1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 12
6 * MI version 1 is deprecated, and will be removed in GDB 14.
8 * GDB now supports dumping memory tag data for AArch64 MTE. It also supports
9 reading memory tag data for AArch64 MTE from core files generated by
10 the gcore command or the Linux kernel.
12 When a process uses memory-mapped pages protected by memory tags (for
13 example, AArch64 MTE), this additional information will be recorded in
14 the core file in the event of a crash or if GDB generates a core file
15 from the current process state. GDB will show this additional information
16 automatically, or through one of the memory-tag subcommands.
18 * "info breakpoints" now displays enabled breakpoint locations of
19 disabled breakpoints as in the "y-" state. For example:
21 (gdb) info breakpoints
22 Num Type Disp Enb Address What
23 1 breakpoint keep n <MULTIPLE>
24 1.1 y- 0x00000000000011b6 in ...
25 1.2 y- 0x00000000000011c2 in ...
26 1.3 n 0x00000000000011ce in ...
28 * Support for Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on FreeBSD arm and
29 aarch64 architectures.
31 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on FreeBSD/Aarch64.
33 * Remove support for building against Python 2, it is now only possible to
34 build GDB against Python 3.
36 * DBX mode has been removed.
38 * GDB now honours the DWARF prologue_end line-table entry flag the compiler can
39 emit to indicate where a breakpoint should be placed to break in a function
42 * Completion now also offers "NUMBER" for "set" commands that accept
43 a numeric argument and the "unlimited" keyword. For example:
50 (gdb) complete set width
54 * Disassembler styling using libopcodes. GDB now supports
55 disassembler styling using libopcodes. This is only available for
56 some targets (currently x86 and RISC-V). For unsupported targets
57 Python Pygments is still used. For supported targets, libopcodes
58 styling is used by default.
60 * The Windows native target now supports target async.
62 * gdb now supports zstd compressed debug sections (ELFCOMPRESS_ZSTD) for ELF.
64 * The format of 'disassemble /r' and 'record instruction-history /r'
65 has changed. The instruction bytes could now be grouped together,
66 and displayed in the endianness of the instruction. This is the
67 same layout as used by GNU objdump when disassembling.
69 There is now 'disassemble /b' and 'record instruction-history /b'
70 which will always display the instructions bytes one at a time in
71 memory order, that is, the byte at the lowest address first.
73 For both /r and /b GDB is now better at using whitespace in order to
74 align the disassembled instruction text.
76 * The TUI no longer styles the source and assembly code highlighted by
77 the current position indicator by default. You can however
78 re-enable styling using the new "set style tui-current-position"
81 * New convenience variable $_inferior_thread_count contains the number
82 of live threads in the current inferior.
84 * When a breakpoint with multiple code locations is hit, GDB now prints
85 the code location using the syntax <breakpoint_number>.<location_number>
87 Thread 1 "zeoes" hit Breakpoint 2.3, some_func () at zeoes.c:8
89 * When a breakpoint is hit, GDB now sets the convenience variables $_hit_bpnum
90 and $_hit_locno to the hit breakpoint number and code location number.
91 This allows to disable the last hit breakpoint using
92 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum
93 or disable only the specific breakpoint code location using
94 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum.$_hit_locno
95 These commands can be used inside the command list of a breakpoint to
96 automatically disable the just encountered breakpoint (or the just
97 encountered specific breakpoint code location).
98 When a breakpoint has only one location, $_hit_locno is set to 1 so that
99 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum.$_hit_locno
101 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum
102 are both disabling the breakpoint.
106 maintenance set ignore-prologue-end-flag on|off
107 maintenance show ignore-prologue-end-flag
108 This setting, which is off by default, controls whether GDB ignores the
109 PROLOGUE-END flag from the line-table when skipping prologue. This can be
110 used to force GDB to use prologue analyzers if the line-table is constructed
111 from erroneous debug information.
113 set print nibbles [on|off]
115 This controls whether the 'print/t' command will display binary values
116 in groups of four bits, known as "nibbles". The default is 'off'.
118 maintenance set libopcodes-styling on|off
119 maintenance show libopcodes-styling
120 These can be used to force off libopcodes based styling, the Python
121 Pygments styling will then be used instead.
123 set style disassembler comment
124 show style disassembler comment
125 set style disassembler immediate
126 show style disassembler immediate
127 set style disassembler mnemonic
128 show style disassembler mnemonic
129 set style disassembler register
130 show style disassembler register
131 set style disassembler address
132 show style disassembler address
133 set style disassembler symbol
134 show style disassembler symbol
135 For targets that support libopcodes based styling, these settings
136 control how various aspects of the disassembler output are styled.
137 The 'disassembler address' and 'disassembler symbol' styles are
138 aliases for the 'address' and 'function' styles respectively.
140 maintenance print frame-id [ LEVEL ]
141 Print GDB's internal frame-id for the frame at LEVEL. If LEVEL is
142 not given, then print the frame-id for the currently selected frame.
144 set debug infcall on|off
146 Print additional debug messages about inferior function calls.
148 set debug solib on|off
150 Print additional debug messages about shared library handling.
152 set style tui-current-position [on|off]
153 Whether to style the source and assembly code highlighted by the
154 TUI's current position indicator. The default is off.
158 document user-defined
159 It is now possible to document user-defined aliases.
160 When a user-defined alias is documented, the help and apropos commands
161 use the provided documentation instead of the documentation of the
163 Documenting a user-defined alias is particularly useful when the alias
164 is a set of nested 'with' commands to avoid showing the help of
165 the with command for an alias that will in fact launch the
166 last command given in the nested commands.
168 maintenance info line-table
169 Add a PROLOGUE-END column to the output which indicates that an
170 entry corresponds to an address where a breakpoint should be placed
171 to be at the first instruction past a function's prologue.
175 set debug aix-solib on|off
177 set debug solib-frv on|off
179 Removed in favor of "set/show debug solib".
183 GNU/Linux/LoongArch (gdbserver) loongarch*-*-linux*
185 GNU/Linux/CSKY (gdbserver) csky*-*linux*
189 ** The async record stating the stopped reason 'breakpoint-hit' now
190 contains an optional field locno giving the code location number
191 when the breakpoint has multiple code locations.
195 ** GDB will now reformat the doc string for gdb.Command and
196 gdb.Parameter sub-classes to remove unnecessary leading
197 whitespace from each line before using the string as the help
200 ** New function gdb.format_address(ADDRESS, PROGSPACE, ARCHITECTURE),
201 that formats ADDRESS as 'address <symbol+offset>', where symbol is
202 looked up in PROGSPACE, and ARCHITECTURE is used to format address.
203 This is the same format that GDB uses when printing address, symbol,
204 and offset information from the disassembler.
206 ** New function gdb.current_language that returns the name of the
207 current language. Unlike gdb.parameter('language'), this will
210 ** New method gdb.Frame.language that returns the name of the
213 ** New Python API for wrapping GDB's disassembler:
215 - gdb.disassembler.register_disassembler(DISASSEMBLER, ARCH).
216 DISASSEMBLER is a sub-class of gdb.disassembler.Disassembler.
217 ARCH is either None or a string containing a bfd architecture
218 name. DISASSEMBLER is registered as a disassembler for
219 architecture ARCH, or for all architectures if ARCH is None.
220 The previous disassembler registered for ARCH is returned, this
221 can be None if no previous disassembler was registered.
223 - gdb.disassembler.Disassembler is the class from which all
224 disassemblers should inherit. Its constructor takes a string,
225 a name for the disassembler, which is currently only used in
226 some debug output. Sub-classes should override the __call__
227 method to perform disassembly, invoking __call__ on this base
228 class will raise an exception.
230 - gdb.disassembler.DisassembleInfo is the class used to describe
231 a single disassembly request from GDB. An instance of this
232 class is passed to the __call__ method of
233 gdb.disassembler.Disassembler and has the following read-only
234 attributes: 'address', and 'architecture', as well as the
235 following method: 'read_memory'.
237 - gdb.disassembler.builtin_disassemble(INFO, MEMORY_SOURCE),
238 calls GDB's builtin disassembler on INFO, which is a
239 gdb.disassembler.DisassembleInfo object. MEMORY_SOURCE is
240 optional, its default value is None. If MEMORY_SOURCE is not
241 None then it must be an object that has a 'read_memory' method.
243 - gdb.disassembler.DisassemblerResult is a class that can be used
244 to wrap the result of a call to a Disassembler. It has
245 read-only attributes 'length' and 'string'.
247 ** gdb.Objfile now has an attribute named "is_file". This is True
248 if the objfile comes from a file, and False otherwise.
250 ** New function gdb.print_options that returns a dictionary of the
251 prevailing print options, in the form accepted by
252 gdb.Value.format_string.
254 ** gdb.Value.format_string now uses the format provided by 'print',
255 if it is called during a 'print' or other similar operation.
257 ** gdb.Value.format_string now accepts the 'summary' keyword. This
258 can be used to request a shorter representation of a value, the
259 way that 'set print frame-arguments scalars' does.
261 ** New Python type gdb.BreakpointLocation.
262 The new attribute 'locations' of gdb.Breakpoint returns a list of
263 gdb.BreakpointLocation objects specifying the locations where the
264 breakpoint is inserted into the debuggee.
266 ** The gdb.register_window_type method now restricts the set of
267 acceptable window names. The first character of a window's name
268 must start with a character in the set [a-zA-Z], every subsequent
269 character of a window's name must be in the set [-_.a-zA-Z0-9].
271 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
273 ** GDBserver is now supported on LoongArch GNU/Linux.
275 ** GDBserver is now supported on CSKY GNU/Linux.
277 * LoongArch floating-point support
279 GDB now supports floating-point on LoongArch GNU/Linux.
281 *** Changes in GDB 12
283 * DBX mode is deprecated, and will be removed in GDB 13
285 * GDB 12 is the last release of GDB that will support building against
286 Python 2. From GDB 13, it will only be possible to build GDB itself
287 with Python 3 support.
289 * The disable-randomization setting now works on Windows.
291 * Improved C++ template support
293 GDB now treats functions/types involving C++ templates like it does function
294 overloads. Users may omit parameter lists to set breakpoints on families of
295 template functions, including types/functions composed of multiple template types:
297 (gdb) break template_func(template_1, int)
299 The above will set breakpoints at every function `template_func' where
300 the first function parameter is any template type named `template_1' and
301 the second function parameter is `int'.
303 TAB completion also gains similar improvements.
305 * The FreeBSD native target now supports async mode.
311 Enable or disable multithreaded symbol loading. This is enabled
312 by default, but passing --disable-threading or --enable-threading=no
313 to configure will disable it.
315 Disabling this can cause a performance penalty when there are a lot of
316 symbols to load, but is useful for debugging purposes.
320 maint set backtrace-on-fatal-signal on|off
321 maint show backtrace-on-fatal-signal
322 This setting is 'on' by default. When 'on' GDB will print a limited
323 backtrace to stderr in the situation where GDB terminates with a
324 fatal signal. This only supported on some platforms where the
325 backtrace and backtrace_symbols_fd functions are available.
327 set source open on|off
329 This setting, which is on by default, controls whether GDB will try
330 to open source code files. Switching this off will stop GDB trying
331 to open and read source code files, which can be useful if the files
332 are located over a slow network connection.
336 These are now deprecated aliases for "set max-value-size" and
337 "show max-value-size".
339 task apply [all | TASK-IDS...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
340 Like "thread apply", but applies COMMAND to Ada tasks.
343 Watchpoints can now be restricted to a specific Ada task.
345 maint set internal-error backtrace on|off
346 maint show internal-error backtrace
347 maint set internal-warning backtrace on|off
348 maint show internal-warning backtrace
349 GDB can now print a backtrace of itself when it encounters either an
350 internal-error, or an internal-warning. This is on by default for
351 internal-error and off by default for internal-warning.
354 Deprecated and replaced by "set logging enabled on|off".
356 set logging enabled on|off
358 These commands set or show whether logging is enabled or disabled.
361 You can now exit GDB by using the new command "exit", in addition to
362 the existing "quit" command.
364 set debug threads on|off
366 Print additional debug messages about thread creation and deletion.
368 set debug linux-nat on|off
370 These new commands replaced the old 'set debug lin-lwp' and 'show
371 debug lin-lwp' respectively. Turning this setting on prints debug
372 messages relating to GDB's handling of native Linux inferiors.
374 maint flush source-cache
375 Flush the contents of the source code cache.
377 maint set gnu-source-highlight enabled on|off
378 maint show gnu-source-highlight enabled
379 Whether GDB should use the GNU Source Highlight library for adding
380 styling to source code. When off, the library will not be used, even
381 when available. When GNU Source Highlight isn't used, or can't add
382 styling to a particular source file, then the Python Pygments
383 library will be used instead.
385 set suppress-cli-notifications (on|off)
386 show suppress-cli-notifications
387 This controls whether printing the notifications is suppressed for CLI.
388 CLI notifications occur when you change the selected context
389 (i.e., the current inferior, thread and/or the frame), or when
390 the program being debugged stops (e.g., because of hitting a
391 breakpoint, completing source-stepping, an interrupt, etc.).
393 set style disassembler enabled on|off
394 show style disassembler enabled
395 If GDB is compiled with Python support, and the Python Pygments
396 package is available, then, when this setting is on, disassembler
397 output will have styling applied.
399 set ada source-charset
400 show ada source-charset
401 Set the character set encoding that is assumed for Ada symbols. Valid
402 values for this follow the values that can be passed to the GNAT
403 compiler via the '-gnati' option. The default is ISO-8859-1.
409 These are the new names for the old 'layout', 'focus', 'refresh',
410 and 'winheight' tui commands respectively. The old names still
411 exist as aliases to these new commands.
415 The new command 'tui window width', and the alias 'winwidth' allow
416 the width of a tui window to be adjusted when windows are laid out
421 Control the display of debug output about GDB's tui.
426 Printing of floating-point values with base-modifying formats like
427 /x has been changed to display the underlying bytes of the value in
428 the desired base. This was GDB's documented behavior, but was never
429 implemented correctly.
432 This command can now print a reply, if the reply includes
433 non-printable characters. Any non-printable characters are printed
434 as escaped hex, e.g. \x?? where '??' is replaces with the value of
435 the non-printable character.
438 The clone-inferior command now ensures that the TTY, CMD and ARGS
439 settings are copied from the original inferior to the new one.
440 All modifications to the environment variables done using the 'set
441 environment' or 'unset environment' commands are also copied to the new
444 set debug lin-lwp on|off
446 These commands have been removed from GDB. The new command 'set
447 debug linux-nat' and 'show debug linux-nat' should be used
451 This command now includes information about the width of the tui
452 windows in its output.
458 These commands are now aliases for the 'tui layout', 'tui focus',
459 'tui refresh', and 'tui window height' commands respectively.
461 * GDB's Ada parser now supports an extension for specifying the exact
462 byte contents of a floating-point literal. This can be useful for
463 setting floating-point registers to a precise value without loss of
464 precision. The syntax is an extension of the based literal syntax.
465 Use, e.g., "16lf#0123abcd#" -- the number of "l"s controls the width
466 of the floating-point type, and the "f" is the marker for floating
471 ** The '-add-inferior' with no option flags now inherits the
472 connection of the current inferior, this restores the behaviour of
473 GDB as it was prior to GDB 10.
475 ** The '-add-inferior' command now accepts a '--no-connection'
476 option, which causes the new inferior to start without a
479 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 4 (-i=mi4).
481 ** The "script" field in breakpoint output (which is syntactically
482 incorrect in MI 3 and below) has changed in MI 4 to become a list.
483 This affects the following commands and events:
487 - =breakpoint-created
488 - =breakpoint-modified
490 The -fix-breakpoint-script-output command can be used to enable
491 this behavior with previous MI versions.
495 GNU/Linux/LoongArch loongarch*-*-linux*
503 ** New function gdb.add_history(), which takes a gdb.Value object
504 and adds the value it represents to GDB's history list. An
505 integer, the index of the new item in the history list, is
508 ** New function gdb.history_count(), which returns the number of
509 values in GDB's value history.
511 ** New gdb.events.gdb_exiting event. This event is called with a
512 gdb.GdbExitingEvent object which has the read-only attribute
513 'exit_code', which contains the value of the GDB exit code. This
514 event is triggered once GDB decides it is going to exit, but
515 before GDB starts to clean up its internal state.
517 ** New function gdb.architecture_names(), which returns a list
518 containing all of the possible Architecture.name() values. Each
521 ** New function gdb.Architecture.integer_type(), which returns an
522 integer type given a size and a signed-ness.
524 ** New gdb.TargetConnection object type that represents a connection
525 (as displayed by the 'info connections' command). A sub-class,
526 gdb.RemoteTargetConnection, is used to represent 'remote' and
527 'extended-remote' connections.
529 ** The gdb.Inferior type now has a 'connection' property which is an
530 instance of gdb.TargetConnection, the connection used by this
531 inferior. This can be None if the inferior has no connection.
533 ** New 'gdb.events.connection_removed' event registry, which emits a
534 'gdb.ConnectionEvent' when a connection is removed from GDB.
535 This event has a 'connection' property, a gdb.TargetConnection
536 object for the connection being removed.
538 ** New gdb.connections() function that returns a list of all
539 currently active connections.
541 ** New gdb.RemoteTargetConnection.send_packet(PACKET) method. This
542 is equivalent to the existing 'maint packet' CLI command; it
543 allows a user specified packet to be sent to the remote target.
545 ** New function gdb.host_charset(), returns a string, which is the
546 name of the current host charset.
548 ** New gdb.set_parameter(NAME, VALUE). This sets the gdb parameter
551 ** New gdb.with_parameter(NAME, VALUE). This returns a context
552 manager that temporarily sets the gdb parameter NAME to VALUE,
553 then resets it when the context is exited.
555 ** The gdb.Value.format_string method now takes a 'styling'
556 argument, which is a boolean. When true, the returned string can
557 include escape sequences to apply styling. The styling will only
558 be present if styling is otherwise turned on in GDB (see 'help
559 set styling'). When false, which is the default if the argument
560 is not given, then no styling is applied to the returned string.
562 ** New read-only attribute gdb.InferiorThread.details, which is
563 either a string, containing additional, target specific thread
564 state information, or None, if there is no such additional
567 ** New read-only attribute gdb.Type.is_scalar, which is True for
568 scalar types, and False for all other types.
570 ** New read-only attribute gdb.Type.is_signed. This attribute
571 should only be read when Type.is_scalar is True, and will be True
572 for signed types, and False for all other types. Attempting to
573 read this attribute for non-scalar types will raise a ValueError.
575 ** It is now possible to add GDB/MI commands implemented in Python.
577 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
579 ** GDBserver is now supported on OpenRISC GNU/Linux.
581 * New native configurations
583 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
585 *** Changes in GDB 11
587 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
590 * GDB now supports general memory tagging functionality if the underlying
591 architecture supports the proper primitives and hooks. Currently this is
592 enabled only for AArch64 MTE.
596 - Additional information when the inferior crashes with a SIGSEGV caused by
597 a memory tag violation.
599 - A new modifier 'm' for the "x" command, which displays allocation tags for a
600 particular memory range.
602 - Display of memory tag mismatches by "print", for addresses and
603 pointers, if memory tagging is supported by the architecture.
605 * Building GDB now requires GMP (The GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic
610 ** '-break-insert --qualified' and '-dprintf-insert --qualified'
612 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
613 new "--qualified" option that makes GDB interpret a specified
614 function name as a complete fully-qualified name. This is the
615 equivalent of the CLI's "break -qualified" and "dprintf
618 ** '-break-insert --force-condition' and '-dprintf-insert --force-condition'
620 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
621 '--force-condition' flag to forcibly define a condition even when
622 the condition is invalid at all locations of the breakpoint. This
623 is equivalent to the '-force-condition' flag of the CLI's "break"
626 ** '-break-condition --force'
628 The MI -break-condition command now supports a '--force' flag to
629 forcibly define a condition even when the condition is invalid at
630 all locations of the selected breakpoint. This is equivalent to
631 the '-force' flag of the CLI's "cond" command.
633 ** '-file-list-exec-source-files [--group-by-objfile]
634 [--basename | --dirname]
637 The existing -file-list-exec-source-files command now takes an
638 optional REGEXP which is used to filter the source files that are
639 included in the results.
641 By default REGEXP is matched against the full filename of the
642 source file. When one of --basename or --dirname is given then
643 REGEXP is only matched against the specified part of the full
646 When the optional --group-by-objfile flag is used the output
647 format is changed, the results are now a list of object files
648 (executable and libraries) with the source files that are
649 associated with each object file.
651 The results from -file-list-exec-source-files now include a
652 'debug-fully-read' field which takes the value 'true' or 'false'.
653 A 'true' value indicates the source file is from a compilation
654 unit that has had its debug information fully read in by GDB, a
655 value of 'false' indicates GDB has only performed a partial scan
656 of the debug information so far.
658 * GDB now supports core file debugging for x86_64 Cygwin programs.
660 * GDB will now look for the .gdbinit file in a config directory before
661 looking for ~/.gdbinit. The file is searched for in the following
662 locations: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.config/gdb/gdbinit,
663 $HOME/.gdbinit. On Apple hosts the search order is instead:
664 $HOME/Library/Preferences/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.gdbinit.
666 * GDB now supports fixed point types which are described in DWARF
667 as base types with a fixed-point encoding. Additionally, support
668 for the DW_AT_GNU_numerator and DW_AT_GNU_denominator has also
671 For Ada, this allows support for fixed point types without requiring
672 the use of the GNAT encoding (based on information added to the type's
673 name following a GNAT-specific format).
675 * GDB will now load and process commands from ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit
676 or ~/.gdbearlyinit if these files are present. These files are
677 processed earlier than any of the other initialization files and
678 can affect parts of GDB's startup that previously had already been
679 completed before the initialization files were read, for example
680 styling of the initial GDB greeting.
682 * GDB now has two new options "--early-init-command" and
683 "--early-init-eval-command" with corresponding short options "-eix"
684 and "-eiex" that allow options (that would normally appear in a
685 gdbearlyinit file) to be passed on the command line.
687 * For RISC-V targets, the target feature "org.gnu.gdb.riscv.vector" is
688 now understood by GDB, and can be used to describe the vector
689 registers of a target. The precise requirements of this register
690 feature are documented in the GDB manual.
692 * For ARM targets, the "org.gnu.gdb.arm.m-profile-mve" feature is now
693 supported by GDB and describes a new VPR register from the ARM MVE
694 (Helium) extension. See the GDB manual for more information.
698 ** TUI windows now support mouse actions. The mouse wheel scrolls
699 the appropriate window.
701 ** Key combinations that do not have a specific action on the
702 focused window are passed to GDB. For example, you now can use
703 Ctrl-Left/Ctrl-Right to move between words in the command window
704 regardless of which window is in focus. Previously you would
705 need to focus on the command window for such key combinations to
711 show debug event-loop
712 Control the display of debug output about GDB's event loop.
714 set print memory-tag-violations
715 show print memory-tag-violations
716 Control whether to display additional information about memory tag violations
717 when printing pointers and addresses. Architecture support for memory
718 tagging is required for this option to have an effect.
720 maintenance flush symbol-cache
721 maintenance flush register-cache
722 These new commands are equivalent to the already existing commands
723 'maintenance flush-symbol-cache' and 'flushregs' respectively.
725 maintenance flush dcache
726 A new command to flush the dcache.
728 maintenance info target-sections
729 Print GDB's internal target sections table.
732 Print the JIT code objects in the inferior known to GDB.
734 memory-tag show-logical-tag POINTER
735 Print the logical tag for POINTER.
736 memory-tag with-logical-tag POINTER TAG
737 Print POINTER with logical tag TAG.
738 memory-tag show-allocation-tag ADDRESS
739 Print the allocation tag for ADDRESS.
740 memory-tag set-allocation-tag ADDRESS LENGTH TAGS
741 Set the allocation tag for [ADDRESS, ADDRESS + LENGTH) to TAGS.
742 memory-tag check POINTER
743 Validate that POINTER's logical tag matches the allocation tag.
745 set startup-quietly on|off
747 When 'on', this causes GDB to act as if "-silent" were passed on the
748 command line. This command needs to be added to an early
749 initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to
752 set print type hex on|off
754 When 'on', the 'ptype' command uses hexadecimal notation to print sizes
755 and offsets of struct members. When 'off', decimal notation is used.
757 set python ignore-environment on|off
758 show python ignore-environment
759 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to ignore any
760 environment variables that would otherwise affect how Python
761 behaves. This command needs to be added to an early initialization
762 file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to affect GDB.
764 set python dont-write-bytecode auto|on|off
765 show python dont-write-bytecode
766 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to not write any
767 byte-code (.pyc files) to disk. This command needs to be added to
768 an early initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in
769 order to affect GDB. When 'off' byte-code will always be written.
770 When set to 'auto' (the default) Python will check the
771 PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE environment variable.
775 break [PROBE_MODIFIER] [LOCATION] [thread THREADNUM]
776 [-force-condition] [if CONDITION]
777 This command would previously refuse setting a breakpoint if the
778 CONDITION expression is invalid at a location. It now accepts and
779 defines the breakpoint if there is at least one location at which
780 the CONDITION is valid. The locations for which the CONDITION is
781 invalid, are automatically disabled. If CONDITION is invalid at all
782 of the locations, setting the breakpoint is still rejected. However,
783 the '-force-condition' flag can be used in this case for forcing GDB to
784 define the breakpoint, making all the current locations automatically
785 disabled. This may be useful if the user knows the condition will
786 become meaningful at a future location, e.g. due to a shared library
789 condition [-force] N COND
790 The behavior of this command is changed the same way for the 'break'
791 command as explained above. The '-force' flag can be used to force
792 GDB into defining the condition even when COND is invalid for all the
793 current locations of breakpoint N.
796 maintenance flush-symbol-cache
797 These commands are deprecated in favor of the new commands
798 'maintenance flush register-cache' and 'maintenance flush
799 symbol-cache' respectively.
801 set style version foreground COLOR
802 set style version background COLOR
803 set style version intensity VALUE
804 Control the styling of GDB's version number text.
807 When the ID parameter is omitted, then this command prints information
808 about the current inferior. When the ID parameter is present, the
809 behavior of the command is unchanged and have the inferior ID become
810 the current inferior.
812 maintenance info sections
813 The ALLOBJ keyword has been replaced with an -all-objects command
814 line flag. It is now possible to filter which sections are printed
815 even when -all-objects is passed.
817 ptype[/FLAGS] TYPE | EXPRESSION
818 The 'ptype' command has two new flags. When '/x' is set, hexadecimal
819 notation is used when printing sizes and offsets of struct members.
820 When '/d' is set, decimal notation is used when printing sizes and
821 offsets of struct members. Default behavior is given by 'show print
825 The info sources command output has been restructured. The results
826 are now based around a list of objfiles (executable and libraries),
827 and for each objfile the source files that are part of that objfile
830 * Removed targets and native configurations
832 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
837 Request the remote to send allocation tags for a particular memory range.
839 Request the remote to store the specified allocation tags to the requested
844 ** Improved support for rvalue reference values:
845 TYPE_CODE_RVALUE_REF is now exported as part of the API and the
846 value-referenced-value procedure now handles rvalue reference
849 ** New procedures for obtaining value variants:
850 value-reference-value, value-rvalue-reference-value and
853 ** Temporary breakpoints can now be created with make-breakpoint and
854 tested for using breakpoint-temporary?.
858 ** Inferior objects now contain a read-only 'connection_num' attribute that
859 gives the connection number as seen in 'info connections' and
862 ** New method gdb.Frame.level() which returns the stack level of the
865 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.level() which returns the stack level
868 ** When hitting a catchpoint, the Python API will now emit a
869 gdb.BreakpointEvent rather than a gdb.StopEvent. The
870 gdb.Breakpoint attached to the event will have type BP_CATCHPOINT.
872 ** Python TUI windows can now receive mouse click events. If the
873 Window object implements the click method, it is called for each
874 mouse click event in this window.
876 *** Changes in GDB 10
878 * There are new feature names for ARC targets: "org.gnu.gdb.arc.core"
879 and "org.gnu.gdb.arc.aux". The old names are still supported but
880 must be considered obsolete. They will be deprecated after some
883 * Help and apropos commands will now show the documentation of a
884 command only once, even if that command has one or more aliases.
885 These commands now show the command name, then all of its aliases,
886 and finally the description of the command.
888 * 'help aliases' now shows only the user defined aliases. GDB predefined
889 aliases are shown together with their aliased command.
891 * GDB now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing ELF/DWARF
892 debugging information as well as source code.
894 When built with debuginfod, GDB can automatically query debuginfod
895 servers for the separate debug files and source code of the executable
898 To build GDB with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure (this
899 requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library).
901 debuginfod is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178.
903 You can get the latest version from https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
905 * Multi-target debugging support
907 GDB now supports debugging multiple target connections
908 simultaneously. For example, you can now have each inferior
909 connected to different remote servers running in different machines,
910 or have one inferior debugging a local native process, an inferior
911 debugging a core dump, etc.
913 This support is experimental and comes with some limitations -- you
914 can only resume multiple targets simultaneously if all targets
915 support non-stop mode, and all remote stubs or servers must support
916 the same set of remote protocol features exactly. See also "info
917 connections" and "add-inferior -no-connection" below, and "maint set
918 target-non-stop" in the user manual.
920 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
922 ** GDBserver is now supported on ARC GNU/Linux.
924 ** GDBserver is now supported on RISC-V GNU/Linux.
926 ** GDBserver no longer supports these host triplets:
937 i[34567]86-*-mingw32ce*
939 * Debugging MS-Windows processes now sets $_exitsignal when the
940 inferior is terminated by a signal, instead of setting $_exitcode.
942 * Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
943 that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
944 performance for programs with many symbols.
946 * The $_siginfo convenience variable now also works on Windows targets,
947 and will display the EXCEPTION_RECORD of the last handled exception.
949 * TUI windows can now be arranged horizontally.
951 * The command history filename can now be set to the empty string
952 either using 'set history filename' or by setting 'GDBHISTFILE=' in
953 the environment. The effect of setting this filename to the empty
954 string is that GDB will not try to load any previous command
957 * On Windows targets, it is now possible to debug 32-bit programs with a
962 set exec-file-mismatch -- Set exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
963 show exec-file-mismatch -- Show exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
964 Set or show the option 'exec-file-mismatch'. When GDB attaches to a
965 running process, this new option indicates whether to detect
966 a mismatch between the current executable file loaded by GDB and the
967 executable file used to start the process. If 'ask', the default,
968 display a warning and ask the user whether to load the process
969 executable file; if 'warn', just display a warning; if 'off', don't
970 attempt to detect a mismatch.
972 tui new-layout NAME WINDOW WEIGHT [WINDOW WEIGHT]...
973 Define a new TUI layout, specifying its name and the windows that
976 maintenance print xml-tdesc [FILE]
977 Prints the current target description as an XML document. If the
978 optional FILE is provided (which is an XML target description) then
979 the target description is read from FILE into GDB, and then
982 maintenance print core-file-backed-mappings
983 Prints file-backed mappings loaded from a core file's note section.
984 Output is expected to be similar to that of "info proc mappings".
986 set debug fortran-array-slicing on|off
987 show debug fortran-array-slicing
988 Print debugging when taking slices of Fortran arrays.
990 set fortran repack-array-slices on|off
991 show fortran repack-array-slices
992 When taking slices from Fortran arrays and strings, if the slice is
993 non-contiguous within the original value then, when this option is
994 on, the new value will be repacked into a single contiguous value.
995 When this option is off, then the value returned will consist of a
996 descriptor that describes the slice within the memory of the
997 original parent value.
1001 alias [-a] [--] ALIAS = COMMAND [DEFAULT-ARGS...]
1002 The alias command can now specify default args for an alias.
1003 GDB automatically prepends the alias default args to the argument list
1004 provided explicitly by the user.
1005 For example, to have a backtrace with full details, you can define
1006 an alias 'bt_ALL' as
1007 'alias bt_ALL = backtrace -entry-values both -frame-arg all
1008 -past-main -past-entry -full'.
1009 Alias default arguments can also use a set of nested 'with' commands,
1010 e.g. 'alias pp10 = with print pretty -- with print elem 10 -- print'
1011 defines the alias pp10 that will pretty print a maximum of 10 elements
1012 of the given expression (if the expression is an array).
1016 GNU/Linux/RISC-V (gdbserver) riscv*-*-linux*
1017 BPF bpf-unknown-none
1022 ** gdb.register_window_type can be used to implement new TUI windows
1025 ** Dynamic types can now be queried. gdb.Type has a new attribute,
1026 "dynamic", and gdb.Type.sizeof can be None for a dynamic type. A
1027 field of a dynamic type may have None for its "bitpos" attribute
1030 ** Commands written in Python can be in the "TUI" help class by
1031 registering with the new constant gdb.COMMAND_TUI.
1033 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.architecture () to retrieve the
1034 architecture of the pending frame.
1036 ** New gdb.Architecture.registers method that returns a
1037 gdb.RegisterDescriptorIterator object, an iterator that returns
1038 gdb.RegisterDescriptor objects. The new RegisterDescriptor is a
1039 way to query the registers available for an architecture.
1041 ** New gdb.Architecture.register_groups method that returns a
1042 gdb.RegisterGroupIterator object, an iterator that returns
1043 gdb.RegisterGroup objects. The new RegisterGroup is a way to
1044 discover the available register groups.
1048 ** GDB can now be built with GNU Guile 3.0 and 2.2 in addition to 2.0.
1050 ** Procedures 'memory-port-read-buffer-size',
1051 'set-memory-port-read-buffer-size!', 'memory-port-write-buffer-size',
1052 and 'set-memory-port-write-buffer-size!' are deprecated. When
1053 using Guile 2.2 and later, users who need to control the size of
1054 a memory port's internal buffer can use the 'setvbuf' procedure.
1056 *** Changes in GDB 9
1058 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
1060 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
1061 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
1062 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
1063 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
1064 such as in system-wide init files.
1066 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
1067 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
1068 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
1069 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
1070 current GDB settings.
1072 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
1073 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
1074 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
1075 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
1077 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
1078 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
1081 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
1082 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
1084 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
1085 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
1086 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
1088 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
1089 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
1092 * Command names can now use the . character.
1094 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
1096 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
1099 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
1101 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
1102 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
1104 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
1105 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
1106 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
1108 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
1110 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
1111 not visible in the current scope.
1113 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
1114 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
1115 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
1116 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
1117 compiled with support for that language.
1119 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
1120 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
1121 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
1125 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
1126 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
1127 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
1128 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
1129 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
1131 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
1132 type was defined in.
1134 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
1135 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
1136 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
1139 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
1140 symbols with static linkage.
1142 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
1143 all static symbols with static linkage.
1145 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
1146 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
1148 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
1149 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
1153 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
1154 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
1155 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
1156 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
1157 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
1158 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
1159 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
1161 define-prefix COMMAND
1162 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
1164 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
1165 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
1166 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
1167 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
1168 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
1169 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
1170 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
1171 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
1172 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
1173 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
1174 of array elements to print.
1176 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
1177 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
1179 set may-call-functions [on|off]
1180 show may-call-functions
1181 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
1182 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
1183 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
1184 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
1185 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
1186 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
1189 set print finish [on|off]
1191 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
1192 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
1193 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
1197 show print max-depth
1198 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
1199 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
1200 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
1201 the old behavior back.
1203 set print raw-values [on|off]
1204 show print raw-values
1205 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
1206 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
1207 of commands. The default is 'off'.
1209 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
1210 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
1211 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
1213 set style title foreground COLOR
1214 set style title background COLOR
1215 set style title intensity VALUE
1216 Control the styling of titles.
1218 set style highlight foreground COLOR
1219 set style highlight background COLOR
1220 set style highlight intensity VALUE
1221 Control the styling of highlightings.
1223 maint set worker-threads
1224 maint show worker-threads
1225 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
1226 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
1227 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
1228 the names of linker symbols.
1230 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
1231 set style tui-border background COLOR
1232 Control the styling of TUI borders.
1234 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
1235 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
1236 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
1238 maint set test-settings KIND
1239 maint show test-settings KIND
1240 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
1243 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
1244 maint show tui-resize-message
1245 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
1246 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
1249 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
1250 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
1251 show print frame-info
1252 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
1253 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
1254 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
1255 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
1257 set tui compact-source
1258 show tui compact-source
1260 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
1261 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
1262 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
1263 line numbers from the source.
1265 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
1266 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
1269 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
1270 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
1271 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
1272 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
1273 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
1274 matches against the function name.
1276 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
1277 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
1278 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
1279 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
1280 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
1281 against the variable name.
1283 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
1284 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
1285 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
1287 The default is 512 bytes.
1290 Lists the target connections currently in use.
1295 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
1296 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
1300 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
1301 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
1302 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
1303 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
1304 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
1308 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
1309 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
1310 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
1311 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
1313 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
1314 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
1315 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
1316 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
1320 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
1321 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
1322 the user visualize the different styles.
1324 set print frame-arguments
1325 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
1326 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
1328 set print raw-frame-arguments
1329 show print raw-frame-arguments
1331 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
1332 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
1333 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
1336 add-inferior [-no-connection]
1337 The add-inferior command now supports a "-no-connection" flag that
1338 makes the new inferior start with no target connection associated.
1339 By default, the new inferior inherits the target connection of the
1340 current inferior. See also "info connections".
1343 This command's output now includes a new "Connection" column
1344 indicating which target connection an inferior is bound to. See
1345 "info connections" above.
1347 maint test-options require-delimiter
1348 maint test-options unknown-is-error
1349 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
1350 maint show test-options-completion-result
1351 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
1354 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
1355 These commands are now case-sensitive.
1357 * New command options, command completion
1359 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
1360 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
1361 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
1362 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
1363 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
1364 number of commands got support for new command options in this
1367 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
1368 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
1369 set by "set print" subcommands:
1373 -array-indexes [on|off]
1374 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
1378 -raw-values [on|off]
1379 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
1380 -static-members [on|off]
1385 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
1386 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
1387 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
1388 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
1390 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
1391 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
1392 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
1394 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
1395 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
1396 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
1397 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
1398 |location-and-address|short-location
1400 -past-entry [on|off]
1402 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
1403 exposed as command options too:
1409 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
1410 support the following options:
1413 -past-entry [on|off]
1415 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
1416 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
1418 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
1419 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
1420 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
1423 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
1425 The above is equivalent to:
1427 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
1429 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
1430 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
1431 variables" and "info functions".
1433 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
1434 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
1435 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
1438 * Completion improvements
1440 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
1441 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
1444 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
1445 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
1448 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
1449 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
1450 completes on filenames.
1452 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
1453 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
1455 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
1457 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
1458 elements unlimited".
1463 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1464 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
1465 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
1467 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
1468 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
1469 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
1471 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
1472 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
1473 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
1475 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
1478 -symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
1479 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
1480 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
1484 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
1486 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
1487 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
1488 the following commands and events:
1492 - =breakpoint-created
1493 - =breakpoint-modified
1495 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
1496 this behavior with previous MI versions.
1498 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
1499 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
1500 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
1505 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
1506 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
1507 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
1508 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
1510 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
1512 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
1513 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
1515 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
1517 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
1518 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
1520 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
1521 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
1522 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
1524 * Removed targets and native configurations
1526 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
1527 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
1528 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
1534 * Removed targets and native configurations
1536 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
1537 sparc*-*-solaris2.10
1539 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
1541 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
1542 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
1545 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
1546 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
1547 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
1550 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
1553 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
1554 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
1555 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
1557 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
1558 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
1560 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
1561 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1562 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1563 in the GDB user manual.
1565 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
1568 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
1570 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
1571 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
1572 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
1573 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
1574 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
1575 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
1576 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
1577 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
1578 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
1579 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
1580 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
1581 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
1583 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
1584 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
1585 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
1588 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
1593 set debug compile-cplus-types
1594 show debug compile-cplus-types
1595 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
1596 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiling
1597 for other languages.
1601 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
1604 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
1605 Apply a command to some frames.
1606 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
1607 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
1610 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
1611 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
1614 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
1615 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
1618 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
1620 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
1622 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
1623 maint show dwarf unwinders
1624 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
1627 Display a list of open files for a process.
1631 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
1632 These commands all now take a frame specification which
1633 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
1634 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
1635 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
1636 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
1637 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
1639 target remote FILENAME
1640 target extended-remote FILENAME
1641 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
1642 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
1644 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1645 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1646 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1647 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1648 These commands can now print only the searched entities
1649 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
1650 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
1651 printing headers or informations messages.
1657 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
1658 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
1659 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
1662 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
1663 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
1664 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
1665 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
1667 set tui tab-width NCHARS
1668 show tui tab-width NCHARS
1669 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
1671 set style enabled [on|off]
1673 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
1674 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
1676 set style sources [on|off]
1678 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
1679 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
1680 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
1682 set style filename foreground COLOR
1683 set style filename background COLOR
1684 set style filename intensity VALUE
1685 Control the styling of file names.
1687 set style function foreground COLOR
1688 set style function background COLOR
1689 set style function intensity VALUE
1690 Control the styling of function names.
1692 set style variable foreground COLOR
1693 set style variable background COLOR
1694 set style variable intensity VALUE
1695 Control the styling of variable names.
1697 set style address foreground COLOR
1698 set style address background COLOR
1699 set style address intensity VALUE
1700 Control the styling of addresses.
1704 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
1705 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
1706 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
1707 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
1708 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
1710 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
1711 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
1713 * New native configurations
1715 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
1716 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
1720 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
1721 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
1722 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
1723 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
1725 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
1729 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
1734 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
1736 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
1737 space associated to that inferior.
1739 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
1740 of objfiles associated to that program space.
1742 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
1743 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
1746 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
1747 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
1748 correct and did not work properly.
1750 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
1751 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
1757 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
1758 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
1759 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
1760 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
1761 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
1763 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
1765 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
1766 for the MIPS target.
1768 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
1769 offset to all sections.
1771 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
1772 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
1773 address of individual sections using '-s'.
1775 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
1776 (address of the text section).
1778 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
1779 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
1780 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
1781 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
1784 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
1785 for the rest of the current command.
1787 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
1788 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
1790 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
1791 files created on FreeBSD systems.
1793 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
1796 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
1797 the vector length while the process is running.
1803 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
1805 set|show varsize-limit
1806 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
1807 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
1808 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
1810 set|show record btrace cpu
1811 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
1812 branch trace decode.
1814 maint check libthread-db
1815 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
1818 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
1819 maint show check-libthread-db
1820 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
1821 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
1822 perform such checks.
1826 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
1828 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
1829 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
1831 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
1833 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
1834 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
1835 of convenience variables.
1837 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
1838 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
1839 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
1843 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
1845 * Removed targets and native configurations
1847 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
1848 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
1849 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
1850 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
1852 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
1854 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
1855 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
1856 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
1857 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
1858 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
1859 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
1864 --enable-codesign=CERT
1865 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
1866 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
1867 gdb to work properly.
1869 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
1870 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
1872 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
1874 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
1875 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
1876 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
1878 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
1879 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
1881 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
1882 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
1883 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
1884 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
1885 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
1887 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
1888 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
1889 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
1890 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
1892 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
1893 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
1895 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
1896 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
1897 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
1899 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
1900 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
1901 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
1903 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
1904 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
1905 environment" command.
1907 * Completion improvements
1909 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
1910 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
1911 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
1912 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
1915 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
1916 (gdb) b function(int)
1918 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
1919 C++ anonymous namespaces:
1922 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
1923 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
1924 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
1926 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
1927 completion support, that better understands what you're
1928 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
1929 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
1930 setting a breakpoint.
1932 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
1934 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
1936 * New command line options (gcore)
1939 Dump all memory mappings.
1941 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
1943 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
1944 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
1945 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
1947 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
1952 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
1955 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
1956 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
1957 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
1958 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
1959 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
1960 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
1961 a breakpoint from Python.
1963 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1965 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1966 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
1967 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
1969 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
1971 function[abi:cxx11](int)
1974 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
1977 (gdb) b function(int)
1979 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
1981 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
1983 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
1987 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
1988 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
1989 description of these.
1991 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
1992 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
1993 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
1995 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
1996 manual for a further description of this feature.
1999 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2001 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
2002 specified initial working directory.
2004 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
2005 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
2007 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
2008 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
2010 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
2011 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
2013 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
2014 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
2015 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
2016 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
2017 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
2019 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
2020 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
2021 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
2023 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
2024 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
2025 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
2026 in the *stopped notification.
2028 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
2029 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
2031 * New remote packets
2033 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
2034 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
2035 the inferior when starting it.
2038 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
2039 before starting the remote inferior.
2042 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
2043 user-set environment variables should be unset).
2046 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
2049 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
2052 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
2053 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
2055 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
2056 filter the tests to be run.
2058 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
2059 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
2064 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
2066 set|show compile-gcc
2067 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
2068 with the 'compile' commands.
2070 set debug separate-debug-file
2071 show debug separate-debug-file
2072 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
2074 set dump-excluded-mappings
2075 show dump-excluded-mappings
2076 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
2077 dumped when generating a core file.
2079 maint info selftests
2080 List the registered selftests.
2083 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
2086 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
2088 set|show print type nested-type-limit
2089 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
2090 type printer will show.
2092 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
2095 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
2097 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
2100 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
2101 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
2102 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
2103 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
2105 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
2106 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
2107 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
2108 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
2109 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
2110 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
2112 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
2113 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
2114 unless you tell it the variable's type:
2117 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
2121 * New native configurations
2123 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
2124 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
2128 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
2129 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
2130 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
2132 * Removed targets and native configurations
2134 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
2136 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
2138 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
2139 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
2140 available in future Intel CPUs.
2142 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
2146 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
2147 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
2149 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
2152 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
2154 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
2156 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
2157 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
2160 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
2162 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
2163 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
2165 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
2167 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
2168 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
2169 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
2170 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
2173 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
2175 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
2176 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
2179 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
2181 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
2182 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
2184 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
2186 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
2191 eval "print $arg%d", $i
2196 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
2198 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
2199 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
2201 * New native configurations
2203 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
2207 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
2208 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
2210 * Removed targets and native configurations
2212 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2213 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
2218 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
2220 maint print arc arc-instruction address
2221 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
2225 set disassembler-options
2226 show disassembler-options
2227 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
2228 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
2229 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
2230 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
2231 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
2236 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
2237 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
2239 -file-list-shared-libraries
2240 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
2241 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
2244 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
2245 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
2247 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
2249 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
2251 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
2252 default. One must now explicitly configure with
2253 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
2254 option will be removed in a future release.
2256 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
2259 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
2260 memory backward from the given address. For example:
2263 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
2264 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
2265 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
2266 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
2267 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
2268 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
2269 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
2270 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
2271 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
2273 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
2274 arrays of dynamic types.
2276 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
2277 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
2278 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
2279 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
2280 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
2281 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
2283 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
2286 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
2287 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
2288 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
2290 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
2292 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
2293 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
2294 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
2295 signal received and code location.
2299 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
2300 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
2301 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
2302 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
2304 * Rust language support.
2305 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
2306 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
2309 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
2311 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
2312 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
2313 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
2314 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
2315 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
2316 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
2317 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
2318 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
2319 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
2320 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
2323 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
2325 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
2326 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
2331 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
2332 skip -function function
2333 skip -rfunction regular-expression
2334 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
2335 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
2336 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
2338 maint info line-table REGEXP
2339 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data structure.
2342 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
2345 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
2346 using the TTY file for input/output.
2350 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
2351 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
2352 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
2353 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
2354 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
2356 signal-event EVENTID
2357 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
2358 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
2359 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
2360 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
2361 signalling an event.
2363 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
2364 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
2365 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
2367 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
2370 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
2371 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
2372 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
2373 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
2374 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
2375 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
2377 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
2378 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
2379 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
2380 bytecode into native code.
2382 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
2383 recording. For example:
2385 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
2387 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
2389 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
2393 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
2395 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
2397 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
2399 * Per-inferior thread numbers
2401 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
2402 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
2403 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
2407 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
2408 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
2409 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
2410 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
2412 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
2413 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
2414 are no longer unique between inferiors.
2416 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
2417 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
2418 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
2420 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
2423 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
2424 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
2427 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
2430 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
2431 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
2432 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
2433 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
2436 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
2439 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
2442 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
2445 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
2446 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
2449 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
2450 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
2452 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
2454 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
2456 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
2457 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
2459 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
2460 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
2463 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2464 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
2467 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
2468 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
2471 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2473 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
2474 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
2475 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
2477 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
2478 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
2482 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
2483 maint show target-non-stop
2484 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
2485 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
2486 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
2488 maint set bfd-sharing
2489 maint show bfd-sharing
2490 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
2493 show debug bfd-cache
2494 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
2498 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
2500 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
2501 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
2502 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
2504 set remote thread-events
2505 show remote thread-events
2506 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
2508 set ada print-signatures on|off
2509 show ada print-signatures"
2510 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
2511 selection menus. It is activated (@code{on}) by default.
2515 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
2516 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
2517 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
2519 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
2520 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
2521 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
2522 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
2523 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
2524 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
2526 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
2527 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
2529 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
2530 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
2532 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
2534 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
2535 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
2536 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
2537 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
2538 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
2539 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
2541 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
2542 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
2545 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
2547 * New remote packets
2550 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
2552 exec-events feature in qSupported
2553 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
2554 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
2555 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
2556 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
2559 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
2562 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
2563 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
2565 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
2566 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
2569 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
2570 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
2571 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
2572 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
2573 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
2574 stop for that same thread.
2577 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
2578 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
2579 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
2582 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
2583 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
2585 syscall_entry stop reason
2586 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
2588 syscall_return stop reason
2589 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
2591 * Extended-remote exec events
2593 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
2594 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
2595 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
2597 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
2598 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
2599 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
2601 * Thread names in remote protocol
2603 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
2606 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
2608 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
2609 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
2610 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
2611 fork and exec catchpoints.
2613 * Remote syscall events
2615 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
2616 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
2618 set remote catch-syscall-packet
2619 show remote catch-syscall-packet
2620 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
2624 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
2625 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
2630 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
2631 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
2632 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
2633 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
2634 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
2635 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
2637 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
2639 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
2640 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
2641 including advance SIMD instructions.
2643 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
2645 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
2646 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
2647 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
2648 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
2649 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
2650 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
2651 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
2653 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2655 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
2657 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
2658 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
2661 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
2662 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
2663 and may include things like its command line arguments.
2665 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
2666 is now available on all platforms.
2668 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
2669 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
2670 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
2671 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
2672 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
2673 backward compatibility.
2675 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
2676 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
2677 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
2678 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
2680 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
2681 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
2682 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
2683 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
2686 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
2688 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
2690 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
2691 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
2692 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
2693 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
2694 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
2695 See "New remote packets" below.
2697 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
2698 available register groups, including target specific groups.
2700 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
2701 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
2702 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
2703 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
2708 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
2712 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
2713 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
2714 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
2715 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
2716 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
2717 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
2718 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
2719 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
2720 "const" version of the value respectively.
2724 maint print symbol-cache
2725 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
2727 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
2728 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
2730 maint flush-symbol-cache
2731 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
2735 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
2738 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
2742 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
2745 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
2746 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
2750 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
2753 Print information about branch tracing internals.
2755 maint btrace packet-history
2756 Print the raw branch tracing data.
2758 maint btrace clear-packet-history
2759 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
2762 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
2763 anew by the next "record" command.
2768 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
2769 show debug dwarf-die
2770 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
2772 set debug dwarf-read
2773 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
2774 show debug dwarf-read
2775 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
2777 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
2778 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
2779 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
2780 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
2782 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
2783 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
2784 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
2785 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
2787 set debug dwarf-line
2788 show debug dwarf-line
2789 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
2792 show max-completions
2793 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
2794 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
2795 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
2796 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
2798 set history remove-duplicates
2799 show history remove-duplicates
2800 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
2802 maint set symbol-cache-size
2803 maint show symbol-cache-size
2804 Control the size of the symbol cache.
2806 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
2807 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
2809 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
2810 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
2812 set debug linux-namespaces
2813 show debug linux-namespaces
2814 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
2816 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
2817 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
2818 Intel Processor Trace format.
2819 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
2820 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
2822 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
2823 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
2826 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
2827 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
2829 * Python/Guile scripting
2831 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
2832 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
2834 * New remote packets
2836 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
2837 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
2839 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
2840 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
2843 Enable Intel Processor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
2844 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
2847 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
2848 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
2852 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
2853 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
2854 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
2858 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
2859 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
2862 Return information about files on the remote system.
2864 qXfer:exec-file:read
2865 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
2866 create a process running on the remote system.
2869 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
2870 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
2871 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
2872 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
2875 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
2878 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
2880 vforkdone stop reason
2881 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
2882 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
2884 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
2885 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
2886 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
2887 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
2888 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
2889 whether these features are enabled.
2891 * Extended-remote fork events
2893 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
2894 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
2895 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
2896 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
2898 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
2899 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
2900 the btrace record target.
2901 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
2903 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
2904 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
2906 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
2909 * Removed command line options
2911 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
2913 * Removed targets and native configurations
2915 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
2916 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2918 * New configure options
2921 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
2922 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
2924 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
2925 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
2926 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
2927 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
2929 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
2933 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
2935 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
2937 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
2941 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
2942 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
2943 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
2944 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
2945 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
2946 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
2947 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
2948 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
2949 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
2950 selecting a new file to debug.
2951 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
2952 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
2954 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
2957 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
2958 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
2959 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
2960 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
2962 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2964 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2965 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2966 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2967 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2969 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
2970 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
2971 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
2972 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
2973 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
2974 interface with this new feature are:
2976 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
2977 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
2981 demangle [-l language] [--] name
2982 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
2983 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
2984 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
2985 as "maint demangler-warning".
2987 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
2988 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
2990 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
2991 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
2994 maint print user-registers
2995 List all currently available "user" registers.
2997 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
2998 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
2999 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
3001 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
3002 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
3003 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
3006 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
3007 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
3008 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
3009 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
3012 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
3013 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
3014 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
3015 switched threads meanwhile.
3017 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
3019 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
3020 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
3021 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
3022 is now the default mode.
3026 set debug symbol-lookup
3027 show debug symbol-lookup
3028 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
3032 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
3033 inferiors that have exited.
3037 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
3041 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
3043 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
3044 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
3045 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
3046 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
3047 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
3049 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
3050 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
3051 its alias "share", instead.
3053 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
3055 * New command line options
3058 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
3060 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
3061 as specified in ISO C99.
3063 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
3064 with or without disassembly.
3068 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
3069 available is determined at configure time.
3070 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
3071 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
3073 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3077 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
3081 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
3083 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
3084 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
3086 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
3087 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
3091 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
3092 show print symbol-loading
3093 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
3094 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
3095 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
3096 becomes less useful.
3098 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
3099 show guile print-stack
3100 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
3102 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
3103 show auto-load guile-scripts
3104 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
3106 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
3107 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
3108 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
3109 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
3110 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
3111 usage of this option.
3113 set auto-connect-native-target
3115 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
3116 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
3117 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
3119 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
3120 show record btrace replay-memory-access
3121 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
3123 maint set target-async (on|off)
3124 maint show target-async
3125 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
3126 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
3127 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
3128 occurring only in synchronous mode.
3130 set mi-async (on|off)
3132 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
3133 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
3135 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
3136 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
3138 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
3139 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
3140 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
3141 "set target-async on" command.
3143 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3145 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
3146 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
3147 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
3148 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
3149 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
3151 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
3152 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
3153 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
3155 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
3156 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
3157 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
3158 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
3159 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
3160 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
3161 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
3163 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
3164 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
3166 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
3167 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
3168 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
3170 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
3171 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
3172 memory or registers.
3174 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
3176 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
3177 remote. It now works with all targets.
3179 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
3180 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
3181 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
3182 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
3183 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
3184 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
3185 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
3186 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
3187 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
3190 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
3191 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
3192 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
3194 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
3196 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
3197 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
3198 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
3200 * New remote packets
3202 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
3203 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
3204 branch trace incrementally.
3208 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
3209 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
3211 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
3212 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
3213 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
3214 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
3215 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
3218 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
3220 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
3221 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
3222 its alias "share", instead.
3224 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
3225 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
3230 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
3231 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
3232 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
3233 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
3234 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
3235 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
3236 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
3237 commands and CLI execution commands.
3239 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
3241 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
3242 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
3243 recording has been added.
3245 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
3247 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
3248 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
3250 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
3251 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
3252 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
3253 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
3254 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
3255 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
3258 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
3260 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
3262 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
3263 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
3264 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
3265 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
3270 (gdb) info registers rax
3273 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
3274 "*value not available*".
3276 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
3281 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
3282 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
3283 ** Line tables representation has been added.
3284 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
3285 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
3286 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
3290 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
3291 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
3292 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
3294 * Removed native configurations
3296 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
3297 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
3299 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3300 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3301 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
3302 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
3303 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3304 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3305 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3309 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
3310 maint check-psymtabs
3311 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
3313 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
3314 maint expand-symtabs
3315 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
3318 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
3320 maint set|show per-command
3321 maint set|show per-command space
3322 maint set|show per-command time
3323 maint set|show per-command symtab
3324 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
3326 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
3327 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
3328 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
3329 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
3330 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
3333 info exceptions REGEXP
3334 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
3335 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
3340 set debug symfile off|on
3342 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
3343 symbol tables within those files
3345 set print raw frame-arguments
3346 show print raw frame-arguments
3347 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
3348 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
3350 set remote trace-status-packet
3351 show remote trace-status-packet
3352 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
3356 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
3360 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
3362 set startup-with-shell
3363 show startup-with-shell
3364 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
3369 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
3370 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
3372 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
3373 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
3374 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
3375 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
3378 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
3379 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
3380 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
3382 * New command-line options
3384 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
3386 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
3387 buffer in Common Trace Format.
3389 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
3392 * GDB now implements the C++ 'typeid' operator.
3394 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
3395 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
3397 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
3398 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
3400 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
3401 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
3402 due to an uncaught signal.
3406 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
3407 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
3408 command, which should contain "language-option".
3410 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
3411 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
3413 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
3414 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
3415 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
3416 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
3417 "undefined-command-error-code".
3419 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
3422 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
3424 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
3425 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
3428 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
3429 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
3431 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
3432 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
3433 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
3435 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
3436 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
3437 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
3438 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
3439 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
3440 "exec-run-start-option".
3442 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
3443 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
3445 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
3446 the new "info exceptions" command.
3448 * New system-wide configuration scripts
3449 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
3450 configuration scripts for the following systems:
3454 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
3455 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
3456 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
3459 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
3460 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
3462 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
3463 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
3464 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
3466 * New remote packets
3470 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
3471 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
3472 involvemement at each single-step.
3474 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
3475 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
3476 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
3477 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
3478 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
3479 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
3482 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3484 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
3485 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
3487 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
3488 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
3489 trace state variables.
3491 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
3494 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
3495 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
3497 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
3499 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
3500 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
3501 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
3502 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3504 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
3506 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
3507 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
3508 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
3509 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
3511 set|show record full insn-number-max
3512 set|show record full stop-at-limit
3513 set|show record full memory-query
3515 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
3516 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
3517 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
3518 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
3519 This new recording method can be enabled using:
3523 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
3524 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
3526 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
3527 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
3528 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
3530 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
3531 instruction granularity
3533 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
3534 function granularity
3536 * New native configurations
3538 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
3539 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
3540 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
3541 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
3545 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
3546 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
3547 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
3548 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
3549 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
3551 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
3552 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
3553 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
3554 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
3555 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
3556 --data-directory command-line option.
3558 * New command line options:
3560 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
3561 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
3563 * Removed command line options
3565 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
3568 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
3571 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
3575 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
3577 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
3579 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
3581 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
3583 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
3584 of architecture in the Python API.
3586 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
3587 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
3589 * New Python-based convenience functions:
3591 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
3592 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
3594 ** $_regex(str, regex)
3596 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
3599 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
3600 default for GCC since November 2000.
3602 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
3604 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
3605 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
3607 * New configure options
3609 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
3610 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
3611 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
3612 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
3613 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
3614 options allow the user to override that default.
3615 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
3616 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
3617 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
3619 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3622 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
3623 conditions to be attached.
3626 List the BFDs known to GDB.
3628 python-interactive [command]
3630 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
3631 and print the result of expressions.
3634 "py" is a new alias for "python".
3636 enable type-printer [name]...
3637 disable type-printer [name]...
3638 Enable or disable type printers.
3642 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
3643 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
3648 set print type methods (on|off)
3649 show print type methods
3650 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
3651 The default is to show them.
3653 set print type typedefs (on|off)
3654 show print type typedefs
3655 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
3656 The default is to show them.
3658 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
3659 show filename-display
3660 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
3661 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
3663 set trace-buffer-size
3664 show trace-buffer-size
3665 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
3667 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
3668 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
3669 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
3673 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
3676 set debug coff-pe-read
3677 show debug coff-pe-read
3678 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
3683 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
3686 set debug notification
3687 show debug notification
3688 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
3692 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
3693 "=cmd-param-changed".
3694 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
3695 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
3696 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
3697 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
3698 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
3699 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
3700 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
3701 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
3703 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
3704 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
3705 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
3706 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
3707 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
3708 library load/unload events.
3709 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
3710 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
3711 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
3712 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
3713 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
3714 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
3715 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
3716 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
3718 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
3719 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
3720 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
3721 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
3723 * New remote packets
3726 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
3727 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3730 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
3731 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
3735 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
3736 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3739 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
3740 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3742 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
3744 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
3745 for more x32 ABI info.
3747 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
3749 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
3751 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
3752 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
3753 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
3754 "info os files" lists file descriptors
3755 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
3756 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
3757 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
3758 "info os msg" lists message queues
3759 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
3761 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
3762 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
3763 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
3764 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
3765 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
3766 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
3768 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
3769 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
3770 record/replay support.
3772 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
3776 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
3779 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
3781 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
3782 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
3784 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
3786 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
3787 the source at which the symbol was defined.
3789 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
3790 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
3791 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
3794 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
3795 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
3797 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
3798 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
3799 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
3801 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
3802 object associated with a PC value.
3804 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
3805 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
3807 * Go language support.
3808 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
3811 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
3812 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
3814 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
3815 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
3817 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
3818 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
3819 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
3820 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
3821 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
3824 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
3825 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
3826 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
3827 build/libcpp/expr.c.
3829 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
3830 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
3832 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
3833 since December 2007.
3835 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
3836 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
3837 command does. For instance:
3839 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
3841 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
3842 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
3843 created, using the "condition" command.
3845 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
3846 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
3848 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
3850 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
3851 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
3852 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
3853 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
3854 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
3855 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
3856 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
3857 files with older .gdb_index sections.
3859 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
3860 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
3861 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
3862 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
3863 the .gdb_index section.
3865 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
3867 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
3872 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
3874 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
3878 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
3879 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
3880 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
3882 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
3883 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
3885 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
3888 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
3889 C++ and Java objects.
3891 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
3892 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
3893 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
3894 configured with '--with-python'.
3896 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
3897 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
3898 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
3899 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
3900 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
3901 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
3902 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
3904 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
3905 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
3906 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
3907 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
3909 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
3910 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
3911 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
3912 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
3914 ** "set print symbol"
3916 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
3917 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
3918 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
3920 * Deprecated commands
3922 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
3923 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
3927 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3928 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
3930 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
3931 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
3932 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
3933 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
3938 set mips compression
3939 show mips compression
3940 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
3941 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
3944 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
3946 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
3947 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
3948 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
3949 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
3951 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
3955 Disable auto-loading globally.
3958 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
3960 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
3961 show auto-load gdb-scripts
3962 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
3964 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
3965 show auto-load python-scripts
3966 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
3968 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
3969 show auto-load local-gdbinit
3970 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
3972 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
3973 show auto-load libthread-db
3974 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
3976 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3977 show auto-load scripts-directory
3978 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
3979 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
3980 of the directories listed by this option.
3981 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3983 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3984 show auto-load safe-path
3985 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
3986 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3988 set debug auto-load on|off
3989 show debug auto-load
3990 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
3992 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
3994 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
3995 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
3996 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
3997 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
3999 set dprintf-function <expr>
4000 show dprintf-function
4001 set dprintf-channel <expr>
4002 show dprintf-channel
4003 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
4004 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
4006 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
4007 show disconnected-dprintf
4008 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
4009 after GDB disconnects.
4011 * New configure options
4013 --with-auto-load-dir
4014 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
4015 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
4016 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
4017 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
4018 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
4020 --with-auto-load-safe-path
4021 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
4022 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
4024 --without-auto-load-safe-path
4025 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
4028 * New remote packets
4030 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
4032 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
4033 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
4034 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
4035 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
4039 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
4040 program without GDB involvement.
4042 * New command line options
4044 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
4045 before loading inferior.
4046 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
4047 execute it before loading inferior.
4049 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
4051 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
4052 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
4053 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
4054 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
4057 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
4058 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
4060 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
4061 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
4062 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
4063 target hardware watchpoint.
4065 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
4066 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
4067 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
4068 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
4072 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
4073 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
4076 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
4077 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
4078 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
4079 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
4080 now "message", which just prints the error message without
4083 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
4086 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
4087 modules library. This module provides functionality for
4088 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
4089 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
4090 corresponding value.
4092 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
4093 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
4094 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
4097 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
4098 static_block will return the global and static blocks
4099 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
4100 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
4102 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
4104 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
4107 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
4108 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
4109 available in the CLI.
4111 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
4112 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
4113 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
4114 "some_type.items()".
4116 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
4119 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
4120 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
4121 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
4122 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
4123 any anonymous fields.
4127 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
4130 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
4131 "=breakpoint-modified".
4133 ** New command -ada-task-info.
4135 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
4136 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
4137 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
4140 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
4141 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
4142 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
4143 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
4144 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
4146 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
4147 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
4149 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
4150 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
4151 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
4152 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
4153 use this option to specify where to find it.
4155 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
4156 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
4157 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
4158 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
4159 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
4160 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
4161 section in the user manual for more details.
4163 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
4164 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
4165 become available after that.
4167 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
4169 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
4170 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
4176 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
4177 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
4181 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
4182 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
4183 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
4185 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
4186 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
4187 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
4189 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
4190 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
4191 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
4192 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
4193 name starts with a hyphen.
4195 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
4196 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
4197 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
4198 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
4199 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
4200 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
4201 number of bytes that will be collected.
4204 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
4205 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
4206 setting the variable trace-notes.
4209 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
4210 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
4211 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
4214 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
4215 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
4216 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
4217 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
4218 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
4221 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
4222 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
4223 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
4227 set debug dwarf2-read
4228 show debug dwarf2-read
4229 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
4230 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
4232 set debug symtab-create
4233 show debug symtab-create
4234 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
4235 creation. The default is off.
4238 show extended-prompt
4239 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
4240 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
4241 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
4242 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
4243 prompt is displayed.
4245 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
4246 show print entry-values
4247 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
4248 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
4249 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
4251 set debug entry-values
4252 show debug entry-values
4253 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
4254 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
4256 set basenames-may-differ
4257 show basenames-may-differ
4258 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
4259 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
4260 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
4261 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
4262 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
4263 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
4264 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
4265 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
4271 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
4272 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
4273 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
4274 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
4276 set trace-stop-notes
4277 show trace-stop-notes
4278 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
4279 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
4280 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
4281 started by someone else.
4283 * New remote packets
4287 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
4291 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
4295 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
4299 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
4303 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
4306 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
4307 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
4311 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
4315 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
4317 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
4319 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
4321 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
4323 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
4324 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
4325 matches the given regular expression.
4327 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
4329 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
4330 dumping the instruction opcodes.
4332 * New command line options
4334 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
4335 This is mostly for testing purposes.
4337 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
4338 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
4340 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
4341 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
4342 source path list instead of augmenting it.
4344 * GDB now understands thread names.
4346 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
4347 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
4349 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
4350 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
4353 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
4354 has been integrated into GDB.
4358 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
4359 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
4360 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
4362 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
4363 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
4364 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
4365 and allows for more dynamic content.
4367 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
4368 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
4369 have an is_valid method.
4371 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
4372 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
4373 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
4375 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
4377 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
4378 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
4379 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
4380 that function like so:
4382 result = some_value (10,20)
4384 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
4385 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
4386 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
4388 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
4389 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
4390 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
4391 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
4392 New function: register_pretty_printer.
4394 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
4395 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
4397 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
4399 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
4402 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
4403 holds the thread's name.
4405 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
4406 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
4407 occurring in the process being debugged.
4408 The following events are currently supported:
4409 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
4410 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
4411 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
4415 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
4416 instantiation. For example, if you have:
4418 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
4420 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
4421 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
4422 was added to GCC 4.5.
4424 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
4425 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
4426 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
4427 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
4428 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
4429 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
4431 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
4432 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
4433 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
4434 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
4435 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
4437 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
4438 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
4439 execution to a label.
4441 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
4442 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
4443 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
4444 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
4446 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
4447 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
4448 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
4451 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
4453 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
4454 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
4455 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
4456 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
4457 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
4458 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
4461 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
4463 While now you see this:
4466 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
4468 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
4471 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
4472 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
4473 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
4474 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
4476 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
4477 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
4478 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
4479 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
4480 section in the user manual for more details.
4482 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
4484 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
4485 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
4487 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
4489 * New native configurations
4491 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
4495 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
4497 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
4498 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
4499 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
4500 in the GDB user manual.
4502 * Guile support was removed.
4504 * New features in the GNU simulator
4506 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
4508 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
4510 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
4512 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
4514 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
4515 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
4516 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
4517 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
4518 was always disabled for such configurations.
4522 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
4524 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
4525 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
4535 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
4536 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
4537 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
4539 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
4541 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
4542 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
4543 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
4544 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
4546 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
4547 mentioned flavors of operators.
4549 ** static const class members
4551 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
4552 class definition has been fixed.
4554 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
4556 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
4557 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
4558 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
4559 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
4560 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
4561 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
4563 * Static tracepoints
4565 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
4566 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
4567 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
4568 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
4569 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
4570 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
4571 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
4572 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
4573 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
4574 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
4575 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
4576 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
4577 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
4578 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
4579 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
4580 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
4581 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
4582 the "New remote packets" section below.
4584 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
4586 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
4587 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
4588 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
4589 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
4593 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
4594 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
4595 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
4596 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
4597 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
4598 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
4599 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
4601 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
4604 * New remote packets
4608 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
4612 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
4613 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
4614 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
4615 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
4616 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
4617 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
4621 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
4625 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
4628 qXfer:statictrace:read
4630 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
4631 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
4632 to gdb's qSupported query.
4636 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
4640 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
4641 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
4643 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
4644 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
4647 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
4649 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
4650 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
4651 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
4652 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
4654 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
4655 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
4656 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
4657 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
4658 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
4659 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
4660 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
4662 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
4663 for static tracepoints support.
4665 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
4667 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
4668 it understands register description.
4670 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
4672 * X86 general purpose registers
4674 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
4675 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
4676 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
4677 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
4678 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
4680 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
4681 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
4682 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
4683 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
4684 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
4685 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
4687 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
4688 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
4689 in the specified file.
4691 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
4692 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
4693 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
4694 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
4695 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
4696 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
4697 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
4698 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
4699 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
4700 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
4704 eval template, expressions...
4705 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
4706 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
4708 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
4709 show target-file-system-kind
4710 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
4713 save breakpoints <filename>
4714 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
4715 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
4716 definitions, use the `source' command.
4718 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
4721 info static-tracepoint-markers
4722 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
4724 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
4725 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
4726 function, line, address, or marker ID.
4730 Enable and disable observer mode.
4732 set may-write-registers on|off
4733 set may-write-memory on|off
4734 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
4735 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
4736 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
4737 set may-interrupt on|off
4738 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
4739 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
4740 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
4741 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
4742 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
4743 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
4744 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
4746 set record memory-query on|off
4747 show record memory-query
4748 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
4749 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
4754 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
4758 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
4759 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
4760 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
4761 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
4762 GDB using Python' in the manual.
4764 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
4765 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
4766 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
4767 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
4769 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
4770 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
4772 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
4774 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
4776 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
4778 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
4779 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
4780 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
4782 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
4783 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
4784 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
4785 regular breakpoints.
4789 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
4791 * D language support.
4792 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
4795 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
4796 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
4797 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
4798 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
4799 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
4801 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
4802 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
4803 conditions of the form:
4805 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
4807 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
4808 interface mentioned above.
4810 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
4814 ** Namespace Support
4816 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
4817 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
4818 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
4819 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
4820 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
4824 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
4825 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
4830 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
4831 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
4835 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
4840 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
4843 * Multi-program debugging.
4845 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
4846 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
4847 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
4848 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
4849 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
4850 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
4851 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
4852 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
4854 * New tracing features
4856 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
4858 ** Trace state variables
4860 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
4861 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
4862 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
4863 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
4864 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
4865 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
4866 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
4867 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
4868 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
4869 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
4873 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
4874 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
4875 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
4876 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
4877 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
4878 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
4879 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
4880 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
4881 the regular trace command.
4883 ** Disconnected tracing
4885 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
4886 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
4887 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
4888 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
4889 connection is lost unexpectedly.
4893 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
4894 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
4895 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
4896 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
4897 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
4898 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
4901 ** Circular trace buffer
4903 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
4904 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
4905 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
4906 not be available for all target agents.
4911 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
4912 the arguments to be comma-separated.
4915 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
4916 which only declare a variable are not shown.
4919 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
4920 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
4923 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
4924 "set script-extension" (see below).
4926 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4928 record save [<FILENAME>]
4929 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
4930 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
4932 record restore <FILENAME>
4933 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
4934 earlier time, for replay debugging.
4936 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
4939 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
4940 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
4941 inferior has loaded.
4946 maint info program-spaces
4947 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
4949 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
4950 show remote interrupt-sequence
4951 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
4952 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
4953 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
4954 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
4955 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
4957 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
4958 show remote interrupt-on-connect
4959 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
4960 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
4963 set remotebreak [on | off]
4965 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
4967 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
4968 Create or modify a trace state variable.
4971 List trace state variables and their values.
4973 delete tvariable $NAME ...
4974 Delete one or more trace state variables.
4977 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
4978 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
4980 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
4981 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
4983 * New expression syntax
4985 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
4986 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
4990 set follow-exec-mode new|same
4991 show follow-exec-mode
4992 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
4993 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
4994 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
4996 set default-collect EXPR, ...
4997 show default-collect
4998 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
4999 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
5000 such as registers or a critical global variable.
5002 set disconnected-tracing
5003 show disconnected-tracing
5004 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
5005 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
5008 set circular-trace-buffer
5009 show circular-trace-buffer
5010 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
5011 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
5012 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
5013 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
5015 set script-extension off|soft|strict
5016 show script-extension
5017 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
5018 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
5019 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
5020 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
5022 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
5024 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
5025 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
5026 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
5027 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
5028 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
5029 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
5030 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
5033 * Python API Improvements
5035 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
5036 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
5037 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
5039 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
5040 `is_base_class' attribute.
5042 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
5044 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
5045 evaluate an expression.
5047 * New remote packets
5050 Define a trace state variable.
5053 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
5056 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
5059 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
5062 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
5066 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
5068 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
5069 much more reliable. In particular:
5070 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
5071 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
5072 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
5073 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
5074 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
5075 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
5076 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
5077 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
5078 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
5079 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
5080 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
5081 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
5082 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
5083 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
5084 non-threaded programs.
5086 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
5087 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
5088 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
5091 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
5093 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
5094 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
5095 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
5096 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
5097 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
5099 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
5100 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
5101 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
5102 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
5103 for tracepoint actions.
5105 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
5106 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
5107 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
5109 * Process record and replay
5111 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
5112 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
5113 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
5116 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
5117 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
5118 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
5121 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
5122 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
5125 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
5126 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
5127 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
5128 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
5129 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
5130 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
5131 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
5132 the installation instructions for more information.
5134 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
5135 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
5136 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
5137 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
5139 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
5140 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
5142 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
5143 now complete on file names.
5145 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
5146 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
5147 For instance, consider:
5149 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
5150 # struct example variable;
5153 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
5154 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
5156 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
5157 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
5159 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
5160 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
5163 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
5164 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
5165 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
5167 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
5168 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
5169 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
5170 and simulator targets may also provide them.
5172 * New remote packets
5175 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
5178 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
5179 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
5180 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
5183 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
5184 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
5187 Obtains additional operating system information
5191 Read or write additional signal information.
5193 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
5195 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
5196 packet that permitted the stub to pass a process id was removed.
5197 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
5199 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
5200 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
5202 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
5203 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
5204 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
5206 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
5207 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
5209 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
5211 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
5213 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
5214 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
5216 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote protocol packet now allows passing a
5217 list of section offsets.
5219 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
5220 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
5221 have also been fixed.
5223 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
5224 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
5225 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
5227 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
5230 template<typename T> class C { };
5233 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
5235 ptype C<char const *>
5236 ptype C<char const*>
5237 ptype C<const char *>
5238 ptype C<const char*>
5240 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
5242 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
5243 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
5245 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
5246 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
5247 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
5249 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
5250 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
5252 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
5255 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
5256 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
5258 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
5259 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
5264 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
5265 available is determined at configure time.
5267 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
5269 * Ada tasking support
5271 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
5275 Print the list of Ada tasks.
5277 Print detailed information about task number N.
5279 Print the task number of the current task.
5281 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
5283 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
5284 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
5286 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
5288 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
5289 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
5290 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
5291 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
5292 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
5293 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
5296 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
5297 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
5300 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
5301 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
5302 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
5303 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
5306 * Multi-architecture debugging.
5308 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
5309 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
5310 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
5311 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
5312 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
5314 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
5315 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
5316 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
5317 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
5318 --enable-targets configure option.
5320 * Non-stop mode debugging.
5322 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
5323 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
5324 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
5325 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
5326 section in the user manual for more information.
5328 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
5329 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
5330 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
5331 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
5332 extensions on linux targets.
5334 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
5336 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
5337 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
5338 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
5339 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
5340 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
5341 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
5342 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
5343 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
5344 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
5346 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
5348 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
5350 maint set python print-stack
5351 maint show python print-stack
5352 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
5355 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
5360 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
5364 Show operating system information about processes.
5367 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
5370 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
5373 Detach from inferior number NUM.
5376 Kill inferior number NUM.
5380 set spu stop-on-load
5381 show spu stop-on-load
5382 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
5384 set spu auto-flush-cache
5385 show spu auto-flush-cache
5386 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
5387 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
5389 set sh calling-convention
5390 show sh calling-convention
5391 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
5394 show debug timestamp
5395 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
5397 set disassemble-next-line
5398 show disassemble-next-line
5399 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
5402 set remote noack-packet
5403 show remote noack-packet
5404 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
5405 under "New remote packets."
5407 set remote query-attached-packet
5408 show remote query-attached-packet
5409 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
5411 set remote read-siginfo-object
5412 show remote read-siginfo-object
5413 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
5416 set remote write-siginfo-object
5417 show remote write-siginfo-object
5418 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
5421 set remote reverse-continue
5422 show remote reverse-continue
5423 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
5425 set remote reverse-step
5426 show remote reverse-step
5427 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
5429 set displaced-stepping
5430 show displaced-stepping
5431 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
5432 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
5433 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
5436 show debug displaced
5437 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
5439 maint set internal-error
5440 maint show internal-error
5441 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
5443 maint set internal-warning
5444 maint show internal-warning
5445 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
5450 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
5452 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
5453 show multiple-symbols
5454 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
5455 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
5456 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
5458 set breakpoint always-inserted
5459 show breakpoint always-inserted
5460 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
5461 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
5462 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
5464 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
5465 show arm fallback-mode
5466 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
5468 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
5469 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
5470 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
5471 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
5473 set arm unwind-secure-frames
5474 Enable unwinding from Non-secure to Secure mode on Cortex-M with
5476 This can trigger security exceptions when unwinding exception stacks.
5478 set disable-randomization
5479 show disable-randomization
5480 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
5481 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
5482 multiple debugging sessions.
5486 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
5491 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
5492 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
5493 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
5494 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
5496 set target-wide-charset
5497 show target-wide-charset
5498 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
5499 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
5501 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
5503 set tcp connect-timeout
5504 show tcp connect-timeout
5505 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
5506 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
5507 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
5509 set libthread-db-search-path
5510 show libthread-db-search-path
5511 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
5514 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
5515 show schedule-multiple
5516 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
5517 the current process.
5521 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
5522 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
5523 affecting correctness.
5525 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
5526 show interactive-mode
5527 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
5528 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
5529 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
5530 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
5531 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
5536 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
5537 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
5538 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
5542 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
5543 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
5544 alias for the `fork' command.
5547 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
5548 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
5549 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
5552 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
5553 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
5554 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
5558 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
5559 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
5560 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
5563 * New native configurations
5565 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
5567 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
5571 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
5572 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
5573 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5576 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
5577 (mingw32ce) debugging.
5583 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
5585 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
5587 * New native configurations
5589 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
5590 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
5594 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
5595 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
5597 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5599 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
5600 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
5601 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
5602 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
5604 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
5605 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
5607 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
5610 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
5611 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
5612 and in inlined functions.
5614 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
5615 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
5616 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
5618 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
5620 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
5621 registers on PowerPC targets.
5623 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
5624 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
5626 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
5627 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
5629 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
5630 extended-remote mode.
5632 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
5633 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
5634 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
5635 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
5637 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
5638 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
5639 target architectures.
5641 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
5642 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
5643 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
5644 stored in two consecutive float registers.
5646 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
5649 * Improved support for debugging Ada
5650 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
5652 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
5653 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
5654 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
5655 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
5657 - Improved command completion in Ada
5660 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
5665 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
5666 show print frame-arguments
5667 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
5668 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
5673 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
5680 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
5682 * New remote packets
5689 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
5692 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
5696 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
5698 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
5700 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
5701 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
5702 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
5704 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
5705 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
5706 -Bsymbolic linker option.
5708 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
5709 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
5712 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
5713 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
5715 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
5716 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
5718 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
5720 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
5721 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
5722 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
5724 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
5725 automatically displayed as character or string data.
5727 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
5728 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
5731 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
5732 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
5733 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
5735 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
5738 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
5739 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
5740 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
5742 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
5744 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
5746 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
5747 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
5748 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
5750 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
5751 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
5753 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
5754 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
5755 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
5756 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
5757 Windows and SymbianOS).
5759 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
5760 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
5762 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
5763 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
5769 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
5770 when debugging using remote targets.
5772 set mem inaccessible-by-default
5773 show mem inaccessible-by-default
5774 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
5775 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
5776 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
5777 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
5778 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
5780 set breakpoint auto-hw
5781 show breakpoint auto-hw
5782 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
5783 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
5784 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
5785 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
5786 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
5787 including "next" and "finish".
5790 catch exception unhandled
5791 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
5794 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
5798 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
5799 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
5800 an alias to "set sysroot".
5803 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
5804 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
5807 * New native configurations
5809 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
5812 unset tdesc filename
5814 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
5815 not query the target for its built-in description.
5819 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
5820 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
5821 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
5823 * New remote packets
5826 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
5827 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
5829 qXfer:features:read:
5830 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
5835 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
5836 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
5838 qXfer:libraries:read:
5839 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
5840 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
5841 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
5842 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
5846 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
5854 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
5855 i[34567]86-*-netware*
5856 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
5857 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
5859 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
5862 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
5863 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
5872 * Other removed features
5879 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
5886 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
5891 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
5892 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
5897 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
5898 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
5900 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
5902 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
5903 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
5904 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
5905 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
5907 MIPS ".pdr" sections
5909 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
5910 in debugging information.
5914 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
5915 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
5917 set mips stack-arg-size
5918 set mips saved-gpreg-size
5920 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
5922 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
5927 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
5929 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
5930 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
5931 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
5933 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
5934 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
5937 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
5938 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
5940 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
5941 stub provides the required support.
5943 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
5944 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
5949 unset substitute-path
5950 show substitute-path
5951 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
5952 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
5953 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
5954 between compilation and debugging.
5958 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
5959 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
5960 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
5964 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
5966 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
5967 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
5969 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
5971 * New remote packets
5974 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
5975 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
5976 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
5977 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
5981 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
5982 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
5984 qXfer:memory-map:read:
5985 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
5986 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
5991 Erase and program a flash memory device.
5993 * Removed remote packets
5996 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
5997 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
5999 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
6003 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
6005 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
6009 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
6010 only if it doesn't already have a value.
6012 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
6014 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
6016 restart <n> Return the program state to a
6017 previously saved state.
6019 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
6021 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
6023 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
6024 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
6026 info forks List forks of the user program that
6027 are available to be debugged.
6029 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
6030 forks of the user program that are
6031 available to be debugged.
6033 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
6034 that are available to be debugged (and
6035 kill the forked process).
6037 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
6038 that are available to be debugged (and
6039 allow the process to continue).
6043 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
6045 * Improved Windows host support
6047 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
6048 native console support, and remote communications using either
6049 network sockets or serial ports.
6051 * Improved Modula-2 language support
6053 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
6054 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
6055 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
6056 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
6057 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
6058 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
6062 The ARM rdi-share module.
6064 The Netware NLM debug server.
6066 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
6068 * New native configurations
6070 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
6071 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
6075 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
6077 * New command line options
6079 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
6080 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
6081 the child (debugged) program exited with.
6082 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
6083 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
6084 specified multiple times and in conjunction
6085 with the --command (-x) option.
6087 * Deprecated commands removed
6089 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
6093 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
6094 othernames set arm disassembler
6095 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
6096 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
6097 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
6100 * New BSD user-level threads support
6102 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
6103 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
6106 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
6107 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
6108 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
6110 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
6111 are not yet supported.
6113 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
6114 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
6116 * REMOVED configurations and files
6118 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
6119 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
6120 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
6122 * New "set print array-indexes" command
6124 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
6125 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
6128 * VAX floating point support
6130 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
6132 * User-defined command support
6134 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
6135 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
6136 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
6138 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
6140 * New command line option
6142 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
6145 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
6147 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
6148 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
6149 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
6150 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
6151 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
6153 * Internationalization
6155 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
6156 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
6157 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
6161 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
6162 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
6163 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
6165 * New native configurations
6167 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
6171 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
6172 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
6174 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
6176 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
6177 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
6178 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
6181 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the registers[]
6182 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
6183 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
6193 powerpc bdm protocol
6195 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
6196 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
6198 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6200 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6201 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6202 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6203 permanently REMOVED.
6212 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
6214 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
6216 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
6217 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
6220 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
6222 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
6223 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
6224 IRIX long double values).
6228 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
6229 command. This problem has been fixed.
6231 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
6233 * Fix for ``many threads''
6235 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
6236 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
6239 ptrace: No such process.
6240 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
6242 This problem has been fixed.
6244 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
6246 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
6249 * New ``start'' command.
6251 This command runs the program until the beginning of the main procedure.
6253 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
6255 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
6256 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
6257 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
6259 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
6260 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
6261 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
6262 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
6263 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
6264 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
6265 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
6266 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
6267 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
6269 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
6271 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
6272 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
6273 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
6274 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
6275 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
6277 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
6278 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
6279 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
6281 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
6283 * New native configurations
6285 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
6286 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
6287 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
6288 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
6289 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6290 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
6291 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6293 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
6295 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
6296 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
6297 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
6298 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
6299 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
6300 work, was also included.
6302 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
6303 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
6313 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
6314 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
6316 * REMOVED configurations and files
6318 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
6319 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
6320 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
6321 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
6322 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
6323 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
6324 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
6325 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
6326 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
6327 sonymips mips-sony-*
6328 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
6330 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
6332 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
6334 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
6335 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
6336 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
6337 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
6340 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
6342 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
6343 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
6344 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
6345 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
6346 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
6347 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
6350 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
6352 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
6354 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
6355 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
6356 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
6358 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
6360 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
6361 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
6363 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
6365 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
6366 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
6367 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
6369 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
6371 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
6372 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
6374 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
6376 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
6377 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
6378 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
6380 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
6382 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
6383 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
6384 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
6386 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
6388 * Removed --with-mmalloc
6390 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
6391 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
6393 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
6395 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
6396 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
6397 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
6398 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
6400 * Revised SPARC target
6402 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
6403 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
6404 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
6405 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
6406 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
6410 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
6411 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
6412 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
6415 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
6417 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
6418 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
6421 * C++ nested types and namespaces
6423 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
6424 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
6425 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
6426 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
6427 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
6428 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
6429 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
6430 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
6431 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
6433 * New native configurations
6435 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
6436 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
6437 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
6438 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
6439 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
6441 * New debugging protocols
6443 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
6445 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
6447 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
6448 and its very obscure effect on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
6449 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
6451 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6453 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6454 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6455 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6456 permanently REMOVED.
6458 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
6459 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
6460 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
6461 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
6462 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
6463 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
6464 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
6465 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
6466 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
6467 sonymips mips-sony-*
6468 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
6470 * REMOVED configurations and files
6472 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6473 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6474 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6475 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6476 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6477 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
6478 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6479 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
6480 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
6481 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
6482 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
6483 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
6484 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
6485 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
6486 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
6487 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6488 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6490 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
6494 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
6495 integrated into GDB.
6497 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
6499 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
6500 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
6501 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
6504 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
6505 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
6506 DWARF 2 CFI support.
6510 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
6511 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
6512 remote protocol documentation for details.
6514 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
6516 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
6517 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
6518 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
6521 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
6523 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
6524 per-thread variables.
6526 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
6528 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
6529 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
6531 * Separate debug info.
6533 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
6534 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
6535 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
6536 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
6537 and optional debug files.
6539 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
6541 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
6542 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
6545 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
6546 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
6550 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
6551 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
6552 considered "useable".
6554 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
6556 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
6557 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
6560 * GDB supports logging output to a file
6562 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
6563 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
6565 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
6567 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
6568 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
6571 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
6573 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
6574 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
6578 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
6579 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
6580 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
6581 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
6582 data, for more informative profiling results.
6584 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
6586 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
6587 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
6588 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
6590 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
6593 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
6594 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
6595 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
6596 in a subsequent -var-update.
6598 * New native configurations.
6600 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
6602 * Multi-arched targets.
6604 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
6605 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6607 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6609 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6610 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6611 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6612 permanently REMOVED.
6614 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6615 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6616 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6617 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
6618 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6619 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
6620 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
6621 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
6622 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
6623 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
6624 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6625 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6627 * REMOVED configurations and files
6630 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6631 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
6632 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
6633 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
6634 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
6635 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
6637 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
6638 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6639 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6640 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6641 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6642 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6644 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
6646 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
6647 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
6648 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
6649 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
6650 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
6652 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
6654 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
6656 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
6657 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
6658 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
6659 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
6660 shared libs like mad''.
6662 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6664 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
6665 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
6666 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
6667 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6669 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
6671 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
6672 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
6675 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
6676 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
6678 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
6679 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
6681 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
6682 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
6683 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
6684 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
6686 * Multi-arched targets.
6688 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
6689 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
6691 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
6692 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
6693 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
6697 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
6700 * New native configurations
6702 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
6703 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
6704 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
6705 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
6707 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6709 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6710 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6711 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6712 permanently REMOVED.
6714 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6715 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6716 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
6717 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6718 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6719 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6720 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
6721 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
6722 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
6723 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
6725 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
6726 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6728 * OBSOLETE languages
6730 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
6732 * REMOVED configurations and files
6734 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
6735 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6736 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6737 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6738 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6740 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
6742 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
6744 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
6745 commands. The default is 1024.
6747 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
6749 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
6751 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
6753 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
6754 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
6755 from a file into memory (restore).
6757 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
6759 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
6760 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
6761 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
6763 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
6771 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
6772 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
6773 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
6775 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
6776 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
6777 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
6779 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
6780 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
6781 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
6783 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
6784 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
6785 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
6787 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
6789 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
6791 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
6792 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
6793 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
6794 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
6795 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
6796 (notably embedded) targets.
6798 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
6800 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
6801 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
6802 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
6803 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
6805 * New command line option
6807 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
6809 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
6811 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
6812 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
6813 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
6814 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
6815 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
6816 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
6817 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
6818 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
6819 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
6820 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
6822 * Changes in ARM configurations.
6824 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
6825 configuration is fully multi-arch.
6827 * New native configurations
6829 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
6830 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
6831 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
6832 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
6836 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
6838 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6840 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6841 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6842 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6843 permanently REMOVED.
6845 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
6846 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6847 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6848 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6849 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6851 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
6853 * REMOVED configurations and files
6855 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6857 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6858 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6859 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
6860 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
6861 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
6862 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
6863 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
6864 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
6865 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
6866 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
6867 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
6869 * Changes to command line processing
6871 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
6872 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
6874 * Changes to key bindings
6876 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
6878 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
6880 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
6882 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
6885 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
6887 Numerous documentation fixes.
6889 Numerous testsuite fixes.
6891 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
6893 * New native configurations
6895 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
6896 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
6897 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
6898 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6899 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
6900 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
6904 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
6906 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
6908 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6910 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
6911 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
6912 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
6913 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
6914 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6916 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
6917 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6918 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6919 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
6920 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
6921 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
6922 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
6923 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
6925 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
6926 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
6928 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6929 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6930 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6931 permanently REMOVED.
6933 * REMOVED configurations and files
6935 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6936 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6938 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6942 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
6944 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
6945 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
6950 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
6952 * The MI enabled by default.
6954 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
6955 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
6956 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
6957 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
6958 which is now deprecated.
6960 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
6962 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
6963 main features are supported:
6965 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
6967 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
6970 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
6972 - a Pascal expression parser.
6974 However, some important features are not yet supported.
6976 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
6978 - there are some problems with boolean types;
6980 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
6981 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
6983 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
6985 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
6987 * Changes in completion.
6989 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
6990 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
6991 users expect at the shell prompt.
6993 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
6994 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
6995 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
6996 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
6997 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
6998 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
6999 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
7001 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
7003 * New platform-independent commands:
7005 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
7006 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
7007 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
7009 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
7011 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
7012 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
7013 many threads as your system allows you to have.
7015 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
7017 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
7018 multi-threaded programs though.
7020 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
7022 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
7024 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
7025 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
7028 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
7030 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
7031 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
7032 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
7033 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
7034 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
7037 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
7038 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
7039 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
7041 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
7043 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
7044 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
7046 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
7047 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
7050 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
7051 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
7052 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
7053 a given linear address.
7055 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
7056 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
7057 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
7059 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
7061 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
7063 * Changes in documentation.
7065 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
7066 Documentation License.
7068 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
7071 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
7073 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
7076 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
7077 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
7078 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
7080 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
7082 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
7083 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
7084 contents of this file.
7088 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
7090 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7092 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
7094 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
7095 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
7096 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
7097 greater level of detail.
7099 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
7101 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
7102 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
7103 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
7106 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
7108 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
7109 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
7110 machines ``out of the box''.
7112 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
7113 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
7114 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
7115 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
7116 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
7118 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
7119 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
7120 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
7121 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
7122 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
7124 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
7125 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
7128 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
7131 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
7132 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
7133 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
7134 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
7136 * New native configurations
7138 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
7139 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
7143 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
7144 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
7145 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7146 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7148 * OBSOLETE configurations
7150 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
7151 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
7153 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
7156 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
7157 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
7158 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
7159 be permanently REMOVED.
7161 * Gould support removed
7163 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
7165 * New features for SVR4
7167 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
7168 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
7169 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
7171 * Many C++ enhancements
7173 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
7174 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
7176 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
7178 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
7179 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
7180 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
7181 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
7183 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
7184 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
7186 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
7188 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
7189 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
7190 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
7192 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
7193 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
7195 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
7197 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
7198 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
7199 include ``set remote P-packet''.
7201 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
7203 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
7204 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
7205 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
7207 * ``apropos'' command added.
7209 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
7210 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
7211 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
7215 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
7216 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7217 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
7218 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
7219 enabled by configuring with:
7221 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
7223 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
7225 * New native configurations
7227 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
7228 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
7229 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
7233 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7234 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
7235 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
7237 * OBSOLETE configurations
7239 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
7241 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
7242 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
7243 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
7244 be permanently REMOVED.
7248 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
7249 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
7250 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
7251 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
7252 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
7254 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
7259 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
7261 * set extension-language
7263 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
7264 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
7265 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
7266 set extension-language .c c++
7267 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
7268 and their associated languages.
7270 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
7272 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
7273 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
7274 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
7278 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
7279 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
7281 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
7282 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
7284 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
7285 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
7286 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
7287 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
7288 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
7289 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
7290 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
7291 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
7293 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
7294 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
7295 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
7296 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
7300 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
7301 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
7302 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
7303 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
7304 for xdb and dbx commands.
7308 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
7309 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
7310 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
7312 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
7313 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
7314 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
7316 * Debugging across forks
7318 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
7323 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
7324 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
7325 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
7327 * GDB remote protocol additions
7329 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
7330 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
7331 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
7332 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
7334 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
7335 full 64-bit address. The command
7337 set remoteaddresssize 32
7339 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
7340 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
7343 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
7344 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
7346 maint packet heythere
7348 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
7349 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
7352 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
7353 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
7354 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
7356 * Tracing can collect general expressions
7358 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
7359 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
7360 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
7362 * mask-address variable for Mips
7364 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
7365 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
7366 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
7368 * Higher serial baud rates
7370 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
7371 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
7372 to achieve all of these rates.)
7376 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
7377 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
7380 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
7382 * New native configurations
7384 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
7385 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
7386 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
7387 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
7388 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
7389 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
7390 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
7394 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
7395 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
7396 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
7397 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
7398 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
7399 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
7400 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
7401 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
7402 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
7403 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7404 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
7406 * New debugging protocols
7408 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
7409 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
7410 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
7411 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
7412 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
7413 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
7417 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
7418 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
7423 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
7424 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
7426 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
7428 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
7429 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
7430 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
7432 * Live range splitting
7434 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
7435 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
7436 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
7440 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
7441 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
7445 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
7446 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
7447 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
7452 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
7457 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
7458 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
7459 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
7460 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
7461 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
7462 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
7466 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
7467 the symbol at the specified address.
7471 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
7472 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
7473 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
7474 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
7475 file tracepoint.c for more details.
7479 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
7480 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
7481 of most MIPS variants.
7485 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
7486 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
7487 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
7491 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
7492 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
7493 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
7494 the possible architectures.
7496 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
7498 * New native configurations
7500 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
7501 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
7502 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
7503 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
7504 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
7505 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
7509 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
7510 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
7511 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
7512 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
7513 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
7515 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7519 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
7520 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
7521 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
7522 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
7523 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
7527 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
7529 * Windows 95/NT native
7531 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
7532 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
7533 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
7534 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
7535 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
7537 * dont-repeat command
7539 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
7540 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
7541 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
7542 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
7544 * Send break instead of ^C
7546 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
7547 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
7548 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
7550 * Remote protocol timeout
7552 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
7553 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
7554 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
7556 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
7558 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
7559 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
7560 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
7561 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
7562 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
7564 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
7565 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
7566 automatically on hpux10.
7568 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
7570 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
7572 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
7574 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
7575 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
7576 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
7577 every character. The default value is 1050.
7579 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
7581 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
7582 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
7583 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
7584 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
7585 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
7586 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
7588 * Speedups for remote debugging
7590 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
7591 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
7592 and more efficient S-record downloading.
7594 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
7596 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
7597 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
7599 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
7601 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
7603 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
7604 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
7606 * Remote targets use caching
7608 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
7609 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
7610 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
7611 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
7612 off' turns the data cache off.
7614 * Remote targets may have threads
7616 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
7617 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
7618 gdb/remote.c for details.
7622 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
7623 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
7624 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
7625 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
7626 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
7627 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
7628 sequence is something like
7630 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
7632 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
7636 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
7637 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
7638 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
7639 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
7640 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
7641 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
7642 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
7643 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
7647 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
7648 but does simplify configuration and building.
7652 GDB now supports hpux10.
7654 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
7656 * New native configurations
7658 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
7659 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
7660 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
7661 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
7665 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
7666 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
7667 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
7668 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
7671 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
7673 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
7674 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
7675 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
7676 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
7677 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
7679 * Arguments to user-defined commands
7681 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
7682 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
7685 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
7687 To execute the command use:
7690 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
7691 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
7692 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
7694 * New `if' and `while' commands
7696 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
7697 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
7698 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
7699 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
7700 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
7701 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
7702 if the expression is zero.
7704 * Fortran source language mode
7706 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
7707 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
7708 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
7709 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
7712 * Better HPUX support
7714 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
7715 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
7716 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
7717 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
7718 that behavior do the following before running the program:
7724 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
7725 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
7731 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
7732 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
7735 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
7736 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
7738 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
7740 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
7741 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
7742 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
7743 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
7744 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
7745 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
7747 * New DOS host serial code
7749 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
7750 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
7753 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
7755 * New "complete" command
7757 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
7758 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
7760 * Trailing space optional in prompt
7762 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
7763 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
7765 * Breakpoint hit counts
7767 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
7768 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
7769 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
7770 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
7771 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
7774 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
7776 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
7777 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
7778 arrays actually contain only short strings.
7780 * Shared library breakpoints
7782 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
7783 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
7785 * Hardware watchpoints
7787 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
7788 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
7790 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
7794 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
7795 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
7797 * Improved Irix 5 support
7799 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
7801 * Improved HPPA support
7803 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
7805 * New native configurations
7807 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
7808 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
7809 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
7810 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
7814 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
7815 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
7818 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
7820 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
7821 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
7825 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
7826 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
7828 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
7830 * Irix 5 is now supported
7834 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
7835 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
7836 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
7837 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
7838 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
7841 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
7843 * User visible changes:
7847 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
7848 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
7849 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
7850 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
7851 debugging info for the mips target).
7853 * DEC Alpha native support
7855 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
7856 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
7857 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
7858 Alpha-specific notes.
7860 * Preliminary thread implementation
7862 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
7864 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
7866 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
7867 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
7870 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
7872 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
7873 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
7874 call methods, ...etc.
7876 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
7878 * User visible changes:
7880 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
7881 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
7882 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
7883 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
7885 Filename completion now works.
7887 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
7888 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
7889 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
7891 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
7892 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
7893 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
7894 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
7895 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
7899 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
7900 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
7903 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
7907 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
7908 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
7909 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
7913 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
7914 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
7915 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
7916 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
7917 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
7921 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
7922 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
7923 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
7925 * New targets supported
7927 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7928 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
7929 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
7930 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
7931 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
7933 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
7934 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
7935 GO32 memory extender.
7937 * New remote protocols
7939 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
7941 * New source languages supported
7943 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
7944 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
7945 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
7948 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
7950 * HP Precision Architecture supported
7952 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
7953 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
7954 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
7955 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
7956 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
7957 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
7959 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
7961 * Faster and better demangling
7963 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
7964 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
7965 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
7966 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
7967 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
7968 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
7971 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
7972 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
7973 compiler does not actually implement.
7975 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
7977 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
7978 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
7979 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
7980 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
7981 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
7982 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
7985 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
7986 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
7988 * Improved configure script
7990 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
7991 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
7992 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
7993 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
7995 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
7996 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
7997 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
7998 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
7999 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
8000 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
8002 * Documentation improvements
8004 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
8005 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
8006 before submitting changes.
8008 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
8009 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
8010 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
8011 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
8012 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
8014 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
8015 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
8016 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
8017 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
8018 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
8019 around this problem.
8023 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
8024 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
8025 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
8028 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
8029 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
8031 * New native hosts supported
8033 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
8034 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
8036 * New targets supported
8038 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
8040 * New file formats supported
8042 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
8043 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
8047 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
8049 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
8050 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
8052 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
8053 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
8054 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
8056 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
8057 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
8059 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
8060 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
8061 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
8064 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
8065 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
8066 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
8067 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
8068 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
8070 * Internal improvements
8072 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
8073 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
8075 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
8076 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
8077 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
8078 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
8079 shared code that handles any of them.
8081 * New command line options
8083 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
8087 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
8088 General Public License.
8090 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
8092 * Host/native/target split
8094 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
8095 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
8096 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
8097 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
8098 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
8100 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
8101 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
8102 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
8103 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
8104 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
8105 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
8106 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
8108 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
8109 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
8110 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
8112 * New hosts supported
8114 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
8115 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
8116 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
8118 * New targets supported
8120 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
8121 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
8123 * New native hosts supported
8125 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
8126 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
8127 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
8129 * New file formats supported
8131 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
8132 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
8133 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
8137 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
8138 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
8139 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
8141 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
8143 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
8144 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
8145 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
8146 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
8150 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
8151 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
8152 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
8154 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
8158 The crash that occurred when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
8159 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
8162 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
8163 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
8165 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
8166 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
8167 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
8168 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
8169 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
8170 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
8172 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
8173 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
8174 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
8175 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
8179 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
8180 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
8181 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
8182 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
8183 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
8185 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
8186 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
8187 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
8188 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
8192 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
8193 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
8194 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
8195 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
8196 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
8197 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
8198 each instruction being stepped through.
8200 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
8201 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
8203 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
8204 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
8205 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
8206 processor with a serial port.
8210 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
8211 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
8212 supported, and what files each one uses.
8216 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
8217 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
8218 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
8219 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
8221 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
8222 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
8223 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
8224 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
8228 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
8229 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
8230 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
8231 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
8232 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
8235 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
8238 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
8240 * Better support for C++ function names
8242 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
8243 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
8244 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
8245 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
8246 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
8248 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
8249 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
8250 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
8251 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
8252 for the list of formats.
8254 * G++ symbol mangling problem
8256 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
8257 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
8258 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
8259 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compiling gdb/symtab.c. The
8260 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
8261 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
8264 * New 'maintenance' command
8266 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
8267 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
8268 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
8270 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
8271 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
8272 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
8273 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
8274 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
8275 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
8277 The following commands are new:
8279 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
8280 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
8281 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
8283 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
8285 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
8286 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
8287 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
8288 read after argv processing.
8290 * New hosts supported
8292 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
8294 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
8296 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
8297 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
8298 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
8299 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
8300 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
8303 * New targets supported
8305 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
8307 * More smarts about finding #include files
8309 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
8310 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
8311 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
8312 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
8313 the one that contains your sources.
8315 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
8316 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
8317 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
8319 * Interesting infernals change
8321 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
8322 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
8323 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
8324 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
8326 * Bug fixes (of course!)
8328 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
8329 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
8330 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
8332 See the ChangeLog for details.
8334 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
8336 * New machines supported (host and target)
8338 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
8340 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
8342 * New malloc package
8344 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
8345 Mmalloc is capable of handling multiple heaps of memory. It is also
8346 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
8347 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
8348 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
8349 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
8353 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
8354 'help info proc' for details.
8356 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
8358 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
8359 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
8362 * File name changes for MS-DOS
8364 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
8365 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
8366 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
8367 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
8368 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
8369 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
8371 * Cross byte order fixes
8373 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
8374 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
8376 * New -mapped and -readnow options
8378 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
8379 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
8380 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
8381 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
8382 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
8383 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
8384 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
8385 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
8386 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
8387 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
8389 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
8390 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
8391 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
8392 slower, but makes future operations faster.
8394 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
8395 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
8396 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
8399 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
8401 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
8402 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
8403 shared across multiple host platforms.
8405 * longjmp() handling
8407 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
8408 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
8409 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
8410 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
8414 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
8415 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
8420 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
8421 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
8422 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
8424 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
8426 * New machines supported (host and target)
8428 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
8430 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
8431 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
8433 * New machines supported (target)
8435 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
8439 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
8440 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
8441 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
8443 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
8444 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
8445 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
8446 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
8447 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
8450 * New features for SVR4
8452 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
8453 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
8454 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
8456 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
8457 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
8458 it prints the address mappings of the process.
8460 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
8463 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
8465 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
8466 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
8467 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
8468 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
8469 same code linked statically.
8473 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
8474 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
8475 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
8476 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
8477 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
8478 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
8482 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
8483 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
8484 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
8487 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
8489 * New machines supported (host and target)
8491 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
8492 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
8493 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
8495 * Almost SCO Unix support
8497 We had hoped to support:
8498 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
8499 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
8500 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
8501 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
8503 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
8505 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
8506 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
8507 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
8513 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
8514 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
8515 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
8519 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
8520 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
8521 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
8523 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
8525 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
8526 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
8527 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
8529 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
8530 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
8531 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
8532 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
8535 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
8536 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
8537 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
8538 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
8541 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
8542 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
8545 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
8546 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
8547 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
8550 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
8552 * Improved configuration
8554 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
8555 Porting BFD is simpler.
8559 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
8560 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
8561 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
8562 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
8566 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
8568 * New host supported (not target)
8570 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
8573 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
8575 * Multiple source language support
8577 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
8578 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
8579 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
8580 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
8581 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
8582 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
8586 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
8587 currently under development at the State University of New York at
8588 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
8589 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
8591 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
8592 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
8593 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
8595 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
8596 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
8600 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
8601 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
8602 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
8603 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
8606 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
8608 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
8609 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
8610 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
8611 examining core files.
8615 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
8618 * New machines supported (host and target)
8620 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
8621 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
8622 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
8624 * New hosts supported (not targets)
8626 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
8628 * New targets supported (not hosts)
8630 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
8631 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
8632 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
8634 * New remote interfaces
8640 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
8644 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
8646 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
8647 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
8648 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
8649 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
8650 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
8651 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
8652 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
8653 stub on the target system.
8655 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
8657 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
8658 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
8659 object file types such as a.out and coff.
8661 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
8662 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
8665 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
8667 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
8668 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
8670 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
8671 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
8672 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
8674 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
8675 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
8676 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
8677 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
8679 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
8680 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
8681 it is already running. Default is ON.
8683 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
8684 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
8685 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
8686 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
8689 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
8690 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
8691 or the value of the environment variable
8694 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
8695 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
8698 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
8699 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
8700 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
8702 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
8703 history expansion will be performed on
8704 command line input. The default is OFF.
8706 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
8707 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
8708 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
8710 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
8711 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
8712 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
8715 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
8716 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
8717 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
8720 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
8721 ``set width'' instead.
8723 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
8724 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
8725 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
8726 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
8728 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
8731 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
8734 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
8737 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
8740 * Support for Epoch Environment.
8742 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
8743 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
8744 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
8748 * Support for Shared Libraries
8750 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
8751 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
8752 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
8753 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
8754 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
8755 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
8756 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
8757 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
8759 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
8760 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
8761 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
8763 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
8768 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
8769 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
8770 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
8771 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
8772 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
8773 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
8775 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
8777 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
8779 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8780 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8781 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8784 * C++ multiple inheritance
8786 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
8789 * C++ exception handling
8791 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
8792 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
8793 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
8796 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
8797 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
8798 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
8800 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
8801 current stack frame.
8804 * Minor command changes
8806 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
8807 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
8808 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
8810 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
8811 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
8812 frames without printing.
8814 * New directory command
8816 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
8817 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
8818 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
8819 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
8820 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
8822 * Configuring GDB for compilation
8824 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
8827 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
8828 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
8829 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
8830 where the program that you are debugging will run.