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