1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.6
6 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
7 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
10 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
11 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
13 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
14 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
16 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
18 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
19 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
20 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
22 * Arrays of explicitly SIGNED or UNSIGNED CHARs are now printed as arrays
25 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
26 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
29 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
32 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
33 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
34 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
36 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
38 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
40 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
41 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
42 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
44 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
45 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
47 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
48 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
49 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
50 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
51 Windows and SymbianOS).
57 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
58 when debugging using remote targets.
60 set mem inaccessible-by-default
61 show mem inaccessible-by-default
62 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
63 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
64 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
65 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
66 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
68 set breakpoint auto-hw
69 show breakpoint auto-hw
70 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
71 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
72 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
73 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
74 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
75 including "next" and "finish".
78 catch exception unhandled
79 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
82 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
86 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
87 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
88 an alias to "set sysroot".
91 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
92 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
95 * New native configurations
97 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
102 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
103 not query the target for its built-in description.
107 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
108 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
109 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
114 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
115 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
118 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
123 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
124 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
126 qXfer:libraries:read:
127 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
128 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
129 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
130 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
134 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
143 i[34567]86-*-netware*
144 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
145 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
147 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
150 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
151 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
160 * Other removed features
167 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
174 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
179 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
180 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
185 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
186 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
188 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
190 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
191 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
192 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
193 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
197 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
198 in debugging information.
202 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
203 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
205 set mips stack-arg-size
206 set mips saved-gpreg-size
208 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
210 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
215 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
217 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
218 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
219 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
221 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
222 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
225 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
226 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
228 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
229 stub provides the required support.
231 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
232 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
237 unset substitute-path
239 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
240 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
241 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
242 between compilation and debugging.
246 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
247 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
248 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
252 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
254 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
255 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
257 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
262 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
263 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
264 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
265 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
269 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
270 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
272 qXfer:memory-map:read:
273 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
274 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
279 Erase and program a flash memory device.
281 * Removed remote packets
284 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
285 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
287 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
291 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
293 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
297 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
298 only if it doesn't already have a value.
300 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
302 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
304 restart <n> Return the program state to a
305 previously saved state.
307 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
309 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
311 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
312 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
314 info forks List forks of the user program that
315 are available to be debugged.
317 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
318 forks of the user program that are
319 available to be debugged.
321 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
322 that are available to be debugged (and
323 kill the forked process).
325 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
326 that are available to be debugged (and
327 allow the process to continue).
331 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
333 * Improved Windows host support
335 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
336 native console support, and remote communications using either
337 network sockets or serial ports.
339 * Improved Modula-2 language support
341 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
342 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
343 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
344 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
345 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
346 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
350 The ARM rdi-share module.
352 The Netware NLM debug server.
354 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
356 * New native configurations
358 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
359 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
363 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
365 * New command line options
367 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
368 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
369 the child (debugged) program exited with.
370 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
371 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
372 specified multiple times and in conjunction
373 with the --command (-x) option.
375 * Deprecated commands removed
377 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
381 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
382 othernames set arm disassembler
383 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
384 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
385 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
388 * New BSD user-level threads support
390 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
391 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
394 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
395 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
396 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
398 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
399 are not yet supported.
401 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
402 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
404 * REMOVED configurations and files
406 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
407 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
408 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
410 * New "set print array-indexes" command
412 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
413 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
416 * VAX floating point support
418 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
420 * User-defined command support
422 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
423 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
424 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
426 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
428 * New command line option
430 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
433 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
435 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
436 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
437 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
438 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
439 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
441 * Internationalization
443 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
444 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
445 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
449 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
450 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
451 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
453 * New native configurations
455 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
459 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
460 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
462 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
464 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
465 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
466 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
469 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
470 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
471 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
483 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
484 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
486 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
488 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
489 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
490 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
500 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
502 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
504 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
505 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
508 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
510 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
511 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
512 IRIX long double values).
516 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
517 command. This problem has been fixed.
519 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
521 * Fix for ``many threads''
523 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
524 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
527 ptrace: No such process.
528 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
530 This problem has been fixed.
532 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
534 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
537 * New ``start'' command.
539 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
541 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
543 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
544 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
545 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
547 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
548 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
549 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
550 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
551 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
552 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
553 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
554 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
555 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
557 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
559 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
560 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
561 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
562 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
563 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
565 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
566 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
567 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
569 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
571 * New native configurations
573 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
574 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
575 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
576 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
577 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
578 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
579 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
581 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
583 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
584 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
585 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
586 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
587 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
588 work, was also included.
590 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
591 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
601 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
602 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
604 * REMOVED configurations and files
606 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
607 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
608 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
609 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
610 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
611 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
612 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
613 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
614 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
616 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
618 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
620 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
622 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
623 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
624 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
625 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
628 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
630 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
631 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
632 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
633 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
634 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
635 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
638 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
640 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
642 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
643 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
644 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
646 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
648 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
649 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
651 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
653 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
654 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
655 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
657 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
659 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
660 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
662 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
664 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
665 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
666 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
668 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
670 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
671 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
672 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
674 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
676 * Removed --with-mmalloc
678 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
679 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
681 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
683 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
684 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
685 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
686 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
688 * Revised SPARC target
690 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
691 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
692 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
693 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
694 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
698 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
699 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
700 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
703 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
705 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
706 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
709 * C++ nested types and namespaces
711 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
712 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
713 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
714 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
715 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
716 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
717 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
718 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
719 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
721 * New native configurations
723 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
724 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
725 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
726 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
727 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
729 * New debugging protocols
731 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
733 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
735 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
736 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
737 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
739 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
741 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
742 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
743 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
746 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
747 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
748 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
749 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
750 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
751 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
752 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
753 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
754 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
756 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
758 * REMOVED configurations and files
760 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
761 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
762 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
763 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
764 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
765 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
766 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
767 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
768 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
769 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
770 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
771 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
772 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
773 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
774 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
775 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
776 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
778 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
782 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
785 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
787 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
788 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
789 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
792 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
793 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
798 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
799 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
800 remote protocol documentation for details.
802 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
804 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
805 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
806 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
809 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
811 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
812 per-thread variables.
814 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
816 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
817 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
819 * Separate debug info.
821 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
822 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
823 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
824 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
825 and optional debug files.
827 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
829 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
830 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
833 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
834 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
838 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
839 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
840 considered "useable".
842 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
844 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
845 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
848 * GDB supports logging output to a file
850 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
851 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
853 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
855 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
856 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
859 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
861 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
862 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
866 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
867 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
868 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
869 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
870 data, for more informative profiling results.
872 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
874 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
875 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
876 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
878 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
881 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
882 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
883 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
884 in a subsequent -var-update.
886 * New native configurations.
888 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
890 * Multi-arched targets.
892 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
893 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
895 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
897 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
898 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
899 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
902 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
903 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
904 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
905 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
906 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
907 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
908 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
909 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
910 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
911 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
912 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
913 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
915 * REMOVED configurations and files
918 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
919 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
920 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
921 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
922 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
923 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
925 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
926 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
927 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
928 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
929 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
930 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
932 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
934 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
935 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
936 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
937 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
938 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
940 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
942 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
944 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
945 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
946 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
947 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
948 shared libs like mad''.
950 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
952 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
953 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
954 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
955 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
957 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
959 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
960 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
963 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
964 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
966 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
967 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
969 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
970 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
971 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
972 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
974 * Multi-arched targets.
976 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
977 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
979 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
980 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
981 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
985 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
988 * New native configurations
990 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
991 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
992 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
993 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
995 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
997 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
998 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
999 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1000 permanently REMOVED.
1002 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1003 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1004 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1005 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1006 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1007 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1008 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1009 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1010 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1011 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1013 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1014 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1016 * OBSOLETE languages
1018 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1020 * REMOVED configurations and files
1022 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1023 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1024 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1025 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1026 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1028 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1030 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1032 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1033 commands. The default is 1024.
1035 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1037 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1039 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1041 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1042 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1043 from a file into memory (restore).
1045 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1047 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1048 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1049 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1051 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1059 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1060 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1061 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1063 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1064 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1065 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1067 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1068 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1069 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1071 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1072 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1073 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1075 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1077 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1079 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1080 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1081 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1082 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1083 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1084 (notably embedded) targets.
1086 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1088 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1089 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1090 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1091 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1093 * New command line option
1095 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1097 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1099 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1100 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1101 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1102 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1103 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1104 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1105 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1106 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1107 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1108 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1110 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1112 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1113 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1115 * New native configurations
1117 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1118 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1119 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1120 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1124 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1126 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1128 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1129 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1130 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1131 permanently REMOVED.
1133 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1134 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1135 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1136 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1137 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1139 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1141 * REMOVED configurations and files
1143 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1145 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1146 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1147 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1148 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1149 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1150 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1151 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1152 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1153 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1154 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1155 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1157 * Changes to command line processing
1159 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1160 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1162 * Changes to key bindings
1164 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1166 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1168 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1170 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1173 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1175 Numerous documentation fixes.
1177 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1179 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1181 * New native configurations
1183 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1184 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1185 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1186 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1187 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1188 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1192 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1194 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1196 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1198 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1199 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1200 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1201 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1202 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1204 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1205 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1206 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1207 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1208 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1209 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1210 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1211 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1213 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1214 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1216 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1217 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1218 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1219 permanently REMOVED.
1221 * REMOVED configurations and files
1223 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1224 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1226 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1230 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1232 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1233 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1238 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1240 * The MI enabled by default.
1242 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1243 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1244 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1245 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1246 which is now deprecated.
1248 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1250 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1251 main features are supported:
1253 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1255 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1258 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1260 - a Pascal expression parser.
1262 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1264 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1266 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1268 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1269 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1271 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1273 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1275 * Changes in completion.
1277 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1278 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1279 users expect at the shell prompt.
1281 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1282 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1283 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1284 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1285 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1286 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1287 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1289 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1291 * New platform-independent commands:
1293 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1294 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1295 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1297 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1299 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1300 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1301 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1303 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1305 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1306 multi-threaded programs though.
1308 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1310 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1312 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1313 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1316 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1318 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1319 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1320 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1321 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1322 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1325 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1326 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1327 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1329 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1331 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1332 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1334 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1335 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1338 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1339 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1340 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1341 a given linear address.
1343 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1344 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1345 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1347 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1349 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1351 * Changes in documentation.
1353 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1354 Documentation License.
1356 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1359 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1361 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1364 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1365 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1366 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1368 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1370 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1371 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1372 contents of this file.
1376 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1378 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1380 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1382 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1383 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1384 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1385 greater level of detail.
1387 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1389 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1390 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1391 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1394 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1396 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1397 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1398 machines ``out of the box''.
1400 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1401 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1402 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1403 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1404 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1406 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1407 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1408 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1409 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1410 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1412 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1413 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1416 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1419 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1420 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1421 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1422 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1424 * New native configurations
1426 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1427 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1431 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1432 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1433 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1434 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1436 * OBSOLETE configurations
1438 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1439 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1441 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1444 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1445 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1446 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1447 be permanently REMOVED.
1449 * Gould support removed
1451 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1453 * New features for SVR4
1455 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1456 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1457 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1459 * Many C++ enhancements
1461 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1462 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1464 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1466 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1467 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1468 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1469 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1471 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1472 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1474 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1476 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1477 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1478 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1480 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1481 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1483 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1485 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1486 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1487 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1489 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1491 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1492 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1493 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1495 * ``apropos'' command added.
1497 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1498 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1499 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1503 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1504 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1505 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1506 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1507 enabled by configuring with:
1509 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1511 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1513 * New native configurations
1515 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1516 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1517 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1521 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1522 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1523 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1525 * OBSOLETE configurations
1527 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1529 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1530 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1531 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1532 be permanently REMOVED.
1536 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1537 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1538 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1539 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1540 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1542 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1547 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1549 * set extension-language
1551 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1552 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1553 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1554 set extension-language .c c++
1555 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1556 and their associated languages.
1558 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1560 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1561 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1562 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1566 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1567 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1569 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1570 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1572 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1573 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1574 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1575 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1576 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1577 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1578 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1579 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1581 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1582 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1583 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1584 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1588 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1589 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1590 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1591 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1592 for xdb and dbx commands.
1596 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1597 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1598 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1600 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1601 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1602 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1604 * Debugging across forks
1606 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1611 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1612 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1613 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1615 * GDB remote protocol additions
1617 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1618 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1619 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1620 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1622 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1623 full 64-bit address. The command
1625 set remoteaddresssize 32
1627 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1628 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1631 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1632 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1634 maint packet heythere
1636 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1637 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1640 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1641 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1642 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1644 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1646 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1647 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1648 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1650 * mask-address variable for Mips
1652 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1653 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1654 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1656 * Higher serial baud rates
1658 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1659 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1660 to achieve all of these rates.)
1664 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1665 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1668 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1670 * New native configurations
1672 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1673 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1674 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1675 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1676 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1677 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1678 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1682 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1683 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1684 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1685 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1686 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1687 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1688 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1689 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1690 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1691 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1692 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1694 * New debugging protocols
1696 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1697 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1698 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1699 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1700 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1701 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1705 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1706 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1711 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1712 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1714 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1716 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1717 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1718 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1720 * Live range splitting
1722 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1723 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1724 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1728 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1729 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1733 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1734 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1735 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1740 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1745 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1746 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1747 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1748 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1749 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1750 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1754 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1755 the symbol at the specified address.
1759 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1760 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1761 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1762 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1763 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1767 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1768 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1769 of most MIPS variants.
1773 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1774 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1775 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1779 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1780 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1781 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1782 the possible architectures.
1784 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1786 * New native configurations
1788 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1789 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1790 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1791 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1792 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1793 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1797 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1798 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1799 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1800 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1801 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1803 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1807 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1808 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1809 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1810 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1811 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1815 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1817 * Windows 95/NT native
1819 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1820 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1821 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1822 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1823 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1825 * dont-repeat command
1827 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1828 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1829 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1830 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1832 * Send break instead of ^C
1834 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1835 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1836 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1838 * Remote protocol timeout
1840 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1841 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1842 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1844 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1846 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1847 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1848 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1849 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1850 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1852 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1853 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1854 automatically on hpux10.
1856 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1858 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1860 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1862 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1863 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1864 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1865 every character. The default value is 1050.
1867 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1869 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1870 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1871 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1872 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1873 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1874 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1876 * Speedups for remote debugging
1878 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1879 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1880 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1882 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1884 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1885 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1887 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1889 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1891 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1892 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1894 * Remote targets use caching
1896 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1897 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1898 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1899 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1900 off' turns the the data cache off.
1902 * Remote targets may have threads
1904 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1905 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1906 gdb/remote.c for details.
1910 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1911 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1912 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1913 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1914 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1915 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1916 sequence is something like
1918 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1920 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1924 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1925 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1926 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1927 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1928 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1929 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1930 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1931 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1935 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1936 but does simplify configuration and building.
1940 GDB now supports hpux10.
1942 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1944 * New native configurations
1946 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1947 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1948 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1949 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1953 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1954 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1955 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1956 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1959 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1961 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1962 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1963 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1964 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1965 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1967 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1969 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1970 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1973 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1975 To execute the command use:
1978 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1979 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1980 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1982 * New `if' and `while' commands
1984 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1985 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1986 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1987 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1988 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1989 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1990 if the expression is zero.
1992 * Fortran source language mode
1994 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1995 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1996 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1997 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2000 * Better HPUX support
2002 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2003 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2004 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2005 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2006 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2012 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2013 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2019 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2020 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2023 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2024 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2026 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2028 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2029 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2030 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2031 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2032 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2033 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2035 * New DOS host serial code
2037 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2038 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2041 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2043 * New "complete" command
2045 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2046 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2048 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2050 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2051 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2053 * Breakpoint hit counts
2055 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2056 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2057 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2058 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2059 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2062 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2064 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2065 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2066 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2068 * Shared library breakpoints
2070 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2071 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2073 * Hardware watchpoints
2075 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2076 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2078 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2082 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2083 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2085 * Improved Irix 5 support
2087 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2089 * Improved HPPA support
2091 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2093 * New native configurations
2095 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2096 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2097 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2098 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2102 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2103 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2106 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2108 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2109 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2113 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2114 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2116 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2118 * Irix 5 is now supported
2122 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2123 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2124 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2125 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2126 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2129 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2131 * User visible changes:
2135 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2136 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2137 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2138 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2139 debugging info for the mips target).
2141 * DEC Alpha native support
2143 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2144 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2145 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2146 Alpha-specific notes.
2148 * Preliminary thread implementation
2150 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2152 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2154 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2155 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2158 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2160 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2161 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2162 call methods, ...etc.
2164 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2166 * User visible changes:
2168 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2169 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2170 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2171 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2173 Filename completion now works.
2175 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2176 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2177 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2179 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2180 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2181 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2182 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2183 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2187 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2188 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2191 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2195 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2196 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2197 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2201 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2202 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2203 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2204 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2205 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2209 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2210 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2211 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2213 * New targets supported
2215 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2216 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2217 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2218 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2219 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2221 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2222 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2223 GO32 memory extender.
2225 * New remote protocols
2227 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2229 * New source languages supported
2231 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2232 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2233 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2236 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2238 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2240 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2241 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2242 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2243 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2244 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2245 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2247 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2249 * Faster and better demangling
2251 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2252 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2253 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2254 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2255 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2256 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2259 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2260 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2261 compiler does not actually implement.
2263 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2265 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2266 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2267 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2268 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2269 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2270 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2273 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2274 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2276 * Improved configure script
2278 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2279 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2280 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2281 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2283 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2284 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2285 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2286 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2287 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2288 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2290 * Documentation improvements
2292 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2293 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2294 before submitting changes.
2296 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2297 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2298 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2299 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2300 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2302 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2303 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2304 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2305 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2306 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2307 around this problem.
2311 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2312 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2313 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2316 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2317 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2319 * New native hosts supported
2321 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2322 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2324 * New targets supported
2326 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2328 * New file formats supported
2330 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2331 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2335 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2337 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2338 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2340 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2341 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2342 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2344 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2345 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2347 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2348 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2349 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2352 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2353 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2354 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2355 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2356 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2358 * Internal improvements
2360 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2361 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2363 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2364 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2365 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2366 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2367 shared code that handles any of them.
2369 * New command line options
2371 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2375 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2376 General Public License.
2378 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2380 * Host/native/target split
2382 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2383 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2384 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2385 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2386 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2388 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2389 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2390 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2391 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2392 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2393 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2394 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2396 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2397 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2398 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2400 * New hosts supported
2402 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2403 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2404 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2406 * New targets supported
2408 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2409 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2411 * New native hosts supported
2413 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2414 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2415 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2417 * New file formats supported
2419 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2420 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2421 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2425 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2426 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2427 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2429 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2431 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2432 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2433 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2434 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2438 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2439 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2440 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2442 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2446 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2447 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2450 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2451 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2453 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2454 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2455 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2456 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2457 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2458 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2460 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2461 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2462 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2463 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2467 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2468 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2469 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2470 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2471 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2473 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2474 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2475 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2476 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2480 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2481 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2482 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2483 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2484 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2485 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2486 each instruction being stepped through.
2488 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2489 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2491 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2492 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2493 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2494 processor with a serial port.
2498 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2499 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2500 supported, and what files each one uses.
2504 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2505 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2506 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2507 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2509 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2510 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2511 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2512 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2516 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2517 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2518 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2519 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2520 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2523 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2526 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2528 * Better support for C++ function names
2530 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2531 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2532 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2533 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2534 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2536 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2537 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2538 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2539 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2540 for the list of formats.
2542 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2544 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2545 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2546 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2547 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2548 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2549 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2552 * New 'maintenance' command
2554 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2555 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2556 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2558 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2559 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2560 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2561 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2562 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2563 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2565 The following commands are new:
2567 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2568 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2569 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2571 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2573 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2574 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2575 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2576 read after argv processing.
2578 * New hosts supported
2580 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2582 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2584 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2585 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2586 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2587 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2588 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2591 * New targets supported
2593 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2595 * More smarts about finding #include files
2597 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2598 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2599 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2600 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2601 the one that contains your sources.
2603 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2604 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2605 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2607 * Interesting infernals change
2609 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2610 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2611 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2612 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2614 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2616 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2617 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2618 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2620 See the ChangeLog for details.
2622 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2624 * New machines supported (host and target)
2626 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2628 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2630 * New malloc package
2632 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2633 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2634 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2635 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2636 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2637 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2641 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2642 'help info proc' for details.
2644 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2646 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2647 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2650 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2652 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2653 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2654 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2655 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2656 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2657 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2659 * Cross byte order fixes
2661 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2662 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2664 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2666 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2667 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2668 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2669 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2670 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2671 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2672 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2673 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2674 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2675 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2677 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2678 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2679 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2680 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2682 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2683 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2684 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2687 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2689 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2690 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2691 shared across multiple host platforms.
2693 * longjmp() handling
2695 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2696 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2697 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2698 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2702 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2703 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2708 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2709 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2710 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2712 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2714 * New machines supported (host and target)
2716 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2718 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2719 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2721 * New machines supported (target)
2723 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2727 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2728 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2729 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2731 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2732 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2733 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2734 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2735 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2738 * New features for SVR4
2740 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2741 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2742 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2744 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2745 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2746 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2748 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2751 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2753 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2754 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2755 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2756 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2757 same code linked statically.
2761 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2762 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2763 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2764 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2765 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2766 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2770 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2771 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2772 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2775 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2777 * New machines supported (host and target)
2779 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2780 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2781 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2783 * Almost SCO Unix support
2785 We had hoped to support:
2786 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2787 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2788 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2789 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2791 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2793 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2794 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2795 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2801 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2802 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2803 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2807 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2808 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2809 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2811 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2813 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2814 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2815 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2817 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2818 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2819 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2820 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2823 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2824 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2825 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2826 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2829 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2830 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2833 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2834 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2835 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2838 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2840 * Improved configuration
2842 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2843 Porting BFD is simpler.
2847 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2848 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2849 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2850 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2854 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2856 * New host supported (not target)
2858 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2861 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2863 * Multiple source language support
2865 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2866 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2867 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2868 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2869 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2870 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2874 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2875 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2876 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2877 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2879 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2880 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2881 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2883 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2884 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2888 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2889 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2890 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2891 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2894 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2896 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2897 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2898 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2899 examining core files.
2903 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2906 * New machines supported (host and target)
2908 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2909 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2910 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2912 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2914 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2916 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2918 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2919 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2920 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2922 * New remote interfaces
2928 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2932 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2934 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2935 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2936 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2937 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2938 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2939 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2940 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2941 stub on the target system.
2943 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2945 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2946 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2947 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2949 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2950 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2953 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2955 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2956 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2958 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2959 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2960 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2962 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2963 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2964 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2965 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2967 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2968 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2969 it is already running. Default is ON.
2971 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2972 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2973 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2974 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2977 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2978 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2979 or the value of the environment variable
2982 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2983 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2986 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2987 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2988 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2990 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2991 history expansion will be performed on
2992 command line input. The default is OFF.
2994 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2995 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2996 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2998 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2999 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3000 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3003 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3004 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3005 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3008 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3009 ``set width'' instead.
3011 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3012 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3013 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3014 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3016 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3019 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3022 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3025 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3028 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3030 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3031 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3032 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3036 * Support for Shared Libraries
3038 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3039 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3040 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3041 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3042 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3043 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3044 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3045 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3047 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3048 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3049 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3051 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3056 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3057 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3058 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3059 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3060 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3061 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3063 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3065 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3067 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3068 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3069 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3072 * C++ multiple inheritance
3074 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3077 * C++ exception handling
3079 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3080 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3081 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3084 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3085 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3086 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3088 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3089 current stack frame.
3092 * Minor command changes
3094 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3095 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3096 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3098 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3099 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3100 frames without printing.
3102 * New directory command
3104 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3105 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3106 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3107 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3108 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3110 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3112 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3115 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3116 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3117 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3118 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / binutils.git / blob