1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.6
6 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
7 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
9 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
10 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
12 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
14 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
15 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
16 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
18 * Arrays of explicitly SIGNED or UNSIGNED CHARs are now printed as arrays
21 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
22 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
25 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
30 set mem inaccessible-by-default
31 show mem inaccessible-by-default
32 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
33 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
34 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
35 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
36 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
38 set breakpoint auto-hw
39 show breakpoint auto-hw
40 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
41 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
42 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
43 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
44 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
45 including "next" and "finish".
48 catch exception unhandled
49 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
52 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
56 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
57 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
58 an alias to "set sysroot".
60 * New native configurations
62 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
67 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
68 not query the target for its built-in description.
72 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
73 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
74 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
79 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
80 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
83 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
88 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
95 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
96 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
101 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
102 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
109 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
114 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
116 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
117 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
118 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
120 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
121 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
124 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
125 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
127 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
128 stub provides the required support.
130 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
131 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
136 unset substitute-path
138 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
139 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
140 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
141 between compilation and debugging.
145 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
146 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
147 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
151 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
153 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
154 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
156 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
161 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
162 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
163 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
164 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
168 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
169 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
171 qXfer:memory-map:read:
172 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
173 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
178 Erase and program a flash memory device.
180 * Removed remote packets
183 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
184 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
186 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
190 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
192 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
196 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
197 only if it doesn't already have a value.
199 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
201 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
203 restart <n> Return the program state to a
204 previously saved state.
206 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
208 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
210 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
211 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
213 info forks List forks of the user program that
214 are available to be debugged.
216 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
217 forks of the user program that are
218 available to be debugged.
220 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
221 that are available to be debugged (and
222 kill the forked process).
224 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
225 that are available to be debugged (and
226 allow the process to continue).
230 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
232 * Improved Windows host support
234 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
235 native console support, and remote communications using either
236 network sockets or serial ports.
238 * Improved Modula-2 language support
240 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
241 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
242 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
243 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
244 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
245 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
249 The ARM rdi-share module.
251 The Netware NLM debug server.
253 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
255 * New native configurations
257 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
258 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
262 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
264 * New command line options
266 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
267 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
268 the child (debugged) program exited with.
269 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
270 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
271 specified multiple times and in conjunction
272 with the --command (-x) option.
274 * Deprecated commands removed
276 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
280 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
281 othernames set arm disassembler
282 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
283 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
284 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
287 * New BSD user-level threads support
289 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
290 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
293 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
294 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
295 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
297 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
298 are not yet supported.
300 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
301 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
303 * REMOVED configurations and files
305 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
306 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
307 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
309 * New "set print array-indexes" command
311 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
312 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
315 * VAX floating point support
317 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
319 * User-defined command support
321 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
322 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
323 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
325 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
327 * New command line option
329 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
332 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
334 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
335 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
336 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
337 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
338 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
340 * Internationalization
342 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
343 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
344 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
348 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
349 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
350 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
352 * New native configurations
354 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
358 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
359 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
361 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
363 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
364 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
365 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
368 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
369 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
370 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
382 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
383 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
385 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
387 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
388 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
389 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
399 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
401 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
403 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
404 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
407 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
409 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
410 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
411 IRIX long double values).
415 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
416 command. This problem has been fixed.
418 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
420 * Fix for ``many threads''
422 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
423 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
426 ptrace: No such process.
427 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
429 This problem has been fixed.
431 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
433 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
436 * New ``start'' command.
438 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
440 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
442 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
443 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
444 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
446 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
447 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
448 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
449 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
450 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
451 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
452 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
453 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
454 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
456 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
458 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
459 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
460 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
461 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
462 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
464 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
465 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
466 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
468 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
470 * New native configurations
472 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
473 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
474 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
475 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
476 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
477 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
478 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
480 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
482 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
483 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
484 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
485 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
486 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
487 work, was also included.
489 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
490 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
500 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
501 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
503 * REMOVED configurations and files
505 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
506 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
507 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
508 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
509 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
510 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
511 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
512 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
513 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
515 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
517 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
519 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
521 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
522 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
523 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
524 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
527 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
529 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
530 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
531 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
532 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
533 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
534 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
537 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
539 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
541 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
542 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
543 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
545 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
547 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
548 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
550 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
552 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
553 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
554 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
556 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
558 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
559 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
561 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
563 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
564 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
565 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
567 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
569 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
570 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
571 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
573 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
575 * Removed --with-mmalloc
577 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
578 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
580 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
582 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
583 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
584 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
585 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
587 * Revised SPARC target
589 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
590 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
591 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
592 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
593 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
597 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
598 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
599 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
602 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
604 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
605 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
608 * C++ nested types and namespaces
610 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
611 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
612 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
613 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
614 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
615 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
616 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
617 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
618 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
620 * New native configurations
622 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
623 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
624 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
625 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
626 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
628 * New debugging protocols
630 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
632 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
634 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
635 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
636 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
638 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
640 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
641 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
642 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
645 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
646 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
647 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
648 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
649 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
650 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
651 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
652 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
653 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
655 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
657 * REMOVED configurations and files
659 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
660 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
661 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
662 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
663 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
664 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
665 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
666 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
667 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
668 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
669 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
670 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
671 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
672 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
673 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
674 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
675 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
677 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
681 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
684 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
686 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
687 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
688 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
691 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
692 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
697 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
698 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
699 remote protocol documentation for details.
701 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
703 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
704 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
705 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
708 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
710 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
711 per-thread variables.
713 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
715 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
716 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
718 * Separate debug info.
720 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
721 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
722 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
723 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
724 and optional debug files.
726 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
728 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
729 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
732 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
733 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
737 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
738 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
739 considered "useable".
741 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
743 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
744 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
747 * GDB supports logging output to a file
749 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
750 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
752 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
754 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
755 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
758 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
760 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
761 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
765 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
766 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
767 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
768 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
769 data, for more informative profiling results.
771 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
773 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
774 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
775 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
777 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
780 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
781 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
782 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
783 in a subsequent -var-update.
785 * New native configurations.
787 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
789 * Multi-arched targets.
791 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
792 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
794 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
796 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
797 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
798 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
801 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
802 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
803 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
804 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
805 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
806 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
807 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
808 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
809 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
810 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
811 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
812 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
814 * REMOVED configurations and files
817 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
818 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
819 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
820 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
821 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
824 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
825 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
826 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
827 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
828 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
829 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
831 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
833 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
834 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
835 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
836 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
837 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
839 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
841 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
843 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
844 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
845 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
846 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
847 shared libs like mad''.
849 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
851 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
852 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
853 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
854 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
856 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
858 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
859 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
862 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
863 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
865 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
866 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
868 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
869 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
870 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
871 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
873 * Multi-arched targets.
875 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
876 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
878 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
879 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
880 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
884 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
887 * New native configurations
889 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
890 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
891 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
892 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
894 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
896 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
897 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
898 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
901 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
902 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
903 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
904 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
905 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
906 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
907 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
908 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
909 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
910 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
912 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
913 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
917 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
919 * REMOVED configurations and files
921 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
922 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
923 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
924 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
925 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
927 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
929 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
931 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
932 commands. The default is 1024.
934 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
936 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
938 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
940 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
941 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
942 from a file into memory (restore).
944 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
946 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
947 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
948 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
950 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
958 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
959 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
960 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
962 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
963 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
964 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
966 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
967 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
968 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
970 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
971 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
972 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
974 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
976 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
978 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
979 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
980 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
981 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
982 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
983 (notably embedded) targets.
985 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
987 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
988 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
989 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
990 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
992 * New command line option
994 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
996 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
998 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
999 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1000 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1001 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1002 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1003 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1004 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1005 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1006 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1007 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1009 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1011 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1012 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1014 * New native configurations
1016 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1017 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1018 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1019 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1023 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1025 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1027 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1028 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1029 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1030 permanently REMOVED.
1032 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1033 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1034 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1035 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1036 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1038 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1040 * REMOVED configurations and files
1042 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1044 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1045 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1046 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1047 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1048 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1049 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1050 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1051 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1052 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1053 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1054 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1056 * Changes to command line processing
1058 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1059 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1061 * Changes to key bindings
1063 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1065 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1067 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1069 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1072 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1074 Numerous documentation fixes.
1076 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1078 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1080 * New native configurations
1082 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1083 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1084 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1085 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1086 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1087 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1091 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1093 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1095 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1097 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1098 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1099 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1100 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1101 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1103 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1104 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1105 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1106 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1107 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1108 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1109 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1110 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1112 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1113 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1115 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1116 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1117 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1118 permanently REMOVED.
1120 * REMOVED configurations and files
1122 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1123 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1125 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1129 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1131 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1132 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1137 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1139 * The MI enabled by default.
1141 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1142 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1143 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1144 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1145 which is now deprecated.
1147 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1149 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1150 main features are supported:
1152 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1154 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1157 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1159 - a Pascal expression parser.
1161 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1163 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1165 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1167 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1168 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1170 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1172 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1174 * Changes in completion.
1176 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1177 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1178 users expect at the shell prompt.
1180 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1181 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1182 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1183 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1184 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1185 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1186 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1188 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1190 * New platform-independent commands:
1192 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1193 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1194 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1196 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1198 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1199 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1200 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1202 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1204 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1205 multi-threaded programs though.
1207 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1209 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1211 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1212 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1215 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1217 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1218 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1219 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1220 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1221 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1224 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1225 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1226 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1228 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1230 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1231 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1233 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1234 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1237 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1238 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1239 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1240 a given linear address.
1242 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1243 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1244 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1246 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1248 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1250 * Changes in documentation.
1252 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1253 Documentation License.
1255 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1258 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1260 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1263 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1264 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1265 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1267 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1269 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1270 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1271 contents of this file.
1275 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1277 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1279 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1281 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1282 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1283 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1284 greater level of detail.
1286 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1288 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1289 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1290 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1293 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1295 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1296 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1297 machines ``out of the box''.
1299 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1300 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1301 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1302 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1303 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1305 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1306 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1307 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1308 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1309 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1311 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1312 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1315 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1318 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1319 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1320 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1321 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1323 * New native configurations
1325 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1326 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1330 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1331 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1332 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1333 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1335 * OBSOLETE configurations
1337 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1338 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1340 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1343 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1344 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1345 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1346 be permanently REMOVED.
1348 * Gould support removed
1350 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1352 * New features for SVR4
1354 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1355 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1356 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1358 * Many C++ enhancements
1360 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1361 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1363 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1365 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1366 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1367 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1368 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1370 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1371 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1373 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1375 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1376 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1377 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1379 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1380 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1382 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1384 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1385 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1386 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1388 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1390 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1391 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1392 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1394 * ``apropos'' command added.
1396 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1397 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1398 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1402 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1403 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1404 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1405 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1406 enabled by configuring with:
1408 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1410 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1412 * New native configurations
1414 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1415 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1416 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1420 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1421 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1422 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1424 * OBSOLETE configurations
1426 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1428 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1429 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1430 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1431 be permanently REMOVED.
1435 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1436 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1437 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1438 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1439 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1441 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1446 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1448 * set extension-language
1450 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1451 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1452 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1453 set extension-language .c c++
1454 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1455 and their associated languages.
1457 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1459 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1460 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1461 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1465 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1466 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1468 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1469 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1471 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1472 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1473 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1474 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1475 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1476 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1477 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1478 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1480 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1481 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1482 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1483 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1487 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1488 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1489 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1490 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1491 for xdb and dbx commands.
1495 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1496 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1497 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1499 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1500 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1501 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1503 * Debugging across forks
1505 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1510 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1511 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1512 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1514 * GDB remote protocol additions
1516 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1517 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1518 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1519 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1521 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1522 full 64-bit address. The command
1524 set remoteaddresssize 32
1526 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1527 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1530 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1531 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1533 maint packet heythere
1535 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1536 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1539 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1540 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1541 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1543 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1545 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1546 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1547 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1549 * mask-address variable for Mips
1551 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1552 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1553 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1555 * Higher serial baud rates
1557 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1558 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1559 to achieve all of these rates.)
1563 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1564 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1567 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1569 * New native configurations
1571 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1572 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1573 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1574 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1575 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1576 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1577 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1581 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1582 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1583 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1584 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1585 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1586 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1587 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1588 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1589 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1590 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1591 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1593 * New debugging protocols
1595 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1596 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1597 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1598 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1599 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1600 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1604 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1605 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1610 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1611 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1613 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1615 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1616 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1617 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1619 * Live range splitting
1621 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1622 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1623 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1627 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1628 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1632 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1633 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1634 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1639 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1644 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1645 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1646 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1647 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1648 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1649 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1653 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1654 the symbol at the specified address.
1658 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1659 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1660 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1661 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1662 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1666 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1667 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1668 of most MIPS variants.
1672 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1673 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1674 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1678 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1679 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1680 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1681 the possible architectures.
1683 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1685 * New native configurations
1687 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1688 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1689 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1690 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1691 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1692 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1696 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1697 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1698 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1699 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1700 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1702 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1706 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1707 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1708 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1709 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1710 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1714 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1716 * Windows 95/NT native
1718 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1719 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1720 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1721 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1722 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1724 * dont-repeat command
1726 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1727 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1728 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1729 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1731 * Send break instead of ^C
1733 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1734 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1735 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1737 * Remote protocol timeout
1739 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1740 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1741 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1743 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1745 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1746 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1747 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1748 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1749 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1751 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1752 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1753 automatically on hpux10.
1755 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1757 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1759 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1761 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1762 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1763 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1764 every character. The default value is 1050.
1766 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1768 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1769 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1770 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1771 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1772 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1773 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1775 * Speedups for remote debugging
1777 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1778 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1779 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1781 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1783 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1784 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1786 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1788 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1790 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1791 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1793 * Remote targets use caching
1795 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1796 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1797 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1798 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1799 off' turns the the data cache off.
1801 * Remote targets may have threads
1803 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1804 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1805 gdb/remote.c for details.
1809 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1810 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1811 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1812 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1813 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1814 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1815 sequence is something like
1817 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1819 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1823 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1824 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1825 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1826 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1827 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1828 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1829 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1830 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1834 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1835 but does simplify configuration and building.
1839 GDB now supports hpux10.
1841 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1843 * New native configurations
1845 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1846 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1847 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1848 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1852 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1853 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1854 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1855 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1858 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1860 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1861 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1862 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1863 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1864 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1866 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1868 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1869 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1872 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1874 To execute the command use:
1877 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1878 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1879 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1881 * New `if' and `while' commands
1883 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1884 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1885 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1886 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1887 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1888 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1889 if the expression is zero.
1891 * Fortran source language mode
1893 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1894 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1895 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1896 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1899 * Better HPUX support
1901 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1902 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1903 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1904 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1905 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1911 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1912 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1918 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1919 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1922 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1923 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1925 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1927 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1928 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1929 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1930 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1931 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1932 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1934 * New DOS host serial code
1936 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1937 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1940 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1942 * New "complete" command
1944 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1945 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1947 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1949 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1950 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1952 * Breakpoint hit counts
1954 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1955 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1956 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1957 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1958 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1961 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1963 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1964 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1965 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1967 * Shared library breakpoints
1969 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1970 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1972 * Hardware watchpoints
1974 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1975 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1977 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1981 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1982 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1984 * Improved Irix 5 support
1986 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1988 * Improved HPPA support
1990 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1992 * New native configurations
1994 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1995 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1996 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1997 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2001 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2002 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2005 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2007 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2008 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2012 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2013 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2015 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2017 * Irix 5 is now supported
2021 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2022 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2023 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2024 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2025 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2028 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2030 * User visible changes:
2034 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2035 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2036 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2037 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2038 debugging info for the mips target).
2040 * DEC Alpha native support
2042 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2043 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2044 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2045 Alpha-specific notes.
2047 * Preliminary thread implementation
2049 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2051 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2053 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2054 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2057 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2059 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2060 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2061 call methods, ...etc.
2063 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2065 * User visible changes:
2067 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2068 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2069 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2070 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2072 Filename completion now works.
2074 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2075 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2076 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2078 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2079 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2080 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2081 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2082 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2086 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2087 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2090 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2094 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2095 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2096 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2100 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2101 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2102 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2103 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2104 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2108 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2109 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2110 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2112 * New targets supported
2114 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2115 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2116 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2117 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2118 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2120 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2121 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2122 GO32 memory extender.
2124 * New remote protocols
2126 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2128 * New source languages supported
2130 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2131 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2132 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2135 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2137 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2139 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2140 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2141 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2142 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2143 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2144 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2146 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2148 * Faster and better demangling
2150 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2151 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2152 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2153 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2154 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2155 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2158 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2159 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2160 compiler does not actually implement.
2162 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2164 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2165 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2166 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2167 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2168 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2169 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2172 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2173 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2175 * Improved configure script
2177 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2178 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2179 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2180 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2182 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2183 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2184 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2185 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2186 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2187 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2189 * Documentation improvements
2191 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2192 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2193 before submitting changes.
2195 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2196 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2197 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2198 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2199 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2201 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2202 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2203 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2204 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2205 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2206 around this problem.
2210 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2211 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2212 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2215 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2216 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2218 * New native hosts supported
2220 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2221 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2223 * New targets supported
2225 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2227 * New file formats supported
2229 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2230 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2234 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2236 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2237 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2239 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2240 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2241 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2243 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2244 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2246 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2247 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2248 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2251 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2252 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2253 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2254 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2255 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2257 * Internal improvements
2259 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2260 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2262 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2263 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2264 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2265 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2266 shared code that handles any of them.
2268 * New command line options
2270 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2274 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2275 General Public License.
2277 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2279 * Host/native/target split
2281 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2282 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2283 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2284 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2285 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2287 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2288 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2289 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2290 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2291 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2292 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2293 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2295 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2296 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2297 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2299 * New hosts supported
2301 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2302 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2303 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2305 * New targets supported
2307 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2308 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2310 * New native hosts supported
2312 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2313 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2314 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2316 * New file formats supported
2318 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2319 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2320 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2324 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2325 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2326 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2328 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2330 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2331 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2332 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2333 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2337 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2338 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2339 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2341 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2345 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2346 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2349 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2350 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2352 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2353 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2354 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2355 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2356 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2357 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2359 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2360 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2361 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2362 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2366 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2367 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2368 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2369 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2370 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2372 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2373 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2374 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2375 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2379 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2380 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2381 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2382 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2383 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2384 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2385 each instruction being stepped through.
2387 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2388 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2390 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2391 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2392 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2393 processor with a serial port.
2397 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2398 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2399 supported, and what files each one uses.
2403 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2404 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2405 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2406 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2408 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2409 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2410 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2411 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2415 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2416 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2417 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2418 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2419 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2422 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2425 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2427 * Better support for C++ function names
2429 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2430 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2431 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2432 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2433 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2435 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2436 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2437 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2438 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2439 for the list of formats.
2441 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2443 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2444 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2445 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2446 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2447 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2448 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2451 * New 'maintenance' command
2453 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2454 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2455 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2457 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2458 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2459 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2460 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2461 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2462 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2464 The following commands are new:
2466 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2467 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2468 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2470 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2472 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2473 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2474 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2475 read after argv processing.
2477 * New hosts supported
2479 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2481 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2483 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2484 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2485 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2486 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2487 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2490 * New targets supported
2492 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2494 * More smarts about finding #include files
2496 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2497 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2498 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2499 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2500 the one that contains your sources.
2502 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2503 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2504 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2506 * Interesting infernals change
2508 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2509 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2510 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2511 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2513 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2515 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2516 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2517 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2519 See the ChangeLog for details.
2521 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2523 * New machines supported (host and target)
2525 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2527 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2529 * New malloc package
2531 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2532 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2533 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2534 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2535 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2536 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2540 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2541 'help info proc' for details.
2543 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2545 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2546 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2549 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2551 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2552 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2553 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2554 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2555 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2556 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2558 * Cross byte order fixes
2560 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2561 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2563 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2565 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2566 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2567 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2568 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2569 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2570 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2571 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2572 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2573 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2574 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2576 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2577 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2578 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2579 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2581 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2582 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2583 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2586 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2588 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2589 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2590 shared across multiple host platforms.
2592 * longjmp() handling
2594 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2595 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2596 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2597 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2601 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2602 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2607 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2608 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2609 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2611 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2613 * New machines supported (host and target)
2615 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2617 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2618 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2620 * New machines supported (target)
2622 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2626 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2627 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2628 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2630 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2631 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2632 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2633 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2634 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2637 * New features for SVR4
2639 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2640 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2641 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2643 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2644 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2645 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2647 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2650 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2652 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2653 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2654 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2655 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2656 same code linked statically.
2660 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2661 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2662 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2663 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2664 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2665 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2669 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2670 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2671 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2674 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2676 * New machines supported (host and target)
2678 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2679 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2680 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2682 * Almost SCO Unix support
2684 We had hoped to support:
2685 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2686 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2687 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2688 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2690 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2692 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2693 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2694 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2700 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2701 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2702 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2706 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2707 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2708 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2710 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2712 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2713 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2714 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2716 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2717 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2718 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2719 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2722 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2723 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2724 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2725 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2728 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2729 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2732 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2733 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2734 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2737 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2739 * Improved configuration
2741 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2742 Porting BFD is simpler.
2746 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2747 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2748 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2749 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2753 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2755 * New host supported (not target)
2757 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2760 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2762 * Multiple source language support
2764 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2765 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2766 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2767 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2768 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2769 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2773 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2774 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2775 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2776 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2778 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2779 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2780 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2782 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2783 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2787 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2788 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2789 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2790 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2793 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2795 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2796 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2797 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2798 examining core files.
2802 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2805 * New machines supported (host and target)
2807 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2808 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2809 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2811 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2813 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2815 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2817 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2818 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2819 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2821 * New remote interfaces
2827 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2831 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2833 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2834 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2835 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2836 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2837 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2838 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2839 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2840 stub on the target system.
2842 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2844 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2845 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2846 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2848 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2849 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2852 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2854 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2855 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2857 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2858 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2859 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2861 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2862 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2863 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2864 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2866 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2867 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2868 it is already running. Default is ON.
2870 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2871 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2872 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2873 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2876 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2877 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2878 or the value of the environment variable
2881 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2882 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2885 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2886 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2887 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2889 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2890 history expansion will be performed on
2891 command line input. The default is OFF.
2893 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2894 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2895 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2897 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2898 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2899 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2902 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2903 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2904 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2907 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2908 ``set width'' instead.
2910 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2911 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2912 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2913 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2915 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2918 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2921 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2924 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2927 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2929 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2930 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2931 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2935 * Support for Shared Libraries
2937 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2938 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2939 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2940 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2941 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2942 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2943 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2944 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2946 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2947 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2948 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2950 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2955 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2956 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2957 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2958 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2959 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2960 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2962 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2964 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2966 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2967 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2968 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2971 * C++ multiple inheritance
2973 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2976 * C++ exception handling
2978 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2979 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2980 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2983 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2984 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2985 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2987 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2988 current stack frame.
2991 * Minor command changes
2993 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2994 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2995 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2997 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2998 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2999 frames without printing.
3001 * New directory command
3003 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3004 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3005 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3006 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3007 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3009 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3011 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3014 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3015 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3016 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3017 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / binutils.git / blob