1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 5.3:
6 * d10v `regs' command deprecated
8 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
9 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
13 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
14 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
15 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
16 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
17 data, for more informative profiling results.
19 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
21 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
22 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
23 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
25 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
28 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
29 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
30 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
31 in a subsequent -var-update.
33 * Multi-arched targets.
35 HP/PA HPUX11, 32bit ABI (partial) hppa*-*-hpux* except hppa*64*-*-hpux11*
37 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
39 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
40 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
41 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
44 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
45 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
46 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
47 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
48 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
49 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
50 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
51 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
52 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
53 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
54 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
55 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
56 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
58 * REMOVED configurations and files
61 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
62 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
63 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
64 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
65 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
66 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
68 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
69 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
70 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
71 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
72 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
73 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
75 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
77 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
78 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
79 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
80 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
81 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
83 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
85 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
87 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
88 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
89 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
90 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
91 shared libs like mad''.
93 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
95 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
96 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
97 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
98 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
100 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
102 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
103 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
106 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
107 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
109 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
110 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
112 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
113 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
114 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
115 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
117 * Multi-arched targets.
119 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
120 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
122 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
123 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
124 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
128 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
131 * New native configurations
133 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
134 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
135 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
136 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
138 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
140 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
141 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
142 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
145 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
146 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
147 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
148 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
149 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
150 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
151 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
152 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
153 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
154 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
156 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
157 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
161 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
163 * REMOVED configurations and files
165 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
166 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
167 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
168 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
169 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
171 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
173 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
175 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
176 commands. The default is 1024.
178 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
180 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
182 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
184 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
185 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
186 from a file into memory (restore).
188 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
190 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
191 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
192 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
194 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
202 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
203 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
204 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
206 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
207 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
208 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
210 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
211 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
212 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
214 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
215 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
216 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
218 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
220 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
222 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
223 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
224 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
225 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
226 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
227 (notably embedded) targets.
229 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
231 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
232 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
233 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
234 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
236 * New command line option
238 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
240 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
242 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
243 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
244 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
245 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
246 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
247 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
248 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
249 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
250 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
251 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
253 * Changes in ARM configurations.
255 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
256 configuration is fully multi-arch.
258 * New native configurations
260 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
261 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
262 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
263 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
267 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
269 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
271 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
272 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
273 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
276 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
277 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
278 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
279 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
280 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
282 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
284 * REMOVED configurations and files
286 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
288 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
289 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
290 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
291 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
292 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
293 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
294 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
295 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
296 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
297 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
298 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
300 * Changes to command line processing
302 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
303 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
305 * Changes to key bindings
307 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
309 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
311 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
313 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
316 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
318 Numerous documentation fixes.
320 Numerous testsuite fixes.
322 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
324 * New native configurations
326 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
327 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
328 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
329 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
331 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
335 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
337 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
339 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
341 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
342 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
343 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
344 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
345 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
347 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
348 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
349 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
350 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
351 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
352 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
353 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
354 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
356 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
357 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
359 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
360 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
361 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
364 * REMOVED configurations and files
366 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
367 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
369 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
373 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
375 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
376 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
381 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
383 * The MI enabled by default.
385 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
386 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
387 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
388 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
389 which is now deprecated.
391 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
393 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
394 main features are supported:
396 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
398 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
401 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
403 - a Pascal expression parser.
405 However, some important features are not yet supported.
407 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
409 - there are some problems with boolean types;
411 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
412 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
414 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
416 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
418 * Changes in completion.
420 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
421 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
422 users expect at the shell prompt.
424 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
425 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
426 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
427 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
428 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
429 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
430 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
432 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
434 * New platform-independent commands:
436 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
437 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
438 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
440 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
442 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
443 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
444 many threads as your system allows you to have.
446 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
448 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
449 multi-threaded programs though.
451 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
453 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
455 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
456 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
459 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
461 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
462 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
463 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
464 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
465 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
468 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
469 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
470 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
472 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
474 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
475 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
477 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
478 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
481 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
482 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
483 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
484 a given linear address.
486 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
487 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
488 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
490 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
492 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
494 * Changes in documentation.
496 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
497 Documentation License.
499 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
502 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
504 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
507 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
508 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
509 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
511 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
513 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
514 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
515 contents of this file.
519 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
521 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
523 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
525 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
526 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
527 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
528 greater level of detail.
530 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
532 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
533 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
534 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
537 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
539 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
540 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
541 machines ``out of the box''.
543 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
544 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
545 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
546 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
547 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
549 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
550 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
551 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
552 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
553 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
555 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
556 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
559 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
562 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
563 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
564 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
565 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
567 * New native configurations
569 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
570 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
574 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
575 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
576 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
577 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
579 * OBSOLETE configurations
581 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
582 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
584 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
587 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
588 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
589 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
590 be permanently REMOVED.
592 * Gould support removed
594 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
596 * New features for SVR4
598 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
599 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
600 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
602 * Many C++ enhancements
604 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
605 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
607 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
609 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
610 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
611 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
612 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
614 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
615 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
617 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
619 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
620 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
621 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
623 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
624 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
626 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
628 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
629 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
630 include ``set remote P-packet''.
632 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
634 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
635 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
636 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
638 * ``apropos'' command added.
640 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
641 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
642 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
646 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
647 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
648 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
649 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
650 enabled by configuring with:
652 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
654 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
656 * New native configurations
658 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
659 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
660 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
664 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
665 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
666 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
668 * OBSOLETE configurations
670 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
672 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
673 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
674 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
675 be permanently REMOVED.
679 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
680 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
681 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
682 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
683 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
685 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
690 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
692 * set extension-language
694 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
695 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
696 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
697 set extension-language .c c++
698 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
699 and their associated languages.
701 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
703 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
704 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
705 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
709 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
710 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
712 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
713 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
715 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
716 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
717 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
718 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
719 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
720 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
721 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
722 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
724 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
725 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
726 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
727 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
731 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
732 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
733 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
734 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
735 for xdb and dbx commands.
739 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
740 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
741 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
743 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
744 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
745 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
747 * Debugging across forks
749 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
754 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
755 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
756 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
758 * GDB remote protocol additions
760 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
761 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
762 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
763 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
765 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
766 full 64-bit address. The command
768 set remoteaddresssize 32
770 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
771 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
774 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
775 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
777 maint packet heythere
779 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
780 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
783 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
784 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
785 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
787 * Tracing can collect general expressions
789 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
790 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
791 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
793 * mask-address variable for Mips
795 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
796 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
797 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
799 * Higher serial baud rates
801 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
802 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
803 to achieve all of these rates.)
807 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
808 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
811 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
813 * New native configurations
815 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
816 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
817 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
818 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
819 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
820 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
821 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
825 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
826 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
827 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
828 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
829 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
830 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
831 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
832 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
833 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
834 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
835 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
837 * New debugging protocols
839 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
840 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
841 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
842 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
843 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
844 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
848 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
849 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
854 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
855 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
857 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
859 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
860 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
861 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
863 * Live range splitting
865 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
866 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
867 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
871 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
872 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
876 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
877 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
878 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
883 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
888 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
889 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
890 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
891 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
892 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
893 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
897 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
898 the symbol at the specified address.
902 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
903 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
904 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
905 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
906 file tracepoint.c for more details.
910 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
911 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
912 of most MIPS variants.
916 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
917 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
918 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
922 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
923 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
924 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
925 the possible architectures.
927 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
929 * New native configurations
931 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
932 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
933 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
934 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
935 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
936 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
940 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
941 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
942 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
943 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
944 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
946 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
950 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
951 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
952 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
953 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
954 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
958 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
960 * Windows 95/NT native
962 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
963 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
964 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
965 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
966 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
968 * dont-repeat command
970 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
971 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
972 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
973 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
975 * Send break instead of ^C
977 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
978 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
979 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
981 * Remote protocol timeout
983 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
984 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
985 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
987 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
989 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
990 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
991 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
992 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
993 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
995 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
996 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
997 automatically on hpux10.
999 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1001 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1003 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1005 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1006 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1007 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1008 every character. The default value is 1050.
1010 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1012 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1013 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1014 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1015 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1016 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1017 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1019 * Speedups for remote debugging
1021 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1022 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1023 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1025 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1027 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1028 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1030 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1032 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1034 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1035 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1037 * Remote targets use caching
1039 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1040 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1041 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1042 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1043 off' turns the the data cache off.
1045 * Remote targets may have threads
1047 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1048 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1049 gdb/remote.c for details.
1053 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1054 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1055 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1056 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1057 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1058 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1059 sequence is something like
1061 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1063 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1067 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1068 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1069 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1070 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1071 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1072 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1073 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1074 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1078 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1079 but does simplify configuration and building.
1083 GDB now supports hpux10.
1085 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1087 * New native configurations
1089 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1090 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1091 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1092 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1096 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1097 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1098 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1099 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1102 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1104 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1105 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1106 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1107 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1108 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1110 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1112 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1113 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1116 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1118 To execute the command use:
1121 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1122 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1123 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1125 * New `if' and `while' commands
1127 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1128 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1129 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1130 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1131 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1132 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1133 if the expression is zero.
1135 * Fortran source language mode
1137 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1138 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1139 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1140 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1143 * Better HPUX support
1145 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1146 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1147 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1148 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1149 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1155 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1156 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1162 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1163 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1166 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1167 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1169 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1171 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1172 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1173 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1174 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1175 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1176 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1178 * New DOS host serial code
1180 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1181 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1184 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1186 * New "complete" command
1188 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1189 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1191 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1193 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1194 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1196 * Breakpoint hit counts
1198 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1199 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1200 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1201 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1202 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1205 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1207 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1208 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1209 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1211 * Shared library breakpoints
1213 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1214 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1216 * Hardware watchpoints
1218 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1219 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1221 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1225 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1226 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1228 * Improved Irix 5 support
1230 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1232 * Improved HPPA support
1234 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1236 * New native configurations
1238 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1239 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1240 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1241 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1245 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1246 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1249 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1251 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1252 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1256 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1257 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1259 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1261 * Irix 5 is now supported
1265 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1266 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1267 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1268 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1269 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1272 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1274 * User visible changes:
1278 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1279 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1280 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1281 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1282 debugging info for the mips target).
1284 * DEC Alpha native support
1286 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1287 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1288 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1289 Alpha-specific notes.
1291 * Preliminary thread implementation
1293 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1295 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1297 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1298 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1301 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1303 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1304 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1305 call methods, ...etc.
1307 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1309 * User visible changes:
1311 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1312 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1313 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1314 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1316 Filename completion now works.
1318 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1319 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1320 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1322 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1323 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1324 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1325 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1326 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1330 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1331 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1334 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1338 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1339 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1340 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1344 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1345 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1346 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1347 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1348 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1352 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1353 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1354 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1356 * New targets supported
1358 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1359 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1360 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1361 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1362 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1364 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1365 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1366 GO32 memory extender.
1368 * New remote protocols
1370 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1372 * New source languages supported
1374 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1375 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1376 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1379 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1381 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1383 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1384 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1385 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1386 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1387 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1388 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1390 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1392 * Faster and better demangling
1394 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1395 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1396 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1397 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1398 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1399 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1402 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1403 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1404 compiler does not actually implement.
1406 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1408 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1409 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1410 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1411 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1412 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1413 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1416 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1417 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1419 * Improved configure script
1421 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1422 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1423 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1424 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1426 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1427 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1428 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1429 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1430 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1431 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1433 * Documentation improvements
1435 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1436 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1437 before submitting changes.
1439 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1440 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1441 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1442 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1443 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1445 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1446 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1447 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1448 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1449 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1450 around this problem.
1454 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1455 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1456 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1459 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1460 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1462 * New native hosts supported
1464 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1465 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1467 * New targets supported
1469 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1471 * New file formats supported
1473 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1474 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1478 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1480 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1481 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1483 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1484 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1485 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1487 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1488 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1490 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1491 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1492 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1495 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1496 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1497 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1498 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1499 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1501 * Internal improvements
1503 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1504 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1506 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1507 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1508 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1509 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1510 shared code that handles any of them.
1512 * New command line options
1514 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1518 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1519 General Public License.
1521 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1523 * Host/native/target split
1525 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1526 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1527 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1528 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1529 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1531 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1532 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1533 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1534 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1535 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1536 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1537 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1539 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1540 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1541 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1543 * New hosts supported
1545 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1546 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1547 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1549 * New targets supported
1551 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1552 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1554 * New native hosts supported
1556 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1557 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1558 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1560 * New file formats supported
1562 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1563 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1564 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1568 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1569 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1570 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1572 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1574 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1575 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1576 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1577 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1581 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1582 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1583 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1585 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1589 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1590 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1593 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1594 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1596 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1597 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1598 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1599 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1600 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1601 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1603 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1604 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1605 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1606 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1610 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1611 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1612 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1613 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1614 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1616 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1617 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1618 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1619 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1623 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1624 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1625 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1626 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1627 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1628 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1629 each instruction being stepped through.
1631 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1632 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1634 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1635 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1636 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1637 processor with a serial port.
1641 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1642 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1643 supported, and what files each one uses.
1647 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1648 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1649 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1650 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1652 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1653 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1654 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1655 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1659 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1660 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1661 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1662 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1663 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1666 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1669 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1671 * Better support for C++ function names
1673 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1674 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1675 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1676 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1677 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1679 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1680 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1681 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1682 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1683 for the list of formats.
1685 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1687 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1688 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1689 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1690 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1691 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1692 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1695 * New 'maintenance' command
1697 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1698 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1699 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1701 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1702 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1703 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1704 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1705 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1706 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1708 The following commands are new:
1710 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1711 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1712 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1714 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1716 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1717 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1718 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1719 read after argv processing.
1721 * New hosts supported
1723 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1725 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1727 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1728 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1729 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1730 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1731 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1734 * New targets supported
1736 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1738 * More smarts about finding #include files
1740 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1741 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1742 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1743 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1744 the one that contains your sources.
1746 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1747 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1748 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1750 * Interesting infernals change
1752 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1753 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1754 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1755 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1757 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1759 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1760 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1761 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1763 See the ChangeLog for details.
1765 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1767 * New machines supported (host and target)
1769 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1771 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1773 * New malloc package
1775 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1776 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1777 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1778 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1779 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1780 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1784 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1785 'help info proc' for details.
1787 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1789 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1790 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1793 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1795 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1796 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1797 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1798 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1799 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1800 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1802 * Cross byte order fixes
1804 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1805 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1807 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1809 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1810 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1811 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1812 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1813 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1814 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1815 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1816 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1817 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1818 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1820 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1821 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1822 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1823 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1825 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1826 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1827 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1830 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1832 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1833 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1834 shared across multiple host platforms.
1836 * longjmp() handling
1838 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1839 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1840 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1841 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1845 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1846 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1851 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1852 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1853 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1855 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1857 * New machines supported (host and target)
1859 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1861 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1862 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1864 * New machines supported (target)
1866 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1870 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1871 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1872 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1874 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1875 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1876 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1877 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1878 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1881 * New features for SVR4
1883 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1884 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1885 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1887 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1888 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1889 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1891 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1894 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1896 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1897 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1898 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1899 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1900 same code linked statically.
1904 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1905 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1906 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1907 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1908 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1909 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1913 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1914 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1915 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1918 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1920 * New machines supported (host and target)
1922 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1923 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1924 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1926 * Almost SCO Unix support
1928 We had hoped to support:
1929 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1930 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1931 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1932 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1934 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1936 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1937 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1938 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1944 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1945 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1946 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1950 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1951 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1952 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1954 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1956 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1957 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1958 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1960 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1961 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1962 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1963 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1966 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1967 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1968 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1969 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1972 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1973 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1976 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1977 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1978 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1981 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1983 * Improved configuration
1985 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1986 Porting BFD is simpler.
1990 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1991 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1992 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1993 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1997 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1999 * New host supported (not target)
2001 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2004 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2006 * Multiple source language support
2008 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2009 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2010 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2011 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2012 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2013 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2017 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2018 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2019 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2020 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2022 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2023 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2024 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2026 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2027 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2031 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2032 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2033 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2034 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2037 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2039 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2040 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2041 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2042 examining core files.
2046 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2049 * New machines supported (host and target)
2051 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2052 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2053 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2055 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2057 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2059 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2061 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2062 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2063 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2065 * New remote interfaces
2071 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2075 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2077 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2078 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2079 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2080 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2081 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2082 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2083 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2084 stub on the target system.
2086 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2088 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2089 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2090 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2092 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2093 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2096 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2098 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2099 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2101 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2102 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2103 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2105 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2106 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2107 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2108 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2110 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2111 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2112 it is already running. Default is ON.
2114 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2115 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2116 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2117 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2120 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2121 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2122 or the value of the environment variable
2125 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2126 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2129 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2130 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2131 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2133 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2134 history expansion will be performed on
2135 command line input. The default is OFF.
2137 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2138 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2139 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2141 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2142 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2143 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2146 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2147 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2148 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2151 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2152 ``set width'' instead.
2154 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2155 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2156 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2157 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2159 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2162 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2165 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2168 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2171 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2173 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2174 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2175 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2179 * Support for Shared Libraries
2181 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2182 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2183 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2184 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2185 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2186 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2187 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2188 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2190 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2191 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2192 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2194 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2199 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2200 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2201 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2202 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2203 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2204 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2206 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2208 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2210 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2211 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2212 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2215 * C++ multiple inheritance
2217 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2220 * C++ exception handling
2222 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2223 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2224 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2227 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2228 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2229 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2231 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2232 current stack frame.
2235 * Minor command changes
2237 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2238 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2239 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2241 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2242 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2243 frames without printing.
2245 * New directory command
2247 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2248 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2249 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2250 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2251 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2253 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2255 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2258 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2259 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2260 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2261 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / binutils.git / blob