1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
6 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
7 now complete on file names.
9 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
10 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
11 For instance, consider:
13 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
14 # struct example variable;
17 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
18 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
23 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
25 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
27 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
28 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
29 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
31 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
34 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
35 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
37 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
38 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
39 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
41 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
42 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
44 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
46 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
47 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
49 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
50 list of section offsets.
52 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
53 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
56 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
58 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
59 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
61 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
62 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
63 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
67 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
68 available is determined at configure time.
72 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
74 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
76 maint set python print-stack
77 maint show python print-stack
78 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
81 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
83 set print symbol-loading
84 show print symbol-loading
85 Control printing of symbol loading messages.
89 Display timestamps with GDB debugging output.
94 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
96 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
98 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
99 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
100 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
102 set breakpoint always-inserted
103 show breakpoint always-inserted
104 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
105 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
106 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
108 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
109 show arm fallback-mode
110 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
112 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
113 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
114 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
115 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
117 set disable-randomization
118 show disable-randomization
119 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
120 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
121 multiple debugging sessions.
125 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
130 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
133 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
135 * New native configurations
137 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
138 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
142 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
143 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
145 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
147 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
148 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
149 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
150 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
152 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
153 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
155 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
158 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
159 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
160 and in inlined functions.
162 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
163 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
164 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
166 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
168 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
169 registers on PowerPC targets.
171 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
172 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
174 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
175 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
177 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
178 extended-remote mode.
180 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
181 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
182 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
183 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
185 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
186 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
187 target architectures.
189 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
190 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
191 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
192 stored in two consecutive float registers.
194 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
197 * Improved support for debugging Ada
198 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
200 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
201 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
202 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
203 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
205 - Improved command completion in Ada
208 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
213 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
214 show print frame-arguments
215 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
216 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
221 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
228 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
237 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
240 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
244 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
246 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
248 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
249 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
250 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
252 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
253 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
254 -Bsymbolic linker option.
256 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
257 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
260 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
261 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
263 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
264 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
266 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
268 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
269 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
270 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
272 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
273 automatically displayed as character or string data.
275 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
276 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
279 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
280 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
281 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
283 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
286 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
287 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
288 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
290 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
292 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
294 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
295 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
296 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
298 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
299 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
301 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
302 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
303 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
304 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
305 Windows and SymbianOS).
307 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
308 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
310 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
311 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
317 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
318 when debugging using remote targets.
320 set mem inaccessible-by-default
321 show mem inaccessible-by-default
322 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
323 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
324 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
325 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
326 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
328 set breakpoint auto-hw
329 show breakpoint auto-hw
330 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
331 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
332 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
333 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
334 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
335 including "next" and "finish".
338 catch exception unhandled
339 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
342 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
346 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
347 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
348 an alias to "set sysroot".
351 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
352 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
355 * New native configurations
357 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
362 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
363 not query the target for its built-in description.
367 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
368 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
369 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
374 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
375 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
378 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
383 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
384 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
386 qXfer:libraries:read:
387 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
388 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
389 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
390 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
394 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
403 i[34567]86-*-netware*
404 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
405 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
407 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
410 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
411 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
420 * Other removed features
427 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
434 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
439 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
440 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
445 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
446 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
448 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
450 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
451 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
452 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
453 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
457 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
458 in debugging information.
462 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
463 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
465 set mips stack-arg-size
466 set mips saved-gpreg-size
468 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
470 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
475 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
477 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
478 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
479 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
481 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
482 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
485 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
486 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
488 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
489 stub provides the required support.
491 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
492 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
497 unset substitute-path
499 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
500 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
501 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
502 between compilation and debugging.
506 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
507 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
508 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
512 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
514 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
515 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
517 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
522 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
523 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
524 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
525 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
529 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
530 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
532 qXfer:memory-map:read:
533 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
534 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
539 Erase and program a flash memory device.
541 * Removed remote packets
544 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
545 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
547 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
551 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
553 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
557 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
558 only if it doesn't already have a value.
560 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
562 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
564 restart <n> Return the program state to a
565 previously saved state.
567 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
569 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
571 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
572 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
574 info forks List forks of the user program that
575 are available to be debugged.
577 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
578 forks of the user program that are
579 available to be debugged.
581 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
582 that are available to be debugged (and
583 kill the forked process).
585 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
586 that are available to be debugged (and
587 allow the process to continue).
591 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
593 * Improved Windows host support
595 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
596 native console support, and remote communications using either
597 network sockets or serial ports.
599 * Improved Modula-2 language support
601 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
602 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
603 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
604 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
605 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
606 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
610 The ARM rdi-share module.
612 The Netware NLM debug server.
614 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
616 * New native configurations
618 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
619 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
623 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
625 * New command line options
627 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
628 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
629 the child (debugged) program exited with.
630 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
631 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
632 specified multiple times and in conjunction
633 with the --command (-x) option.
635 * Deprecated commands removed
637 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
641 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
642 othernames set arm disassembler
643 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
644 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
645 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
648 * New BSD user-level threads support
650 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
651 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
654 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
655 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
656 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
658 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
659 are not yet supported.
661 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
662 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
664 * REMOVED configurations and files
666 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
667 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
668 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
670 * New "set print array-indexes" command
672 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
673 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
676 * VAX floating point support
678 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
680 * User-defined command support
682 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
683 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
684 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
686 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
688 * New command line option
690 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
693 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
695 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
696 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
697 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
698 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
699 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
701 * Internationalization
703 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
704 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
705 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
709 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
710 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
711 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
713 * New native configurations
715 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
719 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
720 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
722 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
724 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
725 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
726 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
729 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
730 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
731 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
743 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
744 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
746 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
748 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
749 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
750 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
760 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
762 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
764 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
765 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
768 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
770 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
771 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
772 IRIX long double values).
776 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
777 command. This problem has been fixed.
779 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
781 * Fix for ``many threads''
783 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
784 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
787 ptrace: No such process.
788 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
790 This problem has been fixed.
792 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
794 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
797 * New ``start'' command.
799 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
801 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
803 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
804 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
805 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
807 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
808 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
809 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
810 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
811 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
812 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
813 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
814 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
815 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
817 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
819 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
820 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
821 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
822 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
823 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
825 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
826 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
827 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
829 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
831 * New native configurations
833 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
834 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
835 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
836 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
837 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
838 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
839 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
841 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
843 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
844 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
845 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
846 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
847 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
848 work, was also included.
850 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
851 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
861 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
862 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
864 * REMOVED configurations and files
866 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
867 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
868 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
869 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
870 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
871 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
872 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
873 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
874 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
876 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
878 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
880 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
882 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
883 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
884 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
885 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
888 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
890 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
891 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
892 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
893 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
894 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
895 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
898 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
900 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
902 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
903 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
904 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
906 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
908 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
909 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
911 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
913 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
914 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
915 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
917 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
919 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
920 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
922 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
924 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
925 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
926 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
928 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
930 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
931 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
932 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
934 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
936 * Removed --with-mmalloc
938 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
939 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
941 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
943 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
944 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
945 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
946 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
948 * Revised SPARC target
950 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
951 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
952 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
953 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
954 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
958 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
959 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
960 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
963 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
965 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
966 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
969 * C++ nested types and namespaces
971 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
972 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
973 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
974 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
975 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
976 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
977 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
978 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
979 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
981 * New native configurations
983 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
984 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
985 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
986 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
987 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
989 * New debugging protocols
991 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
993 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
995 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
996 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
997 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
999 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1001 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1002 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1003 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1004 permanently REMOVED.
1006 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1007 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1008 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1009 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1010 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1011 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1012 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1013 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1014 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1015 sonymips mips-sony-*
1016 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1018 * REMOVED configurations and files
1020 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1021 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1022 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1023 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1024 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1025 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1026 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1027 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1028 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1029 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1030 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1031 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1032 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1033 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1034 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1035 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1036 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1038 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1042 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1043 integrated into GDB.
1045 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1047 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1048 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1049 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1052 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1053 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1054 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1058 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1059 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1060 remote protocol documentation for details.
1062 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1064 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1065 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1066 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1069 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1071 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1072 per-thread variables.
1074 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1076 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1077 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1079 * Separate debug info.
1081 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1082 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1083 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1084 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1085 and optional debug files.
1087 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1089 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1090 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1093 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1094 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1098 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1099 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1100 considered "useable".
1102 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1104 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1105 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1108 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1110 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1111 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1113 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1115 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1116 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1119 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1121 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1122 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1126 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1127 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1128 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1129 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1130 data, for more informative profiling results.
1132 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1134 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1135 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1136 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1138 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1141 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1142 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1143 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1144 in a subsequent -var-update.
1146 * New native configurations.
1148 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1150 * Multi-arched targets.
1152 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1153 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1155 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1157 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1158 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1159 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1160 permanently REMOVED.
1162 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1163 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1164 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1165 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1166 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1167 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1168 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1169 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1170 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1171 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1172 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1173 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1175 * REMOVED configurations and files
1178 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1179 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1180 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1181 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1182 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1183 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1185 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1186 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1187 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1188 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1189 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1190 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1192 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1194 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1195 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1196 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1197 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1198 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1200 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1202 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1204 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1205 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1206 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1207 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1208 shared libs like mad''.
1210 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1212 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1213 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1214 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1215 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1217 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1219 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1220 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1223 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1224 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1226 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1227 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1229 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1230 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1231 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1232 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1234 * Multi-arched targets.
1236 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1237 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1239 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1240 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1241 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1245 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1248 * New native configurations
1250 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1251 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1252 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1253 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1255 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1257 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1258 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1259 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1260 permanently REMOVED.
1262 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1263 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1264 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1265 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1266 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1267 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1268 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1269 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1270 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1271 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1273 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1274 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1276 * OBSOLETE languages
1278 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1280 * REMOVED configurations and files
1282 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1283 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1284 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1285 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1286 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1288 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1290 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1292 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1293 commands. The default is 1024.
1295 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1297 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1299 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1301 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1302 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1303 from a file into memory (restore).
1305 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1307 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1308 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1309 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1311 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1319 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1320 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1321 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1323 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1324 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1325 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1327 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1328 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1329 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1331 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1332 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1333 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1335 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1337 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1339 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1340 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1341 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1342 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1343 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1344 (notably embedded) targets.
1346 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1348 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1349 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1350 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1351 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1353 * New command line option
1355 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1357 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1359 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1360 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1361 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1362 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1363 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1364 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1365 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1366 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1367 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1368 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1370 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1372 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1373 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1375 * New native configurations
1377 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1378 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1379 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1380 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1384 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1386 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1388 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1389 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1390 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1391 permanently REMOVED.
1393 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1394 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1395 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1396 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1397 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1399 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1401 * REMOVED configurations and files
1403 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1405 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1406 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1407 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1408 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1409 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1410 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1411 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1412 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1413 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1414 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1415 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1417 * Changes to command line processing
1419 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1420 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1422 * Changes to key bindings
1424 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1426 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1428 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1430 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1433 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1435 Numerous documentation fixes.
1437 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1439 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1441 * New native configurations
1443 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1444 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1445 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1446 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1447 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1448 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1452 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1454 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1456 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1458 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1459 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1460 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1461 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1462 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1464 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1465 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1466 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1467 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1468 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1469 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1470 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1471 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1473 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1474 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1476 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1477 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1478 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1479 permanently REMOVED.
1481 * REMOVED configurations and files
1483 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1484 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1486 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1490 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1492 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1493 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1498 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1500 * The MI enabled by default.
1502 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1503 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1504 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1505 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1506 which is now deprecated.
1508 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1510 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1511 main features are supported:
1513 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1515 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1518 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1520 - a Pascal expression parser.
1522 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1524 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1526 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1528 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1529 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1531 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1533 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1535 * Changes in completion.
1537 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1538 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1539 users expect at the shell prompt.
1541 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1542 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1543 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1544 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1545 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1546 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1547 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1549 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1551 * New platform-independent commands:
1553 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1554 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1555 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1557 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1559 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1560 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1561 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1563 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1565 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1566 multi-threaded programs though.
1568 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1570 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1572 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1573 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1576 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1578 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1579 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1580 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1581 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1582 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1585 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1586 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1587 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1589 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1591 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1592 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1594 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1595 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1598 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1599 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1600 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1601 a given linear address.
1603 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1604 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1605 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1607 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1609 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1611 * Changes in documentation.
1613 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1614 Documentation License.
1616 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1619 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1621 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1624 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1625 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1626 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1628 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1630 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1631 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1632 contents of this file.
1636 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1638 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1640 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1642 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1643 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1644 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1645 greater level of detail.
1647 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1649 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1650 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1651 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1654 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1656 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1657 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1658 machines ``out of the box''.
1660 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1661 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1662 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1663 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1664 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1666 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1667 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1668 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1669 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1670 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1672 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1673 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1676 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1679 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1680 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1681 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1682 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1684 * New native configurations
1686 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1687 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1691 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1692 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1693 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1694 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1696 * OBSOLETE configurations
1698 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1699 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1701 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1704 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1705 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1706 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1707 be permanently REMOVED.
1709 * Gould support removed
1711 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1713 * New features for SVR4
1715 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1716 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1717 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1719 * Many C++ enhancements
1721 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1722 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1724 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1726 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1727 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1728 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1729 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1731 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1732 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1734 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1736 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1737 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1738 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1740 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1741 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1743 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1745 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1746 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1747 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1749 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1751 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1752 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1753 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1755 * ``apropos'' command added.
1757 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1758 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1759 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1763 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1764 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1765 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1766 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1767 enabled by configuring with:
1769 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1771 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1773 * New native configurations
1775 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1776 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1777 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1781 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1782 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1783 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1785 * OBSOLETE configurations
1787 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1789 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1790 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1791 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1792 be permanently REMOVED.
1796 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1797 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1798 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1799 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1800 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1802 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1807 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1809 * set extension-language
1811 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1812 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1813 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1814 set extension-language .c c++
1815 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1816 and their associated languages.
1818 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1820 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1821 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1822 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1826 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1827 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1829 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1830 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1832 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1833 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1834 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1835 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1836 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1837 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1838 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1839 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1841 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1842 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1843 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1844 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1848 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1849 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1850 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1851 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1852 for xdb and dbx commands.
1856 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1857 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1858 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1860 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1861 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1862 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1864 * Debugging across forks
1866 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1871 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1872 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1873 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1875 * GDB remote protocol additions
1877 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1878 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1879 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1880 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1882 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1883 full 64-bit address. The command
1885 set remoteaddresssize 32
1887 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1888 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1891 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1892 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1894 maint packet heythere
1896 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1897 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1900 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1901 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1902 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1904 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1906 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1907 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1908 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1910 * mask-address variable for Mips
1912 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1913 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1914 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1916 * Higher serial baud rates
1918 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1919 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1920 to achieve all of these rates.)
1924 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1925 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1928 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1930 * New native configurations
1932 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1933 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1934 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1935 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1936 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1937 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1938 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1942 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1943 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1944 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1945 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1946 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1947 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1948 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1949 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1950 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1951 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1952 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1954 * New debugging protocols
1956 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1957 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1958 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1959 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1960 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1961 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1965 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1966 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1971 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1972 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1974 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1976 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1977 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1978 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1980 * Live range splitting
1982 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1983 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1984 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1988 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1989 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1993 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1994 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1995 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2000 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2005 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2006 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2007 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2008 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2009 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2010 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2014 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2015 the symbol at the specified address.
2019 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2020 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2021 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2022 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2023 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2027 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2028 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2029 of most MIPS variants.
2033 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2034 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2035 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2039 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2040 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2041 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2042 the possible architectures.
2044 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2046 * New native configurations
2048 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2049 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2050 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2051 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2052 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2053 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2057 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2058 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2059 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2060 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2061 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2063 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2067 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2068 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2069 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2070 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2071 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2075 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2077 * Windows 95/NT native
2079 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2080 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2081 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2082 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2083 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2085 * dont-repeat command
2087 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2088 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2089 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2090 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2092 * Send break instead of ^C
2094 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2095 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2096 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2098 * Remote protocol timeout
2100 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2101 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2102 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2104 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2106 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2107 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2108 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2109 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2110 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2112 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2113 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2114 automatically on hpux10.
2116 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2118 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2120 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2122 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2123 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2124 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2125 every character. The default value is 1050.
2127 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2129 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2130 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2131 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2132 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2133 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2134 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2136 * Speedups for remote debugging
2138 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2139 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2140 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2142 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2144 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2145 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2147 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2149 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2151 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2152 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2154 * Remote targets use caching
2156 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2157 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2158 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2159 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2160 off' turns the the data cache off.
2162 * Remote targets may have threads
2164 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2165 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2166 gdb/remote.c for details.
2170 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2171 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2172 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2173 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2174 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2175 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2176 sequence is something like
2178 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2180 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2184 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2185 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2186 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2187 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2188 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2189 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2190 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2191 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2195 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2196 but does simplify configuration and building.
2200 GDB now supports hpux10.
2202 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2204 * New native configurations
2206 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2207 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2208 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2209 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2213 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2214 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2215 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2216 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2219 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2221 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2222 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2223 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2224 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2225 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2227 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2229 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2230 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2233 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2235 To execute the command use:
2238 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2239 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2240 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2242 * New `if' and `while' commands
2244 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2245 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2246 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2247 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2248 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2249 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2250 if the expression is zero.
2252 * Fortran source language mode
2254 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2255 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2256 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2257 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2260 * Better HPUX support
2262 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2263 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2264 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2265 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2266 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2272 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2273 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2279 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2280 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2283 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2284 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2286 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2288 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2289 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2290 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2291 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2292 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2293 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2295 * New DOS host serial code
2297 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2298 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2301 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2303 * New "complete" command
2305 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2306 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2308 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2310 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2311 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2313 * Breakpoint hit counts
2315 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2316 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2317 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2318 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2319 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2322 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2324 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2325 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2326 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2328 * Shared library breakpoints
2330 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2331 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2333 * Hardware watchpoints
2335 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2336 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2338 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2342 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2343 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2345 * Improved Irix 5 support
2347 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2349 * Improved HPPA support
2351 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2353 * New native configurations
2355 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2356 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2357 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2358 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2362 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2363 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2366 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2368 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2369 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2373 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2374 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2376 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2378 * Irix 5 is now supported
2382 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2383 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2384 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2385 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2386 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2389 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2391 * User visible changes:
2395 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2396 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2397 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2398 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2399 debugging info for the mips target).
2401 * DEC Alpha native support
2403 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2404 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2405 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2406 Alpha-specific notes.
2408 * Preliminary thread implementation
2410 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2412 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2414 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2415 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2418 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2420 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2421 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2422 call methods, ...etc.
2424 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2426 * User visible changes:
2428 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2429 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2430 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2431 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2433 Filename completion now works.
2435 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2436 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2437 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2439 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2440 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2441 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2442 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2443 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2447 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2448 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2451 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2455 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2456 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2457 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2461 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2462 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2463 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2464 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2465 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2469 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2470 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2471 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2473 * New targets supported
2475 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2476 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2477 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2478 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2479 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2481 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2482 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2483 GO32 memory extender.
2485 * New remote protocols
2487 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2489 * New source languages supported
2491 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2492 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2493 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2496 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2498 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2500 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2501 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2502 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2503 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2504 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2505 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2507 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2509 * Faster and better demangling
2511 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2512 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2513 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2514 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2515 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2516 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2519 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2520 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2521 compiler does not actually implement.
2523 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2525 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2526 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2527 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2528 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2529 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2530 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2533 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2534 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2536 * Improved configure script
2538 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2539 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2540 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2541 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2543 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2544 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2545 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2546 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2547 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2548 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2550 * Documentation improvements
2552 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2553 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2554 before submitting changes.
2556 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2557 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2558 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2559 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2560 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2562 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2563 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2564 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2565 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2566 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2567 around this problem.
2571 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2572 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2573 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2576 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2577 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2579 * New native hosts supported
2581 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2582 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2584 * New targets supported
2586 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2588 * New file formats supported
2590 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2591 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2595 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2597 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2598 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2600 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2601 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2602 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2604 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2605 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2607 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2608 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2609 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2612 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2613 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2614 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2615 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2616 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2618 * Internal improvements
2620 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2621 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2623 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2624 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2625 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2626 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2627 shared code that handles any of them.
2629 * New command line options
2631 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2635 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2636 General Public License.
2638 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2640 * Host/native/target split
2642 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2643 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2644 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2645 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2646 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2648 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2649 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2650 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2651 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2652 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2653 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2654 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2656 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2657 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2658 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2660 * New hosts supported
2662 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2663 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2664 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2666 * New targets supported
2668 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2669 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2671 * New native hosts supported
2673 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2674 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2675 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2677 * New file formats supported
2679 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2680 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2681 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2685 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2686 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2687 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2689 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2691 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2692 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2693 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2694 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2698 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2699 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2700 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2702 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2706 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2707 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2710 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2711 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2713 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2714 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2715 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2716 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2717 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2718 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2720 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2721 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2722 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2723 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2727 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2728 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2729 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2730 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2731 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2733 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2734 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2735 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2736 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2740 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2741 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2742 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2743 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2744 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2745 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2746 each instruction being stepped through.
2748 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2749 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2751 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2752 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2753 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2754 processor with a serial port.
2758 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2759 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2760 supported, and what files each one uses.
2764 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2765 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2766 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2767 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2769 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2770 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2771 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2772 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2776 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2777 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2778 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2779 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2780 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2783 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2786 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2788 * Better support for C++ function names
2790 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2791 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2792 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2793 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2794 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2796 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2797 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2798 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2799 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2800 for the list of formats.
2802 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2804 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2805 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2806 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2807 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2808 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2809 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2812 * New 'maintenance' command
2814 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2815 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2816 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2818 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2819 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2820 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2821 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2822 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2823 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2825 The following commands are new:
2827 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2828 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2829 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2831 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2833 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2834 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2835 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2836 read after argv processing.
2838 * New hosts supported
2840 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2842 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2844 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2845 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2846 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2847 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2848 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2851 * New targets supported
2853 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2855 * More smarts about finding #include files
2857 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2858 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2859 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2860 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2861 the one that contains your sources.
2863 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2864 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2865 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2867 * Interesting infernals change
2869 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2870 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2871 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2872 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2874 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2876 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2877 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2878 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2880 See the ChangeLog for details.
2882 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2884 * New machines supported (host and target)
2886 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2888 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2890 * New malloc package
2892 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2893 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2894 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2895 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2896 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2897 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2901 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2902 'help info proc' for details.
2904 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2906 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2907 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2910 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2912 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2913 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2914 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2915 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2916 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2917 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2919 * Cross byte order fixes
2921 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2922 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2924 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2926 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2927 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2928 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2929 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2930 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2931 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2932 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2933 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2934 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2935 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2937 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2938 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2939 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2940 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2942 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2943 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2944 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2947 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2949 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2950 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2951 shared across multiple host platforms.
2953 * longjmp() handling
2955 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2956 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2957 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2958 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2962 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2963 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2968 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2969 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2970 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2972 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2974 * New machines supported (host and target)
2976 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2978 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2979 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2981 * New machines supported (target)
2983 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2987 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2988 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2989 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2991 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2992 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2993 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2994 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2995 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2998 * New features for SVR4
3000 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3001 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3002 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3004 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3005 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3006 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3008 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3011 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3013 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3014 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3015 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3016 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3017 same code linked statically.
3021 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3022 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3023 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3024 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3025 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3026 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3030 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3031 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3032 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3035 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3037 * New machines supported (host and target)
3039 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3040 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3041 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3043 * Almost SCO Unix support
3045 We had hoped to support:
3046 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3047 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3048 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3049 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3051 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3053 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3054 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3055 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3061 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3062 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3063 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3067 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3068 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3069 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3071 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3073 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3074 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3075 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3077 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3078 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3079 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3080 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3083 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3084 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3085 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3086 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3089 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3090 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3093 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3094 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3095 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3098 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3100 * Improved configuration
3102 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3103 Porting BFD is simpler.
3107 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3108 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3109 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3110 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3114 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3116 * New host supported (not target)
3118 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3121 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3123 * Multiple source language support
3125 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3126 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3127 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3128 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3129 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3130 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3134 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3135 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3136 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3137 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3139 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3140 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3141 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3143 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3144 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3148 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3149 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3150 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3151 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3154 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3156 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3157 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3158 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3159 examining core files.
3163 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3166 * New machines supported (host and target)
3168 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3169 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3170 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3172 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3174 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3176 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3178 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3179 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3180 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3182 * New remote interfaces
3188 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3192 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3194 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3195 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3196 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3197 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3198 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3199 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3200 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3201 stub on the target system.
3203 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3205 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3206 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3207 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3209 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3210 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3213 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3215 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3216 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3218 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3219 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3220 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3222 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3223 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3224 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3225 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3227 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3228 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3229 it is already running. Default is ON.
3231 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3232 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3233 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3234 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3237 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3238 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3239 or the value of the environment variable
3242 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3243 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3246 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3247 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3248 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3250 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3251 history expansion will be performed on
3252 command line input. The default is OFF.
3254 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3255 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3256 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3258 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3259 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3260 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3263 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3264 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3265 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3268 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3269 ``set width'' instead.
3271 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3272 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3273 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3274 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3276 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3279 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3282 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3285 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3288 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3290 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3291 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3292 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3296 * Support for Shared Libraries
3298 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3299 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3300 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3301 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3302 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3303 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3304 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3305 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3307 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3308 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3309 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3311 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3316 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3317 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3318 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3319 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3320 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3321 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3323 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3325 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3327 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3328 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3329 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3332 * C++ multiple inheritance
3334 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3337 * C++ exception handling
3339 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3340 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3341 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3344 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3345 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3346 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3348 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3349 current stack frame.
3352 * Minor command changes
3354 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3355 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3356 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3358 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3359 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3360 frames without printing.
3362 * New directory command
3364 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3365 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3366 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3367 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3368 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3370 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3372 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3375 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3376 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3377 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3378 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / binutils.git / blob