Document remote clone events, and QThreadOptions packet
[binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 14
5
6 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++17 compiler.
7 For example, GCC 9 or later.
8
9 * GDB index now contains information about the main function. This speeds up
10 startup when it is being used for some large binaries.
11
12 * Changed commands
13
14 disassemble
15 Attempting to use both the 'r' and 'b' flags with the disassemble
16 command will now give an error. Previously the 'b' flag would
17 always override the 'r' flag.
18
19 * Python API
20
21 ** New function gdb.notify_mi(NAME, DATA), that emits custom
22 GDB/MI async notification.
23
24 ** New read/write attribute gdb.Value.bytes that contains a bytes
25 object holding the contents of this value.
26
27 * New commands
28
29 maintenance info linux-lwps
30 List all LWPs under control of the linux-nat target.
31
32 set remote thread-options-packet
33 show remote thread-options-packet
34 Set/show the use of the thread options packet.
35
36 * New remote packets
37
38 New stop reason: clone
39 Indicates that a clone system call was executed.
40
41 QThreadOptions
42 Enable/disable optional event reporting, on a per-thread basis.
43 Currently supported options are GDB_THREAD_OPTION_CLONE, to enable
44 clone event reporting, and GDB_THREAD_OPTION_EXIT to enable thread
45 exit event reporting.
46
47 QThreadOptions in qSupported
48 The qSupported packet allows GDB to inform the stub it supports the
49 QThreadOptions packet, and the qSupported response can contain the
50 set of thread options the remote stub supports.
51
52 *** Changes in GDB 14
53
54 * GDB now supports the AArch64 Scalable Matrix Extension 2 (SME2), which
55 includes a new 512 bit lookup table register named ZT0.
56
57 * GDB now supports the AArch64 Scalable Matrix Extension (SME), which includes
58 a new matrix register named ZA, a new thread register TPIDR2 and a new vector
59 length register SVG (streaming vector granule). GDB also supports tracking
60 ZA state across signal frames.
61
62 Some features are still under development or are dependent on ABI specs that
63 are still in alpha stage. For example, manual function calls with ZA state
64 don't have any special handling, and tracking of SVG changes based on
65 DWARF information is still not implemented, but there are plans to do so in
66 the future.
67
68 * GDB now recognizes the NO_COLOR environment variable and disables
69 styling according to the spec. See https://no-color.org/.
70 Styling can be re-enabled with "set style enabled on".
71
72 * The AArch64 'org.gnu.gdb.aarch64.pauth' Pointer Authentication feature string
73 has been deprecated in favor of the 'org.gnu.gdb.aarch64.pauth_v2' feature
74 string.
75
76 * GDB now has some support for integer types larger than 64 bits.
77
78 * Removed targets and native configurations
79
80 GDB no longer supports AIX 4.x, AIX 5.x and AIX 6.x. The minimum supported
81 AIX version is now AIX 7.1.
82
83 * Multi-target feature configuration
84
85 GDB now supports the individual configuration of remote targets' feature
86 sets. Based on the current selection of a target, the commands 'set remote
87 <name>-packet (on|off|auto)' and 'show remote <name>-packet' can be used to
88 configure a target's feature packet and to display its configuration,
89 respectively.
90
91 The individual packet sizes can be configured and shown using the commands
92 ** 'set remote memory-read-packet-size (number of bytes|fixed|limit)'
93 ** 'set remote memory-write-packet-size (number of bytes|fixed|limit)'
94 ** 'show remote memory-read-packet-size'
95 ** 'show remote memory-write-packet-size'.
96
97 The configuration of the packet itself, as well as the size of a memory-read
98 or memory-write packet applies to the currently selected target (if
99 available). If no target is selected, it applies to future remote
100 connections. Similarly, the show commands print the configuration of the
101 currently selected target. If no remote target is selected, the default
102 configuration for future connections is shown.
103
104 * GDB has initial built-in support for the Debugger Adapter Protocol.
105 This support requires that GDB be built with Python scripting
106 enabled.
107
108 * For the break command, multiple uses of the 'thread' or 'task'
109 keywords will now give an error instead of just using the thread or
110 task id from the last instance of the keyword. E.g.:
111 break foo thread 1 thread 2
112 will now give an error rather than using 'thread 2'.
113
114 * For the watch command, multiple uses of the 'task' keyword will now
115 give an error instead of just using the task id from the last
116 instance of the keyword. E.g.:
117 watch my_var task 1 task 2
118 will now give an error rather than using 'task 2'. The 'thread'
119 keyword already gave an error when used multiple times with the
120 watch command, this remains unchanged.
121
122 * The 'set print elements' setting now helps when printing large arrays.
123 If an array would otherwise exceed max-value-size, but 'print elements'
124 is set such that the size of elements to print is less than or equal
125 to 'max-value-size', GDB will now still print the array, however only
126 'max-value-size' worth of data will be added into the value history.
127
128 * For both the break and watch commands, it is now invalid to use both
129 the 'thread' and 'task' keywords within the same command. For
130 example the following commnds will now give an error:
131 break foo thread 1 task 1
132 watch var thread 2 task 3
133
134 * The printf command now accepts a '%V' output format which will
135 format an expression just as the 'print' command would. Print
136 options can be placed withing '[...]' after the '%V' to modify how
137 the value is printed. E.g:
138 printf "%V", some_array
139 printf "%V[-array-indexes on]", some_array
140 will print the array without, or with array indexes included, just
141 as the array would be printed by the 'print' command. This
142 functionality is also available for dprintf when dprintf-style is
143 'gdb'.
144
145 * When the printf command requires a string to be fetched from the
146 inferior, GDB now uses the existing 'max-value-size' setting to the
147 limit the memory allocated within GDB. The default 'max-value-size'
148 is 64k. To print longer strings you should increase
149 'max-value-size'.
150
151 * The Ada 2022 Enum_Rep and Enum_Val attributes are now supported.
152
153 * The Ada 2022 target name symbol ('@') is now supported by the Ada
154 expression parser.
155
156 * The 'list' command now accepts '.' as an argument, which tells GDB to
157 print the location around the point of execution within the current frame.
158 If the inferior hasn't started yet, the command will print around the
159 beginning of the 'main' function.
160
161 * Using the 'list' command with no arguments in a situation where the
162 command would attempt to list past the end of the file now warns the
163 user that the end of file has been reached, refers the user to the
164 newly added '.' argument
165
166 * Breakpoints can now be inferior-specific. This is similar to the
167 existing thread-specific breakpoint support. Breakpoint conditions
168 can include the 'inferior' keyword followed by an inferior id (as
169 displayed in the 'info inferiors' output). It is invalid to use the
170 'inferior' keyword with either the 'thread' or 'task' keywords when
171 creating a breakpoint.
172
173 * New convenience function "$_shell", to execute a shell command and
174 return the result. This lets you run shell commands in expressions.
175 Some examples:
176
177 (gdb) p $_shell("true")
178 $1 = 0
179 (gdb) p $_shell("false")
180 $2 = 1
181 (gdb) break func if $_shell("some command") == 0
182
183 * Configure changes
184
185 --additional-debug-dirs=PATHs
186
187 Provide a colon-separated list of additional directories to search for
188 separate debug info. These directories are added to the default value of
189 the 'debug-file-directory' GDB parameter.
190
191 * New commands
192
193 set debug breakpoint on|off
194 show debug breakpoint
195 Print additional debug messages about breakpoint insertion and removal.
196
197 maintenance print record-instruction [ N ]
198 Print the recorded information for a given instruction. If N is not given
199 prints how GDB would undo the last instruction executed. If N is negative,
200 prints how GDB would undo the N-th previous instruction, and if N is
201 positive, it prints how GDB will redo the N-th following instruction.
202
203 maintenance info frame-unwinders
204 List the frame unwinders currently in effect, starting with the highest
205 priority.
206
207 maintenance wait-for-index-cache
208 Wait until all pending writes to the index cache have completed.
209
210 set always-read-ctf on|off
211 show always-read-ctf
212 When off, CTF is only read if DWARF is not present. When on, CTF is
213 read regardless of whether DWARF is present. Off by default.
214
215 info main
216 Get main symbol to identify entry point into program.
217
218 set tui mouse-events [on|off]
219 show tui mouse-events
220 When on (default), mouse clicks control the TUI and can be accessed by
221 Python extensions. When off, mouse clicks are handled by the terminal,
222 enabling terminal-native text selection.
223
224 * MI changes
225
226 ** MI version 1 has been removed.
227
228 ** mi now reports 'no-history' as a stop reason when hitting the end of the
229 reverse execution history.
230
231 ** When creating a thread-specific breakpoint using the '-p' option,
232 the -break-insert command would report the 'thread' field twice in
233 the reply. The content of both fields was always identical. This
234 has now been fixed; the 'thread' field will be reported just once
235 for thread-specific breakpoints, or not at all for breakpoints
236 without a thread restriction. The same is also true for the 'task'
237 field of an Ada task-specific breakpoint.
238
239 ** It is no longer possible to create a thread-specific breakpoint for
240 a thread that doesn't exist using '-break-insert -p ID'. Creating
241 breakpoints for non-existent threads is not allowed when using the
242 CLI, that the MI allowed it was a long standing bug, which has now
243 been fixed.
244
245 ** The '--simple-values' argument to the '-stack-list-arguments',
246 '-stack-list-locals', '-stack-list-variables', and '-var-list-children'
247 commands now takes reference types into account: that is, a value is now
248 considered simple if it is neither an array, structure, or union, nor a
249 reference to an array, structure, or union. (Previously all references were
250 considered simple.) Support for this feature can be verified by using the
251 '-list-features' command, which should contain "simple-values-ref-types".
252
253 ** The -break-insert command now accepts a '-g thread-group-id' option
254 to allow for the creation of inferior-specific breakpoints.
255
256 ** The bkpt tuple, which appears in breakpoint-created notifications,
257 and in the result of the -break-insert command can now include an
258 optional 'inferior' field for both the main breakpoint, and each
259 location, when the breakpoint is inferior-specific.
260
261 * Python API
262
263 ** gdb.ThreadExitedEvent added. Emits a ThreadEvent.
264
265 ** The gdb.unwinder.Unwinder.name attribute is now read-only.
266
267 ** The name argument passed to gdb.unwinder.Unwinder.__init__ must
268 now be of type 'str' otherwise a TypeError will be raised.
269
270 ** The gdb.unwinder.Unwinder.enabled attribute can now only accept
271 values of type 'bool'. Changing this attribute will now
272 invalidate GDB's frame-cache, which means GDB will need to
273 rebuild its frame-cache when next required - either with, or
274 without the particular unwinder, depending on how 'enabled' was
275 changed.
276
277 ** New methods added to the gdb.PendingFrame class. These methods
278 have the same behaviour as the corresponding methods on
279 gdb.Frame. The new methods are:
280
281 - gdb.PendingFrame.name: Return the name for the frame's
282 function, or None.
283 - gdb.PendingFrame.is_valid: Return True if the pending frame
284 object is valid.
285 - gdb.PendingFrame.pc: Return the $pc register value for this
286 frame.
287 - gdb.PendingFrame.language: Return a string containing the
288 language for this frame, or None.
289 - gdb.PendingFrame.find_sal: Return a gdb.Symtab_and_line
290 object for the current location within the pending frame, or
291 None.
292 - gdb.PendingFrame.block: Return a gdb.Block for the current
293 pending frame, or None.
294 - gdb.PendingFrame.function: Return a gdb.Symbol for the
295 current pending frame, or None.
296
297 ** The frame-id passed to gdb.PendingFrame.create_unwind_info can
298 now use either an integer or a gdb.Value object for each of its
299 'sp', 'pc', and 'special' attributes.
300
301 ** A new class gdb.unwinder.FrameId has been added. Instances of
302 this class are constructed with 'sp' (stack-pointer) and 'pc'
303 (program-counter) values, and can be used as the frame-id when
304 calling gdb.PendingFrame.create_unwind_info.
305
306 ** It is now no longer possible to sub-class the
307 gdb.disassembler.DisassemblerResult type.
308
309 ** The Disassembler API from the gdb.disassembler module has been
310 extended to include styling support:
311
312 - The DisassemblerResult class can now be initialized with a list
313 of parts. Each part represents part of the disassembled
314 instruction along with the associated style information. This
315 list of parts can be accessed with the new
316 DisassemblerResult.parts property.
317
318 - New constants gdb.disassembler.STYLE_* representing all the
319 different styles part of an instruction might have.
320
321 - New methods DisassembleInfo.text_part and
322 DisassembleInfo.address_part which are used to create the new
323 styled parts of a disassembled instruction.
324
325 - Changes are backwards compatible, the older API can still be
326 used to disassemble instructions without styling.
327
328 ** New function gdb.execute_mi(COMMAND, [ARG]...), that invokes a
329 GDB/MI command and returns the output as a Python dictionary.
330
331 ** New function gdb.block_signals(). This returns a context manager
332 that blocks any signals that GDB needs to handle itself.
333
334 ** New class gdb.Thread. This is a subclass of threading.Thread
335 that calls gdb.block_signals in its "start" method.
336
337 ** gdb.parse_and_eval now has a new "global_context" parameter.
338 This can be used to request that the parse only examine global
339 symbols.
340
341 ** gdb.Inferior now has a new "arguments" attribute. This holds the
342 command-line arguments to the inferior, if known.
343
344 ** gdb.Inferior now has a new "main_name" attribute. This holds the
345 name of the inferior's "main", if known.
346
347 ** gdb.Inferior now has new methods "clear_env", "set_env", and
348 "unset_env". These can be used to modify the inferior's
349 environment before it is started.
350
351 ** gdb.Value now has the 'assign' method.
352
353 ** gdb.Value now has the 'to_array' method. This converts an
354 array-like Value to an array.
355
356 ** gdb.Progspace now has the new method "objfile_for_address". This
357 returns the gdb.Objfile, if any, that covers a given address.
358
359 ** gdb.Breakpoint now has an "inferior" attribute. If the
360 Breakpoint object is inferior specific then this attribute holds
361 the inferior-id (an integer). If the Breakpoint object is not
362 inferior specific, then this field contains None. This field can
363 be written too.
364
365 ** gdb.Type now has the "is_array_like" and "is_string_like"
366 methods. These reflect GDB's internal idea of whether a type
367 might be array- or string-like, even if they do not have the
368 corresponding type code.
369
370 ** gdb.ValuePrinter is a new class that can be used as the base
371 class for the result of applying a pretty-printer. As a base
372 class, it signals to gdb that the printer may implement new
373 pretty-printer methods.
374
375 ** New attribute Progspace.symbol_file. This attribute holds the
376 gdb.Objfile that corresponds to Progspace.filename (when
377 Progspace.filename is not None), otherwise, this attribute is
378 itself None.
379
380 ** New attribute Progspace.executable_filename. This attribute
381 holds a string containing a file name set by the "exec-file" or
382 "file" commands, or None if no executable file is set. This
383 isn't the exact string passed by the user to these commands; the
384 file name will have been partially resolved to an absolute file
385 name.
386
387 ** A new executable_changed event registry is available. This event
388 emits ExecutableChangedEvent objects, which have 'progspace' (a
389 gdb.Progspace) and 'reload' (a Boolean) attributes. This event
390 is emitted when gdb.Progspace.executable_filename changes.
391
392 ** New event registries gdb.events.new_progspace and
393 gdb.events.free_progspace, these emit NewProgspaceEvent and
394 FreeProgspaceEvent event types respectively. Both of these event
395 types have a single 'progspace' attribute, which is the
396 gdb.Progspace that is either being added to GDB, or removed from
397 GDB.
398
399 ** gdb.LazyString now implements the __str__ method.
400
401 *** Changes in GDB 13
402
403 * MI version 1 is deprecated, and will be removed in GDB 14.
404
405 * GDB now supports dumping memory tag data for AArch64 MTE. It also supports
406 reading memory tag data for AArch64 MTE from core files generated by
407 the gcore command or the Linux kernel.
408
409 When a process uses memory-mapped pages protected by memory tags (for
410 example, AArch64 MTE), this additional information will be recorded in
411 the core file in the event of a crash or if GDB generates a core file
412 from the current process state. GDB will show this additional information
413 automatically, or through one of the memory-tag subcommands.
414
415 * Scheduler-locking and new threads
416
417 When scheduler-locking is in effect, only the current thread may run
418 when the inferior is resumed. However, previously, new threads
419 created by the resumed thread would still be able to run free. Now,
420 they are held stopped.
421
422 * "info breakpoints" now displays enabled breakpoint locations of
423 disabled breakpoints as in the "y-" state. For example:
424
425 (gdb) info breakpoints
426 Num Type Disp Enb Address What
427 1 breakpoint keep n <MULTIPLE>
428 1.1 y- 0x00000000000011b6 in ...
429 1.2 y- 0x00000000000011c2 in ...
430 1.3 n 0x00000000000011ce in ...
431
432 * Support for Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on FreeBSD arm and
433 aarch64 architectures.
434
435 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on FreeBSD/Aarch64.
436
437 * Remove support for building against Python 2, it is now only possible to
438 build GDB against Python 3.
439
440 * DBX mode has been removed.
441
442 * GDB now honours the DWARF prologue_end line-table entry flag the compiler can
443 emit to indicate where a breakpoint should be placed to break in a function
444 past its prologue.
445
446 * Completion now also offers "NUMBER" for "set" commands that accept
447 a numeric argument and the "unlimited" keyword. For example:
448
449 (gdb) set width <TAB>
450 NUMBER unlimited
451
452 and consequently:
453
454 (gdb) complete set width
455 set width NUMBER
456 set width unlimited
457
458 * Disassembler styling using libopcodes. GDB now supports
459 disassembler styling using libopcodes. This is only available for
460 some targets (currently x86 and RISC-V). For unsupported targets
461 Python Pygments is still used. For supported targets, libopcodes
462 styling is used by default.
463
464 * The Windows native target now supports target async.
465
466 * gdb now supports zstd compressed debug sections (ELFCOMPRESS_ZSTD) for ELF.
467
468 * The format of 'disassemble /r' and 'record instruction-history /r'
469 has changed. The instruction bytes could now be grouped together,
470 and displayed in the endianness of the instruction. This is the
471 same layout as used by GNU objdump when disassembling.
472
473 There is now 'disassemble /b' and 'record instruction-history /b'
474 which will always display the instructions bytes one at a time in
475 memory order, that is, the byte at the lowest address first.
476
477 For both /r and /b GDB is now better at using whitespace in order to
478 align the disassembled instruction text.
479
480 * The TUI no longer styles the source and assembly code highlighted by
481 the current position indicator by default. You can however
482 re-enable styling using the new "set style tui-current-position"
483 command.
484
485 * New convenience variable $_inferior_thread_count contains the number
486 of live threads in the current inferior.
487
488 * When a breakpoint with multiple code locations is hit, GDB now prints
489 the code location using the syntax <breakpoint_number>.<location_number>
490 such as in:
491 Thread 1 "zeoes" hit Breakpoint 2.3, some_func () at zeoes.c:8
492
493 * When a breakpoint is hit, GDB now sets the convenience variables $_hit_bpnum
494 and $_hit_locno to the hit breakpoint number and code location number.
495 This allows to disable the last hit breakpoint using
496 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum
497 or disable only the specific breakpoint code location using
498 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum.$_hit_locno
499 These commands can be used inside the command list of a breakpoint to
500 automatically disable the just encountered breakpoint (or the just
501 encountered specific breakpoint code location).
502 When a breakpoint has only one location, $_hit_locno is set to 1 so that
503 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum.$_hit_locno
504 and
505 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum
506 are both disabling the breakpoint.
507
508 * New commands
509
510 maintenance set ignore-prologue-end-flag on|off
511 maintenance show ignore-prologue-end-flag
512 This setting, which is off by default, controls whether GDB ignores the
513 PROLOGUE-END flag from the line-table when skipping prologue. This can be
514 used to force GDB to use prologue analyzers if the line-table is constructed
515 from erroneous debug information.
516
517 set print nibbles [on|off]
518 show print nibbles
519 This controls whether the 'print/t' command will display binary values
520 in groups of four bits, known as "nibbles". The default is 'off'.
521
522 maintenance set libopcodes-styling on|off
523 maintenance show libopcodes-styling
524 These can be used to force off libopcodes based styling, the Python
525 Pygments styling will then be used instead.
526
527 set style disassembler comment
528 show style disassembler comment
529 set style disassembler immediate
530 show style disassembler immediate
531 set style disassembler mnemonic
532 show style disassembler mnemonic
533 set style disassembler register
534 show style disassembler register
535 set style disassembler address
536 show style disassembler address
537 set style disassembler symbol
538 show style disassembler symbol
539 For targets that support libopcodes based styling, these settings
540 control how various aspects of the disassembler output are styled.
541 The 'disassembler address' and 'disassembler symbol' styles are
542 aliases for the 'address' and 'function' styles respectively.
543
544 maintenance print frame-id [ LEVEL ]
545 Print GDB's internal frame-id for the frame at LEVEL. If LEVEL is
546 not given, then print the frame-id for the currently selected frame.
547
548 set debug infcall on|off
549 show debug infcall
550 Print additional debug messages about inferior function calls.
551
552 set debug solib on|off
553 show debug solib
554 Print additional debug messages about shared library handling.
555
556 set style tui-current-position [on|off]
557 Whether to style the source and assembly code highlighted by the
558 TUI's current position indicator. The default is off.
559
560 set print characters LIMIT
561 show print characters
562 This new setting is like 'set print elements', but controls how many
563 characters of a string are printed. This functionality used to be
564 covered by 'set print elements', but it can be controlled separately
565 now. LIMIT can be set to a numerical value to request that particular
566 character count, to 'unlimited' to print all characters of a string,
567 or to 'elements', which is also the default, to follow the setting of
568 'set print elements' as it used to be.
569
570 print -characters LIMIT
571 This new option to the 'print' command has the same effect as a temporary
572 use of 'set print characters'.
573
574 * Changed commands
575
576 document user-defined
577 It is now possible to document user-defined aliases.
578 When a user-defined alias is documented, the help and apropos commands
579 use the provided documentation instead of the documentation of the
580 aliased command.
581 Documenting a user-defined alias is particularly useful when the alias
582 is a set of nested 'with' commands to avoid showing the help of
583 the with command for an alias that will in fact launch the
584 last command given in the nested commands.
585
586 maintenance info line-table
587 Add a PROLOGUE-END column to the output which indicates that an
588 entry corresponds to an address where a breakpoint should be placed
589 to be at the first instruction past a function's prologue.
590
591 * Removed commands
592
593 set debug aix-solib on|off
594 show debug aix-solib
595 set debug solib-frv on|off
596 show debug solib-frv
597 Removed in favor of "set/show debug solib".
598
599 maintenance info program-spaces
600 This command now includes a 'Core File' column which indicates the
601 name of the core file associated with each program space.
602
603 * New targets
604
605 GNU/Linux/LoongArch (gdbserver) loongarch*-*-linux*
606
607 GNU/Linux/CSKY (gdbserver) csky*-*linux*
608
609 AMDGPU amdgcn-*-*
610
611 * MI changes
612
613 ** The async record stating the stopped reason 'breakpoint-hit' now
614 contains an optional field locno giving the code location number
615 when the breakpoint has multiple code locations.
616
617 * Python API
618
619 ** GDB will now reformat the doc string for gdb.Command and
620 gdb.Parameter sub-classes to remove unnecessary leading
621 whitespace from each line before using the string as the help
622 output.
623
624 ** New function gdb.format_address(ADDRESS, PROGSPACE, ARCHITECTURE),
625 that formats ADDRESS as 'address <symbol+offset>', where symbol is
626 looked up in PROGSPACE, and ARCHITECTURE is used to format address.
627 This is the same format that GDB uses when printing address, symbol,
628 and offset information from the disassembler.
629
630 ** New function gdb.current_language that returns the name of the
631 current language. Unlike gdb.parameter('language'), this will
632 never return 'auto'.
633
634 ** New method gdb.Frame.language that returns the name of the
635 frame's language.
636
637 ** New Python API for wrapping GDB's disassembler:
638
639 - gdb.disassembler.register_disassembler(DISASSEMBLER, ARCH).
640 DISASSEMBLER is a sub-class of gdb.disassembler.Disassembler.
641 ARCH is either None or a string containing a bfd architecture
642 name. DISASSEMBLER is registered as a disassembler for
643 architecture ARCH, or for all architectures if ARCH is None.
644 The previous disassembler registered for ARCH is returned, this
645 can be None if no previous disassembler was registered.
646
647 - gdb.disassembler.Disassembler is the class from which all
648 disassemblers should inherit. Its constructor takes a string,
649 a name for the disassembler, which is currently only used in
650 some debug output. Sub-classes should override the __call__
651 method to perform disassembly, invoking __call__ on this base
652 class will raise an exception.
653
654 - gdb.disassembler.DisassembleInfo is the class used to describe
655 a single disassembly request from GDB. An instance of this
656 class is passed to the __call__ method of
657 gdb.disassembler.Disassembler and has the following read-only
658 attributes: 'address', and 'architecture', as well as the
659 following method: 'read_memory'.
660
661 - gdb.disassembler.builtin_disassemble(INFO, MEMORY_SOURCE),
662 calls GDB's builtin disassembler on INFO, which is a
663 gdb.disassembler.DisassembleInfo object. MEMORY_SOURCE is
664 optional, its default value is None. If MEMORY_SOURCE is not
665 None then it must be an object that has a 'read_memory' method.
666
667 - gdb.disassembler.DisassemblerResult is a class that can be used
668 to wrap the result of a call to a Disassembler. It has
669 read-only attributes 'length' and 'string'.
670
671 ** gdb.Objfile now has an attribute named "is_file". This is True
672 if the objfile comes from a file, and False otherwise.
673
674 ** New function gdb.print_options that returns a dictionary of the
675 prevailing print options, in the form accepted by
676 gdb.Value.format_string.
677
678 ** gdb.Value.format_string now uses the format provided by 'print',
679 if it is called during a 'print' or other similar operation.
680
681 ** gdb.Value.format_string now accepts the 'summary' keyword. This
682 can be used to request a shorter representation of a value, the
683 way that 'set print frame-arguments scalars' does.
684
685 ** New Python type gdb.BreakpointLocation.
686 The new attribute 'locations' of gdb.Breakpoint returns a list of
687 gdb.BreakpointLocation objects specifying the locations where the
688 breakpoint is inserted into the debuggee.
689
690 ** The gdb.register_window_type method now restricts the set of
691 acceptable window names. The first character of a window's name
692 must start with a character in the set [a-zA-Z], every subsequent
693 character of a window's name must be in the set [-_.a-zA-Z0-9].
694
695 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
696
697 ** GDBserver is now supported on LoongArch GNU/Linux.
698
699 ** GDBserver is now supported on CSKY GNU/Linux.
700
701 * LoongArch floating-point support
702
703 GDB now supports floating-point on LoongArch GNU/Linux.
704
705 * AMD GPU ROCm debugging support
706
707 GDB now supports debugging programs offloaded to AMD GPUs using the ROCm
708 platform.
709
710 *** Changes in GDB 12
711
712 * DBX mode is deprecated, and will be removed in GDB 13
713
714 * GDB 12 is the last release of GDB that will support building against
715 Python 2. From GDB 13, it will only be possible to build GDB itself
716 with Python 3 support.
717
718 * The disable-randomization setting now works on Windows.
719
720 * Improved C++ template support
721
722 GDB now treats functions/types involving C++ templates like it does function
723 overloads. Users may omit parameter lists to set breakpoints on families of
724 template functions, including types/functions composed of multiple template types:
725
726 (gdb) break template_func(template_1, int)
727
728 The above will set breakpoints at every function `template_func' where
729 the first function parameter is any template type named `template_1' and
730 the second function parameter is `int'.
731
732 TAB completion also gains similar improvements.
733
734 * The FreeBSD native target now supports async mode.
735
736 * Configure changes
737
738 --enable-threading
739
740 Enable or disable multithreaded symbol loading. This is enabled
741 by default, but passing --disable-threading or --enable-threading=no
742 to configure will disable it.
743
744 Disabling this can cause a performance penalty when there are a lot of
745 symbols to load, but is useful for debugging purposes.
746
747 * New commands
748
749 maint set backtrace-on-fatal-signal on|off
750 maint show backtrace-on-fatal-signal
751 This setting is 'on' by default. When 'on' GDB will print a limited
752 backtrace to stderr in the situation where GDB terminates with a
753 fatal signal. This only supported on some platforms where the
754 backtrace and backtrace_symbols_fd functions are available.
755
756 set source open on|off
757 show source open
758 This setting, which is on by default, controls whether GDB will try
759 to open source code files. Switching this off will stop GDB trying
760 to open and read source code files, which can be useful if the files
761 are located over a slow network connection.
762
763 set varsize-limit
764 show varsize-limit
765 These are now deprecated aliases for "set max-value-size" and
766 "show max-value-size".
767
768 task apply [all | TASK-IDS...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
769 Like "thread apply", but applies COMMAND to Ada tasks.
770
771 watch [...] task ID
772 Watchpoints can now be restricted to a specific Ada task.
773
774 maint set internal-error backtrace on|off
775 maint show internal-error backtrace
776 maint set internal-warning backtrace on|off
777 maint show internal-warning backtrace
778 GDB can now print a backtrace of itself when it encounters either an
779 internal-error, or an internal-warning. This is on by default for
780 internal-error and off by default for internal-warning.
781
782 set logging on|off
783 Deprecated and replaced by "set logging enabled on|off".
784
785 set logging enabled on|off
786 show logging enabled
787 These commands set or show whether logging is enabled or disabled.
788
789 exit
790 You can now exit GDB by using the new command "exit", in addition to
791 the existing "quit" command.
792
793 set debug threads on|off
794 show debug threads
795 Print additional debug messages about thread creation and deletion.
796
797 set debug linux-nat on|off
798 show debug linux-nat
799 These new commands replaced the old 'set debug lin-lwp' and 'show
800 debug lin-lwp' respectively. Turning this setting on prints debug
801 messages relating to GDB's handling of native Linux inferiors.
802
803 maint flush source-cache
804 Flush the contents of the source code cache.
805
806 maint set gnu-source-highlight enabled on|off
807 maint show gnu-source-highlight enabled
808 Whether GDB should use the GNU Source Highlight library for adding
809 styling to source code. When off, the library will not be used, even
810 when available. When GNU Source Highlight isn't used, or can't add
811 styling to a particular source file, then the Python Pygments
812 library will be used instead.
813
814 set suppress-cli-notifications (on|off)
815 show suppress-cli-notifications
816 This controls whether printing the notifications is suppressed for CLI.
817 CLI notifications occur when you change the selected context
818 (i.e., the current inferior, thread and/or the frame), or when
819 the program being debugged stops (e.g., because of hitting a
820 breakpoint, completing source-stepping, an interrupt, etc.).
821
822 set style disassembler enabled on|off
823 show style disassembler enabled
824 If GDB is compiled with Python support, and the Python Pygments
825 package is available, then, when this setting is on, disassembler
826 output will have styling applied.
827
828 set ada source-charset
829 show ada source-charset
830 Set the character set encoding that is assumed for Ada symbols. Valid
831 values for this follow the values that can be passed to the GNAT
832 compiler via the '-gnati' option. The default is ISO-8859-1.
833
834 tui layout
835 tui focus
836 tui refresh
837 tui window height
838 These are the new names for the old 'layout', 'focus', 'refresh',
839 and 'winheight' tui commands respectively. The old names still
840 exist as aliases to these new commands.
841
842 tui window width
843 winwidth
844 The new command 'tui window width', and the alias 'winwidth' allow
845 the width of a tui window to be adjusted when windows are laid out
846 in horizontal mode.
847
848 set debug tui on|off
849 show debug tui
850 Control the display of debug output about GDB's tui.
851
852 * Changed commands
853
854 print
855 Printing of floating-point values with base-modifying formats like
856 /x has been changed to display the underlying bytes of the value in
857 the desired base. This was GDB's documented behavior, but was never
858 implemented correctly.
859
860 maint packet
861 This command can now print a reply, if the reply includes
862 non-printable characters. Any non-printable characters are printed
863 as escaped hex, e.g. \x?? where '??' is replaces with the value of
864 the non-printable character.
865
866 clone-inferior
867 The clone-inferior command now ensures that the TTY, CMD and ARGS
868 settings are copied from the original inferior to the new one.
869 All modifications to the environment variables done using the 'set
870 environment' or 'unset environment' commands are also copied to the new
871 inferior.
872
873 set debug lin-lwp on|off
874 show debug lin-lwp
875 These commands have been removed from GDB. The new command 'set
876 debug linux-nat' and 'show debug linux-nat' should be used
877 instead.
878
879 info win
880 This command now includes information about the width of the tui
881 windows in its output.
882
883 layout
884 focus
885 refresh
886 winheight
887 These commands are now aliases for the 'tui layout', 'tui focus',
888 'tui refresh', and 'tui window height' commands respectively.
889
890 * GDB's Ada parser now supports an extension for specifying the exact
891 byte contents of a floating-point literal. This can be useful for
892 setting floating-point registers to a precise value without loss of
893 precision. The syntax is an extension of the based literal syntax.
894 Use, e.g., "16lf#0123abcd#" -- the number of "l"s controls the width
895 of the floating-point type, and the "f" is the marker for floating
896 point.
897
898 * MI changes
899
900 ** The '-add-inferior' with no option flags now inherits the
901 connection of the current inferior, this restores the behaviour of
902 GDB as it was prior to GDB 10.
903
904 ** The '-add-inferior' command now accepts a '--no-connection'
905 option, which causes the new inferior to start without a
906 connection.
907
908 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 4 (-i=mi4).
909
910 ** The "script" field in breakpoint output (which is syntactically
911 incorrect in MI 3 and below) has changed in MI 4 to become a list.
912 This affects the following commands and events:
913
914 - -break-insert
915 - -break-info
916 - =breakpoint-created
917 - =breakpoint-modified
918
919 The -fix-breakpoint-script-output command can be used to enable
920 this behavior with previous MI versions.
921
922 * New targets
923
924 GNU/Linux/LoongArch loongarch*-*-linux*
925
926 * Removed targets
927
928 S+core score-*-*
929
930 * Python API
931
932 ** New function gdb.add_history(), which takes a gdb.Value object
933 and adds the value it represents to GDB's history list. An
934 integer, the index of the new item in the history list, is
935 returned.
936
937 ** New function gdb.history_count(), which returns the number of
938 values in GDB's value history.
939
940 ** New gdb.events.gdb_exiting event. This event is called with a
941 gdb.GdbExitingEvent object which has the read-only attribute
942 'exit_code', which contains the value of the GDB exit code. This
943 event is triggered once GDB decides it is going to exit, but
944 before GDB starts to clean up its internal state.
945
946 ** New function gdb.architecture_names(), which returns a list
947 containing all of the possible Architecture.name() values. Each
948 entry is a string.
949
950 ** New function gdb.Architecture.integer_type(), which returns an
951 integer type given a size and a signed-ness.
952
953 ** New gdb.TargetConnection object type that represents a connection
954 (as displayed by the 'info connections' command). A sub-class,
955 gdb.RemoteTargetConnection, is used to represent 'remote' and
956 'extended-remote' connections.
957
958 ** The gdb.Inferior type now has a 'connection' property which is an
959 instance of gdb.TargetConnection, the connection used by this
960 inferior. This can be None if the inferior has no connection.
961
962 ** New 'gdb.events.connection_removed' event registry, which emits a
963 'gdb.ConnectionEvent' when a connection is removed from GDB.
964 This event has a 'connection' property, a gdb.TargetConnection
965 object for the connection being removed.
966
967 ** New gdb.connections() function that returns a list of all
968 currently active connections.
969
970 ** New gdb.RemoteTargetConnection.send_packet(PACKET) method. This
971 is equivalent to the existing 'maint packet' CLI command; it
972 allows a user specified packet to be sent to the remote target.
973
974 ** New function gdb.host_charset(), returns a string, which is the
975 name of the current host charset.
976
977 ** New gdb.set_parameter(NAME, VALUE). This sets the gdb parameter
978 NAME to VALUE.
979
980 ** New gdb.with_parameter(NAME, VALUE). This returns a context
981 manager that temporarily sets the gdb parameter NAME to VALUE,
982 then resets it when the context is exited.
983
984 ** The gdb.Value.format_string method now takes a 'styling'
985 argument, which is a boolean. When true, the returned string can
986 include escape sequences to apply styling. The styling will only
987 be present if styling is otherwise turned on in GDB (see 'help
988 set styling'). When false, which is the default if the argument
989 is not given, then no styling is applied to the returned string.
990
991 ** New read-only attribute gdb.InferiorThread.details, which is
992 either a string, containing additional, target specific thread
993 state information, or None, if there is no such additional
994 information.
995
996 ** New read-only attribute gdb.Type.is_scalar, which is True for
997 scalar types, and False for all other types.
998
999 ** New read-only attribute gdb.Type.is_signed. This attribute
1000 should only be read when Type.is_scalar is True, and will be True
1001 for signed types, and False for all other types. Attempting to
1002 read this attribute for non-scalar types will raise a ValueError.
1003
1004 ** It is now possible to add GDB/MI commands implemented in Python.
1005
1006 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1007
1008 ** GDBserver is now supported on OpenRISC GNU/Linux.
1009
1010 * New native configurations
1011
1012 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
1013
1014 *** Changes in GDB 11
1015
1016 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
1017 for the ARC target.
1018
1019 * GDB now supports general memory tagging functionality if the underlying
1020 architecture supports the proper primitives and hooks. Currently this is
1021 enabled only for AArch64 MTE.
1022
1023 This includes:
1024
1025 - Additional information when the inferior crashes with a SIGSEGV caused by
1026 a memory tag violation.
1027
1028 - A new modifier 'm' for the "x" command, which displays allocation tags for a
1029 particular memory range.
1030
1031 - Display of memory tag mismatches by "print", for addresses and
1032 pointers, if memory tagging is supported by the architecture.
1033
1034 * Building GDB now requires GMP (The GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic
1035 Library).
1036
1037 * MI changes
1038
1039 ** '-break-insert --qualified' and '-dprintf-insert --qualified'
1040
1041 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
1042 new "--qualified" option that makes GDB interpret a specified
1043 function name as a complete fully-qualified name. This is the
1044 equivalent of the CLI's "break -qualified" and "dprintf
1045 -qualified".
1046
1047 ** '-break-insert --force-condition' and '-dprintf-insert --force-condition'
1048
1049 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
1050 '--force-condition' flag to forcibly define a condition even when
1051 the condition is invalid at all locations of the breakpoint. This
1052 is equivalent to the '-force-condition' flag of the CLI's "break"
1053 command.
1054
1055 ** '-break-condition --force'
1056
1057 The MI -break-condition command now supports a '--force' flag to
1058 forcibly define a condition even when the condition is invalid at
1059 all locations of the selected breakpoint. This is equivalent to
1060 the '-force' flag of the CLI's "cond" command.
1061
1062 ** '-file-list-exec-source-files [--group-by-objfile]
1063 [--basename | --dirname]
1064 [--] [REGEXP]'
1065
1066 The existing -file-list-exec-source-files command now takes an
1067 optional REGEXP which is used to filter the source files that are
1068 included in the results.
1069
1070 By default REGEXP is matched against the full filename of the
1071 source file. When one of --basename or --dirname is given then
1072 REGEXP is only matched against the specified part of the full
1073 source filename.
1074
1075 When the optional --group-by-objfile flag is used the output
1076 format is changed, the results are now a list of object files
1077 (executable and libraries) with the source files that are
1078 associated with each object file.
1079
1080 The results from -file-list-exec-source-files now include a
1081 'debug-fully-read' field which takes the value 'true' or 'false'.
1082 A 'true' value indicates the source file is from a compilation
1083 unit that has had its debug information fully read in by GDB, a
1084 value of 'false' indicates GDB has only performed a partial scan
1085 of the debug information so far.
1086
1087 * GDB now supports core file debugging for x86_64 Cygwin programs.
1088
1089 * GDB will now look for the .gdbinit file in a config directory before
1090 looking for ~/.gdbinit. The file is searched for in the following
1091 locations: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.config/gdb/gdbinit,
1092 $HOME/.gdbinit. On Apple hosts the search order is instead:
1093 $HOME/Library/Preferences/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.gdbinit.
1094
1095 * GDB now supports fixed point types which are described in DWARF
1096 as base types with a fixed-point encoding. Additionally, support
1097 for the DW_AT_GNU_numerator and DW_AT_GNU_denominator has also
1098 been added.
1099
1100 For Ada, this allows support for fixed point types without requiring
1101 the use of the GNAT encoding (based on information added to the type's
1102 name following a GNAT-specific format).
1103
1104 * GDB will now load and process commands from ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit
1105 or ~/.gdbearlyinit if these files are present. These files are
1106 processed earlier than any of the other initialization files and
1107 can affect parts of GDB's startup that previously had already been
1108 completed before the initialization files were read, for example
1109 styling of the initial GDB greeting.
1110
1111 * GDB now has two new options "--early-init-command" and
1112 "--early-init-eval-command" with corresponding short options "-eix"
1113 and "-eiex" that allow options (that would normally appear in a
1114 gdbearlyinit file) to be passed on the command line.
1115
1116 * For RISC-V targets, the target feature "org.gnu.gdb.riscv.vector" is
1117 now understood by GDB, and can be used to describe the vector
1118 registers of a target. The precise requirements of this register
1119 feature are documented in the GDB manual.
1120
1121 * For ARM targets, the "org.gnu.gdb.arm.m-profile-mve" feature is now
1122 supported by GDB and describes a new VPR register from the ARM MVE
1123 (Helium) extension. See the GDB manual for more information.
1124
1125 * TUI improvements
1126
1127 ** TUI windows now support mouse actions. The mouse wheel scrolls
1128 the appropriate window.
1129
1130 ** Key combinations that do not have a specific action on the
1131 focused window are passed to GDB. For example, you now can use
1132 Ctrl-Left/Ctrl-Right to move between words in the command window
1133 regardless of which window is in focus. Previously you would
1134 need to focus on the command window for such key combinations to
1135 work.
1136
1137 * New commands
1138
1139 set debug event-loop
1140 show debug event-loop
1141 Control the display of debug output about GDB's event loop.
1142
1143 set print memory-tag-violations
1144 show print memory-tag-violations
1145 Control whether to display additional information about memory tag violations
1146 when printing pointers and addresses. Architecture support for memory
1147 tagging is required for this option to have an effect.
1148
1149 maintenance flush symbol-cache
1150 maintenance flush register-cache
1151 These new commands are equivalent to the already existing commands
1152 'maintenance flush-symbol-cache' and 'flushregs' respectively.
1153
1154 maintenance flush dcache
1155 A new command to flush the dcache.
1156
1157 maintenance info target-sections
1158 Print GDB's internal target sections table.
1159
1160 maintenance info jit
1161 Print the JIT code objects in the inferior known to GDB.
1162
1163 memory-tag show-logical-tag POINTER
1164 Print the logical tag for POINTER.
1165 memory-tag with-logical-tag POINTER TAG
1166 Print POINTER with logical tag TAG.
1167 memory-tag show-allocation-tag ADDRESS
1168 Print the allocation tag for ADDRESS.
1169 memory-tag set-allocation-tag ADDRESS LENGTH TAGS
1170 Set the allocation tag for [ADDRESS, ADDRESS + LENGTH) to TAGS.
1171 memory-tag check POINTER
1172 Validate that POINTER's logical tag matches the allocation tag.
1173
1174 set startup-quietly on|off
1175 show startup-quietly
1176 When 'on', this causes GDB to act as if "-silent" were passed on the
1177 command line. This command needs to be added to an early
1178 initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to
1179 affect GDB.
1180
1181 set print type hex on|off
1182 show print type hex
1183 When 'on', the 'ptype' command uses hexadecimal notation to print sizes
1184 and offsets of struct members. When 'off', decimal notation is used.
1185
1186 set python ignore-environment on|off
1187 show python ignore-environment
1188 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to ignore any
1189 environment variables that would otherwise affect how Python
1190 behaves. This command needs to be added to an early initialization
1191 file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to affect GDB.
1192
1193 set python dont-write-bytecode auto|on|off
1194 show python dont-write-bytecode
1195 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to not write any
1196 byte-code (.pyc files) to disk. This command needs to be added to
1197 an early initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in
1198 order to affect GDB. When 'off' byte-code will always be written.
1199 When set to 'auto' (the default) Python will check the
1200 PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE environment variable.
1201
1202 * Changed commands
1203
1204 break [PROBE_MODIFIER] [LOCATION] [thread THREADNUM]
1205 [-force-condition] [if CONDITION]
1206 This command would previously refuse setting a breakpoint if the
1207 CONDITION expression is invalid at a location. It now accepts and
1208 defines the breakpoint if there is at least one location at which
1209 the CONDITION is valid. The locations for which the CONDITION is
1210 invalid, are automatically disabled. If CONDITION is invalid at all
1211 of the locations, setting the breakpoint is still rejected. However,
1212 the '-force-condition' flag can be used in this case for forcing GDB to
1213 define the breakpoint, making all the current locations automatically
1214 disabled. This may be useful if the user knows the condition will
1215 become meaningful at a future location, e.g. due to a shared library
1216 load.
1217
1218 condition [-force] N COND
1219 The behavior of this command is changed the same way for the 'break'
1220 command as explained above. The '-force' flag can be used to force
1221 GDB into defining the condition even when COND is invalid for all the
1222 current locations of breakpoint N.
1223
1224 flushregs
1225 maintenance flush-symbol-cache
1226 These commands are deprecated in favor of the new commands
1227 'maintenance flush register-cache' and 'maintenance flush
1228 symbol-cache' respectively.
1229
1230 set style version foreground COLOR
1231 set style version background COLOR
1232 set style version intensity VALUE
1233 Control the styling of GDB's version number text.
1234
1235 inferior [ID]
1236 When the ID parameter is omitted, then this command prints information
1237 about the current inferior. When the ID parameter is present, the
1238 behavior of the command is unchanged and have the inferior ID become
1239 the current inferior.
1240
1241 maintenance info sections
1242 The ALLOBJ keyword has been replaced with an -all-objects command
1243 line flag. It is now possible to filter which sections are printed
1244 even when -all-objects is passed.
1245
1246 ptype[/FLAGS] TYPE | EXPRESSION
1247 The 'ptype' command has two new flags. When '/x' is set, hexadecimal
1248 notation is used when printing sizes and offsets of struct members.
1249 When '/d' is set, decimal notation is used when printing sizes and
1250 offsets of struct members. Default behavior is given by 'show print
1251 type hex'.
1252
1253 info sources
1254 The info sources command output has been restructured. The results
1255 are now based around a list of objfiles (executable and libraries),
1256 and for each objfile the source files that are part of that objfile
1257 are listed.
1258
1259 * Removed targets and native configurations
1260
1261 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1262
1263 * New remote packets
1264
1265 qMemTags
1266 Request the remote to send allocation tags for a particular memory range.
1267 QMemTags
1268 Request the remote to store the specified allocation tags to the requested
1269 memory range.
1270
1271 * Guile API
1272
1273 ** Improved support for rvalue reference values:
1274 TYPE_CODE_RVALUE_REF is now exported as part of the API and the
1275 value-referenced-value procedure now handles rvalue reference
1276 values.
1277
1278 ** New procedures for obtaining value variants:
1279 value-reference-value, value-rvalue-reference-value and
1280 value-const-value.
1281
1282 ** Temporary breakpoints can now be created with make-breakpoint and
1283 tested for using breakpoint-temporary?.
1284
1285 * Python API
1286
1287 ** Inferior objects now contain a read-only 'connection_num' attribute that
1288 gives the connection number as seen in 'info connections' and
1289 'info inferiors'.
1290
1291 ** New method gdb.Frame.level() which returns the stack level of the
1292 frame object.
1293
1294 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.level() which returns the stack level
1295 of the frame object.
1296
1297 ** When hitting a catchpoint, the Python API will now emit a
1298 gdb.BreakpointEvent rather than a gdb.StopEvent. The
1299 gdb.Breakpoint attached to the event will have type BP_CATCHPOINT.
1300
1301 ** Python TUI windows can now receive mouse click events. If the
1302 Window object implements the click method, it is called for each
1303 mouse click event in this window.
1304
1305 *** Changes in GDB 10
1306
1307 * There are new feature names for ARC targets: "org.gnu.gdb.arc.core"
1308 and "org.gnu.gdb.arc.aux". The old names are still supported but
1309 must be considered obsolete. They will be deprecated after some
1310 grace period.
1311
1312 * Help and apropos commands will now show the documentation of a
1313 command only once, even if that command has one or more aliases.
1314 These commands now show the command name, then all of its aliases,
1315 and finally the description of the command.
1316
1317 * 'help aliases' now shows only the user defined aliases. GDB predefined
1318 aliases are shown together with their aliased command.
1319
1320 * GDB now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing ELF/DWARF
1321 debugging information as well as source code.
1322
1323 When built with debuginfod, GDB can automatically query debuginfod
1324 servers for the separate debug files and source code of the executable
1325 being debugged.
1326
1327 To build GDB with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure (this
1328 requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library).
1329
1330 debuginfod is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178.
1331
1332 You can get the latest version from https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
1333
1334 * Multi-target debugging support
1335
1336 GDB now supports debugging multiple target connections
1337 simultaneously. For example, you can now have each inferior
1338 connected to different remote servers running in different machines,
1339 or have one inferior debugging a local native process, an inferior
1340 debugging a core dump, etc.
1341
1342 This support is experimental and comes with some limitations -- you
1343 can only resume multiple targets simultaneously if all targets
1344 support non-stop mode, and all remote stubs or servers must support
1345 the same set of remote protocol features exactly. See also "info
1346 connections" and "add-inferior -no-connection" below, and "maint set
1347 target-non-stop" in the user manual.
1348
1349 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1350
1351 ** GDBserver is now supported on ARC GNU/Linux.
1352
1353 ** GDBserver is now supported on RISC-V GNU/Linux.
1354
1355 ** GDBserver no longer supports these host triplets:
1356
1357 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1358 powerpc-*-lynxos*
1359 i[34567]86-*-nto*
1360 bfin-*-*linux*
1361 crisv32-*-linux*
1362 cris-*-linux*
1363 m32r*-*-linux*
1364 tilegx-*-linux*
1365 arm*-*-mingw32ce*
1366 i[34567]86-*-mingw32ce*
1367
1368 * Debugging MS-Windows processes now sets $_exitsignal when the
1369 inferior is terminated by a signal, instead of setting $_exitcode.
1370
1371 * Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
1372 that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
1373 performance for programs with many symbols.
1374
1375 * The $_siginfo convenience variable now also works on Windows targets,
1376 and will display the EXCEPTION_RECORD of the last handled exception.
1377
1378 * TUI windows can now be arranged horizontally.
1379
1380 * The command history filename can now be set to the empty string
1381 either using 'set history filename' or by setting 'GDBHISTFILE=' in
1382 the environment. The effect of setting this filename to the empty
1383 string is that GDB will not try to load any previous command
1384 history.
1385
1386 * On Windows targets, it is now possible to debug 32-bit programs with a
1387 64-bit GDB.
1388
1389 * New commands
1390
1391 set exec-file-mismatch -- Set exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
1392 show exec-file-mismatch -- Show exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
1393 Set or show the option 'exec-file-mismatch'. When GDB attaches to a
1394 running process, this new option indicates whether to detect
1395 a mismatch between the current executable file loaded by GDB and the
1396 executable file used to start the process. If 'ask', the default,
1397 display a warning and ask the user whether to load the process
1398 executable file; if 'warn', just display a warning; if 'off', don't
1399 attempt to detect a mismatch.
1400
1401 tui new-layout NAME WINDOW WEIGHT [WINDOW WEIGHT]...
1402 Define a new TUI layout, specifying its name and the windows that
1403 will be displayed.
1404
1405 maintenance print xml-tdesc [FILE]
1406 Prints the current target description as an XML document. If the
1407 optional FILE is provided (which is an XML target description) then
1408 the target description is read from FILE into GDB, and then
1409 reprinted.
1410
1411 maintenance print core-file-backed-mappings
1412 Prints file-backed mappings loaded from a core file's note section.
1413 Output is expected to be similar to that of "info proc mappings".
1414
1415 set debug fortran-array-slicing on|off
1416 show debug fortran-array-slicing
1417 Print debugging when taking slices of Fortran arrays.
1418
1419 set fortran repack-array-slices on|off
1420 show fortran repack-array-slices
1421 When taking slices from Fortran arrays and strings, if the slice is
1422 non-contiguous within the original value then, when this option is
1423 on, the new value will be repacked into a single contiguous value.
1424 When this option is off, then the value returned will consist of a
1425 descriptor that describes the slice within the memory of the
1426 original parent value.
1427
1428 * Changed commands
1429
1430 alias [-a] [--] ALIAS = COMMAND [DEFAULT-ARGS...]
1431 The alias command can now specify default args for an alias.
1432 GDB automatically prepends the alias default args to the argument list
1433 provided explicitly by the user.
1434 For example, to have a backtrace with full details, you can define
1435 an alias 'bt_ALL' as
1436 'alias bt_ALL = backtrace -entry-values both -frame-arg all
1437 -past-main -past-entry -full'.
1438 Alias default arguments can also use a set of nested 'with' commands,
1439 e.g. 'alias pp10 = with print pretty -- with print elem 10 -- print'
1440 defines the alias pp10 that will pretty print a maximum of 10 elements
1441 of the given expression (if the expression is an array).
1442
1443 * New targets
1444
1445 GNU/Linux/RISC-V (gdbserver) riscv*-*-linux*
1446 BPF bpf-unknown-none
1447 Z80 z80-unknown-*
1448
1449 * Python API
1450
1451 ** gdb.register_window_type can be used to implement new TUI windows
1452 in Python.
1453
1454 ** Dynamic types can now be queried. gdb.Type has a new attribute,
1455 "dynamic", and gdb.Type.sizeof can be None for a dynamic type. A
1456 field of a dynamic type may have None for its "bitpos" attribute
1457 as well.
1458
1459 ** Commands written in Python can be in the "TUI" help class by
1460 registering with the new constant gdb.COMMAND_TUI.
1461
1462 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.architecture () to retrieve the
1463 architecture of the pending frame.
1464
1465 ** New gdb.Architecture.registers method that returns a
1466 gdb.RegisterDescriptorIterator object, an iterator that returns
1467 gdb.RegisterDescriptor objects. The new RegisterDescriptor is a
1468 way to query the registers available for an architecture.
1469
1470 ** New gdb.Architecture.register_groups method that returns a
1471 gdb.RegisterGroupIterator object, an iterator that returns
1472 gdb.RegisterGroup objects. The new RegisterGroup is a way to
1473 discover the available register groups.
1474
1475 * Guile API
1476
1477 ** GDB can now be built with GNU Guile 3.0 and 2.2 in addition to 2.0.
1478
1479 ** Procedures 'memory-port-read-buffer-size',
1480 'set-memory-port-read-buffer-size!', 'memory-port-write-buffer-size',
1481 and 'set-memory-port-write-buffer-size!' are deprecated. When
1482 using Guile 2.2 and later, users who need to control the size of
1483 a memory port's internal buffer can use the 'setvbuf' procedure.
1484
1485 *** Changes in GDB 9
1486
1487 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
1488
1489 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
1490 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
1491 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
1492 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
1493 such as in system-wide init files.
1494
1495 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
1496 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
1497 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
1498 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
1499 current GDB settings.
1500
1501 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
1502 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
1503 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
1504 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
1505
1506 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
1507 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
1508 postfix [PAC].
1509
1510 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
1511 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
1512
1513 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
1514 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
1515 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
1516
1517 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
1518 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
1519 commands.
1520
1521 * Command names can now use the . character.
1522
1523 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
1524
1525 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
1526 messages.
1527
1528 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
1529
1530 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
1531 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
1532
1533 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
1534 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
1535 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
1536
1537 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
1538
1539 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
1540 not visible in the current scope.
1541
1542 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
1543 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
1544 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
1545 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
1546 compiled with support for that language.
1547
1548 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
1549 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
1550 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
1551
1552 * Python API
1553
1554 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
1555 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
1556 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
1557 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
1558 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
1559
1560 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
1561 type was defined in.
1562
1563 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
1564 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
1565 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
1566 is given.
1567
1568 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
1569 symbols with static linkage.
1570
1571 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
1572 all static symbols with static linkage.
1573
1574 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
1575 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
1576
1577 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
1578 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
1579
1580 * New commands
1581
1582 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
1583 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
1584 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
1585 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
1586 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
1587 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
1588 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
1589
1590 define-prefix COMMAND
1591 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
1592
1593 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
1594 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
1595 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
1596 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
1597 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
1598 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
1599 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
1600 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
1601 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
1602 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
1603 of array elements to print.
1604
1605 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
1606 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
1607
1608 set may-call-functions [on|off]
1609 show may-call-functions
1610 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
1611 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
1612 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
1613 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
1614 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
1615 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
1616 in the program.
1617
1618 set print finish [on|off]
1619 show print finish
1620 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
1621 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
1622 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
1623 default is `on'.
1624
1625 set print max-depth
1626 show print max-depth
1627 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
1628 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
1629 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
1630 the old behavior back.
1631
1632 set print raw-values [on|off]
1633 show print raw-values
1634 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
1635 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
1636 of commands. The default is 'off'.
1637
1638 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
1639 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
1640 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
1641
1642 set style title foreground COLOR
1643 set style title background COLOR
1644 set style title intensity VALUE
1645 Control the styling of titles.
1646
1647 set style highlight foreground COLOR
1648 set style highlight background COLOR
1649 set style highlight intensity VALUE
1650 Control the styling of highlightings.
1651
1652 maint set worker-threads
1653 maint show worker-threads
1654 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
1655 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
1656 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
1657 the names of linker symbols.
1658
1659 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
1660 set style tui-border background COLOR
1661 Control the styling of TUI borders.
1662
1663 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
1664 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
1665 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
1666
1667 maint set test-settings KIND
1668 maint show test-settings KIND
1669 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
1670 infrastructure.
1671
1672 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
1673 maint show tui-resize-message
1674 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
1675 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
1676 TUI.
1677
1678 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
1679 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
1680 show print frame-info
1681 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
1682 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
1683 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
1684 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
1685
1686 set tui compact-source
1687 show tui compact-source
1688
1689 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
1690 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
1691 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
1692 line numbers from the source.
1693
1694 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
1695 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
1696 no REGEXP is given.
1697
1698 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
1699 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
1700 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
1701 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
1702 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
1703 matches against the function name.
1704
1705 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
1706 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
1707 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
1708 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
1709 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
1710 against the variable name.
1711
1712 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
1713 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
1714 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
1715 "set debug remote".
1716 The default is 512 bytes.
1717
1718 info connections
1719 Lists the target connections currently in use.
1720
1721 * Changed commands
1722
1723 help
1724 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
1725 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
1726 command names.
1727
1728 apropos [-v] REGEXP
1729 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
1730 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
1731 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
1732 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
1733 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
1734
1735 printf
1736 eval
1737 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
1738 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
1739 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
1740 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
1741
1742 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
1743 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
1744 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
1745 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
1746 parts of the files.
1747
1748 show style
1749 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
1750 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
1751 the user visualize the different styles.
1752
1753 set print frame-arguments
1754 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
1755 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
1756
1757 set print raw-frame-arguments
1758 show print raw-frame-arguments
1759
1760 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
1761 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
1762 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
1763 release.
1764
1765 add-inferior [-no-connection]
1766 The add-inferior command now supports a "-no-connection" flag that
1767 makes the new inferior start with no target connection associated.
1768 By default, the new inferior inherits the target connection of the
1769 current inferior. See also "info connections".
1770
1771 info inferior
1772 This command's output now includes a new "Connection" column
1773 indicating which target connection an inferior is bound to. See
1774 "info connections" above.
1775
1776 maint test-options require-delimiter
1777 maint test-options unknown-is-error
1778 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
1779 maint show test-options-completion-result
1780 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
1781 framework.
1782
1783 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
1784 These commands are now case-sensitive.
1785
1786 * New command options, command completion
1787
1788 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
1789 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
1790 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
1791 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
1792 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
1793 number of commands got support for new command options in this
1794 release:
1795
1796 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
1797 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
1798 set by "set print" subcommands:
1799
1800 -address [on|off]
1801 -array [on|off]
1802 -array-indexes [on|off]
1803 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
1804 -null-stop [on|off]
1805 -object [on|off]
1806 -pretty [on|off]
1807 -raw-values [on|off]
1808 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
1809 -static-members [on|off]
1810 -symbol [on|off]
1811 -union [on|off]
1812 -vtbl [on|off]
1813
1814 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
1815 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
1816 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
1817 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
1818
1819 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
1820 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
1821 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
1822
1823 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
1824 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
1825 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
1826 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
1827 |location-and-address|short-location
1828 -past-main [on|off]
1829 -past-entry [on|off]
1830
1831 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
1832 exposed as command options too:
1833
1834 -full
1835 -no-filters
1836 -hide
1837
1838 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
1839 support the following options:
1840
1841 -past-main [on|off]
1842 -past-entry [on|off]
1843
1844 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
1845 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
1846
1847 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
1848 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
1849 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
1850 like for example:
1851
1852 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
1853
1854 The above is equivalent to:
1855
1856 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
1857
1858 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
1859 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
1860 variables" and "info functions".
1861
1862 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
1863 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
1864 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
1865 from the results.
1866
1867 * Completion improvements
1868
1869 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
1870 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
1871 abbreviated.
1872
1873 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
1874 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
1875 commands.
1876
1877 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
1878 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
1879 completes on filenames.
1880
1881 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
1882 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
1883
1884 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
1885
1886 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
1887 elements unlimited".
1888
1889 * New MI commands
1890
1891 -complete
1892 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1893 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
1894 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
1895
1896 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
1897 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
1898 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
1899
1900 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
1901 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
1902 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
1903
1904 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
1905 modules' command.
1906
1907 -symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
1908 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
1909 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
1910
1911 * Other MI changes
1912
1913 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
1914
1915 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
1916 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
1917 the following commands and events:
1918
1919 - -break-insert
1920 - -break-info
1921 - =breakpoint-created
1922 - =breakpoint-modified
1923
1924 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
1925 this behavior with previous MI versions.
1926
1927 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
1928 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
1929 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
1930 present.
1931
1932 * Testsuite
1933
1934 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
1935 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
1936 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
1937 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
1938
1939 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
1940
1941 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
1942 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
1943
1944 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
1945
1946 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
1947 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
1948
1949 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
1950 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
1951 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
1952
1953 * Removed targets and native configurations
1954
1955 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
1956 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
1957 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
1958
1959 * New Simulators
1960
1961 TI PRU pru-*-elf
1962
1963 * Removed targets and native configurations
1964
1965 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
1966 sparc*-*-solaris2.10
1967
1968 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
1969
1970 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
1971 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
1972 HTM registers.
1973
1974 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
1975 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
1976 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
1977 and operators.
1978
1979 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
1980 (the C++ plug-in).
1981
1982 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
1983 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
1984 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
1985
1986 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
1987 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
1988
1989 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
1990 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1991 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1992 in the GDB user manual.
1993
1994 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
1995 executed failed.
1996
1997 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
1998
1999 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
2000 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
2001 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
2002 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
2003 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
2004 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
2005 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
2006 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
2007 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
2008 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
2009 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
2010 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
2011
2012 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
2013 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
2014 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
2015 information.
2016
2017 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
2018 lucid.
2019
2020 * New commands
2021
2022 set debug compile-cplus-types
2023 show debug compile-cplus-types
2024 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
2025 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiling
2026 for other languages.
2027
2028 set debug skip
2029 show debug skip
2030 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
2031 displayed.
2032
2033 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
2034 Apply a command to some frames.
2035 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
2036 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
2037
2038 taas COMMAND
2039 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
2040 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
2041
2042 faas COMMAND
2043 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
2044 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
2045
2046 tfaas COMMAND
2047 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
2048 output).
2049 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
2050
2051 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
2052 maint show dwarf unwinders
2053 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
2054
2055 info proc files
2056 Display a list of open files for a process.
2057
2058 * Changed commands
2059
2060 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
2061 These commands all now take a frame specification which
2062 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
2063 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
2064 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
2065 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
2066 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
2067
2068 target remote FILENAME
2069 target extended-remote FILENAME
2070 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
2071 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
2072
2073 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
2074 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
2075 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
2076 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
2077 These commands can now print only the searched entities
2078 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
2079 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
2080 printing headers or informations messages.
2081
2082 info functions
2083 info types
2084 info variables
2085 rbreak
2086 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
2087 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
2088 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
2089 the shown entities.
2090
2091 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
2092 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
2093 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
2094 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
2095
2096 set tui tab-width NCHARS
2097 show tui tab-width NCHARS
2098 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
2099
2100 set style enabled [on|off]
2101 show style enabled
2102 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
2103 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
2104
2105 set style sources [on|off]
2106 show style sources
2107 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
2108 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
2109 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
2110
2111 set style filename foreground COLOR
2112 set style filename background COLOR
2113 set style filename intensity VALUE
2114 Control the styling of file names.
2115
2116 set style function foreground COLOR
2117 set style function background COLOR
2118 set style function intensity VALUE
2119 Control the styling of function names.
2120
2121 set style variable foreground COLOR
2122 set style variable background COLOR
2123 set style variable intensity VALUE
2124 Control the styling of variable names.
2125
2126 set style address foreground COLOR
2127 set style address background COLOR
2128 set style address intensity VALUE
2129 Control the styling of addresses.
2130
2131 * MI changes
2132
2133 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
2134 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
2135 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
2136 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
2137 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
2138
2139 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
2140 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
2141
2142 * New native configurations
2143
2144 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
2145 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
2146
2147 * New targets
2148
2149 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
2150 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
2151 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
2152 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
2153 NXP S12Z s12z-*-elf
2154 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
2155
2156 * Removed targets
2157
2158 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
2159 before Windows XP.
2160
2161 * Python API
2162
2163 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
2164
2165 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
2166 space associated to that inferior.
2167
2168 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
2169 of objfiles associated to that program space.
2170
2171 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
2172 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
2173 the gdb core.
2174
2175 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
2176 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
2177 correct and did not work properly.
2178
2179 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
2180 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
2181
2182 * Configure changes
2183
2184 --enable-ubsan
2185
2186 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
2187 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
2188 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
2189 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
2190 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
2191
2192 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
2193
2194 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
2195 for the MIPS target.
2196
2197 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
2198 offset to all sections.
2199
2200 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
2201 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
2202 address of individual sections using '-s'.
2203
2204 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
2205 (address of the text section).
2206
2207 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
2208 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
2209 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
2210 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
2211 default.
2212
2213 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
2214 for the rest of the current command.
2215
2216 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
2217 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
2218
2219 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
2220 files created on FreeBSD systems.
2221
2222 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
2223 alignof.
2224
2225 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
2226 the vector length while the process is running.
2227
2228 * New commands
2229
2230 set debug fbsd-nat
2231 show debug fbsd-nat
2232 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
2233
2234 set|show varsize-limit
2235 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
2236 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
2237 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
2238
2239 set|show record btrace cpu
2240 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
2241 branch trace decode.
2242
2243 maint check libthread-db
2244 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
2245 library
2246
2247 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
2248 maint show check-libthread-db
2249 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
2250 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
2251 perform such checks.
2252
2253 * Python API
2254
2255 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
2256
2257 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
2258 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
2259
2260 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
2261
2262 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
2263 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
2264 of convenience variables.
2265
2266 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
2267 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
2268 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
2269
2270 * New targets
2271
2272 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
2273
2274 * Removed targets and native configurations
2275
2276 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
2277 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
2278 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
2279 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
2280
2281 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
2282
2283 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
2284 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
2285 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
2286 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
2287 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
2288 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
2289 reported.
2290
2291 * Configure changes
2292
2293 --enable-codesign=CERT
2294 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
2295 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
2296 gdb to work properly.
2297
2298 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
2299 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
2300
2301 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
2302
2303 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
2304 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
2305 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
2306
2307 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
2308 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
2309
2310 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
2311 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
2312 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
2313 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
2314 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
2315
2316 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
2317 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
2318 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
2319 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
2320
2321 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
2322 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
2323
2324 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
2325 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
2326 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
2327
2328 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
2329 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
2330 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
2331
2332 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
2333 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
2334 environment" command.
2335
2336 * Completion improvements
2337
2338 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
2339 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
2340 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
2341 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
2342 correctly:
2343
2344 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
2345 (gdb) b function(int)
2346
2347 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
2348 C++ anonymous namespaces:
2349
2350 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
2351 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
2352 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
2353 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
2354
2355 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
2356 completion support, that better understands what you're
2357 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
2358 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
2359 setting a breakpoint.
2360
2361 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
2362
2363 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
2364
2365 * New command line options (gcore)
2366
2367 -a
2368 Dump all memory mappings.
2369
2370 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
2371
2372 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
2373 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
2374 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
2375
2376 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
2377
2378 A::B::func()
2379 B::func()
2380
2381 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
2382 on both symbols.
2383
2384 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
2385 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
2386 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
2387 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
2388 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
2389 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
2390 a breakpoint from Python.
2391
2392 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
2393
2394 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
2395 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
2396 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
2397
2398 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
2399
2400 function[abi:cxx11](int)
2401 ^^^^^^^^^^^
2402
2403 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
2404 no tag, like:
2405
2406 (gdb) b function(int)
2407
2408 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
2409
2410 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
2411
2412 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
2413
2414 * Python Scripting
2415
2416 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
2417 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
2418 description of these.
2419
2420 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
2421 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
2422 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
2423
2424 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
2425 manual for a further description of this feature.
2426
2427
2428 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2429
2430 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
2431 specified initial working directory.
2432
2433 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
2434 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
2435
2436 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
2437 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
2438
2439 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
2440 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
2441
2442 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
2443 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
2444 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
2445 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
2446 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
2447
2448 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
2449 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
2450 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
2451
2452 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
2453 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
2454 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
2455 in the *stopped notification.
2456
2457 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
2458 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
2459
2460 * New remote packets
2461
2462 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
2463 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
2464 the inferior when starting it.
2465
2466 QEnvironmentUnset
2467 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
2468 before starting the remote inferior.
2469
2470 QEnvironmentReset
2471 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
2472 user-set environment variables should be unset).
2473
2474 QStartupWithShell
2475 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
2476
2477 QSetWorkingDir
2478 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
2479 working directory.
2480
2481 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
2482 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
2483
2484 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
2485 filter the tests to be run.
2486
2487 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
2488 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
2489
2490 * New commands
2491
2492 set|show cwd
2493 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
2494
2495 set|show compile-gcc
2496 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
2497 with the 'compile' commands.
2498
2499 set debug separate-debug-file
2500 show debug separate-debug-file
2501 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
2502
2503 set dump-excluded-mappings
2504 show dump-excluded-mappings
2505 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
2506 dumped when generating a core file.
2507
2508 maint info selftests
2509 List the registered selftests.
2510
2511 starti
2512 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
2513
2514 set|show debug or1k
2515 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
2516
2517 set|show print type nested-type-limit
2518 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
2519 type printer will show.
2520
2521 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
2522 `o' for nexti.
2523
2524 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
2525
2526 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
2527 'int'.
2528
2529 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
2530 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
2531 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
2532 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
2533
2534 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
2535 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
2536 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
2537 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
2538 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
2539 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
2540
2541 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
2542 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
2543 unless you tell it the variable's type:
2544
2545 (gdb) p var
2546 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
2547 (gdb) p (float) var
2548 $3 = 3.14
2549
2550 * New native configurations
2551
2552 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
2553 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
2554
2555 * New targets
2556
2557 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
2558 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
2559 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
2560
2561 * Removed targets and native configurations
2562
2563 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
2564
2565 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
2566
2567 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
2568 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
2569 available in future Intel CPUs.
2570
2571 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
2572
2573 * Python Scripting
2574
2575 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
2576 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
2577
2578 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
2579 instructions.
2580
2581 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
2582
2583 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
2584
2585 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
2586 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
2587 removed.
2588
2589 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
2590
2591 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
2592 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
2593
2594 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
2595
2596 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
2597 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
2598 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
2599 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
2600 features.
2601
2602 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
2603
2604 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
2605 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
2606 debugger.
2607
2608 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
2609
2610 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
2611 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
2612
2613 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
2614
2615 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
2616
2617 define mycommand
2618 set $i = 0
2619 while $i < $argc
2620 eval "print $arg%d", $i
2621 set $i = $i + 1
2622 end
2623 end
2624
2625 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
2626
2627 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
2628 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
2629
2630 * New native configurations
2631
2632 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
2633
2634 * New targets
2635
2636 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
2637 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
2638
2639 * Removed targets and native configurations
2640
2641 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2642 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
2643
2644 * New commands
2645
2646 flash-erase
2647 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
2648
2649 maint print arc arc-instruction address
2650 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
2651
2652 * New options
2653
2654 set disassembler-options
2655 show disassembler-options
2656 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
2657 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
2658 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
2659 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
2660 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
2661
2662 * New MI commands
2663
2664 -target-flash-erase
2665 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
2666 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
2667
2668 -file-list-shared-libraries
2669 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
2670 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
2671
2672 -catch-handlers
2673 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
2674 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
2675
2676 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
2677
2678 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
2679
2680 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
2681 default. One must now explicitly configure with
2682 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
2683 option will be removed in a future release.
2684
2685 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
2686 GDB connection.
2687
2688 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
2689 memory backward from the given address. For example:
2690
2691 (gdb) bt
2692 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
2693 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
2694 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
2695 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
2696 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
2697 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
2698 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
2699 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
2700 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
2701
2702 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
2703 arrays of dynamic types.
2704
2705 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
2706 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
2707 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
2708 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
2709 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
2710 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
2711
2712 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
2713 descriptions.
2714
2715 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
2716 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
2717 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
2718
2719 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
2720
2721 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
2722 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
2723 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
2724 signal received and code location.
2725
2726 For example:
2727
2728 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
2729 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
2730 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
2731 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
2732
2733 * Rust language support.
2734 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
2735 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
2736 Rust.
2737
2738 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
2739
2740 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
2741 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
2742 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
2743 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
2744 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
2745 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
2746 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
2747 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
2748 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
2749 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
2750 line.
2751
2752 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
2753
2754 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
2755 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
2756
2757 * New commands
2758
2759 skip -file file
2760 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
2761 skip -function function
2762 skip -rfunction regular-expression
2763 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
2764 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
2765 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
2766
2767 maint info line-table REGEXP
2768 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data structure.
2769
2770 maint selftest
2771 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
2772
2773 new-ui INTERP TTY
2774 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
2775 using the TTY file for input/output.
2776
2777 * Python Scripting
2778
2779 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
2780 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
2781 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
2782 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
2783 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
2784
2785 signal-event EVENTID
2786 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
2787 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
2788 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
2789 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
2790 signalling an event.
2791
2792 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
2793 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
2794 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
2795
2796 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
2797 been removed:
2798
2799 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
2800 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
2801 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
2802 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
2803 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
2804 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
2805
2806 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
2807 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
2808 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
2809 bytecode into native code.
2810
2811 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
2812 recording. For example:
2813
2814 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
2815
2816 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
2817
2818 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
2819
2820 * New targets
2821
2822 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
2823
2824 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
2825
2826 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
2827
2828 * Per-inferior thread numbers
2829
2830 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
2831 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
2832 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
2833
2834 (gdb) info threads
2835 Id Target Id Frame
2836 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
2837 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
2838 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
2839 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
2840
2841 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
2842 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
2843 are no longer unique between inferiors.
2844
2845 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
2846 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
2847 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
2848
2849 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
2850 IDs.
2851
2852 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
2853 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
2854
2855 (gdb) thread 2.1
2856 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
2857 (gdb)
2858
2859 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
2860 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
2861 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
2862 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
2863 threads 2.*".
2864
2865 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
2866 all threads.
2867
2868 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
2869 the current thread.
2870
2871 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
2872 current inferior.
2873
2874 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
2875 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
2876 example:
2877
2878 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
2879 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
2880
2881 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
2882
2883 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
2884
2885 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
2886 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
2887
2888 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
2889 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
2890 clients.
2891
2892 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2893 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
2894 at the same time.
2895
2896 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
2897 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
2898 into native code.
2899
2900 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2901
2902 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
2903 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
2904 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
2905
2906 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
2907 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
2908
2909 * New commands
2910
2911 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
2912 maint show target-non-stop
2913 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
2914 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
2915 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
2916
2917 maint set bfd-sharing
2918 maint show bfd-sharing
2919 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
2920
2921 set debug bfd-cache
2922 show debug bfd-cache
2923 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
2924
2925 set debug fbsd-lwp
2926 show debug fbsd-lwp
2927 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
2928
2929 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
2930 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
2931 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
2932
2933 set remote thread-events
2934 show remote thread-events
2935 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
2936
2937 set ada print-signatures on|off
2938 show ada print-signatures"
2939 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
2940 selection menus. It is activated (@code{on}) by default.
2941
2942 set max-value-size
2943 show max-value-size
2944 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
2945 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
2946 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
2947
2948 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
2949 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
2950 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
2951 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
2952 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
2953 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
2954
2955 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
2956 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
2957
2958 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
2959 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
2960
2961 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
2962
2963 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
2964 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
2965 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
2966 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
2967 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
2968 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
2969
2970 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
2971 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
2972
2973 catch handlers
2974 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
2975
2976 * New remote packets
2977
2978 exec stop reason
2979 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
2980
2981 exec-events feature in qSupported
2982 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
2983 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
2984 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
2985 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
2986
2987 vCtrlC
2988 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
2989 non-stop mode.
2990
2991 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
2992 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
2993
2994 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
2995 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
2996
2997 QThreadEvents
2998 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
2999 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
3000 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
3001 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
3002 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
3003 stop for that same thread.
3004
3005 N stop reply
3006 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
3007 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
3008 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
3009
3010 QCatchSyscalls
3011 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
3012 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
3013
3014 syscall_entry stop reason
3015 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
3016
3017 syscall_return stop reason
3018 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
3019
3020 * Extended-remote exec events
3021
3022 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
3023 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
3024 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
3025
3026 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
3027 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
3028 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
3029
3030 * Thread names in remote protocol
3031
3032 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
3033 thread.
3034
3035 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
3036
3037 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
3038 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
3039 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
3040 fork and exec catchpoints.
3041
3042 * Remote syscall events
3043
3044 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
3045 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
3046
3047 set remote catch-syscall-packet
3048 show remote catch-syscall-packet
3049 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
3050
3051 * MI changes
3052
3053 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
3054 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
3055 left.
3056
3057 * Python Scripting
3058
3059 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
3060 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
3061 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
3062 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
3063 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
3064 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
3065
3066 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
3067
3068 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
3069 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
3070 including advance SIMD instructions.
3071
3072 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
3073
3074 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
3075 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
3076 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
3077 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
3078 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
3079 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
3080 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
3081
3082 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
3083 cpu information :
3084 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
3085
3086 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
3087 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
3088 remote serial I/O.
3089
3090 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
3091 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
3092 and may include things like its command line arguments.
3093
3094 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
3095 is now available on all platforms.
3096
3097 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
3098 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
3099 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
3100 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
3101 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
3102 backward compatibility.
3103
3104 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
3105 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
3106 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
3107 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
3108
3109 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
3110 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
3111 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
3112 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
3113 packets" below.
3114
3115 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
3116
3117 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
3118
3119 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
3120 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
3121 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
3122 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
3123 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
3124 See "New remote packets" below.
3125
3126 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
3127 available register groups, including target specific groups.
3128
3129 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
3130 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
3131 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
3132 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
3133 are ignored.
3134
3135 * Guile Scripting
3136
3137 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
3138
3139 * Python Scripting
3140
3141 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
3142 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
3143 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
3144 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
3145 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
3146 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
3147 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
3148 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
3149 "const" version of the value respectively.
3150
3151 * New commands
3152
3153 maint print symbol-cache
3154 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
3155
3156 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
3157 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
3158
3159 maint flush-symbol-cache
3160 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
3161
3162 record btrace bts
3163 record bts
3164 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
3165
3166 compile print
3167 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
3168
3169 tui enable
3170 tui disable
3171 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
3172
3173 show mpx bound
3174 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
3175 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
3176
3177 record btrace pt
3178 record pt
3179 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
3180
3181 maint info btrace
3182 Print information about branch tracing internals.
3183
3184 maint btrace packet-history
3185 Print the raw branch tracing data.
3186
3187 maint btrace clear-packet-history
3188 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
3189
3190 maint btrace clear
3191 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
3192 anew by the next "record" command.
3193
3194 * New options
3195
3196 set debug dwarf-die
3197 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
3198 show debug dwarf-die
3199 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
3200
3201 set debug dwarf-read
3202 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
3203 show debug dwarf-read
3204 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
3205
3206 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
3207 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
3208 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
3209 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
3210
3211 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
3212 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
3213 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
3214 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
3215
3216 set debug dwarf-line
3217 show debug dwarf-line
3218 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
3219
3220 set max-completions
3221 show max-completions
3222 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
3223 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
3224 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
3225 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
3226
3227 set history remove-duplicates
3228 show history remove-duplicates
3229 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
3230
3231 maint set symbol-cache-size
3232 maint show symbol-cache-size
3233 Control the size of the symbol cache.
3234
3235 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
3236 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
3237 BTS format.
3238 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
3239 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
3240
3241 set debug linux-namespaces
3242 show debug linux-namespaces
3243 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
3244
3245 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
3246 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
3247 Intel Processor Trace format.
3248 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
3249 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
3250
3251 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
3252 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
3253 packet history.
3254
3255 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
3256 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
3257
3258 * Python/Guile scripting
3259
3260 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
3261 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
3262
3263 * New remote packets
3264
3265 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
3266 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
3267
3268 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
3269 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
3270
3271 Qbtrace:pt
3272 Enable Intel Processor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
3273 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
3274 qSupported query.
3275
3276 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
3277 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
3278 Trace format.
3279
3280 swbreak stop reason
3281 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
3282 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
3283 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
3284 mode operation.
3285
3286 hwbreak stop reason
3287 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
3288 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
3289
3290 vFile:fstat:
3291 Return information about files on the remote system.
3292
3293 qXfer:exec-file:read
3294 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
3295 create a process running on the remote system.
3296
3297 vFile:setfs:
3298 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
3299 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
3300 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
3301 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
3302
3303 fork stop reason
3304 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
3305
3306 vfork stop reason
3307 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
3308
3309 vforkdone stop reason
3310 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
3311 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
3312
3313 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
3314 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
3315 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
3316 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
3317 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
3318 whether these features are enabled.
3319
3320 * Extended-remote fork events
3321
3322 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
3323 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
3324 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
3325 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
3326
3327 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
3328 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
3329 the btrace record target.
3330 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
3331
3332 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
3333 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
3334
3335 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
3336 targets.
3337
3338 * Removed command line options
3339
3340 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
3341
3342 * Removed targets and native configurations
3343
3344 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
3345 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
3346
3347 * New configure options
3348
3349 --with-intel-pt
3350 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
3351 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
3352
3353 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
3354 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
3355 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
3356 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
3357
3358 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
3359
3360 * Python Scripting
3361
3362 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
3363
3364 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
3365
3366 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
3367
3368 * Python Scripting
3369
3370 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
3371 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
3372 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
3373 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
3374 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
3375 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
3376 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
3377 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
3378 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
3379 selecting a new file to debug.
3380 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
3381 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
3382
3383 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
3384 inferior.
3385
3386 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
3387 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
3388 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
3389 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
3390
3391 * New Python-based convenience functions:
3392
3393 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
3394 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
3395 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
3396 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
3397
3398 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
3399 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
3400 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
3401 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
3402 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
3403 interface with this new feature are:
3404
3405 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
3406 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
3407
3408 * New commands
3409
3410 demangle [-l language] [--] name
3411 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
3412 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
3413 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
3414 as "maint demangler-warning".
3415
3416 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
3417 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
3418
3419 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
3420 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
3421 scripts.
3422
3423 maint print user-registers
3424 List all currently available "user" registers.
3425
3426 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
3427 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
3428 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
3429
3430 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
3431 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
3432 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
3433 provided.
3434
3435 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
3436 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
3437 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
3438 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
3439 at resume time.
3440
3441 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
3442 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
3443 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
3444 switched threads meanwhile.
3445
3446 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
3447
3448 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
3449 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
3450 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
3451 is now the default mode.
3452
3453 * New options
3454
3455 set debug symbol-lookup
3456 show debug symbol-lookup
3457 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
3458
3459 * MI changes
3460
3461 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
3462 inferiors that have exited.
3463
3464 * New targets
3465
3466 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
3467
3468 * Removed targets
3469
3470 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
3471
3472 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
3473 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
3474 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
3475 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
3476 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
3477
3478 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
3479 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
3480 its alias "share", instead.
3481
3482 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
3483
3484 * New command line options
3485
3486 -D data-directory
3487 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
3488
3489 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
3490 as specified in ISO C99.
3491
3492 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
3493 with or without disassembly.
3494
3495 * Guile scripting
3496
3497 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
3498 available is determined at configure time.
3499 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
3500 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
3501
3502 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3503
3504 guile [code]
3505 gu [code]
3506 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
3507
3508 guile-repl
3509 gr
3510 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
3511
3512 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
3513 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
3514
3515 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
3516 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
3517
3518 * New options
3519
3520 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
3521 show print symbol-loading
3522 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
3523 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
3524 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
3525 becomes less useful.
3526
3527 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
3528 show guile print-stack
3529 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
3530
3531 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
3532 show auto-load guile-scripts
3533 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
3534
3535 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
3536 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
3537 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
3538 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
3539 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
3540 usage of this option.
3541
3542 set auto-connect-native-target
3543
3544 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
3545 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
3546 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
3547
3548 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
3549 show record btrace replay-memory-access
3550 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
3551
3552 maint set target-async (on|off)
3553 maint show target-async
3554 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
3555 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
3556 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
3557 occurring only in synchronous mode.
3558
3559 set mi-async (on|off)
3560 show mi-async
3561 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
3562 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
3563
3564 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
3565 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
3566
3567 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
3568 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
3569 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
3570 "set target-async on" command.
3571
3572 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3573
3574 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
3575 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
3576 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
3577 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
3578 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
3579
3580 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
3581 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
3582 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
3583
3584 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
3585 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
3586 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
3587 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
3588 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
3589 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
3590 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
3591
3592 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
3593 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
3594
3595 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
3596 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
3597 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
3598
3599 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
3600 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
3601 memory or registers.
3602
3603 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
3604
3605 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
3606 remote. It now works with all targets.
3607
3608 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
3609 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
3610 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
3611 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
3612 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
3613 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
3614 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
3615 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
3616 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
3617 target-stack".
3618
3619 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
3620 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
3621 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
3622
3623 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
3624
3625 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
3626 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
3627 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
3628
3629 * New remote packets
3630
3631 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
3632 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
3633 branch trace incrementally.
3634
3635 * Python Scripting
3636
3637 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
3638 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
3639 available.
3640 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
3641 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
3642 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
3643 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
3644 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
3645
3646 * New targets
3647 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
3648
3649 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
3650 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
3651 its alias "share", instead.
3652
3653 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
3654 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
3655 instead.
3656
3657 * MI changes
3658
3659 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
3660 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
3661 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
3662 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
3663 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
3664 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
3665 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
3666 commands and CLI execution commands.
3667
3668 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
3669
3670 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
3671 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
3672 recording has been added.
3673
3674 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
3675
3676 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
3677 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
3678
3679 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
3680 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
3681 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
3682 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
3683 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
3684 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
3685 "void".
3686
3687 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
3688
3689 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
3690
3691 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
3692 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
3693 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
3694 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
3695
3696 (gdb) p $rax
3697 $1 = <not saved>
3698
3699 (gdb) info registers rax
3700 rax <not saved>
3701
3702 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
3703 "*value not available*".
3704
3705 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
3706 to binaries.
3707
3708 * Python scripting
3709
3710 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
3711 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
3712 ** Line tables representation has been added.
3713 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
3714 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
3715 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
3716
3717 * New targets
3718
3719 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
3720 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
3721 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
3722
3723 * Removed native configurations
3724
3725 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
3726 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
3727
3728 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3729 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3730 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
3731 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
3732 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3733 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3734 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3735
3736 * New commands:
3737 catch rethrow
3738 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
3739 maint check-psymtabs
3740 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
3741 maint check-symtabs
3742 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
3743 maint expand-symtabs
3744 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
3745
3746 show configuration
3747 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
3748
3749 maint set|show per-command
3750 maint set|show per-command space
3751 maint set|show per-command time
3752 maint set|show per-command symtab
3753 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
3754
3755 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
3756 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
3757 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
3758 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
3759 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
3760
3761 info exceptions
3762 info exceptions REGEXP
3763 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
3764 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
3765 are listed.
3766
3767 * New options
3768
3769 set debug symfile off|on
3770 show debug symfile
3771 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
3772 symbol tables within those files
3773
3774 set print raw frame-arguments
3775 show print raw frame-arguments
3776 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
3777 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
3778
3779 set remote trace-status-packet
3780 show remote trace-status-packet
3781 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
3782
3783 set debug nios2
3784 show debug nios2
3785 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
3786
3787 set range-stepping
3788 show range-stepping
3789 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
3790
3791 set startup-with-shell
3792 show startup-with-shell
3793 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
3794 directly.
3795
3796 set code-cache
3797 show code-cache
3798 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
3799 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
3800
3801 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
3802 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
3803 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
3804 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
3805 "set height 0".
3806
3807 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
3808 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
3809 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
3810
3811 * New command-line options
3812 --configuration
3813 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
3814
3815 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
3816 buffer in Common Trace Format.
3817
3818 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
3819 GDB command gcore.
3820
3821 * GDB now implements the C++ 'typeid' operator.
3822
3823 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
3824 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
3825
3826 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
3827 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
3828
3829 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
3830 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
3831 due to an uncaught signal.
3832
3833 * MI changes
3834
3835 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
3836 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
3837 command, which should contain "language-option".
3838
3839 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
3840 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
3841
3842 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
3843 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
3844 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
3845 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
3846 "undefined-command-error-code".
3847
3848 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
3849 Trace Format now.
3850
3851 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
3852
3853 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
3854 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
3855 are displayed.
3856
3857 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
3858 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
3859
3860 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
3861 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
3862 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
3863
3864 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
3865 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
3866 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
3867 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
3868 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
3869 "exec-run-start-option".
3870
3871 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
3872 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
3873
3874 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
3875 the new "info exceptions" command.
3876
3877 * New system-wide configuration scripts
3878 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
3879 configuration scripts for the following systems:
3880 ** ElinOS
3881 ** Wind River Linux
3882
3883 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
3884 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
3885 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
3886 below.
3887
3888 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
3889 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
3890
3891 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
3892 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
3893 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
3894
3895 * New remote packets
3896
3897 vCont;r
3898
3899 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
3900 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
3901 involvemement at each single-step.
3902
3903 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
3904 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
3905 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
3906 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
3907 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
3908 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
3909 speedup.
3910
3911 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3912
3913 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
3914 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
3915
3916 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
3917 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
3918 trace state variables.
3919
3920 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
3921 target.
3922
3923 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
3924 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
3925
3926 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
3927
3928 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
3929 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
3930 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
3931 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3932
3933 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
3934
3935 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
3936 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
3937 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
3938 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
3939
3940 set|show record full insn-number-max
3941 set|show record full stop-at-limit
3942 set|show record full memory-query
3943
3944 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
3945 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
3946 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
3947 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
3948 This new recording method can be enabled using:
3949
3950 record btrace
3951
3952 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
3953 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
3954
3955 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
3956 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
3957 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
3958
3959 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
3960 instruction granularity
3961
3962 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
3963 function granularity
3964
3965 * New native configurations
3966
3967 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
3968 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
3969 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
3970 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
3971
3972 * New targets
3973
3974 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
3975 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
3976 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
3977 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
3978 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
3979
3980 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
3981 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
3982 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
3983 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
3984 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
3985 --data-directory command-line option.
3986
3987 * New command line options:
3988
3989 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
3990 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
3991
3992 * Removed command line options
3993
3994 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
3995 Emacs.
3996
3997 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
3998 type formatting.
3999
4000 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
4001
4002 * Python scripting
4003
4004 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
4005
4006 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
4007
4008 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
4009
4010 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
4011
4012 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
4013 of architecture in the Python API.
4014
4015 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
4016 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
4017
4018 * New Python-based convenience functions:
4019
4020 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
4021 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
4022 ** $_strlen(str)
4023 ** $_regex(str, regex)
4024
4025 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
4026 given an argument.
4027
4028 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
4029 default for GCC since November 2000.
4030
4031 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
4032
4033 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
4034 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
4035
4036 * New configure options
4037
4038 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
4039 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
4040 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
4041 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
4042 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
4043 options allow the user to override that default.
4044 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
4045 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
4046 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
4047
4048 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4049
4050 catch signal
4051 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
4052 conditions to be attached.
4053
4054 maint info bfds
4055 List the BFDs known to GDB.
4056
4057 python-interactive [command]
4058 pi [command]
4059 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
4060 and print the result of expressions.
4061
4062 py [command]
4063 "py" is a new alias for "python".
4064
4065 enable type-printer [name]...
4066 disable type-printer [name]...
4067 Enable or disable type printers.
4068
4069 * Removed commands
4070
4071 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
4072 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
4073 instead.
4074
4075 * New options
4076
4077 set print type methods (on|off)
4078 show print type methods
4079 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
4080 The default is to show them.
4081
4082 set print type typedefs (on|off)
4083 show print type typedefs
4084 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
4085 The default is to show them.
4086
4087 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
4088 show filename-display
4089 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
4090 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
4091
4092 set trace-buffer-size
4093 show trace-buffer-size
4094 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
4095
4096 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
4097 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
4098 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
4099
4100 set debug aarch64
4101 show debug aarch64
4102 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
4103 The default is off.
4104
4105 set debug coff-pe-read
4106 show debug coff-pe-read
4107 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
4108 exported symbols.
4109
4110 set debug mach-o
4111 show debug mach-o
4112 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
4113 processing.
4114
4115 set debug notification
4116 show debug notification
4117 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
4118
4119 * MI changes
4120
4121 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
4122 "=cmd-param-changed".
4123 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
4124 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
4125 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
4126 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
4127 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
4128 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
4129 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
4130 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
4131 "=memory-changed".
4132 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
4133 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
4134 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
4135 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
4136 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
4137 library load/unload events.
4138 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
4139 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
4140 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
4141 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
4142 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
4143 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
4144 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
4145 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
4146
4147 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
4148 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
4149 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
4150 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
4151
4152 * New remote packets
4153
4154 QTBuffer:size
4155 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
4156 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
4157
4158 Qbtrace:bts
4159 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
4160 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
4161 qSupported query.
4162
4163 Qbtrace:off
4164 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
4165 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
4166
4167 qXfer:btrace:read
4168 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
4169 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
4170
4171 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
4172
4173 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
4174 for more x32 ABI info.
4175
4176 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
4177
4178 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
4179
4180 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
4181 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
4182 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
4183 "info os files" lists file descriptors
4184 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
4185 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
4186 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
4187 "info os msg" lists message queues
4188 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
4189
4190 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
4191 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
4192 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
4193 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
4194 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
4195 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
4196
4197 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
4198 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
4199 record/replay support.
4200
4201 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
4202
4203 * Python scripting
4204
4205 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
4206 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
4207
4208 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
4209
4210 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
4211 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
4212
4213 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
4214
4215 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
4216 the source at which the symbol was defined.
4217
4218 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
4219 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
4220 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
4221 symbol's value.
4222
4223 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
4224 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
4225
4226 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
4227 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
4228 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
4229
4230 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
4231 object associated with a PC value.
4232
4233 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
4234 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
4235
4236 * Go language support.
4237 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
4238 language.
4239
4240 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
4241 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
4242
4243 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
4244 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
4245
4246 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
4247 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
4248 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
4249 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
4250 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
4251 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
4252
4253 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
4254 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
4255 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
4256 build/libcpp/expr.c.
4257
4258 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
4259 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
4260
4261 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
4262 since December 2007.
4263
4264 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
4265 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
4266 command does. For instance:
4267
4268 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
4269
4270 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
4271 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
4272 created, using the "condition" command.
4273
4274 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
4275 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
4276
4277 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
4278
4279 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
4280 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
4281 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
4282 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
4283 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
4284 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
4285 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
4286 files with older .gdb_index sections.
4287
4288 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
4289 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
4290 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
4291 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
4292 the .gdb_index section.
4293
4294 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
4295
4296 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
4297 target.
4298
4299 * MI changes
4300
4301 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
4302
4303 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
4304
4305 * New commands
4306
4307 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
4308 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
4309 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
4310
4311 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
4312 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
4313
4314 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
4315 several hits.
4316
4317 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
4318 C++ and Java objects.
4319
4320 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
4321 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
4322 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
4323 configured with '--with-python'.
4324
4325 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
4326 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
4327 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
4328 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
4329 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
4330 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
4331 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
4332
4333 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
4334 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
4335 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
4336 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
4337
4338 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
4339 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
4340 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
4341 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
4342
4343 ** "set print symbol"
4344 "show print symbol"
4345 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
4346 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
4347 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
4348
4349 * Deprecated commands
4350
4351 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
4352 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
4353
4354 * New targets
4355
4356 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
4357 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
4358
4359 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
4360 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
4361 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
4362 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
4363 evaluates to true.
4364
4365 * New options
4366
4367 set mips compression
4368 show mips compression
4369 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
4370 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
4371 mips16
4372 micromips
4373 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
4374
4375 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
4376 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
4377 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
4378 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
4379 available mode.
4380 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
4381 target.
4382
4383 set auto-load off
4384 Disable auto-loading globally.
4385
4386 show auto-load
4387 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
4388
4389 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
4390 show auto-load gdb-scripts
4391 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
4392
4393 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
4394 show auto-load python-scripts
4395 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
4396
4397 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
4398 show auto-load local-gdbinit
4399 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
4400
4401 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
4402 show auto-load libthread-db
4403 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
4404
4405 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
4406 show auto-load scripts-directory
4407 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
4408 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
4409 of the directories listed by this option.
4410 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
4411
4412 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
4413 show auto-load safe-path
4414 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
4415 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
4416
4417 set debug auto-load on|off
4418 show debug auto-load
4419 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
4420
4421 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
4422 show dprintf-style
4423 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
4424 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
4425 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
4426 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
4427
4428 set dprintf-function <expr>
4429 show dprintf-function
4430 set dprintf-channel <expr>
4431 show dprintf-channel
4432 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
4433 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
4434
4435 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
4436 show disconnected-dprintf
4437 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
4438 after GDB disconnects.
4439
4440 * New configure options
4441
4442 --with-auto-load-dir
4443 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
4444 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
4445 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
4446 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
4447 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
4448
4449 --with-auto-load-safe-path
4450 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
4451 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
4452
4453 --without-auto-load-safe-path
4454 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
4455 security feature.
4456
4457 * New remote packets
4458
4459 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
4460
4461 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
4462 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
4463 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
4464 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
4465
4466 QProgramSignals:
4467
4468 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
4469 program without GDB involvement.
4470
4471 * New command line options
4472
4473 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
4474 before loading inferior.
4475 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
4476 execute it before loading inferior.
4477
4478 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
4479
4480 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
4481 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
4482 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
4483 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
4484 inferior changes.
4485
4486 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
4487 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
4488
4489 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
4490 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
4491 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
4492 target hardware watchpoint.
4493
4494 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
4495 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
4496 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
4497 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
4498
4499 * Python scripting
4500
4501 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
4502 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
4503 existing one.
4504
4505 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
4506 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
4507 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
4508 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
4509 now "message", which just prints the error message without
4510 the stack trace.
4511
4512 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
4513 Python API.
4514
4515 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
4516 modules library. This module provides functionality for
4517 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
4518 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
4519 corresponding value.
4520
4521 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
4522 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
4523 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
4524 on GDB start-up.
4525
4526 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
4527 static_block will return the global and static blocks
4528 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
4529 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
4530
4531 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
4532
4533 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
4534 "gdb.breakpoints".
4535
4536 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
4537 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
4538 available in the CLI.
4539
4540 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
4541 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
4542 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
4543 "some_type.items()".
4544
4545 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
4546 new object file.
4547
4548 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
4549 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
4550 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
4551 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
4552 any anonymous fields.
4553
4554 * MI changes
4555
4556 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
4557 "solib-event".
4558
4559 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
4560 "=breakpoint-modified".
4561
4562 ** New command -ada-task-info.
4563
4564 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
4565 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
4566 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
4567 lives.
4568
4569 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
4570 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
4571 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
4572 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
4573 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
4574
4575 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
4576 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
4577
4578 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
4579 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
4580 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
4581 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
4582 use this option to specify where to find it.
4583
4584 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
4585 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
4586 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
4587 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
4588 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
4589 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
4590 section in the user manual for more details.
4591
4592 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
4593 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
4594 become available after that.
4595
4596 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
4597
4598 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
4599 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
4600 gcc version 4.7.
4601
4602 * New commands
4603
4604 !SHELL COMMAND
4605 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
4606 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
4607
4608 * Changed commands
4609
4610 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
4611 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
4612 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
4613
4614 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
4615 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
4616 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
4617
4618 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
4619 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
4620 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
4621 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
4622 name starts with a hyphen.
4623
4624 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
4625 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
4626 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
4627 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
4628 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
4629 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
4630 number of bytes that will be collected.
4631
4632 tstart [NOTES]
4633 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
4634 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
4635 setting the variable trace-notes.
4636
4637 tstop [NOTES]
4638 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
4639 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
4640 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
4641 trace-stop-notes.
4642
4643 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
4644 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
4645 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
4646 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
4647 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
4648 is running.
4649
4650 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
4651 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
4652 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
4653
4654 * New options
4655
4656 set debug dwarf2-read
4657 show debug dwarf2-read
4658 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
4659 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
4660
4661 set debug symtab-create
4662 show debug symtab-create
4663 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
4664 creation. The default is off.
4665
4666 set extended-prompt
4667 show extended-prompt
4668 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
4669 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
4670 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
4671 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
4672 prompt is displayed.
4673
4674 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
4675 show print entry-values
4676 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
4677 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
4678 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
4679
4680 set debug entry-values
4681 show debug entry-values
4682 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
4683 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
4684
4685 set basenames-may-differ
4686 show basenames-may-differ
4687 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
4688 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
4689 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
4690 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
4691 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
4692 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
4693 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
4694 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
4695
4696 set trace-user
4697 show trace-user
4698 set trace-notes
4699 show trace-notes
4700 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
4701 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
4702 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
4703 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
4704
4705 set trace-stop-notes
4706 show trace-stop-notes
4707 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
4708 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
4709 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
4710 started by someone else.
4711
4712 * New remote packets
4713
4714 QTEnable
4715
4716 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
4717
4718 QTDisable
4719
4720 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
4721
4722 QTNotes
4723
4724 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
4725
4726 qTP
4727
4728 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
4729
4730 qTMinFTPILen
4731
4732 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
4733 be placed.
4734
4735 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
4736 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
4737
4738 * New targets
4739
4740 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
4741
4742 * New Simulators
4743
4744 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
4745
4746 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
4747
4748 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
4749
4750 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
4751
4752 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
4753 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
4754 matches the given regular expression.
4755
4756 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
4757
4758 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
4759 dumping the instruction opcodes.
4760
4761 * New command line options
4762
4763 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
4764 This is mostly for testing purposes.
4765
4766 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
4767 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
4768
4769 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
4770 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
4771 source path list instead of augmenting it.
4772
4773 * GDB now understands thread names.
4774
4775 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
4776 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
4777
4778 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
4779 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
4780
4781 * OpenCL C
4782 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
4783 has been integrated into GDB.
4784
4785 * Python scripting
4786
4787 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
4788 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
4789 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
4790
4791 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
4792 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
4793 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
4794 and allows for more dynamic content.
4795
4796 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
4797 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
4798 have an is_valid method.
4799
4800 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
4801 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
4802 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
4803
4804 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
4805
4806 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
4807 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
4808 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
4809 that function like so:
4810
4811 result = some_value (10,20)
4812
4813 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
4814 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
4815 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
4816
4817 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
4818 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
4819 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
4820 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
4821 New function: register_pretty_printer.
4822
4823 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
4824 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
4825
4826 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
4827
4828 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
4829 selected thread.
4830
4831 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
4832 holds the thread's name.
4833
4834 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
4835 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
4836 occurring in the process being debugged.
4837 The following events are currently supported:
4838 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
4839 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
4840 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
4841
4842 * C++ Improvements:
4843
4844 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
4845 instantiation. For example, if you have:
4846
4847 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
4848
4849 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
4850 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
4851 was added to GCC 4.5.
4852
4853 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
4854 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
4855 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
4856 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
4857 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
4858 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
4859
4860 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
4861 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
4862 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
4863 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
4864 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
4865
4866 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
4867 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
4868 execution to a label.
4869
4870 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
4871 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
4872 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
4873 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
4874
4875 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
4876 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
4877 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
4878 of scope.
4879
4880 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
4881
4882 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
4883 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
4884 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
4885 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
4886 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
4887 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
4888
4889 (gdb) info threads
4890 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
4891
4892 While now you see this:
4893
4894 (gdb) info threads
4895 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
4896
4897 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
4898 dumps.
4899
4900 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
4901 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
4902 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
4903 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
4904
4905 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
4906 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
4907 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
4908 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
4909 section in the user manual for more details.
4910
4911 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
4912
4913 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
4914 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
4915
4916 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
4917
4918 * New native configurations
4919
4920 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
4921
4922 * New targets:
4923
4924 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
4925
4926 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
4927 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
4928 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
4929 in the GDB user manual.
4930
4931 * Guile support was removed.
4932
4933 * New features in the GNU simulator
4934
4935 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
4936
4937 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
4938
4939 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
4940
4941 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
4942
4943 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
4944 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
4945 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
4946 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
4947 was always disabled for such configurations.
4948
4949 * C++ Improvements:
4950
4951 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
4952
4953 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
4954 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
4955 For example:
4956 namespace A
4957 {
4958 class B { };
4959 void foo (B) { }
4960 }
4961 ...
4962 A::B b
4963 foo(b)
4964 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
4965 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
4966 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
4967
4968 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
4969
4970 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
4971 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
4972 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
4973 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
4974 entry.
4975 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
4976 mentioned flavors of operators.
4977
4978 ** static const class members
4979
4980 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
4981 class definition has been fixed.
4982
4983 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
4984
4985 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
4986 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
4987 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
4988 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
4989 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
4990 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
4991
4992 * Static tracepoints
4993
4994 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
4995 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
4996 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
4997 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
4998 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
4999 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
5000 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
5001 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
5002 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
5003 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
5004 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
5005 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
5006 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
5007 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
5008 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
5009 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
5010 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
5011 the "New remote packets" section below.
5012
5013 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
5014
5015 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
5016 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
5017 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
5018 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
5019
5020 * Observer mode
5021
5022 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
5023 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
5024 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
5025 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
5026 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
5027 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
5028 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
5029
5030 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
5031 current thread.
5032
5033 * New remote packets
5034
5035 qGetTIBAddr
5036
5037 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
5038
5039 qRelocInsn
5040
5041 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
5042 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
5043 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
5044 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
5045 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
5046 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
5047
5048 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
5049
5050 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
5051
5052 qTSTMat
5053
5054 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
5055 program.
5056
5057 qXfer:statictrace:read
5058
5059 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
5060 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
5061 to gdb's qSupported query.
5062
5063 QAllow
5064
5065 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
5066
5067 QTDPsrc
5068
5069 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
5070 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
5071
5072 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
5073 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
5074 a directory.
5075
5076 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
5077
5078 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
5079 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
5080 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
5081 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
5082
5083 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
5084 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
5085 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
5086 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
5087 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
5088 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
5089 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
5090
5091 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
5092 for static tracepoints support.
5093
5094 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
5095
5096 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
5097 it understands register description.
5098
5099 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
5100
5101 * X86 general purpose registers
5102
5103 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
5104 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
5105 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
5106 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
5107 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
5108
5109 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
5110 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
5111 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
5112 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
5113 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
5114 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
5115
5116 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
5117 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
5118 in the specified file.
5119
5120 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
5121 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
5122 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
5123 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
5124 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
5125 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
5126 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
5127 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
5128 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
5129 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
5130
5131 * New commands
5132
5133 eval template, expressions...
5134 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
5135 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
5136
5137 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
5138 show target-file-system-kind
5139 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
5140 names.
5141
5142 save breakpoints <filename>
5143 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
5144 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
5145 definitions, use the `source' command.
5146
5147 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
5148 is now deprecated.
5149
5150 info static-tracepoint-markers
5151 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
5152
5153 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
5154 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
5155 function, line, address, or marker ID.
5156
5157 set observer on|off
5158 show observer
5159 Enable and disable observer mode.
5160
5161 set may-write-registers on|off
5162 set may-write-memory on|off
5163 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
5164 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
5165 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
5166 set may-interrupt on|off
5167 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
5168 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
5169 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
5170 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
5171 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
5172 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
5173 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
5174
5175 set record memory-query on|off
5176 show record memory-query
5177 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
5178 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
5179
5180 * Changed commands
5181
5182 disassemble
5183 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
5184
5185 * Python scripting
5186
5187 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
5188 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
5189 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
5190 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
5191 GDB using Python' in the manual.
5192
5193 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
5194 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
5195 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
5196 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
5197
5198 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
5199 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
5200
5201 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
5202
5203 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
5204
5205 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
5206
5207 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
5208 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
5209 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
5210
5211 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
5212 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
5213 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
5214 regular breakpoints.
5215
5216 * New targets
5217
5218 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
5219
5220 * D language support.
5221 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
5222 language.
5223
5224 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
5225 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
5226 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
5227 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
5228 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
5229
5230 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
5231 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
5232 conditions of the form:
5233
5234 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
5235
5236 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
5237 interface mentioned above.
5238
5239 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
5240
5241 * C++ Improvements
5242
5243 ** Namespace Support
5244
5245 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
5246 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
5247 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
5248 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
5249 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
5250
5251 ** Bug Fixes
5252
5253 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
5254 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
5255 qualified name.
5256
5257 ** Cast Operators
5258
5259 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
5260 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
5261
5262 * New targets
5263
5264 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
5265 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
5266
5267 * New Simulators
5268
5269 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
5270 Renesas RX rx
5271
5272 * Multi-program debugging.
5273
5274 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
5275 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
5276 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
5277 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
5278 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
5279 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
5280 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
5281 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
5282
5283 * New tracing features
5284
5285 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
5286
5287 ** Trace state variables
5288
5289 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
5290 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
5291 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
5292 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
5293 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
5294 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
5295 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
5296 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
5297 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
5298 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
5299
5300 ** Fast tracepoints
5301
5302 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
5303 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
5304 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
5305 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
5306 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
5307 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
5308 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
5309 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
5310 the regular trace command.
5311
5312 ** Disconnected tracing
5313
5314 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
5315 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
5316 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
5317 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
5318 connection is lost unexpectedly.
5319
5320 ** Trace files
5321
5322 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
5323 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
5324 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
5325 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
5326 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
5327 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
5328 <name>".
5329
5330 ** Circular trace buffer
5331
5332 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
5333 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
5334 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
5335 not be available for all target agents.
5336
5337 * Changed commands
5338
5339 disassemble
5340 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
5341 the arguments to be comma-separated.
5342
5343 info variables
5344 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
5345 which only declare a variable are not shown.
5346
5347 source
5348 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
5349 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
5350 support.
5351
5352 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
5353 "set script-extension" (see below).
5354
5355 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
5356
5357 record save [<FILENAME>]
5358 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
5359 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
5360
5361 record restore <FILENAME>
5362 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
5363 earlier time, for replay debugging.
5364
5365 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
5366 Add a new inferior.
5367
5368 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
5369 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
5370 inferior has loaded.
5371
5372 remove-inferior ID
5373 Remove an inferior.
5374
5375 maint info program-spaces
5376 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
5377
5378 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
5379 show remote interrupt-sequence
5380 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
5381 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
5382 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
5383 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
5384 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
5385
5386 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
5387 show remote interrupt-on-connect
5388 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
5389 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
5390 Linux kernel.
5391
5392 set remotebreak [on | off]
5393 show remotebreak
5394 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
5395
5396 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
5397 Create or modify a trace state variable.
5398
5399 info tvariables
5400 List trace state variables and their values.
5401
5402 delete tvariable $NAME ...
5403 Delete one or more trace state variables.
5404
5405 teval EXPR, ...
5406 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
5407 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
5408
5409 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
5410 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
5411
5412 * New expression syntax
5413
5414 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
5415 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
5416
5417 * New options
5418
5419 set follow-exec-mode new|same
5420 show follow-exec-mode
5421 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
5422 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
5423 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
5424
5425 set default-collect EXPR, ...
5426 show default-collect
5427 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
5428 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
5429 such as registers or a critical global variable.
5430
5431 set disconnected-tracing
5432 show disconnected-tracing
5433 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
5434 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
5435 upon disconnection.
5436
5437 set circular-trace-buffer
5438 show circular-trace-buffer
5439 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
5440 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
5441 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
5442 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
5443
5444 set script-extension off|soft|strict
5445 show script-extension
5446 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
5447 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
5448 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
5449 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
5450 evaluation failed.
5451 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
5452
5453 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
5454 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
5455 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
5456 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
5457 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
5458 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
5459 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
5460 is on.
5461
5462 * Python API Improvements
5463
5464 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
5465 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
5466 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
5467
5468 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
5469 `is_base_class' attribute.
5470
5471 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
5472
5473 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
5474 evaluate an expression.
5475
5476 * New remote packets
5477
5478 QTDV
5479 Define a trace state variable.
5480
5481 qTV
5482 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
5483
5484 QTDisconnected
5485 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
5486
5487 QTBuffer:circular
5488 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
5489
5490 qTfP, qTsP
5491 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
5492
5493 * Bug fixes
5494
5495 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
5496
5497 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
5498 much more reliable. In particular:
5499 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
5500 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
5501 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
5502 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
5503 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
5504 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
5505 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
5506 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
5507 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
5508 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
5509 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
5510 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
5511 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
5512 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
5513 non-threaded programs.
5514
5515 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
5516 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
5517 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
5518 executable program.
5519
5520 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
5521
5522 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
5523 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
5524 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
5525 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
5526 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
5527
5528 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
5529 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
5530 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
5531 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
5532 for tracepoint actions.
5533
5534 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
5535 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
5536 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
5537
5538 * Process record and replay
5539
5540 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
5541 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
5542 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
5543 execute commands.
5544
5545 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
5546 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
5547 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
5548 reverse execution.
5549
5550 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
5551 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
5552 2.6.28 or later.
5553
5554 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
5555 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
5556 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
5557 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
5558 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
5559 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
5560 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
5561 the installation instructions for more information.
5562
5563 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
5564 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
5565 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
5566 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
5567
5568 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
5569 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
5570
5571 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
5572 now complete on file names.
5573
5574 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
5575 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
5576 For instance, consider:
5577
5578 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
5579 # struct example variable;
5580 (gdb) p variable.
5581
5582 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
5583 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
5584
5585 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
5586 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
5587
5588 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
5589 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
5590 macros.
5591
5592 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
5593 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
5594 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
5595
5596 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
5597 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
5598 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
5599 and simulator targets may also provide them.
5600
5601 * New remote packets
5602
5603 qSearch:memory:
5604 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
5605
5606 QStartNoAckMode
5607 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
5608 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
5609 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
5610
5611 vKill
5612 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
5613 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
5614
5615 qXfer:osdata:read
5616 Obtains additional operating system information
5617
5618 qXfer:siginfo:read
5619 qXfer:siginfo:write
5620 Read or write additional signal information.
5621
5622 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
5623
5624 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
5625 packet that permitted the stub to pass a process id was removed.
5626 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
5627
5628 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
5629 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
5630
5631 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
5632 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
5633 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
5634
5635 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
5636 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
5637
5638 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
5639
5640 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
5641
5642 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
5643 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
5644
5645 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote protocol packet now allows passing a
5646 list of section offsets.
5647
5648 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
5649 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
5650 have also been fixed.
5651
5652 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
5653 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
5654 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
5655
5656 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
5657 example, given:
5658
5659 template<typename T> class C { };
5660 C<char const *> c;
5661
5662 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
5663
5664 ptype C<char const *>
5665 ptype C<char const*>
5666 ptype C<const char *>
5667 ptype C<const char*>
5668
5669 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
5670
5671 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
5672 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
5673
5674 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
5675 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
5676 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
5677
5678 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
5679 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
5680
5681 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
5682 gdbserver.
5683
5684 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
5685 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
5686
5687 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
5688 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
5689 as appropriate.
5690
5691 * Python scripting
5692
5693 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
5694 available is determined at configure time.
5695
5696 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
5697
5698 * Ada tasking support
5699
5700 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
5701 been introduced:
5702
5703 info tasks
5704 Print the list of Ada tasks.
5705 info task N
5706 Print detailed information about task number N.
5707 task
5708 Print the task number of the current task.
5709 task N
5710 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
5711
5712 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
5713 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
5714
5715 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
5716
5717 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
5718 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
5719 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
5720 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
5721 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
5722 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
5723 below.
5724
5725 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
5726 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
5727 information.
5728
5729 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
5730 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
5731 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
5732 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
5733 more information.
5734
5735 * Multi-architecture debugging.
5736
5737 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
5738 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
5739 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
5740 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
5741 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
5742
5743 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
5744 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
5745 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
5746 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
5747 --enable-targets configure option.
5748
5749 * Non-stop mode debugging.
5750
5751 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
5752 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
5753 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
5754 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
5755 section in the user manual for more information.
5756
5757 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
5758 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
5759 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
5760 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
5761 extensions on linux targets.
5762
5763 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
5764
5765 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
5766 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
5767 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
5768 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
5769 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
5770 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
5771 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
5772 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
5773 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
5774
5775 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
5776 val1 [, val2, ...]
5777 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
5778
5779 maint set python print-stack
5780 maint show python print-stack
5781 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
5782
5783 python [CODE]
5784 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
5785
5786 macro define
5787 macro list
5788 macro undef
5789 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
5790 interactively.
5791
5792 info os processes
5793 Show operating system information about processes.
5794
5795 info inferiors
5796 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
5797
5798 inferior NUM
5799 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
5800
5801 detach inferior NUM
5802 Detach from inferior number NUM.
5803
5804 kill inferior NUM
5805 Kill inferior number NUM.
5806
5807 * New options
5808
5809 set spu stop-on-load
5810 show spu stop-on-load
5811 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
5812
5813 set spu auto-flush-cache
5814 show spu auto-flush-cache
5815 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
5816 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
5817
5818 set sh calling-convention
5819 show sh calling-convention
5820 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
5821
5822 set debug timestamp
5823 show debug timestamp
5824 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
5825
5826 set disassemble-next-line
5827 show disassemble-next-line
5828 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
5829 the debuggee stops.
5830
5831 set remote noack-packet
5832 show remote noack-packet
5833 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
5834 under "New remote packets."
5835
5836 set remote query-attached-packet
5837 show remote query-attached-packet
5838 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
5839
5840 set remote read-siginfo-object
5841 show remote read-siginfo-object
5842 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
5843 packet.
5844
5845 set remote write-siginfo-object
5846 show remote write-siginfo-object
5847 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
5848 packet.
5849
5850 set remote reverse-continue
5851 show remote reverse-continue
5852 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
5853
5854 set remote reverse-step
5855 show remote reverse-step
5856 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
5857
5858 set displaced-stepping
5859 show displaced-stepping
5860 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
5861 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
5862 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
5863
5864 set debug displaced
5865 show debug displaced
5866 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
5867
5868 maint set internal-error
5869 maint show internal-error
5870 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
5871
5872 maint set internal-warning
5873 maint show internal-warning
5874 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
5875
5876 set exec-wrapper
5877 show exec-wrapper
5878 unset exec-wrapper
5879 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
5880
5881 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
5882 show multiple-symbols
5883 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
5884 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
5885 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
5886
5887 set breakpoint always-inserted
5888 show breakpoint always-inserted
5889 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
5890 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
5891 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
5892
5893 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
5894 show arm fallback-mode
5895 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
5896 show arm force-mode
5897 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
5898 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
5899 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
5900 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
5901
5902 set arm unwind-secure-frames
5903 Enable unwinding from Non-secure to Secure mode on Cortex-M with
5904 Security extension.
5905 This can trigger security exceptions when unwinding exception stacks.
5906
5907 set disable-randomization
5908 show disable-randomization
5909 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
5910 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
5911 multiple debugging sessions.
5912
5913 set non-stop
5914 show non-stop
5915 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
5916 a breakpoint.
5917
5918 set target-async
5919 show target-async
5920 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
5921 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
5922 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
5923 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
5924
5925 set target-wide-charset
5926 show target-wide-charset
5927 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
5928 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
5929
5930 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
5931 show tcp auto-retry
5932 set tcp connect-timeout
5933 show tcp connect-timeout
5934 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
5935 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
5936 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
5937
5938 set libthread-db-search-path
5939 show libthread-db-search-path
5940 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
5941 libthread_db.
5942
5943 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
5944 show schedule-multiple
5945 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
5946 the current process.
5947
5948 set stack-cache
5949 show stack-cache
5950 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
5951 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
5952 affecting correctness.
5953
5954 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
5955 show interactive-mode
5956 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
5957 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
5958 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
5959 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
5960 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
5961
5962 * Removed commands
5963
5964 info forks
5965 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
5966 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
5967 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
5968 command.
5969
5970 fork NUM
5971 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
5972 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
5973 alias for the `fork' command.
5974
5975 process PID
5976 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
5977 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
5978 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
5979
5980 delete fork NUM
5981 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
5982 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
5983 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
5984 fork' command.
5985
5986 detach fork NUM
5987 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
5988 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
5989 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
5990 fork' command.
5991
5992 * New native configurations
5993
5994 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
5995
5996 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
5997
5998 * New targets
5999
6000 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
6001 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
6002 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
6003 S+core 3 score-*-*
6004
6005 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
6006 (mingw32ce) debugging.
6007
6008 * Removed commands
6009
6010 catch load
6011 catch unload
6012 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
6013
6014 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
6015
6016 * New native configurations
6017
6018 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
6019 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
6020
6021 * New targets
6022
6023 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
6024 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
6025
6026 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
6027
6028 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
6029 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
6030 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
6031 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
6032
6033 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
6034 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
6035
6036 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
6037 is resolved.
6038
6039 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
6040 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
6041 and in inlined functions.
6042
6043 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
6044 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
6045 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
6046
6047 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
6048
6049 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
6050 registers on PowerPC targets.
6051
6052 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
6053 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
6054
6055 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
6056 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
6057
6058 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
6059 extended-remote mode.
6060
6061 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
6062 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
6063 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
6064 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
6065
6066 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
6067 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
6068 target architectures.
6069
6070 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
6071 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
6072 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
6073 stored in two consecutive float registers.
6074
6075 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
6076 breakpoints now.
6077
6078 * Improved support for debugging Ada
6079 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
6080 include:
6081 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
6082 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
6083 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
6084 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
6085 of an assignment
6086 - Improved command completion in Ada
6087 - Several bug fixes
6088
6089 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
6090 process.
6091
6092 * New commands
6093
6094 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
6095 show print frame-arguments
6096 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
6097 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
6098
6099 remote put
6100 remote get
6101 remote delete
6102 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
6103
6104 * New MI commands
6105
6106 -target-file-put
6107 -target-file-get
6108 -target-file-delete
6109 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
6110
6111 * New remote packets
6112
6113 vFile:open:
6114 vFile:close:
6115 vFile:pread:
6116 vFile:pwrite:
6117 vFile:unlink:
6118 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
6119
6120 vAttach
6121 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
6122 mode.
6123
6124 vRun
6125 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
6126
6127 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
6128
6129 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
6130 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
6131 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
6132
6133 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
6134 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
6135 -Bsymbolic linker option.
6136
6137 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
6138 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
6139 is not supported.
6140
6141 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
6142 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
6143
6144 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
6145 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
6146
6147 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
6148
6149 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
6150 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
6151 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
6152
6153 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
6154 automatically displayed as character or string data.
6155
6156 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
6157 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
6158 as strings.
6159
6160 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
6161 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
6162 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
6163
6164 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
6165 iWMMXt coprocessor.
6166
6167 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
6168 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
6169 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
6170
6171 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
6172
6173 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
6174
6175 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
6176 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
6177 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
6178
6179 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
6180 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
6181
6182 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
6183 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
6184 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
6185 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
6186 Windows and SymbianOS).
6187
6188 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
6189 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
6190
6191 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
6192 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
6193
6194 * New commands
6195
6196 set remoteflow
6197 show remoteflow
6198 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
6199 when debugging using remote targets.
6200
6201 set mem inaccessible-by-default
6202 show mem inaccessible-by-default
6203 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
6204 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
6205 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
6206 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
6207 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
6208
6209 set breakpoint auto-hw
6210 show breakpoint auto-hw
6211 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
6212 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
6213 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
6214 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
6215 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
6216 including "next" and "finish".
6217
6218 catch exception
6219 catch exception unhandled
6220 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
6221
6222 catch assert
6223 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
6224
6225 set sysroot
6226 show sysroot
6227 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
6228 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
6229 an alias to "set sysroot".
6230
6231 info spu
6232 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
6233 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
6234 architecture.
6235
6236 * New native configurations
6237
6238 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
6239
6240 set tdesc filename
6241 unset tdesc filename
6242 show tdesc filename
6243 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
6244 not query the target for its built-in description.
6245
6246 * New targets
6247
6248 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
6249 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
6250 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
6251
6252 * New remote packets
6253
6254 QPassSignals:
6255 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
6256 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
6257
6258 qXfer:features:read:
6259 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
6260 features.
6261
6262 qXfer:spu:read:
6263 qXfer:spu:write:
6264 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
6265 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
6266
6267 qXfer:libraries:read:
6268 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
6269 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
6270 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
6271 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
6272
6273 * Removed targets
6274
6275 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
6276
6277 alpha*-*-osf1*
6278 alpha*-*-osf2*
6279 d10v-*-*
6280 hppa*-*-hiux*
6281 i[34567]86-ncr-*
6282 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
6283 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
6284 i[34567]86-*-netware*
6285 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
6286 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
6287 i[34567]86-*-sco*
6288 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
6289 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
6290 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
6291 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
6292 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
6293 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
6294 i[34567]86-*-isc*
6295 m68*-cisco*-*
6296 m68*-tandem-*
6297 mips*-*-pe
6298 rs6000-*-lynxos*
6299 sh*-*-pe
6300
6301 * Other removed features
6302
6303 target abug
6304 target cpu32bug
6305 target est
6306 target rom68k
6307
6308 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
6309
6310 target hms
6311 target e7000
6312 target sh3
6313 target sh3e
6314
6315 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
6316 H8/300.
6317
6318 target ocd
6319
6320 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
6321 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
6322 interfaces.
6323
6324 DWARF 1 support
6325
6326 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
6327 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
6328
6329 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
6330
6331 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
6332 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
6333 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
6334 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
6335
6336 MIPS ".pdr" sections
6337
6338 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
6339 in debugging information.
6340
6341 Scheme support
6342
6343 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
6344 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
6345
6346 set mips stack-arg-size
6347 set mips saved-gpreg-size
6348
6349 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
6350
6351 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
6352
6353 * New targets
6354
6355 Xtensa xtensa-elf
6356 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
6357
6358 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
6359 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
6360 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
6361
6362 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
6363 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
6364 supported.
6365
6366 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
6367 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
6368
6369 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
6370 stub provides the required support.
6371
6372 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
6373 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
6374
6375 * New commands
6376
6377 set substitute-path
6378 unset substitute-path
6379 show substitute-path
6380 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
6381 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
6382 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
6383 between compilation and debugging.
6384
6385 set trace-commands
6386 show trace-commands
6387 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
6388 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
6389 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
6390
6391 * REMOVED features
6392
6393 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
6394
6395 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
6396 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
6397
6398 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
6399
6400 * New remote packets
6401
6402 qSupported:
6403 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
6404 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
6405 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
6406 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
6407 target.
6408
6409 qXfer:auxv:read:
6410 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
6411 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
6412
6413 qXfer:memory-map:read:
6414 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
6415 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
6416
6417 vFlashErase:
6418 vFlashWrite:
6419 vFlashDone:
6420 Erase and program a flash memory device.
6421
6422 * Removed remote packets
6423
6424 qPart:auxv:read:
6425 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
6426 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
6427
6428 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
6429
6430 * New targets
6431
6432 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
6433
6434 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
6435
6436 * New commands
6437
6438 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
6439 only if it doesn't already have a value.
6440
6441 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
6442
6443 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
6444
6445 restart <n> Return the program state to a
6446 previously saved state.
6447
6448 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
6449
6450 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
6451
6452 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
6453 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
6454
6455 info forks List forks of the user program that
6456 are available to be debugged.
6457
6458 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
6459 forks of the user program that are
6460 available to be debugged.
6461
6462 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
6463 that are available to be debugged (and
6464 kill the forked process).
6465
6466 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
6467 that are available to be debugged (and
6468 allow the process to continue).
6469
6470 * New architecture
6471
6472 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
6473
6474 * Improved Windows host support
6475
6476 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
6477 native console support, and remote communications using either
6478 network sockets or serial ports.
6479
6480 * Improved Modula-2 language support
6481
6482 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
6483 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
6484 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
6485 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
6486 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
6487 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
6488
6489 * REMOVED features
6490
6491 The ARM rdi-share module.
6492
6493 The Netware NLM debug server.
6494
6495 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
6496
6497 * New native configurations
6498
6499 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
6500 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
6501
6502 * New targets
6503
6504 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
6505
6506 * New command line options
6507
6508 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
6509 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
6510 the child (debugged) program exited with.
6511 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
6512 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
6513 specified multiple times and in conjunction
6514 with the --command (-x) option.
6515
6516 * Deprecated commands removed
6517
6518 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
6519 removed:
6520
6521 Command Replacement
6522 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
6523 othernames set arm disassembler
6524 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
6525 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
6526 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
6527 regs info registers
6528
6529 * New BSD user-level threads support
6530
6531 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
6532 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
6533 configurations are:
6534
6535 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
6536 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
6537 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
6538
6539 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
6540 are not yet supported.
6541
6542 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
6543 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
6544
6545 * REMOVED configurations and files
6546
6547 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
6548 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
6549 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
6550
6551 * New "set print array-indexes" command
6552
6553 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
6554 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
6555 behavior.
6556
6557 * VAX floating point support
6558
6559 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
6560
6561 * User-defined command support
6562
6563 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
6564 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
6565 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
6566
6567 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
6568
6569 * New command line option
6570
6571 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
6572 debugging.
6573
6574 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
6575
6576 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
6577 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
6578 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
6579 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
6580 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
6581
6582 * Internationalization
6583
6584 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
6585 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
6586 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
6587
6588 * Ada
6589
6590 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
6591 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
6592 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
6593
6594 * New native configurations
6595
6596 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
6597
6598 * Remote 'p' packet
6599
6600 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
6601 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
6602
6603 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
6604
6605 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
6606 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
6607 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
6608 i386 application).
6609
6610 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the registers[]
6611 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
6612 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
6613 configurations:
6614
6615 hppa-*-hpux
6616 ia64-*-aix
6617 mips-*-irix*
6618 *-*-lynx
6619 mips-*-linux-gnu
6620 sds protocol
6621 xdr protocol
6622 powerpc bdm protocol
6623
6624 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
6625 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
6626
6627 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6628
6629 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6630 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6631 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6632 permanently REMOVED.
6633
6634 h8300-*-*
6635 mcore-*-*
6636 mn10300-*-*
6637 ns32k-*-*
6638 sh64-*-*
6639 v850-*-*
6640
6641 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
6642
6643 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
6644
6645 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
6646 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
6647 been fixed.
6648
6649 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
6650
6651 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
6652 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
6653 IRIX long double values).
6654
6655 * VAX and "next"
6656
6657 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
6658 command. This problem has been fixed.
6659
6660 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
6661
6662 * Fix for ``many threads''
6663
6664 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
6665 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
6666 error message:
6667
6668 ptrace: No such process.
6669 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
6670
6671 This problem has been fixed.
6672
6673 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
6674
6675 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
6676 GDB to dump core).
6677
6678 * New ``start'' command.
6679
6680 This command runs the program until the beginning of the main procedure.
6681
6682 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
6683
6684 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
6685 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
6686 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
6687
6688 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
6689 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
6690 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
6691 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
6692 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
6693 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
6694 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
6695 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
6696 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
6697
6698 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
6699
6700 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
6701 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
6702 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
6703 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
6704 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
6705
6706 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
6707 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
6708 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
6709
6710 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
6711
6712 * New native configurations
6713
6714 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
6715 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
6716 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
6717 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
6718 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6719 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
6720 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6721
6722 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
6723
6724 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
6725 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
6726 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
6727 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
6728 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
6729 work, was also included.
6730
6731 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
6732 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
6733
6734 h8300-*-*
6735 mcore-*-*
6736 mn10300-*-*
6737 ns32k-*-*
6738 sh64-*-*
6739 v850-*-*
6740 xstormy16-*-*
6741
6742 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
6743 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
6744
6745 * REMOVED configurations and files
6746
6747 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
6748 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
6749 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
6750 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
6751 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
6752 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
6753 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
6754 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
6755 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
6756 sonymips mips-sony-*
6757 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
6758
6759 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
6760
6761 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
6762
6763 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
6764 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
6765 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
6766 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
6767 with GDB".
6768
6769 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
6770
6771 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
6772 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
6773 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
6774 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
6775 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
6776 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
6777 are created.
6778
6779 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
6780
6781 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
6782
6783 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
6784 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
6785 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
6786
6787 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
6788
6789 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
6790 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
6791
6792 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
6793
6794 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
6795 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
6796 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
6797
6798 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
6799
6800 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
6801 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
6802
6803 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
6804
6805 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
6806 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
6807 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
6808
6809 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
6810
6811 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
6812 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
6813 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
6814
6815 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
6816
6817 * Removed --with-mmalloc
6818
6819 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
6820 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
6821
6822 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
6823
6824 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
6825 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
6826 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
6827 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
6828
6829 * Revised SPARC target
6830
6831 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
6832 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
6833 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
6834 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
6835 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
6836
6837 * New C++ demangler
6838
6839 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
6840 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
6841 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
6842 programs.
6843
6844 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
6845
6846 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
6847 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
6848 encountered these.
6849
6850 * C++ nested types and namespaces
6851
6852 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
6853 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
6854 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
6855 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
6856 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
6857 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
6858 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
6859 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
6860 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
6861
6862 * New native configurations
6863
6864 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
6865 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
6866 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
6867 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
6868 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
6869
6870 * New debugging protocols
6871
6872 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
6873
6874 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
6875
6876 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
6877 and its very obscure effect on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
6878 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
6879
6880 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6881
6882 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6883 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6884 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6885 permanently REMOVED.
6886
6887 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
6888 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
6889 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
6890 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
6891 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
6892 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
6893 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
6894 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
6895 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
6896 sonymips mips-sony-*
6897 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
6898
6899 * REMOVED configurations and files
6900
6901 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6902 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6903 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6904 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6905 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6906 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
6907 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6908 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
6909 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
6910 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
6911 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
6912 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
6913 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
6914 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
6915 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
6916 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6917 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6918
6919 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
6920
6921 * Objective-C
6922
6923 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
6924 integrated into GDB.
6925
6926 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
6927
6928 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
6929 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
6930 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
6931 backtraces.
6932
6933 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
6934 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
6935 DWARF 2 CFI support.
6936
6937 * Hosted file I/O.
6938
6939 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
6940 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
6941 remote protocol documentation for details.
6942
6943 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
6944
6945 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
6946 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
6947 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
6948 ppc32 on ppc64).
6949
6950 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
6951
6952 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
6953 per-thread variables.
6954
6955 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
6956
6957 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
6958 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
6959
6960 * Separate debug info.
6961
6962 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
6963 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
6964 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
6965 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
6966 and optional debug files.
6967
6968 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
6969
6970 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
6971 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
6972 debugger.
6973
6974 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
6975 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
6976
6977 * Java
6978
6979 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
6980 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
6981 considered "useable".
6982
6983 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
6984
6985 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
6986 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
6987 kernel.
6988
6989 * GDB supports logging output to a file
6990
6991 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
6992 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
6993
6994 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
6995
6996 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
6997 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
6998 command.
6999
7000 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
7001
7002 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
7003 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
7004
7005 * Profiling support
7006
7007 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
7008 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
7009 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
7010 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
7011 data, for more informative profiling results.
7012
7013 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
7014
7015 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
7016 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
7017 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
7018
7019 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
7020 removed.
7021
7022 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
7023 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
7024 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
7025 in a subsequent -var-update.
7026
7027 * New native configurations.
7028
7029 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
7030
7031 * Multi-arched targets.
7032
7033 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
7034 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
7035
7036 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7037
7038 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7039 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7040 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7041 permanently REMOVED.
7042
7043 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
7044 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
7045 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
7046 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
7047 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
7048 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
7049 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
7050 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
7051 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
7052 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
7053 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7054 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7055
7056 * REMOVED configurations and files
7057
7058 V850EA ISA
7059 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7060 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7061 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
7062 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
7063 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
7064 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
7065 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
7066 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
7067 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
7068 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
7069 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7070 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
7071 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
7072
7073 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
7074
7075 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
7076 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
7077 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
7078 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
7079 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
7080
7081 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
7082
7083 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
7084
7085 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
7086 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
7087 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
7088 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
7089 shared libs like mad''.
7090
7091 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
7092
7093 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
7094 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
7095 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
7096 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
7097
7098 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
7099
7100 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
7101 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
7102 they expand.
7103
7104 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
7105 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
7106
7107 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
7108 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
7109
7110 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
7111 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
7112 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
7113 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
7114
7115 * Multi-arched targets.
7116
7117 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
7118 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
7119 NEC V850 v850-*-*
7120 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
7121 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
7122 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
7123
7124 * New targets.
7125
7126 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
7127
7128
7129 * New native configurations
7130
7131 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
7132 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
7133 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
7134 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
7135
7136 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7137
7138 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7139 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7140 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7141 permanently REMOVED.
7142
7143 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
7144 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
7145 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7146 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7147 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7148 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
7149 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
7150 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
7151 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
7152 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
7153 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
7154 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
7155 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
7156
7157 * OBSOLETE languages
7158
7159 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
7160
7161 * REMOVED configurations and files
7162
7163 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
7164 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
7165 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7166 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7167 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7168
7169 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
7170
7171 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
7172
7173 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
7174 commands. The default is 1024.
7175
7176 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
7177
7178 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
7179
7180 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
7181
7182 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
7183 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
7184 from a file into memory (restore).
7185
7186 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
7187
7188 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
7189 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
7190 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
7191
7192 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
7193
7194 * New targets.
7195
7196 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
7197
7198 * Bug fixes
7199
7200 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
7201 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
7202 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
7203
7204 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
7205 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
7206 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
7207
7208 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
7209 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
7210 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
7211
7212 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
7213 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
7214 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
7215
7216 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
7217
7218 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
7219
7220 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
7221 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
7222 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
7223 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
7224 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
7225 (notably embedded) targets.
7226
7227 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
7228
7229 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
7230 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
7231 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
7232 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
7233
7234 * New command line option
7235
7236 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
7237
7238 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
7239
7240 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
7241 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
7242 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
7243 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
7244 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
7245 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
7246 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
7247 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
7248 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
7249 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
7250
7251 * Changes in ARM configurations.
7252
7253 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
7254 configuration is fully multi-arch.
7255
7256 * New native configurations
7257
7258 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
7259 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
7260 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
7261 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
7262
7263 * New targets
7264
7265 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
7266
7267 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7268
7269 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7270 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7271 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7272 permanently REMOVED.
7273
7274 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
7275 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
7276 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7277 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7278 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7279
7280 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
7281
7282 * REMOVED configurations and files
7283
7284 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7285 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7286 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
7287 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
7288 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
7289 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
7290 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
7291 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7292 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
7293 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
7294 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
7295 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
7296 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
7297
7298 * Changes to command line processing
7299
7300 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
7301 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
7302
7303 * Changes to key bindings
7304
7305 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
7306
7307 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
7308
7309 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
7310
7311 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
7312 corrupted.
7313
7314 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
7315
7316 Numerous documentation fixes.
7317
7318 Numerous testsuite fixes.
7319
7320 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
7321
7322 * New native configurations
7323
7324 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
7325 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
7326 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
7327 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
7328 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
7329 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
7330
7331 * New targets
7332
7333 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
7334 CRIS cris-axis
7335 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
7336
7337 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7338
7339 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
7340 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
7341 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
7342 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7343 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7344 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7345 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
7346 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
7347 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
7348 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
7349 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
7350 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
7351 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
7352 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
7353
7354 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
7355 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
7356
7357 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7358 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7359 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7360 permanently REMOVED.
7361
7362 * REMOVED configurations and files
7363
7364 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
7365 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
7366 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
7367 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
7368 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7369 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
7370
7371 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
7372
7373 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
7374 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
7375 present.
7376
7377 * Other news:
7378
7379 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
7380
7381 * The MI enabled by default.
7382
7383 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
7384 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
7385 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
7386 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
7387 which is now deprecated.
7388
7389 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
7390
7391 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
7392 main features are supported:
7393
7394 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
7395
7396 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
7397 extension;
7398
7399 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
7400
7401 - a Pascal expression parser.
7402
7403 However, some important features are not yet supported.
7404
7405 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
7406
7407 - there are some problems with boolean types;
7408
7409 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
7410 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
7411
7412 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
7413
7414 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
7415
7416 * Changes in completion.
7417
7418 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
7419 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
7420 users expect at the shell prompt.
7421
7422 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
7423 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
7424 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
7425 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
7426 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
7427 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
7428 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
7429
7430 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
7431
7432 * New platform-independent commands:
7433
7434 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
7435 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
7436 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
7437
7438 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
7439
7440 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
7441 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
7442 many threads as your system allows you to have.
7443
7444 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
7445
7446 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
7447 multi-threaded programs though.
7448
7449 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
7450
7451 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
7452
7453 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
7454 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
7455 supported.)
7456
7457 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
7458
7459 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
7460 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
7461 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
7462 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
7463 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
7464 registers.
7465
7466 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
7467 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
7468 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
7469
7470 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
7471
7472 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
7473 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
7474
7475 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
7476 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
7477 IDT.
7478
7479 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
7480 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
7481 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
7482 a given linear address.
7483
7484 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
7485 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
7486 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
7487
7488 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
7489
7490 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
7491
7492 * Changes in documentation.
7493
7494 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
7495 Documentation License.
7496
7497 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
7498 manual.
7499
7500 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
7501
7502 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
7503 manual.
7504
7505 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
7506 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
7507 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
7508
7509 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
7510
7511 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
7512 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
7513 contents of this file.
7514
7515 * gdba.el deleted
7516
7517 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
7518
7519 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7520
7521 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
7522
7523 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
7524 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
7525 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
7526 greater level of detail.
7527
7528 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
7529
7530 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
7531 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
7532 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
7533 written.
7534
7535 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
7536
7537 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
7538 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
7539 machines ``out of the box''.
7540
7541 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
7542 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
7543 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
7544 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
7545 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
7546
7547 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
7548 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
7549 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
7550 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
7551 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
7552
7553 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
7554 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
7555 also works.
7556
7557 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
7558 GDB.
7559
7560 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
7561 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
7562 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
7563 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
7564
7565 * New native configurations
7566
7567 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
7568 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
7569
7570 * New targets
7571
7572 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
7573 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
7574 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7575 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7576
7577 * OBSOLETE configurations
7578
7579 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
7580 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
7581 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
7582 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
7583 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7584
7585 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
7586 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
7587 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
7588 be permanently REMOVED.
7589
7590 * Gould support removed
7591
7592 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
7593
7594 * New features for SVR4
7595
7596 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
7597 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
7598 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
7599
7600 * Many C++ enhancements
7601
7602 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
7603 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
7604
7605 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
7606
7607 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
7608 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
7609 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
7610 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
7611
7612 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
7613 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
7614
7615 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
7616
7617 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
7618 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
7619 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
7620
7621 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
7622 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
7623
7624 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
7625
7626 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
7627 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
7628 include ``set remote P-packet''.
7629
7630 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
7631
7632 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
7633 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
7634 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
7635
7636 * ``apropos'' command added.
7637
7638 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
7639 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
7640 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
7641
7642 * New MI interface
7643
7644 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
7645 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7646 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
7647 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
7648 enabled by configuring with:
7649
7650 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
7651
7652 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
7653
7654 * New native configurations
7655
7656 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
7657 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
7658 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
7659
7660 * New targets
7661
7662 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7663 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
7664 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
7665
7666 * OBSOLETE configurations
7667
7668 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
7669
7670 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
7671 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
7672 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
7673 be permanently REMOVED.
7674
7675 * ANSI/ISO C
7676
7677 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
7678 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
7679 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
7680 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
7681 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
7682 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
7683 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
7684 already.
7685
7686 * Readline 2.2
7687
7688 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
7689
7690 * set extension-language
7691
7692 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
7693 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
7694 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
7695 set extension-language .c c++
7696 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
7697 and their associated languages.
7698
7699 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
7700
7701 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
7702 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
7703 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
7704
7705 set processor NAME
7706
7707 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
7708 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
7709
7710 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
7711 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
7712 403 IBM PowerPC 403
7713 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
7714 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
7715 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
7716 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
7717 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
7718 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
7719 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
7720 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
7721
7722 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
7723 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
7724 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
7725 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
7726
7727 * HP-UX support
7728
7729 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
7730 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
7731 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
7732 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
7733 for xdb and dbx commands.
7734
7735 * Catchpoints
7736
7737 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
7738 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
7739 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
7740
7741 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
7742 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
7743 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
7744
7745 * Debugging across forks
7746
7747 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
7748 in the inferior.
7749
7750 * TUI
7751
7752 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
7753 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
7754 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
7755
7756 * GDB remote protocol additions
7757
7758 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
7759 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
7760 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
7761 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
7762
7763 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
7764 full 64-bit address. The command
7765
7766 set remoteaddresssize 32
7767
7768 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
7769 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
7770 will be discarded.
7771
7772 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
7773 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
7774
7775 maint packet heythere
7776
7777 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
7778 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
7779 time.
7780
7781 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
7782 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
7783 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
7784
7785 * Tracing can collect general expressions
7786
7787 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
7788 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
7789 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
7790
7791 * mask-address variable for Mips
7792
7793 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
7794 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
7795 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
7796
7797 * Higher serial baud rates
7798
7799 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
7800 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
7801 to achieve all of these rates.)
7802
7803 * i960 simulator
7804
7805 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
7806 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
7807
7808
7809 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
7810
7811 * New native configurations
7812
7813 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
7814 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
7815 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
7816 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
7817 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
7818 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
7819 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
7820
7821 * New targets
7822
7823 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
7824 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
7825 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
7826 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
7827 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
7828 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
7829 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
7830 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
7831 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
7832 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7833 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
7834
7835 * New debugging protocols
7836
7837 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
7838 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
7839 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
7840 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
7841 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
7842 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
7843
7844 * DWARF 2
7845
7846 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
7847 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
7848 information.
7849
7850 * Java frontend
7851
7852 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
7853 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
7854
7855 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
7856
7857 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
7858 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
7859 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
7860
7861 * Live range splitting
7862
7863 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
7864 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
7865 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
7866
7867 * Hurd support
7868
7869 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
7870 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
7871
7872 * ARM Thumb support
7873
7874 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
7875 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
7876 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
7877 accordingly.
7878
7879 * MIPS16 support
7880
7881 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
7882 instruction set.
7883
7884 * Overlay support
7885
7886 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
7887 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
7888 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
7889 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
7890 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
7891 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
7892
7893 * info symbol
7894
7895 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
7896 the symbol at the specified address.
7897
7898 * Trace support
7899
7900 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
7901 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
7902 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
7903 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
7904 file tracepoint.c for more details.
7905
7906 * MIPS simulator
7907
7908 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
7909 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
7910 of most MIPS variants.
7911
7912 * Sparc simulator
7913
7914 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
7915 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
7916 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
7917
7918 * set architecture
7919
7920 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
7921 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
7922 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
7923 the possible architectures.
7924
7925 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
7926
7927 * New native configurations
7928
7929 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
7930 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
7931 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
7932 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
7933 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
7934 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
7935
7936 * New targets
7937
7938 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
7939 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
7940 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
7941 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
7942 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
7943 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
7944 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7945
7946 * PowerPC simulator
7947
7948 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
7949 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
7950 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
7951 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
7952 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
7953
7954 * Solaris 2.5
7955
7956 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
7957
7958 * Windows 95/NT native
7959
7960 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
7961 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
7962 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
7963 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
7964 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
7965
7966 * dont-repeat command
7967
7968 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
7969 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
7970 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
7971 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
7972
7973 * Send break instead of ^C
7974
7975 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
7976 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
7977 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
7978
7979 * Remote protocol timeout
7980
7981 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
7982 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
7983 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
7984
7985 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
7986
7987 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
7988 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
7989 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
7990 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
7991 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
7992
7993 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
7994 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
7995 automatically on hpux10.
7996
7997 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
7998
7999 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
8000
8001 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
8002
8003 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
8004 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
8005 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
8006 every character. The default value is 1050.
8007
8008 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
8009
8010 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
8011 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
8012 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
8013 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
8014 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
8015 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
8016
8017 * Speedups for remote debugging
8018
8019 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
8020 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
8021 and more efficient S-record downloading.
8022
8023 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
8024
8025 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
8026 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
8027
8028 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
8029
8030 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
8031
8032 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
8033 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
8034
8035 * Remote targets use caching
8036
8037 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
8038 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
8039 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
8040 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
8041 off' turns the data cache off.
8042
8043 * Remote targets may have threads
8044
8045 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
8046 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
8047 gdb/remote.c for details.
8048
8049 * NetROM support
8050
8051 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
8052 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
8053 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
8054 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
8055 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
8056 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
8057 sequence is something like
8058
8059 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
8060 load <prog>
8061 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
8062
8063 * Macintosh host
8064
8065 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
8066 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
8067 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
8068 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
8069 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
8070 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
8071 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
8072 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
8073
8074 * Autoconf
8075
8076 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
8077 but does simplify configuration and building.
8078
8079 * hpux10
8080
8081 GDB now supports hpux10.
8082
8083 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
8084
8085 * New native configurations
8086
8087 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
8088 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
8089 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
8090 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
8091
8092 * New targets
8093
8094 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
8095 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
8096 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
8097 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
8098 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
8099
8100 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
8101
8102 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
8103 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
8104 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
8105 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
8106 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
8107
8108 * Arguments to user-defined commands
8109
8110 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
8111 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
8112 trivial example:
8113 define adder
8114 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
8115
8116 To execute the command use:
8117 adder 1 2 3
8118
8119 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
8120 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
8121 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
8122
8123 * New `if' and `while' commands
8124
8125 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
8126 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
8127 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
8128 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
8129 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
8130 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
8131 if the expression is zero.
8132
8133 * Fortran source language mode
8134
8135 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
8136 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
8137 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
8138 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
8139 Fortran compilers.
8140
8141 * Better HPUX support
8142
8143 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
8144 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
8145 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
8146 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
8147 that behavior do the following before running the program:
8148
8149 adb -w a.out
8150 __dld_flags?W 0x5
8151 control-d
8152
8153 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
8154 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
8155
8156 adb -w a.out
8157 __dld_flags?W 0x4
8158 control-d
8159
8160 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
8161 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
8162 external linkage.
8163
8164 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
8165 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
8166
8167 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
8168
8169 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
8170 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
8171 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
8172 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
8173 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
8174 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
8175
8176 * New DOS host serial code
8177
8178 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
8179 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
8180 a PC's serial port.
8181
8182 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
8183
8184 * New "complete" command
8185
8186 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
8187 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
8188
8189 * Trailing space optional in prompt
8190
8191 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
8192 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
8193
8194 * Breakpoint hit counts
8195
8196 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
8197 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
8198 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
8199 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
8200 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
8201 that breakpoint.
8202
8203 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
8204
8205 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
8206 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
8207 arrays actually contain only short strings.
8208
8209 * Shared library breakpoints
8210
8211 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
8212 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
8213
8214 * Hardware watchpoints
8215
8216 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
8217 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
8218
8219 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
8220
8221 * Annotations
8222
8223 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
8224 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
8225
8226 * Improved Irix 5 support
8227
8228 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
8229
8230 * Improved HPPA support
8231
8232 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
8233
8234 * New native configurations
8235
8236 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
8237 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
8238 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
8239 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
8240
8241 * New targets
8242
8243 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
8244 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
8245 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
8246
8247 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
8248
8249 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
8250 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
8251
8252 * Fixes
8253
8254 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
8255 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
8256
8257 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
8258
8259 * Irix 5 is now supported
8260
8261 * HPPA support
8262
8263 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
8264 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
8265 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
8266 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
8267 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
8268
8269
8270 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
8271
8272 * User visible changes:
8273
8274 * Remote Debugging
8275
8276 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
8277 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
8278 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
8279 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
8280 debugging info for the mips target).
8281
8282 * DEC Alpha native support
8283
8284 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
8285 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
8286 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
8287 Alpha-specific notes.
8288
8289 * Preliminary thread implementation
8290
8291 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
8292
8293 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
8294
8295 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
8296 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
8297 for details).
8298
8299 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
8300
8301 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
8302 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
8303 call methods, ...etc.
8304
8305 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
8306
8307 * User visible changes:
8308
8309 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
8310 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
8311 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
8312 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
8313
8314 Filename completion now works.
8315
8316 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
8317 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
8318 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
8319
8320 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
8321 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
8322 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
8323 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
8324 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
8325
8326 * DEC alpha support
8327
8328 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
8329 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
8330
8331
8332 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
8333
8334 * Testsuite
8335
8336 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
8337 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
8338 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
8339
8340 * C++ demangling
8341
8342 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
8343 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
8344 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
8345 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
8346 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
8347
8348 * Simulators
8349
8350 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
8351 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
8352 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
8353
8354 * New targets supported
8355
8356 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
8357 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
8358 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
8359 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
8360 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
8361
8362 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
8363 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
8364 GO32 memory extender.
8365
8366 * New remote protocols
8367
8368 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
8369
8370 * New source languages supported
8371
8372 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
8373 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
8374 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
8375
8376
8377 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
8378
8379 * HP Precision Architecture supported
8380
8381 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
8382 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
8383 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
8384 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
8385 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
8386 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
8387
8388 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
8389
8390 * Faster and better demangling
8391
8392 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
8393 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
8394 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
8395 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
8396 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
8397 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
8398 symbol lookups.
8399
8400 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
8401 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
8402 compiler does not actually implement.
8403
8404 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
8405
8406 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
8407 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
8408 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
8409 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
8410 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
8411 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
8412 fix.
8413
8414 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
8415 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
8416
8417 * Improved configure script
8418
8419 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
8420 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
8421 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
8422 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
8423
8424 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
8425 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
8426 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
8427 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
8428 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
8429 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
8430
8431 * Documentation improvements
8432
8433 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
8434 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
8435 before submitting changes.
8436
8437 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
8438 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
8439 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
8440 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
8441 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
8442
8443 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
8444 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
8445 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
8446 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
8447 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
8448 around this problem.
8449
8450 * New features
8451
8452 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
8453 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
8454 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
8455 the target program.
8456
8457 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
8458 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
8459
8460 * New native hosts supported
8461
8462 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
8463 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
8464
8465 * New targets supported
8466
8467 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
8468
8469 * New file formats supported
8470
8471 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
8472 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
8473
8474 * Major bug fixes
8475
8476 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
8477
8478 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
8479 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
8480
8481 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
8482 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
8483 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
8484
8485 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
8486 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
8487
8488 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
8489 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
8490 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
8491 libraries.
8492
8493 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
8494 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
8495 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
8496 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
8497 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
8498
8499 * Internal improvements
8500
8501 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
8502 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
8503
8504 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
8505 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
8506 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
8507 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
8508 shared code that handles any of them.
8509
8510 * New command line options
8511
8512 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
8513
8514 * Mmalloc licensing
8515
8516 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
8517 General Public License.
8518
8519 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
8520
8521 * Host/native/target split
8522
8523 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
8524 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
8525 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
8526 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
8527 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
8528
8529 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
8530 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
8531 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
8532 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
8533 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
8534 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
8535 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
8536
8537 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
8538 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
8539 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
8540
8541 * New hosts supported
8542
8543 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
8544 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
8545 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
8546
8547 * New targets supported
8548
8549 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
8550 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
8551
8552 * New native hosts supported
8553
8554 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
8555 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
8556 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
8557
8558 * New file formats supported
8559
8560 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
8561 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
8562 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
8563
8564 * New commands
8565
8566 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
8567 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
8568 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
8569
8570 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
8571
8572 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
8573 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
8574 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
8575 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
8576
8577 * C++ improvements
8578
8579 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
8580 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
8581 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
8582
8583 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
8584
8585 * Major bug fixes
8586
8587 The crash that occurred when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
8588 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
8589 by the compiler.
8590
8591 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
8592 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
8593
8594 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
8595 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
8596 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
8597 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
8598 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
8599 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
8600
8601 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
8602 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
8603 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
8604 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
8605
8606 * AMD 29k support
8607
8608 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
8609 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
8610 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
8611 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
8612 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
8613
8614 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
8615 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
8616 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
8617 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
8618
8619 * Remote interfaces
8620
8621 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
8622 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
8623 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
8624 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
8625 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
8626 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
8627 each instruction being stepped through.
8628
8629 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
8630 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
8631
8632 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
8633 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
8634 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
8635 processor with a serial port.
8636
8637 * Configuration
8638
8639 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
8640 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
8641 supported, and what files each one uses.
8642
8643 * Library changes
8644
8645 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
8646 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
8647 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
8648 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
8649
8650 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
8651 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
8652 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
8653 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
8654
8655 * Documentation
8656
8657 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
8658 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
8659 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
8660 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
8661 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
8662 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
8663
8664 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
8665
8666
8667 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
8668
8669 * Better support for C++ function names
8670
8671 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
8672 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
8673 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
8674 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
8675 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
8676
8677 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
8678 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
8679 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
8680 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
8681 for the list of formats.
8682
8683 * G++ symbol mangling problem
8684
8685 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
8686 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
8687 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
8688 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compiling gdb/symtab.c. The
8689 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
8690 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
8691 this problem.)
8692
8693 * New 'maintenance' command
8694
8695 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
8696 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
8697 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
8698
8699 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
8700 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
8701 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
8702 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
8703 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
8704 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
8705
8706 The following commands are new:
8707
8708 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
8709 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
8710 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
8711
8712 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
8713
8714 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
8715 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
8716 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
8717 read after argv processing.
8718
8719 * New hosts supported
8720
8721 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
8722
8723 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
8724
8725 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
8726 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
8727 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
8728 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
8729 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
8730 It costs extra.
8731
8732 * New targets supported
8733
8734 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
8735
8736 * More smarts about finding #include files
8737
8738 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
8739 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
8740 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
8741 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
8742 the one that contains your sources.
8743
8744 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
8745 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
8746 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
8747
8748 * Interesting infernals change
8749
8750 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
8751 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
8752 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
8753 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
8754
8755 * Bug fixes (of course!)
8756
8757 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
8758 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
8759 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
8760
8761 See the ChangeLog for details.
8762
8763 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
8764
8765 * New machines supported (host and target)
8766
8767 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
8768
8769 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
8770
8771 * New malloc package
8772
8773 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
8774 Mmalloc is capable of handling multiple heaps of memory. It is also
8775 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
8776 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
8777 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
8778 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
8779
8780 * info proc
8781
8782 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
8783 'help info proc' for details.
8784
8785 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
8786
8787 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
8788 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
8789 possible.
8790
8791 * File name changes for MS-DOS
8792
8793 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
8794 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
8795 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
8796 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
8797 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
8798 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
8799
8800 * Cross byte order fixes
8801
8802 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
8803 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
8804
8805 * New -mapped and -readnow options
8806
8807 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
8808 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
8809 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
8810 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
8811 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
8812 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
8813 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
8814 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
8815 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
8816 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
8817
8818 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
8819 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
8820 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
8821 slower, but makes future operations faster.
8822
8823 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
8824 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
8825 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
8826 use is:
8827
8828 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
8829
8830 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
8831 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
8832 shared across multiple host platforms.
8833
8834 * longjmp() handling
8835
8836 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
8837 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
8838 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
8839 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
8840
8841 * Solaris 2.0
8842
8843 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
8844 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
8845 reading symbols.
8846
8847 * Bug fixes
8848
8849 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
8850 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
8851 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
8852
8853 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
8854
8855 * New machines supported (host and target)
8856
8857 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
8858 (except core files)
8859 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
8860 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
8861
8862 * New machines supported (target)
8863
8864 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
8865
8866 * C++ support
8867
8868 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
8869 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
8870 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
8871
8872 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
8873 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
8874 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
8875 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
8876 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
8877 released.
8878
8879 * New features for SVR4
8880
8881 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
8882 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
8883 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
8884
8885 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
8886 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
8887 it prints the address mappings of the process.
8888
8889 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
8890 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
8891
8892 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
8893
8894 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
8895 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
8896 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
8897 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
8898 same code linked statically.
8899
8900 * New Getopt
8901
8902 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
8903 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
8904 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
8905 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
8906 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
8907 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
8908
8909 * Bugs fixed
8910
8911 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
8912 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
8913 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
8914
8915
8916 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
8917
8918 * New machines supported (host and target)
8919
8920 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
8921 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
8922 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
8923
8924 * Almost SCO Unix support
8925
8926 We had hoped to support:
8927 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
8928 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
8929 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
8930 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
8931
8932 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
8933
8934 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
8935 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
8936 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
8937 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
8938 reqired (if any).
8939
8940 * New Readline
8941
8942 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
8943 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
8944 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
8945
8946 * Bugs fixed
8947
8948 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
8949 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
8950 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
8951
8952 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
8953
8954 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
8955 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
8956 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
8957
8958 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
8959 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
8960 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
8961 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
8962 version 2.
8963
8964 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
8965 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
8966 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
8967 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
8968 situation somewhat.
8969
8970 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
8971 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
8972 methods.
8973
8974 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
8975 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
8976 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
8977
8978
8979 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
8980
8981 * Improved configuration
8982
8983 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
8984 Porting BFD is simpler.
8985
8986 * Stepping improved
8987
8988 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
8989 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
8990 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
8991 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
8992
8993 * Bug fixing
8994
8995 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
8996
8997 * New host supported (not target)
8998
8999 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
9000
9001
9002 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
9003
9004 * Multiple source language support
9005
9006 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
9007 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
9008 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
9009 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
9010 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
9011 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
9012
9013 * GDB and Modula-2
9014
9015 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
9016 currently under development at the State University of New York at
9017 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
9018 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
9019
9020 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
9021 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
9022 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
9023
9024 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
9025 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
9026
9027 * set write on/off
9028
9029 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
9030 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
9031 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
9032 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
9033 effect immediately.
9034
9035 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
9036
9037 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
9038 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
9039 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
9040 examining core files.
9041
9042 * set listsize
9043
9044 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
9045 The default is 10.
9046
9047 * New machines supported (host and target)
9048
9049 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
9050 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
9051 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
9052
9053 * New hosts supported (not targets)
9054
9055 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
9056
9057 * New targets supported (not hosts)
9058
9059 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
9060 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
9061 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
9062
9063 * New remote interfaces
9064
9065 AMD 29000 Adapt
9066 AMD 29000 Minimon
9067
9068
9069 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
9070
9071 * New Facilities
9072
9073 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
9074
9075 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
9076 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
9077 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
9078 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
9079 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
9080 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
9081 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
9082 stub on the target system.
9083
9084 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
9085
9086 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
9087 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
9088 object file types such as a.out and coff.
9089
9090 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
9091 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
9092
9093
9094 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
9095
9096 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
9097 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
9098
9099 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
9100 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
9101 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
9102
9103 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
9104 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
9105 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
9106 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
9107
9108 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
9109 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
9110 it is already running. Default is ON.
9111
9112 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
9113 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
9114 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
9115 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
9116 Default is ON.
9117
9118 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
9119 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
9120 or the value of the environment variable
9121 GDBHISTFILE.
9122
9123 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
9124 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
9125 HISTSIZE.
9126
9127 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
9128 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
9129 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
9130
9131 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
9132 history expansion will be performed on
9133 command line input. The default is OFF.
9134
9135 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
9136 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
9137 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
9138
9139 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
9140 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
9141 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
9142 variable TERM.
9143
9144 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
9145 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
9146 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
9147 variable TERM.
9148
9149 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
9150 ``set width'' instead.
9151
9152 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
9153 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
9154 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
9155 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
9156
9157 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
9158 is OFF.
9159
9160 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
9161 "raw" form if off.
9162
9163 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
9164 like instructions.
9165
9166 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
9167
9168
9169 * Support for Epoch Environment.
9170
9171 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
9172 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
9173 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
9174 window.
9175
9176
9177 * Support for Shared Libraries
9178
9179 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
9180 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
9181 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
9182 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
9183 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
9184 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
9185 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
9186 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
9187
9188 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
9189 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
9190 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
9191
9192 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
9193
9194
9195 * Watchpoints
9196
9197 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
9198 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
9199 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
9200 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
9201 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
9202 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
9203
9204 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
9205
9206 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
9207
9208 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
9209 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
9210 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
9211
9212
9213 * C++ multiple inheritance
9214
9215 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
9216 for C++ programs.
9217
9218 * C++ exception handling
9219
9220 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
9221 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
9222 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
9223 handler's context).
9224
9225 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
9226 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
9227 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
9228
9229 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
9230 current stack frame.
9231
9232
9233 * Minor command changes
9234
9235 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
9236 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
9237 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
9238
9239 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
9240 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
9241 frames without printing.
9242
9243 * New directory command
9244
9245 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
9246 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
9247 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
9248 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
9249 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
9250
9251 * Configuring GDB for compilation
9252
9253 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
9254 for more details.
9255
9256 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
9257 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
9258 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
9259 where the program that you are debugging will run.