1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.3
8 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
9 deprecated, and a new command: "set python print-stack on|off" has
10 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is now
13 ** A prompt subsitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
16 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
17 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
18 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
21 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
22 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
23 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
24 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
25 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
27 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
28 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
30 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
31 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
32 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
33 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
34 use this option to specify where to find it.
36 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
37 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
38 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
39 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
40 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
41 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
42 section in the user manual for more details.
44 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
45 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
46 become available after that.
48 * New commands "info macros", and "info definitions" have been added.
52 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
53 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
54 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
56 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
57 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
58 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
60 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
61 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
62 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
63 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
64 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
71 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
75 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
77 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
79 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
80 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
81 matches the given regular expression.
83 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
85 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
86 dumping the instruction opcodes.
88 * New command line options
90 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
91 This is mostly for testing purposes.
93 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
94 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
96 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
97 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
98 source path list instead of augmenting it.
100 * GDB now understands thread names.
102 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
103 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
105 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
106 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
109 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
110 has been integrated into GDB.
114 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
115 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
116 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
118 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
119 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
120 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
121 and allows for more dynamic content.
123 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
124 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
125 have an is_valid method.
127 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
128 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
129 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
131 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
133 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
134 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
135 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
136 that function like so:
138 result = some_value (10,20)
140 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
141 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
142 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
144 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
145 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
146 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
147 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
148 New function: register_pretty_printer.
150 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
151 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
153 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
155 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
158 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
159 holds the thread's name.
161 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
162 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
163 occurring in the process being debugged.
164 The following events are currently supported:
165 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
166 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
167 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
171 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
172 instantiation. For example, if you have:
174 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
176 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
177 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
178 was added to GCC 4.5.
180 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
181 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
182 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
183 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
184 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
185 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
187 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
188 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
189 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
190 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
191 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
193 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
194 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
195 execution to a label.
197 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
198 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
199 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
200 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
202 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
203 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
204 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
207 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
209 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
210 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
211 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
212 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
213 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
214 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
217 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
219 While now you see this:
222 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
224 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
227 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
228 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
229 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
230 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
232 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
233 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
234 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
235 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
236 section in the user manual for more details.
238 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
240 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
241 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
243 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
245 * New native configurations
247 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
251 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
253 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
254 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
255 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
256 in the GDB user manual.
258 * Guile support was removed.
260 * New features in the GNU simulator
262 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
264 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
266 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
268 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
270 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
271 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
272 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
273 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
274 was always disabled for such configurations.
278 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
280 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
281 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
291 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
292 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
293 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
295 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
297 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
298 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
299 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
300 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
302 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
303 mentioned flavors of operators.
305 ** static const class members
307 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
308 class definition has been fixed.
310 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
312 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
313 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
314 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
315 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
316 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
317 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
321 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
322 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
323 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
324 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
325 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
326 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
327 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
328 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
329 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
330 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
331 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
332 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
333 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
334 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
335 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
336 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
337 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
338 the "New remote packets" section below.
340 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
342 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
343 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
344 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
345 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
349 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
350 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
351 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
352 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
353 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
354 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
355 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
357 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
364 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
368 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
369 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
370 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
371 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
372 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
373 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
377 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
381 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
384 qXfer:statictrace:read
386 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
387 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
388 to gdb's qSupported query.
392 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
396 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
397 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
399 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
400 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
403 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
405 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
406 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
407 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
408 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
410 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
411 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
412 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
413 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
414 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
415 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
416 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
418 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
419 for static tracepoints support.
421 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
423 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
424 it understands register description.
426 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
428 * X86 general purpose registers
430 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
431 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
432 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
433 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
434 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
436 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
437 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
438 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
439 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
440 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
441 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
443 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
444 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
445 in the specified file.
447 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
448 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
449 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
450 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
451 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
452 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
453 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
454 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
455 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
456 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
460 eval template, expressions...
461 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
462 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
464 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
465 show target-file-system-kind
466 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
469 save breakpoints <filename>
470 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
471 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
472 definitions, use the `source' command.
474 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
477 info static-tracepoint-markers
478 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
480 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
481 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
482 function, line, address, or marker ID.
486 Enable and disable observer mode.
488 set may-write-registers on|off
489 set may-write-memory on|off
490 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
491 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
492 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
493 set may-interrupt on|off
494 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
495 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
496 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
497 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
498 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
499 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
500 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
502 set record memory-query on|off
503 show record memory-query
504 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
505 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
510 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
514 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
515 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
516 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
517 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
518 GDB using Python' in the manual.
520 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
521 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
522 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
523 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
525 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
526 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
528 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
530 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
532 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
534 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
535 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
536 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
538 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
539 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
540 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
545 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
547 * D language support.
548 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
551 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
552 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
553 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
554 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
555 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
557 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
558 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
559 conditions of the form:
561 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
563 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
564 interface mentioned above.
566 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
572 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
573 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
574 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
575 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
576 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
580 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
581 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
586 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
587 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
591 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
596 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
599 * Multi-program debugging.
601 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
602 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
603 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
604 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
605 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
606 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
607 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
608 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
610 * New tracing features
612 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
614 ** Trace state variables
616 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
617 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
618 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
619 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
620 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
621 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
622 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
623 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
624 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
625 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
629 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
630 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
631 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
632 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
633 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
634 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
635 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
636 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
637 the regular trace command.
639 ** Disconnected tracing
641 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
642 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
643 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
644 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
645 connection is lost unexpectedly.
649 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
650 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
651 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
652 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
653 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
654 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
657 ** Circular trace buffer
659 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
660 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
661 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
662 not be available for all target agents.
667 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
668 the arguments to be comma-separated.
671 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
672 which only declare a variable are not shown.
675 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
676 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
679 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
680 "set script-extension" (see below).
682 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
684 record save [<FILENAME>]
685 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
686 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
688 record restore <FILENAME>
689 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
690 earlier time, for replay debugging.
692 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
695 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
696 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
702 maint info program-spaces
703 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
705 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
706 show remote interrupt-sequence
707 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
708 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
709 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
710 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
711 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
713 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
714 show remote interrupt-on-connect
715 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
716 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
719 set remotebreak [on | off]
721 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
723 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
724 Create or modify a trace state variable.
727 List trace state variables and their values.
729 delete tvariable $NAME ...
730 Delete one or more trace state variables.
733 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
734 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
736 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
737 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
739 * New expression syntax
741 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
742 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
746 set follow-exec-mode new|same
747 show follow-exec-mode
748 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
749 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
750 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
752 set default-collect EXPR, ...
754 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
755 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
756 such as registers or a critical global variable.
758 set disconnected-tracing
759 show disconnected-tracing
760 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
761 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
764 set circular-trace-buffer
765 show circular-trace-buffer
766 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
767 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
768 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
769 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
771 set script-extension off|soft|strict
772 show script-extension
773 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
774 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
775 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
776 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
778 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
780 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
781 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
782 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
783 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
784 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
785 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
786 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
789 * Python API Improvements
791 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
792 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
793 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
795 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
796 `is_base_class' attribute.
798 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
800 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
801 evaluate an expression.
806 Define a trace state variable.
809 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
812 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
815 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
818 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
822 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
824 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
825 much more reliable. In particular:
826 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
827 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
828 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
829 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
830 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
831 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
832 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
833 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
834 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
835 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
836 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
837 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
838 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
839 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
840 non-threaded programs.
842 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
843 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
844 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
847 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
849 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
850 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
851 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
852 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
853 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
855 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
856 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
857 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
858 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
859 for tracepoint actions.
861 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
862 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
863 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
865 * Process record and replay
867 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
868 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
869 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
872 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
873 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
874 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
877 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
878 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
881 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
882 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
883 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
884 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
885 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
886 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
887 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
888 the installation instructions for more information.
890 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
891 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
892 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
893 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
895 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
896 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
898 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
899 now complete on file names.
901 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
902 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
903 For instance, consider:
905 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
906 # struct example variable;
909 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
910 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
912 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
913 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
915 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
916 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
919 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
920 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
921 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
923 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
924 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
925 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
926 and simulator targets may also provide them.
931 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
934 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
935 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
936 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
939 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
940 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
943 Obtains additional operating system information
947 Read or write additional signal information.
949 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
951 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
952 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
953 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
955 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
956 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
958 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
959 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
960 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
962 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
963 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
965 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
967 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
969 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
970 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
972 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
973 list of section offsets.
975 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
976 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
977 have also been fixed.
979 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
980 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
981 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
983 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
986 template<typename T> class C { };
989 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
991 ptype C<char const *>
993 ptype C<const char *>
996 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
998 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
999 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1001 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1002 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1003 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1005 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1006 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1008 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1011 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1012 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1014 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1015 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1020 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1021 available is determined at configure time.
1023 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1025 * Ada tasking support
1027 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1031 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1033 Print detailed information about task number N.
1035 Print the task number of the current task.
1037 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1039 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1040 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1042 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1044 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1045 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1046 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1047 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1048 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1049 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1052 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1053 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1056 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1057 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1058 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1059 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1062 * Multi-architecture debugging.
1064 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1065 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1066 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1067 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1068 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1070 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1071 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1072 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1073 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1074 --enable-targets configure option.
1076 * Non-stop mode debugging.
1078 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1079 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1080 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1081 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1082 section in the user manual for more information.
1084 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1085 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1086 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1087 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1088 extensions on linux targets.
1090 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1092 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1093 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1094 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1095 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1096 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1097 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1098 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1099 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1100 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1102 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1104 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1106 maint set python print-stack
1107 maint show python print-stack
1108 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1111 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1116 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1120 Show operating system information about processes.
1123 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1126 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1129 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1132 Kill inferior number NUM.
1136 set spu stop-on-load
1137 show spu stop-on-load
1138 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1140 set spu auto-flush-cache
1141 show spu auto-flush-cache
1142 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1143 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1145 set sh calling-convention
1146 show sh calling-convention
1147 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1150 show debug timestamp
1151 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1153 set disassemble-next-line
1154 show disassemble-next-line
1155 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1158 set remote noack-packet
1159 show remote noack-packet
1160 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1161 under "New remote packets."
1163 set remote query-attached-packet
1164 show remote query-attached-packet
1165 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1167 set remote read-siginfo-object
1168 show remote read-siginfo-object
1169 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1172 set remote write-siginfo-object
1173 show remote write-siginfo-object
1174 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1177 set remote reverse-continue
1178 show remote reverse-continue
1179 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1181 set remote reverse-step
1182 show remote reverse-step
1183 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1185 set displaced-stepping
1186 show displaced-stepping
1187 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1188 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1189 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1192 show debug displaced
1193 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1195 maint set internal-error
1196 maint show internal-error
1197 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1199 maint set internal-warning
1200 maint show internal-warning
1201 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
1206 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1208 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1209 show multiple-symbols
1210 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1211 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1212 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1214 set breakpoint always-inserted
1215 show breakpoint always-inserted
1216 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1217 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1218 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1220 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1221 show arm fallback-mode
1222 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1224 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1225 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1226 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1227 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1229 set disable-randomization
1230 show disable-randomization
1231 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1232 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1233 multiple debugging sessions.
1237 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1242 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1243 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1244 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1245 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1247 set target-wide-charset
1248 show target-wide-charset
1249 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1250 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1252 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1254 set tcp connect-timeout
1255 show tcp connect-timeout
1256 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1257 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1258 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1260 set libthread-db-search-path
1261 show libthread-db-search-path
1262 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1265 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1266 show schedule-multiple
1267 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1268 the current process.
1272 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1273 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1274 affecting correctness.
1276 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1277 show interactive-mode
1278 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1279 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1280 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1281 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1282 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1287 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1288 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1289 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1293 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1294 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1295 alias for the `fork' command.
1298 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1299 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1300 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1303 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1304 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1305 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1309 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1310 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1311 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1314 * New native configurations
1316 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1318 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1322 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
1323 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
1324 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
1327 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1328 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1334 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1336 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
1338 * New native configurations
1340 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
1341 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
1345 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
1346 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
1348 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1350 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1351 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1352 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1353 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1355 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1356 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1358 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
1361 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
1362 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1363 and in inlined functions.
1365 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1366 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1367 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1369 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1371 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1372 registers on PowerPC targets.
1374 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1375 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1377 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1378 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1380 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1381 extended-remote mode.
1383 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
1384 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1385 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1386 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
1388 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1389 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1390 target architectures.
1392 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1393 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1394 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1395 stored in two consecutive float registers.
1397 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1400 * Improved support for debugging Ada
1401 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1403 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1404 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1405 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1406 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1408 - Improved command completion in Ada
1411 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1416 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1417 show print frame-arguments
1418 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1419 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1424 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1431 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1433 * New remote packets
1440 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
1443 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1447 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1449 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
1451 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1452 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1453 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1455 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1456 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1457 -Bsymbolic linker option.
1459 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1460 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1463 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1464 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1466 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
1467 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
1469 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1471 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1472 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1473 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1475 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1476 automatically displayed as character or string data.
1478 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1479 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1482 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1483 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
1484 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
1486 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1489 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1490 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1491 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1493 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1495 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1497 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1498 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1499 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1501 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1502 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1504 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1505 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1506 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1507 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1508 Windows and SymbianOS).
1510 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1511 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
1513 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1514 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
1520 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1521 when debugging using remote targets.
1523 set mem inaccessible-by-default
1524 show mem inaccessible-by-default
1525 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1526 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1527 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1528 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1529 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1531 set breakpoint auto-hw
1532 show breakpoint auto-hw
1533 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1534 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1535 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1536 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1537 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1538 including "next" and "finish".
1541 catch exception unhandled
1542 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1545 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1549 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1550 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1551 an alias to "set sysroot".
1554 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1555 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1558 * New native configurations
1560 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1563 unset tdesc filename
1565 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1566 not query the target for its built-in description.
1570 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
1571 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
1572 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
1574 * New remote packets
1577 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1578 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1580 qXfer:features:read:
1581 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1586 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1587 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1589 qXfer:libraries:read:
1590 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1591 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1592 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1593 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1597 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1605 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1606 i[34567]86-*-netware*
1607 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1608 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1610 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1613 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1614 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1623 * Other removed features
1630 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1637 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1642 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1643 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1648 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1649 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1651 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1653 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1654 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1655 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1656 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1658 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1660 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1661 in debugging information.
1665 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1666 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1668 set mips stack-arg-size
1669 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1671 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1673 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1678 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1680 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1681 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1682 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1684 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1685 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1688 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1689 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1691 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1692 stub provides the required support.
1694 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1695 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1700 unset substitute-path
1701 show substitute-path
1702 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1703 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1704 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1705 between compilation and debugging.
1709 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1710 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1711 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1715 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1717 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1718 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1720 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1722 * New remote packets
1725 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1726 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1727 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1728 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1732 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1733 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1735 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1736 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1737 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1742 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1744 * Removed remote packets
1747 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1748 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1750 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1754 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1756 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1760 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1761 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1763 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1765 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1767 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1768 previously saved state.
1770 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1772 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1774 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1775 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1777 info forks List forks of the user program that
1778 are available to be debugged.
1780 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1781 forks of the user program that are
1782 available to be debugged.
1784 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1785 that are available to be debugged (and
1786 kill the forked process).
1788 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1789 that are available to be debugged (and
1790 allow the process to continue).
1794 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1796 * Improved Windows host support
1798 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1799 native console support, and remote communications using either
1800 network sockets or serial ports.
1802 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1804 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1805 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1806 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1807 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1808 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1809 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1813 The ARM rdi-share module.
1815 The Netware NLM debug server.
1817 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1819 * New native configurations
1821 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1822 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1826 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1828 * New command line options
1830 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1831 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1832 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1833 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1834 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1835 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1836 with the --command (-x) option.
1838 * Deprecated commands removed
1840 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1844 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1845 othernames set arm disassembler
1846 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1847 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1848 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1851 * New BSD user-level threads support
1853 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1854 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1857 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1858 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1859 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1861 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1862 are not yet supported.
1864 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1865 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1867 * REMOVED configurations and files
1869 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1870 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1871 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1873 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1875 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1876 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1879 * VAX floating point support
1881 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1883 * User-defined command support
1885 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1886 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1887 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1889 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1891 * New command line option
1893 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1896 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1898 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1899 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1900 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1901 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1902 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1904 * Internationalization
1906 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1907 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1908 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1912 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1913 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1914 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1916 * New native configurations
1918 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1922 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1923 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1925 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1927 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1928 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1929 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1932 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1933 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1934 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1944 powerpc bdm protocol
1946 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1947 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1949 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1951 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1952 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1953 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1954 permanently REMOVED.
1963 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1965 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1967 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1968 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1971 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1973 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1974 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1975 IRIX long double values).
1979 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1980 command. This problem has been fixed.
1982 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1984 * Fix for ``many threads''
1986 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1987 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1990 ptrace: No such process.
1991 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1993 This problem has been fixed.
1995 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1997 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2000 * New ``start'' command.
2002 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2004 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2006 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2007 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2008 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2010 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2011 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2012 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2013 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2014 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2015 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2016 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2017 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2018 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2020 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
2022 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2023 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2024 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2025 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2026 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2028 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2029 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2030 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
2032 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2034 * New native configurations
2036 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
2037 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
2038 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2039 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
2040 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
2041 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
2042 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
2044 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2046 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2047 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2048 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2049 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2050 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2051 work, was also included.
2053 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2054 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2064 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2065 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2067 * REMOVED configurations and files
2069 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2070 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2071 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2072 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2073 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2074 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2075 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2076 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2077 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2078 sonymips mips-sony-*
2079 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2081 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2083 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2085 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2086 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2087 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2088 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2091 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2093 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2094 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2095 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2096 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2097 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2098 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2101 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2103 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
2105 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2106 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2107 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2109 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2111 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2112 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2114 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2116 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2117 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2118 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2120 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2122 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2123 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2125 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2127 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2128 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2129 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2131 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2133 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2134 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2135 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2137 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
2139 * Removed --with-mmalloc
2141 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2142 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2144 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
2146 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2147 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2148 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2149 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2151 * Revised SPARC target
2153 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2154 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
2155 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2156 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2157 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
2161 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2162 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2163 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2166 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2168 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2169 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2172 * C++ nested types and namespaces
2174 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2175 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2176 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2177 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2178 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2179 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2180 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2181 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2182 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2184 * New native configurations
2186 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
2187 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2188 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
2189 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2190 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
2192 * New debugging protocols
2194 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2196 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2198 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2199 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2200 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2202 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2204 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2205 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2206 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2207 permanently REMOVED.
2209 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2210 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2211 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2212 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2213 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2214 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2215 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2216 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2217 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2218 sonymips mips-sony-*
2219 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2221 * REMOVED configurations and files
2223 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2224 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2225 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2226 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2227 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2228 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2229 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2230 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2231 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2232 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
2233 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2234 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2235 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2236 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2237 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
2238 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2239 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2241 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2245 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2246 integrated into GDB.
2248 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2250 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2251 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2252 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2255 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2256 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2257 DWARF 2 CFI support.
2261 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2262 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2263 remote protocol documentation for details.
2265 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
2267 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2268 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2269 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2272 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2274 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2275 per-thread variables.
2277 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2279 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2280 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2282 * Separate debug info.
2284 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2285 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2286 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2287 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2288 and optional debug files.
2290 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2292 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2293 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2296 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2297 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2301 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2302 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2303 considered "useable".
2305 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2307 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2308 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2311 * GDB supports logging output to a file
2313 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2314 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
2316 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2318 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2319 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2322 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
2324 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2325 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2329 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2330 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2331 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2332 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2333 data, for more informative profiling results.
2335 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2337 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2338 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
2339 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
2341 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2344 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2345 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2346 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2347 in a subsequent -var-update.
2349 * New native configurations.
2351 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2353 * Multi-arched targets.
2355 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
2356 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2358 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2360 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2361 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2362 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2363 permanently REMOVED.
2365 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2366 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2367 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2368 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2369 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2370 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2371 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2372 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2373 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2374 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2375 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2376 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2378 * REMOVED configurations and files
2381 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2382 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2383 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2384 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2385 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2386 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2388 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2389 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2390 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2391 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2392 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2393 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2395 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
2397 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2398 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2399 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2400 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2401 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2403 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
2405 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2407 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2408 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2409 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2410 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2411 shared libs like mad''.
2413 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
2415 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2416 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2417 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2418 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
2420 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2422 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2423 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2426 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2427 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2429 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2430 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2432 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2433 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2434 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2435 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2437 * Multi-arched targets.
2439 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2440 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2442 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
2443 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2444 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2448 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2451 * New native configurations
2453 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
2454 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
2455 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
2456 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
2458 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2460 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2461 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2462 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2463 permanently REMOVED.
2465 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2466 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2467 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2468 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2469 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2470 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2471 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2472 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2473 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2474 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2476 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2477 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2479 * OBSOLETE languages
2481 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2483 * REMOVED configurations and files
2485 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2486 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2487 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2488 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2489 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2491 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2493 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2495 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2496 commands. The default is 1024.
2498 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2500 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2502 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2504 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2505 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2506 from a file into memory (restore).
2508 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2510 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2511 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2512 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2514 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2522 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2523 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2524 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2526 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2527 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2528 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2530 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2531 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2532 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2534 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2535 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2536 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2538 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
2540 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2542 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2543 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2544 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2545 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2546 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2547 (notably embedded) targets.
2549 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2551 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2552 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2553 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2554 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
2556 * New command line option
2558 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2560 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2562 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2563 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2564 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2565 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2566 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2567 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2568 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2569 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2570 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2571 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2573 * Changes in ARM configurations.
2575 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2576 configuration is fully multi-arch.
2578 * New native configurations
2580 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
2581 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
2582 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
2583 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
2587 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2589 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2591 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2592 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2593 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2594 permanently REMOVED.
2596 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2597 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2598 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2599 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2600 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2602 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2604 * REMOVED configurations and files
2606 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2608 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2609 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2610 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2611 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2612 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2613 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2614 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2615 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2616 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2617 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2618 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
2620 * Changes to command line processing
2622 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2623 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2625 * Changes to key bindings
2627 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2629 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2631 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2633 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2636 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2638 Numerous documentation fixes.
2640 Numerous testsuite fixes.
2642 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
2644 * New native configurations
2646 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2647 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2648 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
2649 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2650 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
2651 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2655 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2657 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2659 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2661 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2662 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2663 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2664 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2665 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2667 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2668 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2669 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2670 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2671 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2672 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2673 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2674 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2676 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2677 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2679 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2680 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2681 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2682 permanently REMOVED.
2684 * REMOVED configurations and files
2686 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2687 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2689 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2693 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2695 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2696 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2701 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2703 * The MI enabled by default.
2705 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2706 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2707 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2708 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2709 which is now deprecated.
2711 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2713 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2714 main features are supported:
2716 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2718 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2721 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2723 - a Pascal expression parser.
2725 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2727 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2729 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2731 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2732 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2734 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2736 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2738 * Changes in completion.
2740 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2741 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2742 users expect at the shell prompt.
2744 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2745 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2746 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2747 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2748 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2749 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2750 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2752 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2754 * New platform-independent commands:
2756 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2757 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2758 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2760 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2762 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2763 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2764 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2766 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2768 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2769 multi-threaded programs though.
2771 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2773 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2775 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2776 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2779 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2781 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2782 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2783 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2784 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2785 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2788 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2789 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2790 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2792 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2794 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2795 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2797 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2798 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2801 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2802 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2803 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2804 a given linear address.
2806 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2807 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2808 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2810 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2812 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2814 * Changes in documentation.
2816 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2817 Documentation License.
2819 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2822 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2824 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2827 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2828 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2829 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2831 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2833 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2834 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2835 contents of this file.
2839 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2841 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2843 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2845 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2846 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2847 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2848 greater level of detail.
2850 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2852 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2853 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2854 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2857 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2859 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2860 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2861 machines ``out of the box''.
2863 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2864 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2865 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2866 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2867 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2869 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2870 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2871 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2872 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2873 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2875 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2876 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2879 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2882 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2883 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2884 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2885 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2887 * New native configurations
2889 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2890 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2894 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2895 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2896 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2897 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2899 * OBSOLETE configurations
2901 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2902 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2904 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2907 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2908 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2909 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2910 be permanently REMOVED.
2912 * Gould support removed
2914 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2916 * New features for SVR4
2918 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2919 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2920 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2922 * Many C++ enhancements
2924 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2925 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2927 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2929 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2930 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2931 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2932 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2934 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2935 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2937 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2939 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2940 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2941 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2943 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2944 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2946 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2948 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2949 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2950 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2952 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2954 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2955 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2956 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2958 * ``apropos'' command added.
2960 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2961 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2962 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2966 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2967 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2968 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2969 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2970 enabled by configuring with:
2972 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2974 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2976 * New native configurations
2978 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2979 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2980 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2984 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2985 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2986 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2988 * OBSOLETE configurations
2990 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2992 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2993 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2994 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2995 be permanently REMOVED.
2999 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3000 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3001 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3002 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3003 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3004 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3005 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3010 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3012 * set extension-language
3014 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3015 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3016 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3017 set extension-language .c c++
3018 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3019 and their associated languages.
3021 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3023 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3024 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3025 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3029 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3030 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3032 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3033 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3035 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3036 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3037 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3038 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3039 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3040 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3041 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3042 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3044 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3045 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3046 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3047 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3051 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3052 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3053 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3054 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3055 for xdb and dbx commands.
3059 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3060 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3061 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3063 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3064 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3065 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3067 * Debugging across forks
3069 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3074 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3075 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3076 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3078 * GDB remote protocol additions
3080 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3081 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3082 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3083 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3085 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3086 full 64-bit address. The command
3088 set remoteaddresssize 32
3090 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3091 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3094 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3095 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3097 maint packet heythere
3099 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3100 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3103 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3104 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3105 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3107 * Tracing can collect general expressions
3109 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3110 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3111 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3113 * mask-address variable for Mips
3115 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3116 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3117 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3119 * Higher serial baud rates
3121 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3122 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3123 to achieve all of these rates.)
3127 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3128 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3131 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3133 * New native configurations
3135 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3136 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3137 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3138 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3139 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3140 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3141 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3145 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3146 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3147 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3148 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3149 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3150 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3151 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3152 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3153 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3154 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3155 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3157 * New debugging protocols
3159 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3160 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3161 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3162 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3163 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3164 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3168 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3169 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3174 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3175 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3177 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3179 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3180 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3181 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3183 * Live range splitting
3185 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3186 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3187 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3191 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3192 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3196 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3197 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3198 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3203 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3208 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3209 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3210 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3211 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3212 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3213 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3217 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3218 the symbol at the specified address.
3222 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3223 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3224 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3225 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3226 file tracepoint.c for more details.
3230 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3231 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3232 of most MIPS variants.
3236 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3237 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3238 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3242 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3243 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3244 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3245 the possible architectures.
3247 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3249 * New native configurations
3251 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3252 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3253 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3254 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3255 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3256 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3260 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3261 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3262 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3263 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3264 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3266 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3270 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3271 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3272 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3273 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3274 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3278 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3280 * Windows 95/NT native
3282 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3283 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3284 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3285 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3286 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3288 * dont-repeat command
3290 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3291 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3292 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3293 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3295 * Send break instead of ^C
3297 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3298 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3299 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3301 * Remote protocol timeout
3303 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3304 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3305 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3307 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3309 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3310 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3311 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3312 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3313 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3315 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3316 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3317 automatically on hpux10.
3319 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3321 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3323 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3325 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3326 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3327 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3328 every character. The default value is 1050.
3330 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3332 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3333 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3334 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3335 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3336 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3337 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3339 * Speedups for remote debugging
3341 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3342 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3343 and more efficient S-record downloading.
3345 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3347 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3348 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3350 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3352 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
3354 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3355 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3357 * Remote targets use caching
3359 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3360 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3361 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3362 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3363 off' turns the the data cache off.
3365 * Remote targets may have threads
3367 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3368 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3369 gdb/remote.c for details.
3373 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3374 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3375 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3376 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3377 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3378 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3379 sequence is something like
3381 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3383 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3387 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3388 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3389 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3390 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3391 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3392 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3393 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3394 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3398 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3399 but does simplify configuration and building.
3403 GDB now supports hpux10.
3405 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3407 * New native configurations
3409 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3410 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3411 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3412 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3416 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3417 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3418 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3419 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3422 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3424 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3425 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3426 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3427 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3428 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3430 * Arguments to user-defined commands
3432 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3433 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3436 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3438 To execute the command use:
3441 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3442 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3443 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3445 * New `if' and `while' commands
3447 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3448 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3449 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3450 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3451 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3452 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3453 if the expression is zero.
3455 * Fortran source language mode
3457 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3458 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3459 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3460 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3463 * Better HPUX support
3465 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3466 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3467 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3468 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3469 that behavior do the following before running the program:
3475 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3476 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3482 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3483 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3486 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3487 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3489 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3491 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3492 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3493 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3494 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3495 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3496 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3498 * New DOS host serial code
3500 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3501 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3504 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3506 * New "complete" command
3508 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3509 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3511 * Trailing space optional in prompt
3513 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3514 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3516 * Breakpoint hit counts
3518 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3519 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3520 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3521 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3522 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3525 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3527 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3528 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3529 arrays actually contain only short strings.
3531 * Shared library breakpoints
3533 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3534 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3536 * Hardware watchpoints
3538 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3539 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3541 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
3545 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3546 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3548 * Improved Irix 5 support
3550 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3552 * Improved HPPA support
3554 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3556 * New native configurations
3558 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3559 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3560 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3561 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3565 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3566 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3569 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3571 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3572 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3576 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3577 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3579 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3581 * Irix 5 is now supported
3585 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3586 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3587 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3588 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3589 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3592 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3594 * User visible changes:
3598 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3599 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3600 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3601 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3602 debugging info for the mips target).
3604 * DEC Alpha native support
3606 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3607 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3608 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3609 Alpha-specific notes.
3611 * Preliminary thread implementation
3613 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3615 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
3617 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3618 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3621 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3623 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3624 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3625 call methods, ...etc.
3627 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3629 * User visible changes:
3631 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3632 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3633 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3634 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3636 Filename completion now works.
3638 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3639 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3640 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3642 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3643 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3644 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3645 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3646 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3650 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3651 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3654 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3658 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3659 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3660 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3664 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3665 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3666 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3667 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3668 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3672 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3673 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3674 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3676 * New targets supported
3678 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3679 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3680 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3681 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3682 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3684 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3685 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3686 GO32 memory extender.
3688 * New remote protocols
3690 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3692 * New source languages supported
3694 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3695 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3696 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3699 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3701 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3703 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3704 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3705 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3706 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3707 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3708 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3710 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3712 * Faster and better demangling
3714 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3715 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3716 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3717 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3718 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3719 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3722 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3723 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3724 compiler does not actually implement.
3726 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3728 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3729 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3730 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3731 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3732 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3733 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3736 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3737 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3739 * Improved configure script
3741 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3742 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3743 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3744 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3746 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3747 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3748 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3749 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3750 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3751 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3753 * Documentation improvements
3755 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3756 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3757 before submitting changes.
3759 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3760 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3761 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3762 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3763 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3765 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3766 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3767 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3768 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3769 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3770 around this problem.
3774 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3775 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3776 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3779 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3780 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3782 * New native hosts supported
3784 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3785 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3787 * New targets supported
3789 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3791 * New file formats supported
3793 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3794 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3798 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3800 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3801 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3803 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3804 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3805 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3807 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3808 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3810 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3811 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3812 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3815 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3816 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3817 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3818 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3819 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3821 * Internal improvements
3823 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3824 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3826 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3827 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3828 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3829 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3830 shared code that handles any of them.
3832 * New command line options
3834 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3838 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3839 General Public License.
3841 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3843 * Host/native/target split
3845 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3846 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3847 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3848 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3849 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3851 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3852 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3853 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3854 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3855 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3856 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3857 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3859 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3860 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3861 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3863 * New hosts supported
3865 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3866 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3867 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3869 * New targets supported
3871 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3872 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3874 * New native hosts supported
3876 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3877 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3878 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3880 * New file formats supported
3882 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3883 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3884 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3888 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3889 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3890 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3892 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3894 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3895 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3896 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3897 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3901 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3902 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3903 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3905 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3909 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3910 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3913 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3914 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3916 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3917 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3918 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3919 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3920 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3921 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3923 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3924 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3925 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3926 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3930 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3931 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3932 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3933 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3934 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3936 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3937 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3938 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3939 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3943 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3944 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3945 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3946 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3947 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3948 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3949 each instruction being stepped through.
3951 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3952 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3954 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3955 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3956 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3957 processor with a serial port.
3961 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3962 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3963 supported, and what files each one uses.
3967 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3968 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3969 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3970 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3972 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3973 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3974 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3975 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3979 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3980 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3981 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3982 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3983 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3984 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3986 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3989 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3991 * Better support for C++ function names
3993 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3994 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3995 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3996 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3997 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3999 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4000 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4001 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4002 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4003 for the list of formats.
4005 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4007 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4008 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4009 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4010 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4011 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4012 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4015 * New 'maintenance' command
4017 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4018 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4019 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4021 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4022 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4023 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4024 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4025 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4026 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4028 The following commands are new:
4030 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4031 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4032 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4034 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4036 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4037 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4038 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4039 read after argv processing.
4041 * New hosts supported
4043 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4045 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
4047 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4048 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4049 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4050 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4051 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4054 * New targets supported
4056 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4058 * More smarts about finding #include files
4060 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4061 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4062 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4063 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4064 the one that contains your sources.
4066 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4067 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4068 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4070 * Interesting infernals change
4072 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4073 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4074 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4075 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4077 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4079 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4080 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4081 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4083 See the ChangeLog for details.
4085 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4087 * New machines supported (host and target)
4089 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4091 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4093 * New malloc package
4095 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4096 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4097 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4098 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4099 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4100 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4104 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4105 'help info proc' for details.
4107 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4109 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4110 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4113 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4115 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4116 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4117 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4118 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4119 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4120 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4122 * Cross byte order fixes
4124 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4125 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4127 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4129 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4130 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4131 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4132 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4133 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4134 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4135 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4136 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4137 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4138 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4140 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4141 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4142 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4143 slower, but makes future operations faster.
4145 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4146 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4147 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4150 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4152 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4153 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4154 shared across multiple host platforms.
4156 * longjmp() handling
4158 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4159 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4160 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4161 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4165 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4166 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4171 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4172 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4173 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4175 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4177 * New machines supported (host and target)
4179 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4181 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4182 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4184 * New machines supported (target)
4186 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4190 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4191 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4192 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4194 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4195 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4196 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4197 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4198 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4201 * New features for SVR4
4203 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4204 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4205 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4207 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4208 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4209 it prints the address mappings of the process.
4211 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4212 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4214 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4216 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4217 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4218 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4219 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4220 same code linked statically.
4224 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4225 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4226 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4227 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4228 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4229 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4233 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4234 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4235 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4238 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4240 * New machines supported (host and target)
4242 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4243 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4244 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4246 * Almost SCO Unix support
4248 We had hoped to support:
4249 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4250 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4251 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4252 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4254 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4256 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4257 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4258 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4259 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4264 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4265 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4266 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4270 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4271 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4272 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4274 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4276 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4277 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4278 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4280 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4281 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4282 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4283 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4286 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4287 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4288 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4289 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4292 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4293 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4296 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4297 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4298 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4301 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4303 * Improved configuration
4305 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4306 Porting BFD is simpler.
4310 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4311 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4312 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4313 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4317 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4319 * New host supported (not target)
4321 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4324 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4326 * Multiple source language support
4328 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4329 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4330 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4331 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4332 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4333 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4337 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4338 currently under development at the State University of New York at
4339 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4340 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4342 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4343 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4344 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4346 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4347 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4351 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4352 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4353 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4354 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4357 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4359 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4360 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4361 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4362 examining core files.
4366 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4369 * New machines supported (host and target)
4371 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4372 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4373 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4375 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4377 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4379 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4381 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4382 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4383 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4385 * New remote interfaces
4391 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4395 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4397 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4398 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4399 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4400 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4401 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4402 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4403 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4404 stub on the target system.
4406 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4408 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4409 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4410 object file types such as a.out and coff.
4412 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4413 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4416 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4418 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4419 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4421 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4422 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4423 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4425 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4426 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4427 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4428 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4430 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4431 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4432 it is already running. Default is ON.
4434 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4435 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4436 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4437 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4440 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4441 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4442 or the value of the environment variable
4445 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4446 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4449 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4450 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4451 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4453 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4454 history expansion will be performed on
4455 command line input. The default is OFF.
4457 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4458 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4459 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4461 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4462 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4463 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4466 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4467 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4468 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4471 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4472 ``set width'' instead.
4474 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4475 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4476 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4477 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4479 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4482 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4485 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4488 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4491 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4493 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4494 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4495 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4499 * Support for Shared Libraries
4501 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4502 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4503 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4504 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4505 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4506 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4507 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4508 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4510 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4511 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4512 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4514 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4519 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4520 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4521 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4522 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4523 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4524 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4526 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4528 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4530 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4531 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4532 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4535 * C++ multiple inheritance
4537 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4540 * C++ exception handling
4542 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4543 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4544 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4547 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4548 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4549 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4551 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4552 current stack frame.
4555 * Minor command changes
4557 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4558 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4559 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4561 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4562 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4563 frames without printing.
4565 * New directory command
4567 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4568 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4569 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4570 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4571 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4573 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4575 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4578 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4579 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4580 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4581 where the program that you are debugging will run.