1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 10
6 * GDB now supports general memory tagging functionality if the underlying
7 architecture supports the proper primitives and hooks. Currently this is
8 enabled only for AArch64 MTE.
12 - Additional information when the inferior crashes with a SIGSEGV caused by
13 a memory tag violation.
15 - A new modifier 'm' for the "x" command, which displays allocation tags for a
16 particular memory range.
18 - Display of memory tag mismatches by "print", for addresses and
19 pointers, if memory tagging is supported by the architecture.
21 * Building GDB now requires GMP (The GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic
26 ** '-break-insert --qualified' and '-dprintf-insert --qualified'
28 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
29 new "--qualified" option that makes GDB interpret a specified
30 function name as a complete fully-qualified name. This is the
31 equivalent of the CLI's "break -qualified" and "dprintf
34 * GDB now supports core file debugging for x86_64 Cygwin programs.
36 * GDB will now look for the .gdbinit file in a config directory before
37 looking for ~/.gdbinit. The file is searched for in the following
38 locations: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.config/gdb/gdbinit,
39 $HOME/.gdbinit. On Apple hosts the search order is instead:
40 $HOME/Library/Preferences/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.gdbinit.
42 * GDB now supports fixed point types which are described in DWARF
43 as base types with a fixed-point encoding. Additionally, support
44 for the DW_AT_GNU_numerator and DW_AT_GNU_denominator has also
47 For Ada, this allows support for fixed point types without requiring
48 the use of the GNAT encoding (based on information added to the type's
49 name following a GNAT-specific format).
51 * GDB will now load and process commands from ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit
52 or ~/.gdbearlyinit if these files are present. These files are
53 processed earlier than any of the other initialization files and
54 can affect parts of GDB's startup that previously had already been
55 completed before the initialization files were read, for example
56 styling of the initial GDB greeting.
58 * GDB now has two new options "--early-init-command" and
59 "--early-init-eval-command" with corresponding short options "-eix"
60 and "-eiex" that allow options (that would normally appear in a
61 gdbearlyinit file) to be passed on the command line.
67 Control the display of debug output about GDB's event loop.
69 set print memory-tag-violations
70 show print memory-tag-violations
71 Control whether to display additional information about memory tag violations
72 when printing pointers and addresses. Architecture support for memory
73 tagging is required for this option to have an effect.
75 maintenance flush symbol-cache
76 maintenance flush register-cache
77 These new commands are equivalent to the already existing commands
78 'maintenance flush-symbol-cache' and 'flushregs' respectively.
80 maintenance flush dcache
81 A new command to flush the dcache.
83 maintenance info target-sections
84 Print GDB's internal target sections table.
86 memory-tag show-logical-tag POINTER
87 Print the logical tag for POINTER.
88 memory-tag with-logical-tag POINTER TAG
89 Print POINTER with logical tag TAG.
90 memory-tag show-allocation-tag ADDRESS
91 Print the allocation tag for ADDRESS.
92 memory-tag set-allocation-tag ADDRESS LENGTH TAGS
93 Set the allocation tag for [ADDRESS, ADDRESS + LENGTH) to TAGS.
94 memory-tag check POINTER
95 Validate that POINTER's logical tag matches the allocation tag.
97 set startup-quietly on|off
99 When 'on', this causes GDB to act as if "-silent" were passed on the
100 command line. This command needs to be added to an early
101 initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to
106 break [PROBE_MODIFIER] [LOCATION] [thread THREADNUM]
107 [-force-condition] [if CONDITION]
108 This command would previously refuse setting a breakpoint if the
109 CONDITION expression is invalid at a location. It now accepts and
110 defines the breakpoint if there is at least one location at which
111 the CONDITION is valid. The locations for which the CONDITION is
112 invalid, are automatically disabled. If CONDITION is invalid at all
113 of the locations, setting the breakpoint is still rejected. However,
114 the '-force-condition' flag can be used in this case for forcing GDB to
115 define the breakpoint, making all the current locations automatically
116 disabled. This may be useful if the user knows the condition will
117 become meaningful at a future location, e.g. due to a shared library
120 condition [-force] N COND
121 The behavior of this command is changed the same way for the 'break'
122 command as explained above. The '-force' flag can be used to force
123 GDB into defining the condition even when COND is invalid for all the
124 current locations of breakpoint N.
127 maintenance flush-symbol-cache
128 These commands are deprecated in favor of the new commands
129 'maintenance flush register-cache' and 'maintenance flush
130 symbol-cache' respectively.
132 set style version foreground COLOR
133 set style version background COLOR
134 set style version intensity VALUE
135 Control the styling of GDB's version number text.
138 When the ID parameter is omitted, then this command prints information
139 about the current inferior. When the ID parameter is present, the
140 behavior of the command is unchanged and have the inferior ID become
141 the current inferior.
143 maintenance info sections
144 The ALLOBJ keyword has been replaced with an -all-objects command
145 line flag. It is now possible to filter which sections are printed
146 even when -all-objects is passed.
148 * Removed targets and native configurations
150 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
155 Request the remote to send allocation tags for a particular memory range.
157 Request the remote to store the specified allocation tags to the requested
160 *** Changes in GDB 10
162 * There are new feature names for ARC targets: "org.gnu.gdb.arc.core"
163 and "org.gnu.gdb.arc.aux". The old names are still supported but
164 must be considered obsolete. They will be deprecated after some
167 * Help and apropos commands will now show the documentation of a
168 command only once, even if that command has one or more aliases.
169 These commands now show the command name, then all of its aliases,
170 and finally the description of the command.
172 * 'help aliases' now shows only the user defined aliases. GDB predefined
173 aliases are shown together with their aliased command.
175 * GDB now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing ELF/DWARF
176 debugging information as well as source code.
178 When built with debuginfod, GDB can automatically query debuginfod
179 servers for the separate debug files and source code of the executable
182 To build GDB with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure (this
183 requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library).
185 debuginfod is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178.
187 You can get the latest version from https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
189 * Multi-target debugging support
191 GDB now supports debugging multiple target connections
192 simultaneously. For example, you can now have each inferior
193 connected to different remote servers running in different machines,
194 or have one inferior debugging a local native process, an inferior
195 debugging a core dump, etc.
197 This support is experimental and comes with some limitations -- you
198 can only resume multiple targets simultaneously if all targets
199 support non-stop mode, and all remote stubs or servers must support
200 the same set of remote protocol features exactly. See also "info
201 connections" and "add-inferior -no-connection" below, and "maint set
202 target-non-stop" in the user manual.
204 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
206 ** GDBserver is now supported on ARC GNU/Linux.
208 ** GDBserver is now supported on RISC-V GNU/Linux.
210 ** GDBserver no longer supports these host triplets:
221 i[34567]86-*-mingw32ce*
223 * Debugging MS-Windows processes now sets $_exitsignal when the
224 inferior is terminated by a signal, instead of setting $_exitcode.
226 * Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
227 that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
228 performance for programs with many symbols.
230 * The $_siginfo convenience variable now also works on Windows targets,
231 and will display the EXCEPTION_RECORD of the last handled exception.
233 * TUI windows can now be arranged horizontally.
235 * The command history filename can now be set to the empty string
236 either using 'set history filename' or by setting 'GDBHISTFILE=' in
237 the environment. The effect of setting this filename to the empty
238 string is that GDB will not try to load any previous command
241 * On Windows targets, it is now possible to debug 32-bit programs with a
246 set exec-file-mismatch -- Set exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
247 show exec-file-mismatch -- Show exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
248 Set or show the option 'exec-file-mismatch'. When GDB attaches to a
249 running process, this new option indicates whether to detect
250 a mismatch between the current executable file loaded by GDB and the
251 executable file used to start the process. If 'ask', the default,
252 display a warning and ask the user whether to load the process
253 executable file; if 'warn', just display a warning; if 'off', don't
254 attempt to detect a mismatch.
256 tui new-layout NAME WINDOW WEIGHT [WINDOW WEIGHT]...
257 Define a new TUI layout, specifying its name and the windows that
260 maintenance print xml-tdesc [FILE]
261 Prints the current target description as an XML document. If the
262 optional FILE is provided (which is an XML target description) then
263 the target description is read from FILE into GDB, and then
266 maintenance print core-file-backed-mappings
267 Prints file-backed mappings loaded from a core file's note section.
268 Output is expected to be similar to that of "info proc mappings".
270 set debug fortran-array-slicing on|off
271 show debug fortran-array-slicing
272 Print debugging when taking slices of Fortran arrays.
274 set fortran repack-array-slices on|off
275 show fortran repack-array-slices
276 When taking slices from Fortran arrays and strings, if the slice is
277 non-contiguous within the original value then, when this option is
278 on, the new value will be repacked into a single contiguous value.
279 When this option is off, then the value returned will consist of a
280 descriptor that describes the slice within the memory of the
281 original parent value.
285 alias [-a] [--] ALIAS = COMMAND [DEFAULT-ARGS...]
286 The alias command can now specify default args for an alias.
287 GDB automatically prepends the alias default args to the argument list
288 provided explicitly by the user.
289 For example, to have a backtrace with full details, you can define
291 'alias bt_ALL = backtrace -entry-values both -frame-arg all
292 -past-main -past-entry -full'.
293 Alias default arguments can also use a set of nested 'with' commands,
294 e.g. 'alias pp10 = with print pretty -- with print elem 10 -- print'
295 defines the alias pp10 that will pretty print a maximum of 10 elements
296 of the given expression (if the expression is an array).
300 GNU/Linux/RISC-V (gdbserver) riscv*-*-linux*
305 ** gdb.register_window_type can be used to implement new TUI windows
308 ** Dynamic types can now be queried. gdb.Type has a new attribute,
309 "dynamic", and gdb.Type.sizeof can be None for a dynamic type. A
310 field of a dynamic type may have None for its "bitpos" attribute
313 ** Commands written in Python can be in the "TUI" help class by
314 registering with the new constant gdb.COMMAND_TUI.
316 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.architecture () to retrieve the
317 architecture of the pending frame.
319 ** New gdb.Architecture.registers method that returns a
320 gdb.RegisterDescriptorIterator object, an iterator that returns
321 gdb.RegisterDescriptor objects. The new RegisterDescriptor is a
322 way to query the registers available for an architecture.
324 ** New gdb.Architecture.register_groups method that returns a
325 gdb.RegisterGroupIterator object, an iterator that returns
326 gdb.RegisterGroup objects. The new RegisterGroup is a way to
327 discover the available register groups.
331 ** GDB can now be built with GNU Guile 3.0 and 2.2 in addition to 2.0.
333 ** Procedures 'memory-port-read-buffer-size',
334 'set-memory-port-read-buffer-size!', 'memory-port-write-buffer-size',
335 and 'set-memory-port-write-buffer-size!' are deprecated. When
336 using Guile 2.2 and later, users who need to control the size of
337 a memory port's internal buffer can use the 'setvbuf' procedure.
341 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
343 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
344 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
345 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
346 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
347 such as in system-wide init files.
349 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
350 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
351 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
352 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
353 current GDB settings.
355 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
356 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
357 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
358 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
360 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
361 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
364 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
365 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
367 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
368 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
369 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
371 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
372 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
375 * Command names can now use the . character.
377 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
379 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
382 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
384 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
385 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
387 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
388 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
389 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
391 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
393 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
394 not visible in the current scope.
396 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
397 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
398 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
399 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
400 compiled with support for that language.
402 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
403 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
404 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
408 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
409 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
410 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
411 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
412 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
414 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
417 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
418 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
419 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
422 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
423 symbols with static linkage.
425 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
426 all static symbols with static linkage.
428 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
429 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
431 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
432 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
436 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
437 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
438 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
439 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
440 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
441 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
442 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
444 define-prefix COMMAND
445 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
447 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
448 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
449 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
450 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
451 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
452 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
453 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
454 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
455 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
456 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
457 of array elements to print.
459 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
460 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
462 set may-call-functions [on|off]
463 show may-call-functions
464 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
465 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
466 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
467 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
468 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
469 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
472 set print finish [on|off]
474 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
475 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
476 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
481 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
482 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
483 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
484 the old behavior back.
486 set print raw-values [on|off]
487 show print raw-values
488 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
489 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
490 of commands. The default is 'off'.
492 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
493 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
494 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
496 set style title foreground COLOR
497 set style title background COLOR
498 set style title intensity VALUE
499 Control the styling of titles.
501 set style highlight foreground COLOR
502 set style highlight background COLOR
503 set style highlight intensity VALUE
504 Control the styling of highlightings.
506 maint set worker-threads
507 maint show worker-threads
508 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
509 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
510 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
511 the names of linker symbols.
513 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
514 set style tui-border background COLOR
515 Control the styling of TUI borders.
517 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
518 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
519 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
521 maint set test-settings KIND
522 maint show test-settings KIND
523 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
526 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
527 maint show tui-resize-message
528 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
529 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
532 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
533 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
534 show print frame-info
535 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
536 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
537 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
538 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
540 set tui compact-source
541 show tui compact-source
543 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
544 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
545 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
546 line numbers from the source.
548 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
549 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
552 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
553 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
554 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
555 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
556 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
557 matches against the function name.
559 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
560 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
561 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
562 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
563 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
564 against the variable name.
566 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
567 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
568 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
570 The default is 512 bytes.
573 Lists the target connections currently in use.
578 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
579 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
583 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
584 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
585 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
586 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
587 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
591 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
592 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
593 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
594 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
596 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
597 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
598 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
599 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
603 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
604 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
605 the user visualize the different styles.
607 set print frame-arguments
608 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
609 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
611 set print raw-frame-arguments
612 show print raw-frame-arguments
614 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
615 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
616 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
619 add-inferior [-no-connection]
620 The add-inferior command now supports a "-no-connection" flag that
621 makes the new inferior start with no target connection associated.
622 By default, the new inferior inherits the target connection of the
623 current inferior. See also "info connections".
626 This command's output now includes a new "Connection" column
627 indicating which target connection an inferior is bound to. See
628 "info connections" above.
630 maint test-options require-delimiter
631 maint test-options unknown-is-error
632 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
633 maint show test-options-completion-result
634 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
637 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
638 These commands are now case-sensitive.
640 * New command options, command completion
642 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
643 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
644 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
645 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
646 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
647 number of commands got support for new command options in this
650 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
651 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
652 set by "set print" subcommands:
656 -array-indexes [on|off]
657 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
662 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
663 -static-members [on|off]
668 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
669 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
670 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
671 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
673 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
674 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
675 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
677 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
678 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
679 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
680 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
681 |location-and-address|short-location
685 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
686 exposed as command options too:
692 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
693 support the following options:
698 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
699 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
701 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
702 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
703 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
706 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
708 The above is equivalent to:
710 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
712 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
713 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
714 variables" and "info functions".
716 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
717 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
718 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
721 * Completion improvements
723 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
724 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
727 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
728 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
731 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
732 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
733 completes on filenames.
735 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
736 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
738 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
740 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
746 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
747 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
748 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
750 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
751 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
752 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
754 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
755 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
756 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
758 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
761 -symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
762 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
763 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
767 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
769 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
770 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
771 the following commands and events:
775 - =breakpoint-created
776 - =breakpoint-modified
778 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
779 this behavior with previous MI versions.
781 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
782 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
783 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
788 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
789 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
790 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
791 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
793 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
795 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
796 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
798 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
800 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
801 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
803 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
804 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
805 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
807 * Removed targets and native configurations
809 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
810 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
811 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
817 * Removed targets and native configurations
819 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
822 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
824 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
825 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
828 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
829 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
830 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
833 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
836 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
837 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
838 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
840 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
841 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
843 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
844 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
845 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
846 in the GDB user manual.
848 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
851 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
853 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
854 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
855 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
856 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
857 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
858 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
859 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
860 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
861 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
862 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
863 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
864 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
866 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
867 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
868 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
871 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
876 set debug compile-cplus-types
877 show debug compile-cplus-types
878 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
879 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiling
884 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
887 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
888 Apply a command to some frames.
889 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
890 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
893 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
894 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
897 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
898 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
901 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
903 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
905 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
906 maint show dwarf unwinders
907 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
910 Display a list of open files for a process.
914 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
915 These commands all now take a frame specification which
916 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
917 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
918 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
919 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
920 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
922 target remote FILENAME
923 target extended-remote FILENAME
924 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
925 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
927 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
928 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
929 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
930 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
931 These commands can now print only the searched entities
932 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
933 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
934 printing headers or informations messages.
940 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
941 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
942 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
945 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
946 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
947 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
948 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
950 set tui tab-width NCHARS
951 show tui tab-width NCHARS
952 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
954 set style enabled [on|off]
956 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
957 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
959 set style sources [on|off]
961 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
962 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
963 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
965 set style filename foreground COLOR
966 set style filename background COLOR
967 set style filename intensity VALUE
968 Control the styling of file names.
970 set style function foreground COLOR
971 set style function background COLOR
972 set style function intensity VALUE
973 Control the styling of function names.
975 set style variable foreground COLOR
976 set style variable background COLOR
977 set style variable intensity VALUE
978 Control the styling of variable names.
980 set style address foreground COLOR
981 set style address background COLOR
982 set style address intensity VALUE
983 Control the styling of addresses.
987 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
988 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
989 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
990 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
991 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
993 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
994 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
996 * New native configurations
998 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
999 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
1003 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
1004 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
1005 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
1006 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
1008 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
1012 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
1017 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
1019 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
1020 space associated to that inferior.
1022 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
1023 of objfiles associated to that program space.
1025 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
1026 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
1029 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
1030 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
1031 correct and did not work properly.
1033 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
1034 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
1040 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
1041 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
1042 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
1043 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
1044 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
1046 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
1048 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
1049 for the MIPS target.
1051 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
1052 offset to all sections.
1054 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
1055 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
1056 address of individual sections using '-s'.
1058 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
1059 (address of the text section).
1061 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
1062 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
1063 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
1064 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
1067 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
1068 for the rest of the current command.
1070 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
1071 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
1073 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
1074 files created on FreeBSD systems.
1076 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
1079 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
1080 the vector length while the process is running.
1086 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
1088 set|show varsize-limit
1089 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
1090 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
1091 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
1093 set|show record btrace cpu
1094 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
1095 branch trace decode.
1097 maint check libthread-db
1098 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
1101 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
1102 maint show check-libthread-db
1103 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
1104 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
1105 perform such checks.
1109 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
1111 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
1112 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
1114 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
1116 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
1117 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
1118 of convenience variables.
1120 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
1121 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
1122 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
1126 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
1128 * Removed targets and native configurations
1130 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
1131 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
1132 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
1133 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
1135 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
1137 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
1138 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
1139 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
1140 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
1141 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
1142 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
1147 --enable-codesign=CERT
1148 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
1149 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
1150 gdb to work properly.
1152 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
1153 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
1155 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
1157 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
1158 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
1159 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
1161 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
1162 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
1164 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
1165 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
1166 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
1167 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
1168 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
1170 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
1171 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
1172 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
1173 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
1175 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
1176 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
1178 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
1179 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
1180 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
1182 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
1183 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
1184 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
1186 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
1187 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
1188 environment" command.
1190 * Completion improvements
1192 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
1193 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
1194 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
1195 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
1198 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
1199 (gdb) b function(int)
1201 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
1202 C++ anonymous namespaces:
1205 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
1206 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
1207 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
1209 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
1210 completion support, that better understands what you're
1211 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
1212 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
1213 setting a breakpoint.
1215 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
1217 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
1219 * New command line options (gcore)
1222 Dump all memory mappings.
1224 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
1226 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
1227 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
1228 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
1230 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
1235 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
1238 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
1239 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
1240 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
1241 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
1242 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
1243 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
1244 a breakpoint from Python.
1246 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1248 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1249 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
1250 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
1252 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
1254 function[abi:cxx11](int)
1257 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
1260 (gdb) b function(int)
1262 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
1264 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
1266 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
1270 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
1271 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
1272 description of these.
1274 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
1275 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
1276 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
1278 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
1279 manual for a further description of this feature.
1282 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1284 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
1285 specified initial working directory.
1287 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
1288 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
1290 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
1291 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
1293 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
1294 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
1296 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
1297 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
1298 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
1299 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
1300 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
1302 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
1303 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
1304 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
1306 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
1307 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
1308 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
1309 in the *stopped notification.
1311 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
1312 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
1314 * New remote packets
1316 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
1317 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
1318 the inferior when starting it.
1321 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
1322 before starting the remote inferior.
1325 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
1326 user-set environment variables should be unset).
1329 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
1332 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
1335 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
1336 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
1338 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
1339 filter the tests to be run.
1341 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
1342 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
1347 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
1349 set|show compile-gcc
1350 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
1351 with the 'compile' commands.
1353 set debug separate-debug-file
1354 show debug separate-debug-file
1355 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
1357 set dump-excluded-mappings
1358 show dump-excluded-mappings
1359 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
1360 dumped when generating a core file.
1362 maint info selftests
1363 List the registered selftests.
1366 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
1369 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
1371 set|show print type nested-type-limit
1372 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
1373 type printer will show.
1375 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
1378 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
1380 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
1383 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
1384 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
1385 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
1386 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
1388 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
1389 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
1390 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
1391 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1392 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
1393 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1395 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
1396 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
1397 unless you tell it the variable's type:
1400 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
1404 * New native configurations
1406 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1407 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1411 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1412 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1413 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
1415 * Removed targets and native configurations
1417 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
1419 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
1421 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
1422 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
1423 available in future Intel CPUs.
1425 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
1429 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
1430 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
1432 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
1435 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
1437 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
1439 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
1440 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
1443 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
1445 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
1446 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
1448 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
1450 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
1451 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
1452 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
1453 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
1456 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
1458 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
1459 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
1462 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
1464 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
1465 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
1467 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
1469 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
1474 eval "print $arg%d", $i
1479 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
1481 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
1482 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
1484 * New native configurations
1486 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1490 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
1491 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1493 * Removed targets and native configurations
1495 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1496 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
1501 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
1503 maint print arc arc-instruction address
1504 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
1508 set disassembler-options
1509 show disassembler-options
1510 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
1511 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
1512 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
1513 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
1514 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
1519 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
1520 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
1522 -file-list-shared-libraries
1523 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
1524 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
1527 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
1528 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
1530 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
1532 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
1534 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
1535 default. One must now explicitly configure with
1536 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
1537 option will be removed in a future release.
1539 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
1542 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
1543 memory backward from the given address. For example:
1546 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
1547 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
1548 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
1549 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
1550 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
1551 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
1552 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
1553 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
1554 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
1556 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
1557 arrays of dynamic types.
1559 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
1560 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1561 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1562 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1563 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1564 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
1566 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
1569 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
1570 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
1571 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
1573 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
1575 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
1576 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
1577 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
1578 signal received and code location.
1582 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
1583 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
1584 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
1585 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
1587 * Rust language support.
1588 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
1589 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
1592 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
1594 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
1595 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
1596 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
1597 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
1598 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
1599 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
1600 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
1601 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
1602 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
1603 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
1606 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
1608 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
1609 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
1614 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
1615 skip -function function
1616 skip -rfunction regular-expression
1617 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
1618 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
1619 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
1621 maint info line-table REGEXP
1622 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data structure.
1625 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
1628 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
1629 using the TTY file for input/output.
1633 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
1634 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
1635 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
1636 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
1637 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
1639 signal-event EVENTID
1640 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
1641 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
1642 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
1643 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
1644 signalling an event.
1646 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
1647 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
1648 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
1650 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
1653 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
1654 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
1655 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
1656 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
1657 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
1658 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
1660 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
1661 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
1662 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
1663 bytecode into native code.
1665 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
1666 recording. For example:
1668 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
1670 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
1672 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
1676 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
1678 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
1680 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
1682 * Per-inferior thread numbers
1684 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
1685 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
1686 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
1690 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
1691 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
1692 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
1693 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
1695 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
1696 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
1697 are no longer unique between inferiors.
1699 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
1700 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
1701 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
1703 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
1706 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
1707 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
1710 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
1713 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
1714 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
1715 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
1716 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
1719 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
1722 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
1725 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
1728 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
1729 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
1732 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
1733 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
1735 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
1737 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
1739 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
1740 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
1742 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
1743 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
1746 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1747 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
1750 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
1751 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
1754 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1756 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
1757 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
1758 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
1760 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
1761 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
1765 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
1766 maint show target-non-stop
1767 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
1768 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
1769 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
1771 maint set bfd-sharing
1772 maint show bfd-sharing
1773 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
1776 show debug bfd-cache
1777 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
1781 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
1783 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1784 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1785 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
1787 set remote thread-events
1788 show remote thread-events
1789 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
1791 set ada print-signatures on|off
1792 show ada print-signatures"
1793 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
1794 selection menus. It is activated (@code{on}) by default.
1798 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
1799 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
1800 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
1802 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1803 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
1804 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
1805 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
1806 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
1807 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
1809 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1810 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
1812 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
1813 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
1815 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
1817 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
1818 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
1819 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
1820 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
1821 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
1822 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
1824 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
1825 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
1828 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
1830 * New remote packets
1833 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
1835 exec-events feature in qSupported
1836 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
1837 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
1838 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
1839 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
1842 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
1845 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
1846 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
1848 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
1849 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
1852 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
1853 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
1854 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
1855 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
1856 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
1857 stop for that same thread.
1860 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
1861 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
1862 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
1865 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
1866 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
1868 syscall_entry stop reason
1869 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
1871 syscall_return stop reason
1872 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
1874 * Extended-remote exec events
1876 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
1877 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
1878 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
1880 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
1881 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
1882 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
1884 * Thread names in remote protocol
1886 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
1889 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
1891 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
1892 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
1893 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
1894 fork and exec catchpoints.
1896 * Remote syscall events
1898 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
1899 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
1901 set remote catch-syscall-packet
1902 show remote catch-syscall-packet
1903 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
1907 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
1908 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
1913 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
1914 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
1915 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
1916 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
1917 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
1918 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
1920 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
1922 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
1923 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
1924 including advance SIMD instructions.
1926 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
1928 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
1929 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
1930 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
1931 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
1932 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
1933 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
1934 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
1936 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1938 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
1940 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
1941 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
1944 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
1945 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
1946 and may include things like its command line arguments.
1948 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
1949 is now available on all platforms.
1951 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
1952 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
1953 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
1954 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
1955 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
1956 backward compatibility.
1958 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
1959 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
1960 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
1961 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
1963 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
1964 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
1965 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
1966 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
1969 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
1971 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
1973 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
1974 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
1975 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
1976 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
1977 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
1978 See "New remote packets" below.
1980 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
1981 available register groups, including target specific groups.
1983 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
1984 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
1985 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
1986 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
1991 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
1995 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
1996 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
1997 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
1998 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
1999 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
2000 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
2001 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
2002 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
2003 "const" version of the value respectively.
2007 maint print symbol-cache
2008 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
2010 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
2011 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
2013 maint flush-symbol-cache
2014 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
2018 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
2021 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
2025 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
2028 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
2029 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
2033 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
2036 Print information about branch tracing internals.
2038 maint btrace packet-history
2039 Print the raw branch tracing data.
2041 maint btrace clear-packet-history
2042 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
2045 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
2046 anew by the next "record" command.
2051 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
2052 show debug dwarf-die
2053 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
2055 set debug dwarf-read
2056 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
2057 show debug dwarf-read
2058 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
2060 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
2061 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
2062 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
2063 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
2065 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
2066 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
2067 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
2068 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
2070 set debug dwarf-line
2071 show debug dwarf-line
2072 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
2075 show max-completions
2076 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
2077 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
2078 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
2079 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
2081 set history remove-duplicates
2082 show history remove-duplicates
2083 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
2085 maint set symbol-cache-size
2086 maint show symbol-cache-size
2087 Control the size of the symbol cache.
2089 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
2090 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
2092 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
2093 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
2095 set debug linux-namespaces
2096 show debug linux-namespaces
2097 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
2099 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
2100 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
2101 Intel Processor Trace format.
2102 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
2103 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
2105 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
2106 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
2109 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
2110 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
2112 * Python/Guile scripting
2114 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
2115 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
2117 * New remote packets
2119 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
2120 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
2122 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
2123 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
2126 Enable Intel Processor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
2127 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
2130 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
2131 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
2135 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
2136 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
2137 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
2141 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
2142 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
2145 Return information about files on the remote system.
2147 qXfer:exec-file:read
2148 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
2149 create a process running on the remote system.
2152 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
2153 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
2154 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
2155 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
2158 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
2161 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
2163 vforkdone stop reason
2164 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
2165 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
2167 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
2168 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
2169 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
2170 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
2171 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
2172 whether these features are enabled.
2174 * Extended-remote fork events
2176 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
2177 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
2178 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
2179 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
2181 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
2182 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
2183 the btrace record target.
2184 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
2186 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
2187 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
2189 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
2192 * Removed command line options
2194 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
2196 * Removed targets and native configurations
2198 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
2199 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2201 * New configure options
2204 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
2205 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
2207 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
2208 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
2209 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
2210 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
2212 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
2216 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
2218 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
2220 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
2224 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
2225 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
2226 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
2227 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
2228 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
2229 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
2230 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
2231 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
2232 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
2233 selecting a new file to debug.
2234 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
2235 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
2237 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
2240 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
2241 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
2242 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
2243 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
2245 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2247 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2248 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2249 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2250 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2252 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
2253 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
2254 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
2255 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
2256 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
2257 interface with this new feature are:
2259 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
2260 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
2264 demangle [-l language] [--] name
2265 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
2266 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
2267 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
2268 as "maint demangler-warning".
2270 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
2271 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
2273 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
2274 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
2277 maint print user-registers
2278 List all currently available "user" registers.
2280 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
2281 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
2282 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
2284 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
2285 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
2286 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
2289 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
2290 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
2291 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
2292 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
2295 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
2296 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
2297 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
2298 switched threads meanwhile.
2300 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
2302 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
2303 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
2304 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
2305 is now the default mode.
2309 set debug symbol-lookup
2310 show debug symbol-lookup
2311 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
2315 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
2316 inferiors that have exited.
2320 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
2324 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2326 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
2327 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
2328 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
2329 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
2330 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
2332 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2333 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2334 its alias "share", instead.
2336 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
2338 * New command line options
2341 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
2343 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
2344 as specified in ISO C99.
2346 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
2347 with or without disassembly.
2351 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
2352 available is determined at configure time.
2353 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
2354 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
2356 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2360 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
2364 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
2366 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
2367 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
2369 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
2370 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
2374 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
2375 show print symbol-loading
2376 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
2377 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
2378 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
2379 becomes less useful.
2381 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
2382 show guile print-stack
2383 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
2385 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
2386 show auto-load guile-scripts
2387 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
2389 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
2390 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
2391 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
2392 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
2393 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
2394 usage of this option.
2396 set auto-connect-native-target
2398 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
2399 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
2400 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
2402 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
2403 show record btrace replay-memory-access
2404 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
2406 maint set target-async (on|off)
2407 maint show target-async
2408 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
2409 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
2410 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
2411 occurring only in synchronous mode.
2413 set mi-async (on|off)
2415 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
2416 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
2418 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
2419 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
2421 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
2422 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
2423 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
2424 "set target-async on" command.
2426 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2428 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
2429 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
2430 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
2431 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
2432 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
2434 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
2435 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
2436 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
2438 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
2439 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
2440 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
2441 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
2442 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
2443 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
2444 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
2446 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
2447 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
2449 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
2450 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
2451 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
2453 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
2454 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
2455 memory or registers.
2457 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
2459 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
2460 remote. It now works with all targets.
2462 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
2463 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
2464 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
2465 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
2466 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
2467 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
2468 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
2469 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
2470 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
2473 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
2474 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
2475 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
2477 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
2479 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
2480 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
2481 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
2483 * New remote packets
2485 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
2486 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
2487 branch trace incrementally.
2491 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
2492 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
2494 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
2495 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
2496 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
2497 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
2498 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
2501 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
2503 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2504 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2505 its alias "share", instead.
2507 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
2508 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
2513 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
2514 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
2515 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
2516 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
2517 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
2518 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
2519 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
2520 commands and CLI execution commands.
2522 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
2524 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
2525 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
2526 recording has been added.
2528 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2530 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
2531 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
2533 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
2534 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
2535 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
2536 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
2537 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
2538 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
2541 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
2543 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
2545 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
2546 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
2547 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
2548 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
2553 (gdb) info registers rax
2556 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
2557 "*value not available*".
2559 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
2564 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
2565 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
2566 ** Line tables representation has been added.
2567 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
2568 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
2569 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
2573 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
2574 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
2575 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
2577 * Removed native configurations
2579 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
2580 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
2582 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2583 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2584 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
2585 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
2586 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2587 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2588 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2592 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
2593 maint check-psymtabs
2594 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
2596 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
2597 maint expand-symtabs
2598 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
2601 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2603 maint set|show per-command
2604 maint set|show per-command space
2605 maint set|show per-command time
2606 maint set|show per-command symtab
2607 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
2609 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
2610 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
2611 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
2612 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
2613 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
2616 info exceptions REGEXP
2617 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
2618 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
2623 set debug symfile off|on
2625 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
2626 symbol tables within those files
2628 set print raw frame-arguments
2629 show print raw frame-arguments
2630 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
2631 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
2633 set remote trace-status-packet
2634 show remote trace-status-packet
2635 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
2639 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
2643 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
2645 set startup-with-shell
2646 show startup-with-shell
2647 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
2652 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
2653 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
2655 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
2656 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
2657 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
2658 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
2661 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
2662 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
2663 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
2665 * New command-line options
2667 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2669 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
2670 buffer in Common Trace Format.
2672 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
2675 * GDB now implements the C++ 'typeid' operator.
2677 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
2678 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
2680 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
2681 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
2683 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
2684 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
2685 due to an uncaught signal.
2689 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
2690 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
2691 command, which should contain "language-option".
2693 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
2694 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
2696 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
2697 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
2698 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
2699 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2700 "undefined-command-error-code".
2702 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
2705 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
2707 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
2708 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
2711 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
2712 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
2714 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
2715 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
2716 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
2718 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
2719 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
2720 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
2721 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
2722 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2723 "exec-run-start-option".
2725 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
2726 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
2728 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
2729 the new "info exceptions" command.
2731 * New system-wide configuration scripts
2732 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
2733 configuration scripts for the following systems:
2737 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
2738 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
2739 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
2742 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
2743 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
2745 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
2746 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
2747 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
2749 * New remote packets
2753 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
2754 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
2755 involvemement at each single-step.
2757 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
2758 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
2759 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
2760 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
2761 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
2762 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
2765 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2767 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
2768 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
2770 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
2771 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
2772 trace state variables.
2774 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
2777 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
2778 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
2780 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
2782 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
2783 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
2784 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
2785 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2787 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
2789 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
2790 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
2791 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
2792 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
2794 set|show record full insn-number-max
2795 set|show record full stop-at-limit
2796 set|show record full memory-query
2798 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
2799 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
2800 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
2801 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
2802 This new recording method can be enabled using:
2806 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
2807 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
2809 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
2810 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
2811 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
2813 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
2814 instruction granularity
2816 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
2817 function granularity
2819 * New native configurations
2821 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
2822 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
2823 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2824 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
2828 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
2829 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
2830 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
2831 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2832 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
2834 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
2835 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
2836 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
2837 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
2838 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
2839 --data-directory command-line option.
2841 * New command line options:
2843 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
2844 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
2846 * Removed command line options
2848 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
2851 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
2854 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
2858 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
2860 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
2862 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
2864 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
2866 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
2867 of architecture in the Python API.
2869 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
2870 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
2872 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2874 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
2875 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
2877 ** $_regex(str, regex)
2879 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
2882 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
2883 default for GCC since November 2000.
2885 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
2887 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
2888 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
2890 * New configure options
2892 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
2893 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
2894 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
2895 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
2896 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
2897 options allow the user to override that default.
2898 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
2899 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
2900 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
2902 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2905 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
2906 conditions to be attached.
2909 List the BFDs known to GDB.
2911 python-interactive [command]
2913 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
2914 and print the result of expressions.
2917 "py" is a new alias for "python".
2919 enable type-printer [name]...
2920 disable type-printer [name]...
2921 Enable or disable type printers.
2925 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
2926 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
2931 set print type methods (on|off)
2932 show print type methods
2933 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
2934 The default is to show them.
2936 set print type typedefs (on|off)
2937 show print type typedefs
2938 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
2939 The default is to show them.
2941 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
2942 show filename-display
2943 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
2944 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
2946 set trace-buffer-size
2947 show trace-buffer-size
2948 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
2950 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
2951 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
2952 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
2956 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
2959 set debug coff-pe-read
2960 show debug coff-pe-read
2961 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
2966 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
2969 set debug notification
2970 show debug notification
2971 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
2975 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
2976 "=cmd-param-changed".
2977 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
2978 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
2979 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
2980 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
2981 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
2982 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
2983 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
2984 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
2986 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
2987 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
2988 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
2989 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
2990 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
2991 library load/unload events.
2992 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
2993 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
2994 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
2995 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
2996 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
2997 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
2998 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
2999 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
3001 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
3002 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
3003 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
3004 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
3006 * New remote packets
3009 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
3010 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3013 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
3014 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
3018 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
3019 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3022 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
3023 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3025 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
3027 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
3028 for more x32 ABI info.
3030 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
3032 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
3034 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
3035 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
3036 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
3037 "info os files" lists file descriptors
3038 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
3039 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
3040 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
3041 "info os msg" lists message queues
3042 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
3044 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
3045 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
3046 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
3047 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
3048 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
3049 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
3051 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
3052 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
3053 record/replay support.
3055 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
3059 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
3062 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
3064 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
3065 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
3067 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
3069 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
3070 the source at which the symbol was defined.
3072 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
3073 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
3074 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
3077 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
3078 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
3080 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
3081 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
3082 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
3084 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
3085 object associated with a PC value.
3087 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
3088 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
3090 * Go language support.
3091 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
3094 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
3095 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
3097 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
3098 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
3100 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
3101 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
3102 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
3103 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
3104 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
3107 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
3108 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
3109 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
3110 build/libcpp/expr.c.
3112 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
3113 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
3115 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
3116 since December 2007.
3118 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
3119 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
3120 command does. For instance:
3122 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
3124 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
3125 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
3126 created, using the "condition" command.
3128 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
3129 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
3131 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
3133 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
3134 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
3135 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
3136 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
3137 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
3138 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
3139 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
3140 files with older .gdb_index sections.
3142 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
3143 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
3144 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
3145 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
3146 the .gdb_index section.
3148 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
3150 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
3155 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
3157 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
3161 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
3162 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
3163 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
3165 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
3166 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
3168 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
3171 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
3172 C++ and Java objects.
3174 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
3175 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
3176 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
3177 configured with '--with-python'.
3179 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
3180 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
3181 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
3182 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
3183 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
3184 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
3185 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
3187 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
3188 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
3189 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
3190 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
3192 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
3193 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
3194 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
3195 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
3197 ** "set print symbol"
3199 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
3200 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
3201 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
3203 * Deprecated commands
3205 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
3206 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
3210 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3211 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
3213 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
3214 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
3215 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
3216 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
3221 set mips compression
3222 show mips compression
3223 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
3224 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
3227 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
3229 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
3230 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
3231 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
3232 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
3234 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
3238 Disable auto-loading globally.
3241 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
3243 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
3244 show auto-load gdb-scripts
3245 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
3247 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
3248 show auto-load python-scripts
3249 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
3251 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
3252 show auto-load local-gdbinit
3253 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
3255 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
3256 show auto-load libthread-db
3257 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
3259 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3260 show auto-load scripts-directory
3261 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
3262 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
3263 of the directories listed by this option.
3264 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3266 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3267 show auto-load safe-path
3268 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
3269 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3271 set debug auto-load on|off
3272 show debug auto-load
3273 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
3275 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
3277 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
3278 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
3279 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
3280 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
3282 set dprintf-function <expr>
3283 show dprintf-function
3284 set dprintf-channel <expr>
3285 show dprintf-channel
3286 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
3287 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
3289 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
3290 show disconnected-dprintf
3291 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
3292 after GDB disconnects.
3294 * New configure options
3296 --with-auto-load-dir
3297 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
3298 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
3299 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
3300 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
3301 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
3303 --with-auto-load-safe-path
3304 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
3305 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
3307 --without-auto-load-safe-path
3308 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
3311 * New remote packets
3313 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
3315 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
3316 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
3317 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
3318 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
3322 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
3323 program without GDB involvement.
3325 * New command line options
3327 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
3328 before loading inferior.
3329 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
3330 execute it before loading inferior.
3332 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
3334 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
3335 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
3336 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
3337 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
3340 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
3341 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
3343 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
3344 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
3345 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
3346 target hardware watchpoint.
3348 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
3349 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
3350 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
3351 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
3355 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
3356 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
3359 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
3360 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
3361 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
3362 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
3363 now "message", which just prints the error message without
3366 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3369 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
3370 modules library. This module provides functionality for
3371 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
3372 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
3373 corresponding value.
3375 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
3376 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
3377 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
3380 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
3381 static_block will return the global and static blocks
3382 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
3383 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
3385 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
3387 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
3390 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
3391 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
3392 available in the CLI.
3394 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
3395 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
3396 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
3397 "some_type.items()".
3399 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
3402 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
3403 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
3404 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
3405 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
3406 any anonymous fields.
3410 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
3413 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
3414 "=breakpoint-modified".
3416 ** New command -ada-task-info.
3418 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
3419 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
3420 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
3423 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
3424 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
3425 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
3426 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
3427 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
3429 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
3430 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
3432 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
3433 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
3434 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
3435 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
3436 use this option to specify where to find it.
3438 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3439 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
3440 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
3441 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
3442 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
3443 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3444 section in the user manual for more details.
3446 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
3447 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
3448 become available after that.
3450 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
3452 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
3453 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
3459 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
3460 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
3464 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
3465 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
3466 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
3468 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
3469 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
3470 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
3472 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
3473 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
3474 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
3475 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
3476 name starts with a hyphen.
3478 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
3479 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
3480 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
3481 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
3482 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
3483 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
3484 number of bytes that will be collected.
3487 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
3488 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
3489 setting the variable trace-notes.
3492 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
3493 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
3494 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
3497 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
3498 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
3499 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
3500 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
3501 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
3504 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
3505 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
3506 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
3510 set debug dwarf2-read
3511 show debug dwarf2-read
3512 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
3513 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
3515 set debug symtab-create
3516 show debug symtab-create
3517 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
3518 creation. The default is off.
3521 show extended-prompt
3522 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
3523 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
3524 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
3525 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
3526 prompt is displayed.
3528 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
3529 show print entry-values
3530 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
3531 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
3532 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
3534 set debug entry-values
3535 show debug entry-values
3536 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
3537 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
3539 set basenames-may-differ
3540 show basenames-may-differ
3541 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
3542 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
3543 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
3544 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
3545 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
3546 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
3547 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
3548 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
3554 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
3555 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
3556 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
3557 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
3559 set trace-stop-notes
3560 show trace-stop-notes
3561 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
3562 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
3563 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
3564 started by someone else.
3566 * New remote packets
3570 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3574 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3578 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
3582 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
3586 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
3589 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
3590 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
3594 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
3598 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3600 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
3602 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
3604 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
3606 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
3607 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
3608 matches the given regular expression.
3610 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
3612 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
3613 dumping the instruction opcodes.
3615 * New command line options
3617 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
3618 This is mostly for testing purposes.
3620 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
3621 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
3623 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
3624 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
3625 source path list instead of augmenting it.
3627 * GDB now understands thread names.
3629 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
3630 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
3632 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
3633 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
3636 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
3637 has been integrated into GDB.
3641 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
3642 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
3643 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
3645 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3646 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
3647 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
3648 and allows for more dynamic content.
3650 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
3651 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
3652 have an is_valid method.
3654 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3655 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
3656 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
3658 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
3660 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
3661 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
3662 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
3663 that function like so:
3665 result = some_value (10,20)
3667 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
3668 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
3669 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
3671 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
3672 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
3673 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
3674 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
3675 New function: register_pretty_printer.
3677 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
3678 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
3680 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
3682 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
3685 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
3686 holds the thread's name.
3688 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
3689 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
3690 occurring in the process being debugged.
3691 The following events are currently supported:
3692 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
3693 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
3694 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
3698 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
3699 instantiation. For example, if you have:
3701 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
3703 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
3704 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
3705 was added to GCC 4.5.
3707 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
3708 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
3709 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
3710 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
3711 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
3712 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
3714 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
3715 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
3716 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
3717 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
3718 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
3720 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
3721 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
3722 execution to a label.
3724 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
3725 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
3726 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
3727 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
3729 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
3730 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
3731 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
3734 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
3736 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
3737 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
3738 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
3739 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
3740 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
3741 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
3744 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
3746 While now you see this:
3749 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
3751 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
3754 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
3755 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
3756 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
3757 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
3759 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3760 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
3761 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
3762 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3763 section in the user manual for more details.
3765 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3767 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
3768 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
3770 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
3772 * New native configurations
3774 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
3778 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
3780 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
3781 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
3782 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
3783 in the GDB user manual.
3785 * Guile support was removed.
3787 * New features in the GNU simulator
3789 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
3791 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
3793 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
3795 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
3797 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
3798 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
3799 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
3800 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
3801 was always disabled for such configurations.
3805 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
3807 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
3808 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
3818 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
3819 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
3820 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
3822 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
3824 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
3825 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
3826 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
3827 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
3829 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
3830 mentioned flavors of operators.
3832 ** static const class members
3834 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
3835 class definition has been fixed.
3837 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
3839 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
3840 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
3841 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
3842 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
3843 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
3844 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
3846 * Static tracepoints
3848 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
3849 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
3850 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
3851 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
3852 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
3853 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
3854 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
3855 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
3856 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
3857 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
3858 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
3859 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
3860 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
3861 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
3862 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
3863 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
3864 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
3865 the "New remote packets" section below.
3867 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
3869 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
3870 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
3871 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
3872 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
3876 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
3877 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
3878 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
3879 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
3880 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
3881 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
3882 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
3884 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
3887 * New remote packets
3891 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
3895 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
3896 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
3897 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
3898 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
3899 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
3900 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
3904 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
3908 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
3911 qXfer:statictrace:read
3913 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
3914 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
3915 to gdb's qSupported query.
3919 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
3923 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
3924 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
3926 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
3927 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
3930 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3932 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
3933 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
3934 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
3935 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
3937 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
3938 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
3939 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
3940 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
3941 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
3942 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
3943 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
3945 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
3946 for static tracepoints support.
3948 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
3950 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
3951 it understands register description.
3953 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
3955 * X86 general purpose registers
3957 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
3958 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
3959 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
3960 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
3961 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
3963 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
3964 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
3965 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
3966 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
3967 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
3968 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
3970 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
3971 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
3972 in the specified file.
3974 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
3975 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
3976 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
3977 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
3978 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
3979 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
3980 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
3981 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
3982 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
3983 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
3987 eval template, expressions...
3988 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
3989 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
3991 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
3992 show target-file-system-kind
3993 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
3996 save breakpoints <filename>
3997 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
3998 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
3999 definitions, use the `source' command.
4001 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
4004 info static-tracepoint-markers
4005 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
4007 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
4008 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
4009 function, line, address, or marker ID.
4013 Enable and disable observer mode.
4015 set may-write-registers on|off
4016 set may-write-memory on|off
4017 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
4018 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
4019 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
4020 set may-interrupt on|off
4021 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
4022 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
4023 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
4024 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
4025 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
4026 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
4027 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
4029 set record memory-query on|off
4030 show record memory-query
4031 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
4032 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
4037 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
4041 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
4042 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
4043 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
4044 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
4045 GDB using Python' in the manual.
4047 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
4048 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
4049 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
4050 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
4052 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
4053 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
4055 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
4057 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
4059 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
4061 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
4062 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
4063 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
4065 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
4066 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
4067 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
4068 regular breakpoints.
4072 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
4074 * D language support.
4075 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
4078 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
4079 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
4080 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
4081 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
4082 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
4084 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
4085 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
4086 conditions of the form:
4088 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
4090 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
4091 interface mentioned above.
4093 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
4097 ** Namespace Support
4099 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
4100 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
4101 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
4102 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
4103 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
4107 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
4108 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
4113 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
4114 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
4118 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
4123 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
4126 * Multi-program debugging.
4128 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
4129 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
4130 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
4131 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
4132 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
4133 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
4134 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
4135 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
4137 * New tracing features
4139 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
4141 ** Trace state variables
4143 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
4144 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
4145 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
4146 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
4147 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
4148 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
4149 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
4150 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
4151 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
4152 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
4156 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
4157 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
4158 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
4159 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
4160 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
4161 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
4162 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
4163 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
4164 the regular trace command.
4166 ** Disconnected tracing
4168 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
4169 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
4170 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
4171 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
4172 connection is lost unexpectedly.
4176 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
4177 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
4178 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
4179 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
4180 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
4181 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
4184 ** Circular trace buffer
4186 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
4187 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
4188 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
4189 not be available for all target agents.
4194 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
4195 the arguments to be comma-separated.
4198 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
4199 which only declare a variable are not shown.
4202 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
4203 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
4206 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
4207 "set script-extension" (see below).
4209 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4211 record save [<FILENAME>]
4212 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
4213 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
4215 record restore <FILENAME>
4216 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
4217 earlier time, for replay debugging.
4219 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
4222 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
4223 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
4224 inferior has loaded.
4229 maint info program-spaces
4230 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
4232 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
4233 show remote interrupt-sequence
4234 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
4235 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
4236 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
4237 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
4238 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
4240 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
4241 show remote interrupt-on-connect
4242 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
4243 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
4246 set remotebreak [on | off]
4248 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
4250 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
4251 Create or modify a trace state variable.
4254 List trace state variables and their values.
4256 delete tvariable $NAME ...
4257 Delete one or more trace state variables.
4260 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
4261 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
4263 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
4264 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
4266 * New expression syntax
4268 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
4269 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
4273 set follow-exec-mode new|same
4274 show follow-exec-mode
4275 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
4276 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
4277 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
4279 set default-collect EXPR, ...
4280 show default-collect
4281 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
4282 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
4283 such as registers or a critical global variable.
4285 set disconnected-tracing
4286 show disconnected-tracing
4287 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
4288 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
4291 set circular-trace-buffer
4292 show circular-trace-buffer
4293 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
4294 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
4295 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
4296 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
4298 set script-extension off|soft|strict
4299 show script-extension
4300 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
4301 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
4302 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
4303 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
4305 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
4307 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
4308 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
4309 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
4310 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
4311 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
4312 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
4313 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
4316 * Python API Improvements
4318 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
4319 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
4320 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
4322 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
4323 `is_base_class' attribute.
4325 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
4327 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
4328 evaluate an expression.
4330 * New remote packets
4333 Define a trace state variable.
4336 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
4339 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
4342 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
4345 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
4349 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
4351 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
4352 much more reliable. In particular:
4353 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
4354 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
4355 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
4356 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
4357 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
4358 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
4359 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
4360 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
4361 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
4362 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
4363 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
4364 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
4365 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
4366 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
4367 non-threaded programs.
4369 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
4370 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
4371 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
4374 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
4376 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
4377 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
4378 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
4379 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
4380 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
4382 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
4383 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
4384 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
4385 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
4386 for tracepoint actions.
4388 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
4389 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
4390 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
4392 * Process record and replay
4394 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
4395 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
4396 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
4399 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
4400 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
4401 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
4404 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
4405 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
4408 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
4409 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
4410 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
4411 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
4412 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
4413 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
4414 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
4415 the installation instructions for more information.
4417 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
4418 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
4419 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
4420 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
4422 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
4423 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
4425 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
4426 now complete on file names.
4428 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
4429 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
4430 For instance, consider:
4432 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
4433 # struct example variable;
4436 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
4437 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
4439 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
4440 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
4442 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
4443 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
4446 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
4447 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
4448 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
4450 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
4451 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
4452 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
4453 and simulator targets may also provide them.
4455 * New remote packets
4458 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4461 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
4462 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
4463 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
4466 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
4467 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
4470 Obtains additional operating system information
4474 Read or write additional signal information.
4476 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
4478 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
4479 packet that permitted the stub to pass a process id was removed.
4480 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
4482 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
4483 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
4485 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
4486 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
4487 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
4489 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
4490 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
4492 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
4494 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
4496 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
4497 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
4499 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote protocol packet now allows passing a
4500 list of section offsets.
4502 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
4503 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
4504 have also been fixed.
4506 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
4507 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
4508 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
4510 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
4513 template<typename T> class C { };
4516 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
4518 ptype C<char const *>
4519 ptype C<char const*>
4520 ptype C<const char *>
4521 ptype C<const char*>
4523 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
4525 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
4526 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4528 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
4529 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4530 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
4532 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
4533 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
4535 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
4538 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
4539 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4541 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
4542 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
4547 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
4548 available is determined at configure time.
4550 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
4552 * Ada tasking support
4554 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
4558 Print the list of Ada tasks.
4560 Print detailed information about task number N.
4562 Print the task number of the current task.
4564 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
4566 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
4567 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
4569 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
4571 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
4572 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
4573 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
4574 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
4575 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
4576 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
4579 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
4580 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
4583 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
4584 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
4585 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
4586 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
4589 * Multi-architecture debugging.
4591 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
4592 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
4593 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
4594 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
4595 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
4597 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
4598 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
4599 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
4600 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
4601 --enable-targets configure option.
4603 * Non-stop mode debugging.
4605 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
4606 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
4607 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
4608 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
4609 section in the user manual for more information.
4611 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
4612 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
4613 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
4614 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
4615 extensions on linux targets.
4617 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4619 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
4620 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
4621 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
4622 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
4623 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
4624 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
4625 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
4626 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
4627 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
4629 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
4631 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4633 maint set python print-stack
4634 maint show python print-stack
4635 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
4638 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
4643 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
4647 Show operating system information about processes.
4650 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
4653 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
4656 Detach from inferior number NUM.
4659 Kill inferior number NUM.
4663 set spu stop-on-load
4664 show spu stop-on-load
4665 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4667 set spu auto-flush-cache
4668 show spu auto-flush-cache
4669 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
4670 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4672 set sh calling-convention
4673 show sh calling-convention
4674 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
4677 show debug timestamp
4678 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
4680 set disassemble-next-line
4681 show disassemble-next-line
4682 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
4685 set remote noack-packet
4686 show remote noack-packet
4687 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
4688 under "New remote packets."
4690 set remote query-attached-packet
4691 show remote query-attached-packet
4692 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
4694 set remote read-siginfo-object
4695 show remote read-siginfo-object
4696 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
4699 set remote write-siginfo-object
4700 show remote write-siginfo-object
4701 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
4704 set remote reverse-continue
4705 show remote reverse-continue
4706 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
4708 set remote reverse-step
4709 show remote reverse-step
4710 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
4712 set displaced-stepping
4713 show displaced-stepping
4714 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
4715 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
4716 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
4719 show debug displaced
4720 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
4722 maint set internal-error
4723 maint show internal-error
4724 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
4726 maint set internal-warning
4727 maint show internal-warning
4728 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
4733 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4735 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
4736 show multiple-symbols
4737 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
4738 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
4739 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
4741 set breakpoint always-inserted
4742 show breakpoint always-inserted
4743 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
4744 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
4745 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
4747 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4748 show arm fallback-mode
4749 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4751 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
4752 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
4753 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
4754 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
4756 set disable-randomization
4757 show disable-randomization
4758 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
4759 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
4760 multiple debugging sessions.
4764 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
4769 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
4770 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
4771 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
4772 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
4774 set target-wide-charset
4775 show target-wide-charset
4776 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
4777 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
4779 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
4781 set tcp connect-timeout
4782 show tcp connect-timeout
4783 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
4784 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
4785 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
4787 set libthread-db-search-path
4788 show libthread-db-search-path
4789 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
4792 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
4793 show schedule-multiple
4794 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
4795 the current process.
4799 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
4800 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
4801 affecting correctness.
4803 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
4804 show interactive-mode
4805 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
4806 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
4807 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
4808 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
4809 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
4814 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
4815 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
4816 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
4820 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
4821 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
4822 alias for the `fork' command.
4825 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
4826 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
4827 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
4830 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
4831 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
4832 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
4836 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
4837 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
4838 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
4841 * New native configurations
4843 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
4845 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
4849 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
4850 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4851 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
4854 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
4855 (mingw32ce) debugging.
4861 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
4863 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
4865 * New native configurations
4867 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
4868 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4872 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
4873 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4875 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4877 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
4878 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
4879 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
4880 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
4882 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
4883 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
4885 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
4888 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
4889 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
4890 and in inlined functions.
4892 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
4893 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
4894 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
4896 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
4898 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
4899 registers on PowerPC targets.
4901 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
4902 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
4904 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
4905 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
4907 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
4908 extended-remote mode.
4910 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
4911 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
4912 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
4913 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
4915 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
4916 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
4917 target architectures.
4919 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
4920 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
4921 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
4922 stored in two consecutive float registers.
4924 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
4927 * Improved support for debugging Ada
4928 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
4930 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
4931 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
4932 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
4933 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
4935 - Improved command completion in Ada
4938 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
4943 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
4944 show print frame-arguments
4945 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
4946 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
4951 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4958 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4960 * New remote packets
4967 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
4970 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
4974 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
4976 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
4978 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
4979 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
4980 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
4982 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
4983 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
4984 -Bsymbolic linker option.
4986 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
4987 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
4990 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
4991 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
4993 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
4994 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
4996 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
4998 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
4999 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
5000 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
5002 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
5003 automatically displayed as character or string data.
5005 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
5006 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
5009 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
5010 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
5011 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
5013 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
5016 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
5017 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
5018 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
5020 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
5022 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
5024 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
5025 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
5026 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
5028 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
5029 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
5031 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
5032 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
5033 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
5034 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
5035 Windows and SymbianOS).
5037 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
5038 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
5040 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
5041 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
5047 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
5048 when debugging using remote targets.
5050 set mem inaccessible-by-default
5051 show mem inaccessible-by-default
5052 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
5053 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
5054 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
5055 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
5056 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
5058 set breakpoint auto-hw
5059 show breakpoint auto-hw
5060 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
5061 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
5062 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
5063 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
5064 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
5065 including "next" and "finish".
5068 catch exception unhandled
5069 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
5072 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
5076 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
5077 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
5078 an alias to "set sysroot".
5081 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
5082 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
5085 * New native configurations
5087 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
5090 unset tdesc filename
5092 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
5093 not query the target for its built-in description.
5097 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
5098 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
5099 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
5101 * New remote packets
5104 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
5105 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
5107 qXfer:features:read:
5108 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
5113 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
5114 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
5116 qXfer:libraries:read:
5117 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
5118 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
5119 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
5120 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
5124 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
5132 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
5133 i[34567]86-*-netware*
5134 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
5135 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
5137 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
5140 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
5141 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
5150 * Other removed features
5157 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
5164 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
5169 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
5170 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
5175 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
5176 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
5178 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
5180 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
5181 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
5182 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
5183 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
5185 MIPS ".pdr" sections
5187 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
5188 in debugging information.
5192 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
5193 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
5195 set mips stack-arg-size
5196 set mips saved-gpreg-size
5198 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
5200 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
5205 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
5207 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
5208 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
5209 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
5211 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
5212 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
5215 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
5216 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
5218 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
5219 stub provides the required support.
5221 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
5222 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
5227 unset substitute-path
5228 show substitute-path
5229 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
5230 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
5231 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
5232 between compilation and debugging.
5236 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
5237 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
5238 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
5242 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
5244 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
5245 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
5247 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
5249 * New remote packets
5252 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
5253 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
5254 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
5255 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
5259 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
5260 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
5262 qXfer:memory-map:read:
5263 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
5264 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
5269 Erase and program a flash memory device.
5271 * Removed remote packets
5274 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
5275 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
5277 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
5281 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
5283 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5287 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
5288 only if it doesn't already have a value.
5290 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
5292 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
5294 restart <n> Return the program state to a
5295 previously saved state.
5297 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
5299 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
5301 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
5302 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
5304 info forks List forks of the user program that
5305 are available to be debugged.
5307 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
5308 forks of the user program that are
5309 available to be debugged.
5311 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5312 that are available to be debugged (and
5313 kill the forked process).
5315 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5316 that are available to be debugged (and
5317 allow the process to continue).
5321 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
5323 * Improved Windows host support
5325 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
5326 native console support, and remote communications using either
5327 network sockets or serial ports.
5329 * Improved Modula-2 language support
5331 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
5332 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
5333 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
5334 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
5335 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
5336 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
5340 The ARM rdi-share module.
5342 The Netware NLM debug server.
5344 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
5346 * New native configurations
5348 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
5349 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
5353 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5355 * New command line options
5357 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
5358 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
5359 the child (debugged) program exited with.
5360 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
5361 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
5362 specified multiple times and in conjunction
5363 with the --command (-x) option.
5365 * Deprecated commands removed
5367 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
5371 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
5372 othernames set arm disassembler
5373 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
5374 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
5375 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
5378 * New BSD user-level threads support
5380 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
5381 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
5384 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5385 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
5386 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
5388 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
5389 are not yet supported.
5391 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
5392 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
5394 * REMOVED configurations and files
5396 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
5397 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5398 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
5400 * New "set print array-indexes" command
5402 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
5403 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
5406 * VAX floating point support
5408 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
5410 * User-defined command support
5412 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
5413 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
5414 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
5416 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
5418 * New command line option
5420 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
5423 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
5425 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
5426 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
5427 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
5428 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
5429 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
5431 * Internationalization
5433 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
5434 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
5435 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
5439 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
5440 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
5441 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
5443 * New native configurations
5445 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
5449 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
5450 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
5452 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
5454 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5455 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
5456 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
5459 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the registers[]
5460 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
5461 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
5471 powerpc bdm protocol
5473 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5474 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
5476 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5478 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5479 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5480 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5481 permanently REMOVED.
5490 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
5492 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
5494 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
5495 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
5498 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
5500 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
5501 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
5502 IRIX long double values).
5506 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
5507 command. This problem has been fixed.
5509 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
5511 * Fix for ``many threads''
5513 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
5514 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
5517 ptrace: No such process.
5518 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
5520 This problem has been fixed.
5522 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
5524 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
5527 * New ``start'' command.
5529 This command runs the program until the beginning of the main procedure.
5531 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
5533 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
5534 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
5535 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
5537 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5538 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
5539 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
5540 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
5541 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
5542 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5543 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
5544 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
5545 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5547 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
5549 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
5550 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
5551 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
5552 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
5553 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
5555 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
5556 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
5557 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
5559 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
5561 * New native configurations
5563 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
5564 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
5565 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
5566 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
5567 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
5568 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
5569 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
5571 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
5573 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5574 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
5575 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
5576 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
5577 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
5578 work, was also included.
5580 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
5581 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
5591 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5592 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
5594 * REMOVED configurations and files
5596 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5597 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5598 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5599 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5600 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5601 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5602 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5603 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5604 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5605 sonymips mips-sony-*
5606 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5608 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
5610 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
5612 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
5613 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
5614 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
5615 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
5618 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
5620 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
5621 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
5622 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
5623 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
5624 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
5625 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
5628 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
5630 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
5632 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
5633 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
5634 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
5636 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
5638 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
5639 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
5641 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
5643 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
5644 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
5645 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
5647 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
5649 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
5650 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
5652 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
5654 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
5655 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
5656 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
5658 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
5660 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
5661 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
5662 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
5664 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
5666 * Removed --with-mmalloc
5668 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
5669 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
5671 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
5673 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
5674 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
5675 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
5676 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
5678 * Revised SPARC target
5680 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
5681 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
5682 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
5683 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
5684 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
5688 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
5689 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
5690 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
5693 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5695 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
5696 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
5699 * C++ nested types and namespaces
5701 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
5702 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
5703 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
5704 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
5705 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
5706 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
5707 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
5708 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
5709 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
5711 * New native configurations
5713 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
5714 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5715 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
5716 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5717 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
5719 * New debugging protocols
5721 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
5723 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
5725 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
5726 and its very obscure effect on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
5727 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
5729 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5731 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5732 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5733 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5734 permanently REMOVED.
5736 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5737 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5738 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5739 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5740 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5741 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5742 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5743 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5744 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5745 sonymips mips-sony-*
5746 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5748 * REMOVED configurations and files
5750 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5751 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5752 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5753 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5754 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5755 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5756 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5757 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5758 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5759 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
5760 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5761 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5762 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5763 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
5764 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
5765 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5766 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5768 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
5772 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
5773 integrated into GDB.
5775 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
5777 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
5778 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
5779 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
5782 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
5783 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
5784 DWARF 2 CFI support.
5788 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
5789 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
5790 remote protocol documentation for details.
5792 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
5794 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
5795 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
5796 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
5799 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
5801 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
5802 per-thread variables.
5804 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
5806 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
5807 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
5809 * Separate debug info.
5811 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
5812 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
5813 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
5814 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
5815 and optional debug files.
5817 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5819 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
5820 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
5823 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
5824 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
5828 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
5829 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
5830 considered "useable".
5832 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
5834 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
5835 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
5838 * GDB supports logging output to a file
5840 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
5841 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
5843 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
5845 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
5846 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
5849 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5851 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
5852 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
5856 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
5857 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
5858 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
5859 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
5860 data, for more informative profiling results.
5862 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
5864 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
5865 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
5866 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
5868 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
5871 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
5872 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
5873 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
5874 in a subsequent -var-update.
5876 * New native configurations.
5878 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5880 * Multi-arched targets.
5882 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
5883 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5885 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5887 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5888 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5889 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5890 permanently REMOVED.
5892 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5893 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5894 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5895 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5896 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5897 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5898 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5899 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5900 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5901 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5902 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5903 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5905 * REMOVED configurations and files
5908 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5909 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5910 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5911 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5912 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5913 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5915 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5916 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5917 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5918 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5919 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5920 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5922 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
5924 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
5925 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
5926 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
5927 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
5928 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
5930 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
5932 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
5934 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
5935 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
5936 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
5937 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
5938 shared libs like mad''.
5940 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
5942 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
5943 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
5944 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
5945 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
5947 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
5949 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
5950 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
5953 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
5954 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
5956 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
5957 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
5959 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
5960 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
5961 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
5962 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
5964 * Multi-arched targets.
5966 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
5967 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
5969 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
5970 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
5971 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5975 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
5978 * New native configurations
5980 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
5981 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
5982 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
5983 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
5985 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5987 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5988 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5989 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5990 permanently REMOVED.
5992 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5993 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5994 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5995 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5996 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5997 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5998 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5999 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
6000 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
6001 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
6003 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
6004 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6006 * OBSOLETE languages
6008 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
6010 * REMOVED configurations and files
6012 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
6013 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6014 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6015 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6016 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6018 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
6020 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
6022 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
6023 commands. The default is 1024.
6025 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
6027 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
6029 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
6031 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
6032 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
6033 from a file into memory (restore).
6035 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
6037 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
6038 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
6039 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
6041 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
6049 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
6050 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
6051 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
6053 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
6054 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
6055 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
6057 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
6058 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
6059 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
6061 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
6062 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
6063 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
6065 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
6067 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
6069 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
6070 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
6071 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
6072 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
6073 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
6074 (notably embedded) targets.
6076 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
6078 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
6079 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
6080 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
6081 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
6083 * New command line option
6085 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
6087 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
6089 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
6090 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
6091 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
6092 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
6093 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
6094 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
6095 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
6096 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
6097 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
6098 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
6100 * Changes in ARM configurations.
6102 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
6103 configuration is fully multi-arch.
6105 * New native configurations
6107 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
6108 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
6109 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
6110 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
6114 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
6116 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6118 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6119 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6120 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6121 permanently REMOVED.
6123 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
6124 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6125 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6126 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6127 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6129 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
6131 * REMOVED configurations and files
6133 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6135 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6136 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6137 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
6138 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
6139 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
6140 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
6141 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
6142 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
6143 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
6144 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
6145 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
6147 * Changes to command line processing
6149 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
6150 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
6152 * Changes to key bindings
6154 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
6156 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
6158 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
6160 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
6163 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
6165 Numerous documentation fixes.
6167 Numerous testsuite fixes.
6169 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
6171 * New native configurations
6173 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
6174 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
6175 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
6176 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6177 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
6178 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
6182 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
6184 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
6186 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6188 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
6189 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
6190 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
6191 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
6192 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6194 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
6195 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6196 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6197 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
6198 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
6199 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
6200 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
6201 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
6203 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
6204 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
6206 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6207 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6208 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6209 permanently REMOVED.
6211 * REMOVED configurations and files
6213 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6214 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6216 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6220 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
6222 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
6223 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
6228 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
6230 * The MI enabled by default.
6232 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
6233 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
6234 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
6235 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
6236 which is now deprecated.
6238 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
6240 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
6241 main features are supported:
6243 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
6245 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
6248 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
6250 - a Pascal expression parser.
6252 However, some important features are not yet supported.
6254 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
6256 - there are some problems with boolean types;
6258 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
6259 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
6261 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
6263 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
6265 * Changes in completion.
6267 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
6268 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
6269 users expect at the shell prompt.
6271 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
6272 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
6273 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
6274 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
6275 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
6276 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
6277 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
6279 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
6281 * New platform-independent commands:
6283 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
6284 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
6285 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
6287 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
6289 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
6290 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
6291 many threads as your system allows you to have.
6293 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
6295 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
6296 multi-threaded programs though.
6298 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
6300 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
6302 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
6303 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
6306 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
6308 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
6309 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
6310 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
6311 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
6312 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
6315 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
6316 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
6317 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
6319 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
6321 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
6322 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
6324 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
6325 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
6328 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
6329 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
6330 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
6331 a given linear address.
6333 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
6334 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
6335 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
6337 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
6339 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
6341 * Changes in documentation.
6343 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
6344 Documentation License.
6346 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6349 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
6351 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6354 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
6355 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
6356 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
6358 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
6360 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
6361 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
6362 contents of this file.
6366 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
6368 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
6370 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
6372 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
6373 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
6374 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
6375 greater level of detail.
6377 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
6379 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
6380 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
6381 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
6384 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
6386 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
6387 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
6388 machines ``out of the box''.
6390 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
6391 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
6392 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
6393 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
6394 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
6396 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
6397 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
6398 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
6399 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
6400 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
6402 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
6403 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
6406 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
6409 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
6410 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
6411 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
6412 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
6414 * New native configurations
6416 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
6417 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6421 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
6422 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
6423 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
6424 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6426 * OBSOLETE configurations
6428 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6429 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6431 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6434 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6435 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6436 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6437 be permanently REMOVED.
6439 * Gould support removed
6441 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
6443 * New features for SVR4
6445 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
6446 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
6447 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
6449 * Many C++ enhancements
6451 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
6452 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
6454 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
6456 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
6457 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
6458 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
6459 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
6461 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
6462 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
6464 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
6466 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
6467 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
6468 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
6470 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
6471 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
6473 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
6475 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
6476 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
6477 include ``set remote P-packet''.
6479 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
6481 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
6482 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
6483 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
6485 * ``apropos'' command added.
6487 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
6488 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
6489 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
6493 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
6494 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
6495 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
6496 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
6497 enabled by configuring with:
6499 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
6501 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
6503 * New native configurations
6505 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
6506 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
6507 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
6511 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6512 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
6513 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6515 * OBSOLETE configurations
6517 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
6519 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6520 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6521 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6522 be permanently REMOVED.
6526 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
6527 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
6528 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
6529 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
6530 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
6531 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
6532 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
6537 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
6539 * set extension-language
6541 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
6542 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
6543 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
6544 set extension-language .c c++
6545 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
6546 and their associated languages.
6548 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
6550 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
6551 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
6552 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
6556 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
6557 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
6559 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
6560 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
6562 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
6563 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
6564 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
6565 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
6566 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
6567 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
6568 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
6569 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
6571 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
6572 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
6573 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
6574 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
6578 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
6579 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
6580 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
6581 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
6582 for xdb and dbx commands.
6586 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
6587 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
6588 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
6590 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
6591 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
6592 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
6594 * Debugging across forks
6596 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
6601 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
6602 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
6603 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
6605 * GDB remote protocol additions
6607 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
6608 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
6609 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
6610 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
6612 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
6613 full 64-bit address. The command
6615 set remoteaddresssize 32
6617 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
6618 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
6621 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
6622 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
6624 maint packet heythere
6626 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
6627 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
6630 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
6631 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
6632 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
6634 * Tracing can collect general expressions
6636 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
6637 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
6638 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
6640 * mask-address variable for Mips
6642 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
6643 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
6644 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
6646 * Higher serial baud rates
6648 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
6649 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
6650 to achieve all of these rates.)
6654 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
6655 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
6658 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
6660 * New native configurations
6662 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
6663 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
6664 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6665 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6666 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6667 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
6668 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
6672 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6673 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
6674 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6675 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
6676 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
6677 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
6678 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
6679 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
6680 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6681 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6682 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
6684 * New debugging protocols
6686 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
6687 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
6688 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
6689 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6690 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6691 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6695 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
6696 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
6701 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
6702 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
6704 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
6706 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
6707 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
6708 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
6710 * Live range splitting
6712 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
6713 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
6714 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
6718 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
6719 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
6723 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
6724 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
6725 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
6730 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
6735 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
6736 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
6737 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
6738 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
6739 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
6740 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
6744 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
6745 the symbol at the specified address.
6749 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
6750 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
6751 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
6752 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
6753 file tracepoint.c for more details.
6757 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
6758 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
6759 of most MIPS variants.
6763 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
6764 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
6765 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
6769 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
6770 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
6771 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
6772 the possible architectures.
6774 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
6776 * New native configurations
6778 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
6779 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
6780 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
6781 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
6782 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6783 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
6787 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
6788 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6789 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
6790 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
6791 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
6793 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6797 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
6798 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
6799 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
6800 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
6801 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
6805 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
6807 * Windows 95/NT native
6809 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
6810 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
6811 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
6812 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
6813 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
6815 * dont-repeat command
6817 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
6818 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
6819 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
6820 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
6822 * Send break instead of ^C
6824 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
6825 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
6826 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
6828 * Remote protocol timeout
6830 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
6831 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
6832 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
6834 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
6836 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
6837 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
6838 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
6839 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
6840 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
6842 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
6843 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
6844 automatically on hpux10.
6846 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
6848 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
6850 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
6852 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
6853 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
6854 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
6855 every character. The default value is 1050.
6857 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
6859 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
6860 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
6861 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
6862 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
6863 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
6864 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
6866 * Speedups for remote debugging
6868 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
6869 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
6870 and more efficient S-record downloading.
6872 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
6874 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
6875 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
6877 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
6879 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
6881 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
6882 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
6884 * Remote targets use caching
6886 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
6887 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
6888 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
6889 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
6890 off' turns the data cache off.
6892 * Remote targets may have threads
6894 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
6895 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
6896 gdb/remote.c for details.
6900 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
6901 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
6902 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
6903 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
6904 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
6905 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
6906 sequence is something like
6908 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
6910 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
6914 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
6915 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
6916 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
6917 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
6918 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
6919 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
6920 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
6921 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
6925 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
6926 but does simplify configuration and building.
6930 GDB now supports hpux10.
6932 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
6934 * New native configurations
6936 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
6937 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
6938 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
6939 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
6943 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6944 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
6945 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
6946 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
6949 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
6951 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
6952 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
6953 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
6954 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
6955 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
6957 * Arguments to user-defined commands
6959 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
6960 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
6963 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
6965 To execute the command use:
6968 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
6969 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
6970 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
6972 * New `if' and `while' commands
6974 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
6975 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
6976 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
6977 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
6978 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
6979 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
6980 if the expression is zero.
6982 * Fortran source language mode
6984 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
6985 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
6986 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
6987 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
6990 * Better HPUX support
6992 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
6993 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
6994 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
6995 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
6996 that behavior do the following before running the program:
7002 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
7003 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
7009 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
7010 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
7013 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
7014 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
7016 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
7018 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
7019 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
7020 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
7021 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
7022 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
7023 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
7025 * New DOS host serial code
7027 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
7028 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
7031 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
7033 * New "complete" command
7035 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
7036 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
7038 * Trailing space optional in prompt
7040 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
7041 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
7043 * Breakpoint hit counts
7045 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
7046 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
7047 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
7048 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
7049 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
7052 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
7054 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
7055 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
7056 arrays actually contain only short strings.
7058 * Shared library breakpoints
7060 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
7061 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
7063 * Hardware watchpoints
7065 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
7066 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
7068 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
7072 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
7073 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
7075 * Improved Irix 5 support
7077 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
7079 * Improved HPPA support
7081 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
7083 * New native configurations
7085 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
7086 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
7087 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
7088 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
7092 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
7093 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
7096 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
7098 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
7099 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
7103 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
7104 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
7106 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
7108 * Irix 5 is now supported
7112 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
7113 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
7114 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
7115 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
7116 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
7119 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
7121 * User visible changes:
7125 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
7126 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
7127 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
7128 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
7129 debugging info for the mips target).
7131 * DEC Alpha native support
7133 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
7134 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
7135 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
7136 Alpha-specific notes.
7138 * Preliminary thread implementation
7140 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
7142 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
7144 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
7145 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
7148 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
7150 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
7151 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
7152 call methods, ...etc.
7154 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
7156 * User visible changes:
7158 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
7159 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
7160 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
7161 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
7163 Filename completion now works.
7165 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
7166 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
7167 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
7169 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
7170 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
7171 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
7172 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
7173 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
7177 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
7178 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
7181 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
7185 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
7186 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
7187 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
7191 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
7192 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
7193 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
7194 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
7195 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
7199 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
7200 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
7201 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
7203 * New targets supported
7205 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7206 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
7207 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
7208 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
7209 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
7211 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
7212 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
7213 GO32 memory extender.
7215 * New remote protocols
7217 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
7219 * New source languages supported
7221 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
7222 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
7223 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
7226 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
7228 * HP Precision Architecture supported
7230 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
7231 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
7232 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
7233 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
7234 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
7235 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
7237 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
7239 * Faster and better demangling
7241 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
7242 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
7243 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
7244 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
7245 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
7246 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
7249 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
7250 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
7251 compiler does not actually implement.
7253 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
7255 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
7256 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
7257 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
7258 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
7259 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
7260 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
7263 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
7264 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
7266 * Improved configure script
7268 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
7269 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
7270 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
7271 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
7273 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
7274 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
7275 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
7276 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
7277 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
7278 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
7280 * Documentation improvements
7282 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
7283 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
7284 before submitting changes.
7286 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
7287 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
7288 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
7289 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
7290 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
7292 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
7293 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
7294 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
7295 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
7296 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
7297 around this problem.
7301 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
7302 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
7303 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
7306 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
7307 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
7309 * New native hosts supported
7311 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
7312 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
7314 * New targets supported
7316 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
7318 * New file formats supported
7320 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
7321 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
7325 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
7327 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
7328 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
7330 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
7331 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
7332 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
7334 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
7335 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
7337 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
7338 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
7339 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
7342 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
7343 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
7344 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
7345 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
7346 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
7348 * Internal improvements
7350 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
7351 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
7353 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
7354 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
7355 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
7356 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
7357 shared code that handles any of them.
7359 * New command line options
7361 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
7365 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
7366 General Public License.
7368 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
7370 * Host/native/target split
7372 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
7373 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
7374 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
7375 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
7376 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
7378 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
7379 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
7380 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
7381 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
7382 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
7383 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
7384 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
7386 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
7387 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
7388 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
7390 * New hosts supported
7392 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
7393 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7394 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
7396 * New targets supported
7398 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7399 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
7401 * New native hosts supported
7403 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7404 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
7405 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
7407 * New file formats supported
7409 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
7410 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
7411 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
7415 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
7416 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
7417 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
7419 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
7421 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
7422 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
7423 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
7424 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
7428 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
7429 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
7430 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
7432 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
7436 The crash that occurred when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
7437 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
7440 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
7441 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
7443 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
7444 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
7445 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
7446 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
7447 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
7448 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
7450 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
7451 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
7452 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
7453 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
7457 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
7458 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
7459 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
7460 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
7461 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
7463 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
7464 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
7465 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
7466 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
7470 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
7471 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
7472 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
7473 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
7474 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
7475 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
7476 each instruction being stepped through.
7478 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
7479 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
7481 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
7482 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
7483 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
7484 processor with a serial port.
7488 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
7489 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
7490 supported, and what files each one uses.
7494 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
7495 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
7496 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
7497 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
7499 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
7500 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
7501 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
7502 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
7506 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
7507 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
7508 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
7509 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
7510 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
7511 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
7513 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
7516 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
7518 * Better support for C++ function names
7520 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
7521 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
7522 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
7523 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
7524 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
7526 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
7527 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
7528 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
7529 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
7530 for the list of formats.
7532 * G++ symbol mangling problem
7534 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
7535 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
7536 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
7537 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compiling gdb/symtab.c. The
7538 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
7539 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
7542 * New 'maintenance' command
7544 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
7545 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
7546 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
7548 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
7549 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
7550 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
7551 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
7552 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
7553 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
7555 The following commands are new:
7557 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
7558 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
7559 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
7561 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
7563 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
7564 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
7565 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
7566 read after argv processing.
7568 * New hosts supported
7570 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
7572 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
7574 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
7575 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
7576 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
7577 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
7578 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
7581 * New targets supported
7583 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7585 * More smarts about finding #include files
7587 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
7588 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
7589 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
7590 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
7591 the one that contains your sources.
7593 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
7594 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
7595 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
7597 * Interesting infernals change
7599 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
7600 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
7601 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
7602 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
7604 * Bug fixes (of course!)
7606 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
7607 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
7608 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
7610 See the ChangeLog for details.
7612 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
7614 * New machines supported (host and target)
7616 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
7618 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
7620 * New malloc package
7622 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
7623 Mmalloc is capable of handling multiple heaps of memory. It is also
7624 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
7625 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
7626 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
7627 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
7631 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
7632 'help info proc' for details.
7634 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
7636 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
7637 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
7640 * File name changes for MS-DOS
7642 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
7643 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
7644 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
7645 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
7646 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
7647 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
7649 * Cross byte order fixes
7651 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
7652 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
7654 * New -mapped and -readnow options
7656 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
7657 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
7658 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
7659 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
7660 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
7661 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
7662 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
7663 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
7664 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
7665 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
7667 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
7668 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
7669 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
7670 slower, but makes future operations faster.
7672 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
7673 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
7674 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
7677 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
7679 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
7680 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
7681 shared across multiple host platforms.
7683 * longjmp() handling
7685 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
7686 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
7687 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
7688 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
7692 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
7693 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
7698 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
7699 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
7700 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
7702 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
7704 * New machines supported (host and target)
7706 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7708 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
7709 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
7711 * New machines supported (target)
7713 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7717 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
7718 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
7719 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
7721 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
7722 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
7723 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
7724 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
7725 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
7728 * New features for SVR4
7730 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
7731 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
7732 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
7734 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
7735 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
7736 it prints the address mappings of the process.
7738 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
7739 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
7741 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
7743 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
7744 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
7745 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
7746 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
7747 same code linked statically.
7751 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
7752 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
7753 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
7754 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
7755 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
7756 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
7760 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7761 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7762 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7765 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
7767 * New machines supported (host and target)
7769 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
7770 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
7771 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7773 * Almost SCO Unix support
7775 We had hoped to support:
7776 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7777 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
7778 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
7779 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
7781 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
7783 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
7784 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
7785 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
7786 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
7791 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
7792 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
7793 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
7797 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7798 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7799 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7801 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
7803 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
7804 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
7805 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
7807 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
7808 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
7809 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
7810 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
7813 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
7814 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
7815 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
7816 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
7819 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
7820 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
7823 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
7824 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
7825 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
7828 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
7830 * Improved configuration
7832 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
7833 Porting BFD is simpler.
7837 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
7838 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
7839 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
7840 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
7844 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
7846 * New host supported (not target)
7848 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
7851 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
7853 * Multiple source language support
7855 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
7856 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
7857 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
7858 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
7859 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
7860 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
7864 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
7865 currently under development at the State University of New York at
7866 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
7867 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
7869 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
7870 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
7871 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
7873 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
7874 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
7878 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
7879 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
7880 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
7881 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
7884 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
7886 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
7887 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
7888 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
7889 examining core files.
7893 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
7896 * New machines supported (host and target)
7898 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7899 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
7900 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
7902 * New hosts supported (not targets)
7904 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
7906 * New targets supported (not hosts)
7908 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7909 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7910 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
7912 * New remote interfaces
7918 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
7922 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
7924 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
7925 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
7926 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
7927 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
7928 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
7929 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
7930 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
7931 stub on the target system.
7933 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
7935 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
7936 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
7937 object file types such as a.out and coff.
7939 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
7940 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
7943 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
7945 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
7946 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
7948 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
7949 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
7950 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
7952 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
7953 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
7954 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
7955 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
7957 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
7958 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
7959 it is already running. Default is ON.
7961 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
7962 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
7963 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
7964 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
7967 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
7968 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
7969 or the value of the environment variable
7972 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
7973 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
7976 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
7977 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
7978 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
7980 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
7981 history expansion will be performed on
7982 command line input. The default is OFF.
7984 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
7985 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
7986 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
7988 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
7989 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
7990 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7993 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
7994 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
7995 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7998 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
7999 ``set width'' instead.
8001 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
8002 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
8003 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
8004 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
8006 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
8009 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
8012 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
8015 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
8018 * Support for Epoch Environment.
8020 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
8021 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
8022 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
8026 * Support for Shared Libraries
8028 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
8029 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
8030 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
8031 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
8032 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
8033 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
8034 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
8035 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
8037 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
8038 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
8039 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
8041 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
8046 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
8047 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
8048 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
8049 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
8050 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
8051 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
8053 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
8055 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
8057 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8058 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8059 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8062 * C++ multiple inheritance
8064 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
8067 * C++ exception handling
8069 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
8070 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
8071 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
8074 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
8075 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
8076 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
8078 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
8079 current stack frame.
8082 * Minor command changes
8084 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
8085 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
8086 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
8088 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
8089 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
8090 frames without printing.
8092 * New directory command
8094 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
8095 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
8096 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
8097 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
8098 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
8100 * Configuring GDB for compilation
8102 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
8105 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
8106 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
8107 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
8108 where the program that you are debugging will run.