 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
5181 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
5182 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
5185 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
5186 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
5187 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
5188 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
5191 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
5192 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
5195 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
5196 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
5197 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
5200 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
5202 * Improved configuration
5204 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
5205 Porting BFD is simpler.
5209 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
5210 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
5211 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
5212 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
5216 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
5218 * New host supported (not target)
5220 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
5223 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
5225 * Multiple source language support
5227 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
5228 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
5229 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
5230 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
5231 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
5232 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
5236 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
5237 currently under development at the State University of New York at
5238 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
5239 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
5241 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
5242 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
5243 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
5245 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
5246 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
5250 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
5251 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
5252 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
5253 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
5256 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
5258 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
5259 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
5260 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
5261 examining core files.
5265 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5268 * New machines supported (host and target)
5270 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5271 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5272 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5274 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5276 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5278 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5280 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5281 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5282 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5284 * New remote interfaces
5290 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5294 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5296 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5297 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5298 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5299 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5300 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5301 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5302 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5303 stub on the target system.
5305 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5307 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5308 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5309 object file types such as a.out and coff.
5311 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5312 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5315 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5317 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5318 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5320 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5321 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5322 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5324 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5325 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5326 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5327 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5329 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5330 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5331 it is already running. Default is ON.
5333 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5334 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5335 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5336 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5339 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5340 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5341 or the value of the environment variable
5344 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5345 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5348 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5349 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5350 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5352 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5353 history expansion will be performed on
5354 command line input. The default is OFF.
5356 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5357 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5358 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5360 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5361 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5362 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5365 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5366 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5367 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5370 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5371 ``set width'' instead.
5373 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5374 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5375 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5376 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5378 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5381 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5384 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5387 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5390 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5392 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5393 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5394 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5398 * Support for Shared Libraries
5400 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5401 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5402 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5403 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5404 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5405 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5406 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5407 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5409 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5410 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5411 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5413 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5418 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5419 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5420 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5421 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5422 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5423 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5425 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5427 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5429 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5430 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5431 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5434 * C++ multiple inheritance
5436 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5439 * C++ exception handling
5441 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5442 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5443 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5446 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5447 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5448 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5450 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5451 current stack frame.
5454 * Minor command changes
5456 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5457 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5458 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5460 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5461 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5462 frames without printing.
5464 * New directory command
5466 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5467 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5468 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5469 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5470 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5472 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5474 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5477 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5478 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5479 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5480 where the program that you are debugging will run.