1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 15
6 * Debugger Adapter Protocol changes
8 ** The "scopes" request will now return a scope holding global
9 variables from the stack frame's compilation unit.
11 ** The "scopes" request will return a "returnValue" scope holding
12 the return value from the latest "stepOut" command, when
15 * For ARM targets, the offset of the pc in the jmp_buf has been fixed to match
16 glibc 2.20 and later. This should only matter when not using libc probes.
17 This may cause breakage when using an incompatible libc, like uclibc or
18 newlib, or an older glibc.
22 * The MPX commands "show/set mpx bound" have been deprecated, as Intel
23 listed MPX as removed in 2019.
25 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++17 compiler.
26 For example, GCC 9 or later.
28 * GDB index now contains information about the main function. This speeds up
29 startup when it is being used for some large binaries.
31 * On hosts where threading is available, DWARF reading is now done in
32 the background, resulting in faster startup. This can be controlled
33 using "maint set dwarf synchronous".
38 Attempting to use both the 'r' and 'b' flags with the disassemble
39 command will now give an error. Previously the 'b' flag would
40 always override the 'r' flag.
44 GDB now generates sparse core files, on systems that support it.
46 maintenance info line-table
47 Add an EPILOGUE-BEGIN column to the output of the command. It indicates
48 if the line is considered the start of the epilgoue, and thus a point at
49 which the frame can be considered destroyed.
51 set unwindonsignal on|off
53 These commands are now aliases for the new set/show unwind-on-signal.
56 This command now gives an error if any unexpected arguments are
57 found after the command.
60 When using the command "list ." in a location that has no debug information
61 or no file loaded, GDB now says that there is no debug information to print
62 lines. This makes it more obvious that there is no information, as opposed
63 to implying there is no inferior loaded.
67 info missing-debug-handler
68 List all the registered missing debug handlers.
70 enable missing-debug-handler LOCUS HANDLER
71 disable missing-debug-handler LOCUS HANDLER
72 Enable or disable a missing debug handler with a name matching the
73 regular expression HANDLER, in LOCUS.
75 LOCUS can be 'global' to operate on global missing debug handler,
76 'progspace' to operate on handlers within the current program space,
77 or can be a regular expression which is matched against the filename
78 of the primary executable in each program space.
80 maintenance info linux-lwps
81 List all LWPs under control of the linux-nat target.
83 set remote thread-options-packet
84 show remote thread-options-packet
85 Set/show the use of the thread options packet.
87 set direct-call-timeout SECONDS
88 show direct-call-timeout
89 set indirect-call-timeout SECONDS
90 show indirect-call-timeout
91 These new settings can be used to limit how long GDB will wait for
92 an inferior function call to complete. The direct timeout is used
93 for inferior function calls from e.g. 'call' and 'print' commands,
94 while the indirect timeout is used for inferior function calls from
95 within a conditional breakpoint expression.
97 The default for the direct timeout is unlimited, while the default
98 for the indirect timeout is 30 seconds.
100 These timeouts will only have an effect for targets that are
101 operating in async mode. For non-async targets the timeouts are
102 ignored, GDB will wait indefinitely for an inferior function to
103 complete, unless interrupted by the user using Ctrl-C.
105 set unwind-on-timeout on|off
106 show unwind-on-timeout
107 These commands control whether GDB should unwind the stack when a
108 timeout occurs during an inferior function call. The default is
109 off, in which case the inferior will remain in the frame where the
110 timeout occurred. When on, GDB will unwind the stack removing the
111 dummy frame that was added for the inferior call, and restoring the
112 inferior state to how it was before the inferior call started.
114 set unwind-on-signal on|off
115 show unwind-on-signal
116 These new commands replaces the existing set/show unwindonsignal. The
117 old command is maintained as an alias.
119 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
121 ** The --remote-debug and --event-loop-debug command line options
124 ** The --debug command line option now takes an optional comma
125 separated list of components to emit debug for. The currently
126 supported components are: all, threads, event-loop, and remote.
127 If no components are given then threads is assumed.
129 ** The 'monitor set remote-debug' and 'monitor set event-loop-debug'
130 command have been removed.
132 ** The 'monitor set debug 0|1' command has been extended to take a
133 component name, e.g.: 'monitor set debug COMPONENT off|on'.
134 Possible component names are: all, threads, event-loop, and
139 ** New function gdb.notify_mi(NAME, DATA), that emits custom
140 GDB/MI async notification.
142 ** New read/write attribute gdb.Value.bytes that contains a bytes
143 object holding the contents of this value.
145 ** New module gdb.missing_debug that facilitates dealing with
146 objfiles that are missing any debug information.
148 ** New function gdb.missing_debug.register_handler that can register
149 an instance of a sub-class of gdb.missing_debug.MissingDebugInfo
150 as a handler for objfiles that are missing debug information.
152 ** New class gdb.missing_debug.MissingDebugInfo which can be
153 sub-classed to create handlers for objfiles with missing debug
156 ** Stop events now have a "details" attribute that holds a
157 dictionary that carries the same information as an MI "*stopped"
160 ** New function gdb.interrupt(), that interrupts GDB as if the user
163 ** New gdb.InferiorThread.ptid_string attribute. This read-only
164 attribute contains the string that appears in the 'Target Id'
165 column of the 'info threads' command output.
167 ** It is no longer possible to create new gdb.Progspace object using
168 'gdb.Progspace()', this will result in a TypeError. Progspace
169 objects can still be obtained through calling other API
170 functions, for example 'gdb.current_progspace()'.
172 ** User defined attributes can be added to a gdb.Inferior object,
173 these will be stored in the object's new Inferior.__dict__
176 ** User defined attributes can be added to a gdb.InferiorThread
177 object, these will be stored in the object's new
178 InferiorThread.__dict__ attribute.
180 ** New constants gdb.SYMBOL_TYPE_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTION_DOMAIN,
181 and gdb.SEARCH_*_DOMAIN corresponding to all the existing symbol
182 domains. Symbol lookup can now search in multiple domains at
183 once, and can also narrowly search for just a type or function.
185 * Debugger Adapter Protocol changes
187 ** GDB now emits the "process" event.
189 ** GDB now supports the "cancel" request.
191 ** The "attach" request now supports specifying the program.
193 ** New command "set debug dap-log-level" controls DAP logging.
195 ** The "set debug dap-log-file" command is now documented. This
196 command was available in GDB 14 but not documented.
200 ** New constants SYMBOL_TYPE_DOMAIN, SYMBOL_FUNCTION_DOMAIN, and
201 SEARCH_*_DOMAIN corresponding to all the existing symbol domains.
202 Symbol lookup can now search in multiple domains at once, and can
203 also narrowly search for just a type or function.
207 New stop reason: clone
208 Indicates that a clone system call was executed.
211 Enable/disable optional event reporting, on a per-thread basis.
212 Currently supported options are GDB_THREAD_OPTION_CLONE, to enable
213 clone event reporting, and GDB_THREAD_OPTION_EXIT to enable thread
214 exit event reporting.
216 QThreadOptions in qSupported
217 The qSupported packet allows GDB to inform the stub it supports the
218 QThreadOptions packet, and the qSupported response can contain the
219 set of thread options the remote stub supports.
222 This new packet allows GDB to query the stub about a given address to check
223 if it is tagged or not. Many memory tagging-related GDB commands need to
224 perform this check before they read/write the allocation tag related to an
225 address. Currently, however, this is done through a 'vFile' request to read
226 the file /proc/<PID>/smaps and check if the address is in a region reported
227 as memory tagged. Since not all targets have a notion of what the smaps
228 file is about, this new packet provides a more generic way to perform such
232 Return information about files on the remote system. Like
233 vFile:fstat but takes a filename rather than an open file
236 *** Changes in GDB 14
238 * GDB now supports the AArch64 Scalable Matrix Extension 2 (SME2), which
239 includes a new 512 bit lookup table register named ZT0.
241 * GDB now supports the AArch64 Scalable Matrix Extension (SME), which includes
242 a new matrix register named ZA, a new thread register TPIDR2 and a new vector
243 length register SVG (streaming vector granule). GDB also supports tracking
244 ZA state across signal frames.
246 Some features are still under development or are dependent on ABI specs that
247 are still in alpha stage. For example, manual function calls with ZA state
248 don't have any special handling, and tracking of SVG changes based on
249 DWARF information is still not implemented, but there are plans to do so in
252 * GDB now recognizes the NO_COLOR environment variable and disables
253 styling according to the spec. See https://no-color.org/.
254 Styling can be re-enabled with "set style enabled on".
256 * The AArch64 'org.gnu.gdb.aarch64.pauth' Pointer Authentication feature string
257 has been deprecated in favor of the 'org.gnu.gdb.aarch64.pauth_v2' feature
260 * GDB now has some support for integer types larger than 64 bits.
262 * Removed targets and native configurations
264 GDB no longer supports AIX 4.x, AIX 5.x and AIX 6.x. The minimum supported
265 AIX version is now AIX 7.1.
267 * Multi-target feature configuration
269 GDB now supports the individual configuration of remote targets' feature
270 sets. Based on the current selection of a target, the commands 'set remote
271 <name>-packet (on|off|auto)' and 'show remote <name>-packet' can be used to
272 configure a target's feature packet and to display its configuration,
275 The individual packet sizes can be configured and shown using the commands
276 ** 'set remote memory-read-packet-size (number of bytes|fixed|limit)'
277 ** 'set remote memory-write-packet-size (number of bytes|fixed|limit)'
278 ** 'show remote memory-read-packet-size'
279 ** 'show remote memory-write-packet-size'.
281 The configuration of the packet itself, as well as the size of a memory-read
282 or memory-write packet applies to the currently selected target (if
283 available). If no target is selected, it applies to future remote
284 connections. Similarly, the show commands print the configuration of the
285 currently selected target. If no remote target is selected, the default
286 configuration for future connections is shown.
288 * GDB has initial built-in support for the Debugger Adapter Protocol.
289 This support requires that GDB be built with Python scripting
292 * For the break command, multiple uses of the 'thread' or 'task'
293 keywords will now give an error instead of just using the thread or
294 task id from the last instance of the keyword. E.g.:
295 break foo thread 1 thread 2
296 will now give an error rather than using 'thread 2'.
298 * For the watch command, multiple uses of the 'task' keyword will now
299 give an error instead of just using the task id from the last
300 instance of the keyword. E.g.:
301 watch my_var task 1 task 2
302 will now give an error rather than using 'task 2'. The 'thread'
303 keyword already gave an error when used multiple times with the
304 watch command, this remains unchanged.
306 * The 'set print elements' setting now helps when printing large arrays.
307 If an array would otherwise exceed max-value-size, but 'print elements'
308 is set such that the size of elements to print is less than or equal
309 to 'max-value-size', GDB will now still print the array, however only
310 'max-value-size' worth of data will be added into the value history.
312 * For both the break and watch commands, it is now invalid to use both
313 the 'thread' and 'task' keywords within the same command. For
314 example the following commnds will now give an error:
315 break foo thread 1 task 1
316 watch var thread 2 task 3
318 * The printf command now accepts a '%V' output format which will
319 format an expression just as the 'print' command would. Print
320 options can be placed withing '[...]' after the '%V' to modify how
321 the value is printed. E.g:
322 printf "%V", some_array
323 printf "%V[-array-indexes on]", some_array
324 will print the array without, or with array indexes included, just
325 as the array would be printed by the 'print' command. This
326 functionality is also available for dprintf when dprintf-style is
329 * When the printf command requires a string to be fetched from the
330 inferior, GDB now uses the existing 'max-value-size' setting to the
331 limit the memory allocated within GDB. The default 'max-value-size'
332 is 64k. To print longer strings you should increase
335 * The Ada 2022 Enum_Rep and Enum_Val attributes are now supported.
337 * The Ada 2022 target name symbol ('@') is now supported by the Ada
340 * The 'list' command now accepts '.' as an argument, which tells GDB to
341 print the location around the point of execution within the current frame.
342 If the inferior hasn't started yet, the command will print around the
343 beginning of the 'main' function.
345 * Using the 'list' command with no arguments in a situation where the
346 command would attempt to list past the end of the file now warns the
347 user that the end of file has been reached, refers the user to the
348 newly added '.' argument
350 * Breakpoints can now be inferior-specific. This is similar to the
351 existing thread-specific breakpoint support. Breakpoint conditions
352 can include the 'inferior' keyword followed by an inferior id (as
353 displayed in the 'info inferiors' output). It is invalid to use the
354 'inferior' keyword with either the 'thread' or 'task' keywords when
355 creating a breakpoint.
357 * New convenience function "$_shell", to execute a shell command and
358 return the result. This lets you run shell commands in expressions.
361 (gdb) p $_shell("true")
363 (gdb) p $_shell("false")
365 (gdb) break func if $_shell("some command") == 0
369 --additional-debug-dirs=PATHs
371 Provide a colon-separated list of additional directories to search for
372 separate debug info. These directories are added to the default value of
373 the 'debug-file-directory' GDB parameter.
377 set debug breakpoint on|off
378 show debug breakpoint
379 Print additional debug messages about breakpoint insertion and removal.
381 maintenance print record-instruction [ N ]
382 Print the recorded information for a given instruction. If N is not given
383 prints how GDB would undo the last instruction executed. If N is negative,
384 prints how GDB would undo the N-th previous instruction, and if N is
385 positive, it prints how GDB will redo the N-th following instruction.
387 maintenance info frame-unwinders
388 List the frame unwinders currently in effect, starting with the highest
391 maintenance wait-for-index-cache
392 Wait until all pending writes to the index cache have completed.
394 set always-read-ctf on|off
396 When off, CTF is only read if DWARF is not present. When on, CTF is
397 read regardless of whether DWARF is present. Off by default.
400 Get main symbol to identify entry point into program.
402 set tui mouse-events [on|off]
403 show tui mouse-events
404 When on (default), mouse clicks control the TUI and can be accessed by
405 Python extensions. When off, mouse clicks are handled by the terminal,
406 enabling terminal-native text selection.
410 ** MI version 1 has been removed.
412 ** mi now reports 'no-history' as a stop reason when hitting the end of the
413 reverse execution history.
415 ** When creating a thread-specific breakpoint using the '-p' option,
416 the -break-insert command would report the 'thread' field twice in
417 the reply. The content of both fields was always identical. This
418 has now been fixed; the 'thread' field will be reported just once
419 for thread-specific breakpoints, or not at all for breakpoints
420 without a thread restriction. The same is also true for the 'task'
421 field of an Ada task-specific breakpoint.
423 ** It is no longer possible to create a thread-specific breakpoint for
424 a thread that doesn't exist using '-break-insert -p ID'. Creating
425 breakpoints for non-existent threads is not allowed when using the
426 CLI, that the MI allowed it was a long standing bug, which has now
429 ** The '--simple-values' argument to the '-stack-list-arguments',
430 '-stack-list-locals', '-stack-list-variables', and '-var-list-children'
431 commands now takes reference types into account: that is, a value is now
432 considered simple if it is neither an array, structure, or union, nor a
433 reference to an array, structure, or union. (Previously all references were
434 considered simple.) Support for this feature can be verified by using the
435 '-list-features' command, which should contain "simple-values-ref-types".
437 ** The -break-insert command now accepts a '-g thread-group-id' option
438 to allow for the creation of inferior-specific breakpoints.
440 ** The bkpt tuple, which appears in breakpoint-created notifications,
441 and in the result of the -break-insert command can now include an
442 optional 'inferior' field for both the main breakpoint, and each
443 location, when the breakpoint is inferior-specific.
447 ** gdb.ThreadExitedEvent added. Emits a ThreadEvent.
449 ** The gdb.unwinder.Unwinder.name attribute is now read-only.
451 ** The name argument passed to gdb.unwinder.Unwinder.__init__ must
452 now be of type 'str' otherwise a TypeError will be raised.
454 ** The gdb.unwinder.Unwinder.enabled attribute can now only accept
455 values of type 'bool'. Changing this attribute will now
456 invalidate GDB's frame-cache, which means GDB will need to
457 rebuild its frame-cache when next required - either with, or
458 without the particular unwinder, depending on how 'enabled' was
461 ** New methods added to the gdb.PendingFrame class. These methods
462 have the same behaviour as the corresponding methods on
463 gdb.Frame. The new methods are:
465 - gdb.PendingFrame.name: Return the name for the frame's
467 - gdb.PendingFrame.is_valid: Return True if the pending frame
469 - gdb.PendingFrame.pc: Return the $pc register value for this
471 - gdb.PendingFrame.language: Return a string containing the
472 language for this frame, or None.
473 - gdb.PendingFrame.find_sal: Return a gdb.Symtab_and_line
474 object for the current location within the pending frame, or
476 - gdb.PendingFrame.block: Return a gdb.Block for the current
477 pending frame, or None.
478 - gdb.PendingFrame.function: Return a gdb.Symbol for the
479 current pending frame, or None.
481 ** The frame-id passed to gdb.PendingFrame.create_unwind_info can
482 now use either an integer or a gdb.Value object for each of its
483 'sp', 'pc', and 'special' attributes.
485 ** A new class gdb.unwinder.FrameId has been added. Instances of
486 this class are constructed with 'sp' (stack-pointer) and 'pc'
487 (program-counter) values, and can be used as the frame-id when
488 calling gdb.PendingFrame.create_unwind_info.
490 ** It is now no longer possible to sub-class the
491 gdb.disassembler.DisassemblerResult type.
493 ** The Disassembler API from the gdb.disassembler module has been
494 extended to include styling support:
496 - The DisassemblerResult class can now be initialized with a list
497 of parts. Each part represents part of the disassembled
498 instruction along with the associated style information. This
499 list of parts can be accessed with the new
500 DisassemblerResult.parts property.
502 - New constants gdb.disassembler.STYLE_* representing all the
503 different styles part of an instruction might have.
505 - New methods DisassembleInfo.text_part and
506 DisassembleInfo.address_part which are used to create the new
507 styled parts of a disassembled instruction.
509 - Changes are backwards compatible, the older API can still be
510 used to disassemble instructions without styling.
512 ** New function gdb.execute_mi(COMMAND, [ARG]...), that invokes a
513 GDB/MI command and returns the output as a Python dictionary.
515 ** New function gdb.block_signals(). This returns a context manager
516 that blocks any signals that GDB needs to handle itself.
518 ** New class gdb.Thread. This is a subclass of threading.Thread
519 that calls gdb.block_signals in its "start" method.
521 ** gdb.parse_and_eval now has a new "global_context" parameter.
522 This can be used to request that the parse only examine global
525 ** gdb.Inferior now has a new "arguments" attribute. This holds the
526 command-line arguments to the inferior, if known.
528 ** gdb.Inferior now has a new "main_name" attribute. This holds the
529 name of the inferior's "main", if known.
531 ** gdb.Inferior now has new methods "clear_env", "set_env", and
532 "unset_env". These can be used to modify the inferior's
533 environment before it is started.
535 ** gdb.Value now has the 'assign' method.
537 ** gdb.Value now has the 'to_array' method. This converts an
538 array-like Value to an array.
540 ** gdb.Progspace now has the new method "objfile_for_address". This
541 returns the gdb.Objfile, if any, that covers a given address.
543 ** gdb.Breakpoint now has an "inferior" attribute. If the
544 Breakpoint object is inferior specific then this attribute holds
545 the inferior-id (an integer). If the Breakpoint object is not
546 inferior specific, then this field contains None. This field can
549 ** gdb.Type now has the "is_array_like" and "is_string_like"
550 methods. These reflect GDB's internal idea of whether a type
551 might be array- or string-like, even if they do not have the
552 corresponding type code.
554 ** gdb.ValuePrinter is a new class that can be used as the base
555 class for the result of applying a pretty-printer. As a base
556 class, it signals to gdb that the printer may implement new
557 pretty-printer methods.
559 ** New attribute Progspace.symbol_file. This attribute holds the
560 gdb.Objfile that corresponds to Progspace.filename (when
561 Progspace.filename is not None), otherwise, this attribute is
564 ** New attribute Progspace.executable_filename. This attribute
565 holds a string containing a file name set by the "exec-file" or
566 "file" commands, or None if no executable file is set. This
567 isn't the exact string passed by the user to these commands; the
568 file name will have been partially resolved to an absolute file
571 ** A new executable_changed event registry is available. This event
572 emits ExecutableChangedEvent objects, which have 'progspace' (a
573 gdb.Progspace) and 'reload' (a Boolean) attributes. This event
574 is emitted when gdb.Progspace.executable_filename changes.
576 ** New event registries gdb.events.new_progspace and
577 gdb.events.free_progspace, these emit NewProgspaceEvent and
578 FreeProgspaceEvent event types respectively. Both of these event
579 types have a single 'progspace' attribute, which is the
580 gdb.Progspace that is either being added to GDB, or removed from
583 ** gdb.LazyString now implements the __str__ method.
585 ** New method gdb.Frame.static_link that returns the outer frame
586 of a nested function frame.
588 *** Changes in GDB 13
590 * MI version 1 is deprecated, and will be removed in GDB 14.
592 * GDB now supports dumping memory tag data for AArch64 MTE. It also supports
593 reading memory tag data for AArch64 MTE from core files generated by
594 the gcore command or the Linux kernel.
596 When a process uses memory-mapped pages protected by memory tags (for
597 example, AArch64 MTE), this additional information will be recorded in
598 the core file in the event of a crash or if GDB generates a core file
599 from the current process state. GDB will show this additional information
600 automatically, or through one of the memory-tag subcommands.
602 * Scheduler-locking and new threads
604 When scheduler-locking is in effect, only the current thread may run
605 when the inferior is resumed. However, previously, new threads
606 created by the resumed thread would still be able to run free. Now,
607 they are held stopped.
609 * "info breakpoints" now displays enabled breakpoint locations of
610 disabled breakpoints as in the "y-" state. For example:
612 (gdb) info breakpoints
613 Num Type Disp Enb Address What
614 1 breakpoint keep n <MULTIPLE>
615 1.1 y- 0x00000000000011b6 in ...
616 1.2 y- 0x00000000000011c2 in ...
617 1.3 n 0x00000000000011ce in ...
619 * Support for Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on FreeBSD arm and
620 aarch64 architectures.
622 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on FreeBSD/Aarch64.
624 * Remove support for building against Python 2, it is now only possible to
625 build GDB against Python 3.
627 * DBX mode has been removed.
629 * GDB now honours the DWARF prologue_end line-table entry flag the compiler can
630 emit to indicate where a breakpoint should be placed to break in a function
633 * Completion now also offers "NUMBER" for "set" commands that accept
634 a numeric argument and the "unlimited" keyword. For example:
636 (gdb) set width <TAB>
641 (gdb) complete set width
645 * Disassembler styling using libopcodes. GDB now supports
646 disassembler styling using libopcodes. This is only available for
647 some targets (currently x86 and RISC-V). For unsupported targets
648 Python Pygments is still used. For supported targets, libopcodes
649 styling is used by default.
651 * The Windows native target now supports target async.
653 * gdb now supports zstd compressed debug sections (ELFCOMPRESS_ZSTD) for ELF.
655 * The format of 'disassemble /r' and 'record instruction-history /r'
656 has changed. The instruction bytes could now be grouped together,
657 and displayed in the endianness of the instruction. This is the
658 same layout as used by GNU objdump when disassembling.
660 There is now 'disassemble /b' and 'record instruction-history /b'
661 which will always display the instructions bytes one at a time in
662 memory order, that is, the byte at the lowest address first.
664 For both /r and /b GDB is now better at using whitespace in order to
665 align the disassembled instruction text.
667 * The TUI no longer styles the source and assembly code highlighted by
668 the current position indicator by default. You can however
669 re-enable styling using the new "set style tui-current-position"
672 * New convenience variable $_inferior_thread_count contains the number
673 of live threads in the current inferior.
675 * When a breakpoint with multiple code locations is hit, GDB now prints
676 the code location using the syntax <breakpoint_number>.<location_number>
678 Thread 1 "zeoes" hit Breakpoint 2.3, some_func () at zeoes.c:8
680 * When a breakpoint is hit, GDB now sets the convenience variables $_hit_bpnum
681 and $_hit_locno to the hit breakpoint number and code location number.
682 This allows to disable the last hit breakpoint using
683 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum
684 or disable only the specific breakpoint code location using
685 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum.$_hit_locno
686 These commands can be used inside the command list of a breakpoint to
687 automatically disable the just encountered breakpoint (or the just
688 encountered specific breakpoint code location).
689 When a breakpoint has only one location, $_hit_locno is set to 1 so that
690 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum.$_hit_locno
692 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum
693 are both disabling the breakpoint.
697 maintenance set ignore-prologue-end-flag on|off
698 maintenance show ignore-prologue-end-flag
699 This setting, which is off by default, controls whether GDB ignores the
700 PROLOGUE-END flag from the line-table when skipping prologue. This can be
701 used to force GDB to use prologue analyzers if the line-table is constructed
702 from erroneous debug information.
704 set print nibbles [on|off]
706 This controls whether the 'print/t' command will display binary values
707 in groups of four bits, known as "nibbles". The default is 'off'.
709 maintenance set libopcodes-styling on|off
710 maintenance show libopcodes-styling
711 These can be used to force off libopcodes based styling, the Python
712 Pygments styling will then be used instead.
714 set style disassembler comment
715 show style disassembler comment
716 set style disassembler immediate
717 show style disassembler immediate
718 set style disassembler mnemonic
719 show style disassembler mnemonic
720 set style disassembler register
721 show style disassembler register
722 set style disassembler address
723 show style disassembler address
724 set style disassembler symbol
725 show style disassembler symbol
726 For targets that support libopcodes based styling, these settings
727 control how various aspects of the disassembler output are styled.
728 The 'disassembler address' and 'disassembler symbol' styles are
729 aliases for the 'address' and 'function' styles respectively.
731 maintenance print frame-id [ LEVEL ]
732 Print GDB's internal frame-id for the frame at LEVEL. If LEVEL is
733 not given, then print the frame-id for the currently selected frame.
735 set debug infcall on|off
737 Print additional debug messages about inferior function calls.
739 set debug solib on|off
741 Print additional debug messages about shared library handling.
743 set style tui-current-position [on|off]
744 Whether to style the source and assembly code highlighted by the
745 TUI's current position indicator. The default is off.
747 set print characters LIMIT
748 show print characters
749 This new setting is like 'set print elements', but controls how many
750 characters of a string are printed. This functionality used to be
751 covered by 'set print elements', but it can be controlled separately
752 now. LIMIT can be set to a numerical value to request that particular
753 character count, to 'unlimited' to print all characters of a string,
754 or to 'elements', which is also the default, to follow the setting of
755 'set print elements' as it used to be.
757 print -characters LIMIT
758 This new option to the 'print' command has the same effect as a temporary
759 use of 'set print characters'.
763 document user-defined
764 It is now possible to document user-defined aliases.
765 When a user-defined alias is documented, the help and apropos commands
766 use the provided documentation instead of the documentation of the
768 Documenting a user-defined alias is particularly useful when the alias
769 is a set of nested 'with' commands to avoid showing the help of
770 the with command for an alias that will in fact launch the
771 last command given in the nested commands.
773 maintenance info line-table
774 Add a PROLOGUE-END column to the output which indicates that an
775 entry corresponds to an address where a breakpoint should be placed
776 to be at the first instruction past a function's prologue.
780 set debug aix-solib on|off
782 set debug solib-frv on|off
784 Removed in favor of "set/show debug solib".
786 maintenance info program-spaces
787 This command now includes a 'Core File' column which indicates the
788 name of the core file associated with each program space.
792 GNU/Linux/LoongArch (gdbserver) loongarch*-*-linux*
794 GNU/Linux/CSKY (gdbserver) csky*-*linux*
800 ** The async record stating the stopped reason 'breakpoint-hit' now
801 contains an optional field locno giving the code location number
802 when the breakpoint has multiple code locations.
806 ** GDB will now reformat the doc string for gdb.Command and
807 gdb.Parameter sub-classes to remove unnecessary leading
808 whitespace from each line before using the string as the help
811 ** New function gdb.format_address(ADDRESS, PROGSPACE, ARCHITECTURE),
812 that formats ADDRESS as 'address <symbol+offset>', where symbol is
813 looked up in PROGSPACE, and ARCHITECTURE is used to format address.
814 This is the same format that GDB uses when printing address, symbol,
815 and offset information from the disassembler.
817 ** New function gdb.current_language that returns the name of the
818 current language. Unlike gdb.parameter('language'), this will
821 ** New method gdb.Frame.language that returns the name of the
824 ** New Python API for wrapping GDB's disassembler:
826 - gdb.disassembler.register_disassembler(DISASSEMBLER, ARCH).
827 DISASSEMBLER is a sub-class of gdb.disassembler.Disassembler.
828 ARCH is either None or a string containing a bfd architecture
829 name. DISASSEMBLER is registered as a disassembler for
830 architecture ARCH, or for all architectures if ARCH is None.
831 The previous disassembler registered for ARCH is returned, this
832 can be None if no previous disassembler was registered.
834 - gdb.disassembler.Disassembler is the class from which all
835 disassemblers should inherit. Its constructor takes a string,
836 a name for the disassembler, which is currently only used in
837 some debug output. Sub-classes should override the __call__
838 method to perform disassembly, invoking __call__ on this base
839 class will raise an exception.
841 - gdb.disassembler.DisassembleInfo is the class used to describe
842 a single disassembly request from GDB. An instance of this
843 class is passed to the __call__ method of
844 gdb.disassembler.Disassembler and has the following read-only
845 attributes: 'address', and 'architecture', as well as the
846 following method: 'read_memory'.
848 - gdb.disassembler.builtin_disassemble(INFO, MEMORY_SOURCE),
849 calls GDB's builtin disassembler on INFO, which is a
850 gdb.disassembler.DisassembleInfo object. MEMORY_SOURCE is
851 optional, its default value is None. If MEMORY_SOURCE is not
852 None then it must be an object that has a 'read_memory' method.
854 - gdb.disassembler.DisassemblerResult is a class that can be used
855 to wrap the result of a call to a Disassembler. It has
856 read-only attributes 'length' and 'string'.
858 ** gdb.Objfile now has an attribute named "is_file". This is True
859 if the objfile comes from a file, and False otherwise.
861 ** New function gdb.print_options that returns a dictionary of the
862 prevailing print options, in the form accepted by
863 gdb.Value.format_string.
865 ** gdb.Value.format_string now uses the format provided by 'print',
866 if it is called during a 'print' or other similar operation.
868 ** gdb.Value.format_string now accepts the 'summary' keyword. This
869 can be used to request a shorter representation of a value, the
870 way that 'set print frame-arguments scalars' does.
872 ** New Python type gdb.BreakpointLocation.
873 The new attribute 'locations' of gdb.Breakpoint returns a list of
874 gdb.BreakpointLocation objects specifying the locations where the
875 breakpoint is inserted into the debuggee.
877 ** The gdb.register_window_type method now restricts the set of
878 acceptable window names. The first character of a window's name
879 must start with a character in the set [a-zA-Z], every subsequent
880 character of a window's name must be in the set [-_.a-zA-Z0-9].
882 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
884 ** GDBserver is now supported on LoongArch GNU/Linux.
886 ** GDBserver is now supported on CSKY GNU/Linux.
888 * LoongArch floating-point support
890 GDB now supports floating-point on LoongArch GNU/Linux.
892 * AMD GPU ROCm debugging support
894 GDB now supports debugging programs offloaded to AMD GPUs using the ROCm
897 *** Changes in GDB 12
899 * DBX mode is deprecated, and will be removed in GDB 13
901 * GDB 12 is the last release of GDB that will support building against
902 Python 2. From GDB 13, it will only be possible to build GDB itself
903 with Python 3 support.
905 * The disable-randomization setting now works on Windows.
907 * Improved C++ template support
909 GDB now treats functions/types involving C++ templates like it does function
910 overloads. Users may omit parameter lists to set breakpoints on families of
911 template functions, including types/functions composed of multiple template types:
913 (gdb) break template_func(template_1, int)
915 The above will set breakpoints at every function `template_func' where
916 the first function parameter is any template type named `template_1' and
917 the second function parameter is `int'.
919 TAB completion also gains similar improvements.
921 * The FreeBSD native target now supports async mode.
927 Enable or disable multithreaded symbol loading. This is enabled
928 by default, but passing --disable-threading or --enable-threading=no
929 to configure will disable it.
931 Disabling this can cause a performance penalty when there are a lot of
932 symbols to load, but is useful for debugging purposes.
936 maint set backtrace-on-fatal-signal on|off
937 maint show backtrace-on-fatal-signal
938 This setting is 'on' by default. When 'on' GDB will print a limited
939 backtrace to stderr in the situation where GDB terminates with a
940 fatal signal. This only supported on some platforms where the
941 backtrace and backtrace_symbols_fd functions are available.
943 set source open on|off
945 This setting, which is on by default, controls whether GDB will try
946 to open source code files. Switching this off will stop GDB trying
947 to open and read source code files, which can be useful if the files
948 are located over a slow network connection.
952 These are now deprecated aliases for "set max-value-size" and
953 "show max-value-size".
955 task apply [all | TASK-IDS...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
956 Like "thread apply", but applies COMMAND to Ada tasks.
959 Watchpoints can now be restricted to a specific Ada task.
961 maint set internal-error backtrace on|off
962 maint show internal-error backtrace
963 maint set internal-warning backtrace on|off
964 maint show internal-warning backtrace
965 GDB can now print a backtrace of itself when it encounters either an
966 internal-error, or an internal-warning. This is on by default for
967 internal-error and off by default for internal-warning.
970 Deprecated and replaced by "set logging enabled on|off".
972 set logging enabled on|off
974 These commands set or show whether logging is enabled or disabled.
977 You can now exit GDB by using the new command "exit", in addition to
978 the existing "quit" command.
980 set debug threads on|off
982 Print additional debug messages about thread creation and deletion.
984 set debug linux-nat on|off
986 These new commands replaced the old 'set debug lin-lwp' and 'show
987 debug lin-lwp' respectively. Turning this setting on prints debug
988 messages relating to GDB's handling of native Linux inferiors.
990 maint flush source-cache
991 Flush the contents of the source code cache.
993 maint set gnu-source-highlight enabled on|off
994 maint show gnu-source-highlight enabled
995 Whether GDB should use the GNU Source Highlight library for adding
996 styling to source code. When off, the library will not be used, even
997 when available. When GNU Source Highlight isn't used, or can't add
998 styling to a particular source file, then the Python Pygments
999 library will be used instead.
1001 set suppress-cli-notifications (on|off)
1002 show suppress-cli-notifications
1003 This controls whether printing the notifications is suppressed for CLI.
1004 CLI notifications occur when you change the selected context
1005 (i.e., the current inferior, thread and/or the frame), or when
1006 the program being debugged stops (e.g., because of hitting a
1007 breakpoint, completing source-stepping, an interrupt, etc.).
1009 set style disassembler enabled on|off
1010 show style disassembler enabled
1011 If GDB is compiled with Python support, and the Python Pygments
1012 package is available, then, when this setting is on, disassembler
1013 output will have styling applied.
1015 set ada source-charset
1016 show ada source-charset
1017 Set the character set encoding that is assumed for Ada symbols. Valid
1018 values for this follow the values that can be passed to the GNAT
1019 compiler via the '-gnati' option. The default is ISO-8859-1.
1025 These are the new names for the old 'layout', 'focus', 'refresh',
1026 and 'winheight' tui commands respectively. The old names still
1027 exist as aliases to these new commands.
1031 The new command 'tui window width', and the alias 'winwidth' allow
1032 the width of a tui window to be adjusted when windows are laid out
1035 set debug tui on|off
1037 Control the display of debug output about GDB's tui.
1042 Printing of floating-point values with base-modifying formats like
1043 /x has been changed to display the underlying bytes of the value in
1044 the desired base. This was GDB's documented behavior, but was never
1045 implemented correctly.
1048 This command can now print a reply, if the reply includes
1049 non-printable characters. Any non-printable characters are printed
1050 as escaped hex, e.g. \x?? where '??' is replaces with the value of
1051 the non-printable character.
1054 The clone-inferior command now ensures that the TTY, CMD and ARGS
1055 settings are copied from the original inferior to the new one.
1056 All modifications to the environment variables done using the 'set
1057 environment' or 'unset environment' commands are also copied to the new
1060 set debug lin-lwp on|off
1062 These commands have been removed from GDB. The new command 'set
1063 debug linux-nat' and 'show debug linux-nat' should be used
1067 This command now includes information about the width of the tui
1068 windows in its output.
1074 These commands are now aliases for the 'tui layout', 'tui focus',
1075 'tui refresh', and 'tui window height' commands respectively.
1077 * GDB's Ada parser now supports an extension for specifying the exact
1078 byte contents of a floating-point literal. This can be useful for
1079 setting floating-point registers to a precise value without loss of
1080 precision. The syntax is an extension of the based literal syntax.
1081 Use, e.g., "16lf#0123abcd#" -- the number of "l"s controls the width
1082 of the floating-point type, and the "f" is the marker for floating
1087 ** The '-add-inferior' with no option flags now inherits the
1088 connection of the current inferior, this restores the behaviour of
1089 GDB as it was prior to GDB 10.
1091 ** The '-add-inferior' command now accepts a '--no-connection'
1092 option, which causes the new inferior to start without a
1095 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 4 (-i=mi4).
1097 ** The "script" field in breakpoint output (which is syntactically
1098 incorrect in MI 3 and below) has changed in MI 4 to become a list.
1099 This affects the following commands and events:
1103 - =breakpoint-created
1104 - =breakpoint-modified
1106 The -fix-breakpoint-script-output command can be used to enable
1107 this behavior with previous MI versions.
1111 GNU/Linux/LoongArch loongarch*-*-linux*
1119 ** New function gdb.add_history(), which takes a gdb.Value object
1120 and adds the value it represents to GDB's history list. An
1121 integer, the index of the new item in the history list, is
1124 ** New function gdb.history_count(), which returns the number of
1125 values in GDB's value history.
1127 ** New gdb.events.gdb_exiting event. This event is called with a
1128 gdb.GdbExitingEvent object which has the read-only attribute
1129 'exit_code', which contains the value of the GDB exit code. This
1130 event is triggered once GDB decides it is going to exit, but
1131 before GDB starts to clean up its internal state.
1133 ** New function gdb.architecture_names(), which returns a list
1134 containing all of the possible Architecture.name() values. Each
1137 ** New function gdb.Architecture.integer_type(), which returns an
1138 integer type given a size and a signed-ness.
1140 ** New gdb.TargetConnection object type that represents a connection
1141 (as displayed by the 'info connections' command). A sub-class,
1142 gdb.RemoteTargetConnection, is used to represent 'remote' and
1143 'extended-remote' connections.
1145 ** The gdb.Inferior type now has a 'connection' property which is an
1146 instance of gdb.TargetConnection, the connection used by this
1147 inferior. This can be None if the inferior has no connection.
1149 ** New 'gdb.events.connection_removed' event registry, which emits a
1150 'gdb.ConnectionEvent' when a connection is removed from GDB.
1151 This event has a 'connection' property, a gdb.TargetConnection
1152 object for the connection being removed.
1154 ** New gdb.connections() function that returns a list of all
1155 currently active connections.
1157 ** New gdb.RemoteTargetConnection.send_packet(PACKET) method. This
1158 is equivalent to the existing 'maint packet' CLI command; it
1159 allows a user specified packet to be sent to the remote target.
1161 ** New function gdb.host_charset(), returns a string, which is the
1162 name of the current host charset.
1164 ** New gdb.set_parameter(NAME, VALUE). This sets the gdb parameter
1167 ** New gdb.with_parameter(NAME, VALUE). This returns a context
1168 manager that temporarily sets the gdb parameter NAME to VALUE,
1169 then resets it when the context is exited.
1171 ** The gdb.Value.format_string method now takes a 'styling'
1172 argument, which is a boolean. When true, the returned string can
1173 include escape sequences to apply styling. The styling will only
1174 be present if styling is otherwise turned on in GDB (see 'help
1175 set styling'). When false, which is the default if the argument
1176 is not given, then no styling is applied to the returned string.
1178 ** New read-only attribute gdb.InferiorThread.details, which is
1179 either a string, containing additional, target specific thread
1180 state information, or None, if there is no such additional
1183 ** New read-only attribute gdb.Type.is_scalar, which is True for
1184 scalar types, and False for all other types.
1186 ** New read-only attribute gdb.Type.is_signed. This attribute
1187 should only be read when Type.is_scalar is True, and will be True
1188 for signed types, and False for all other types. Attempting to
1189 read this attribute for non-scalar types will raise a ValueError.
1191 ** It is now possible to add GDB/MI commands implemented in Python.
1193 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1195 ** GDBserver is now supported on OpenRISC GNU/Linux.
1197 * New native configurations
1199 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
1201 *** Changes in GDB 11
1203 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
1206 * GDB now supports general memory tagging functionality if the underlying
1207 architecture supports the proper primitives and hooks. Currently this is
1208 enabled only for AArch64 MTE.
1212 - Additional information when the inferior crashes with a SIGSEGV caused by
1213 a memory tag violation.
1215 - A new modifier 'm' for the "x" command, which displays allocation tags for a
1216 particular memory range.
1218 - Display of memory tag mismatches by "print", for addresses and
1219 pointers, if memory tagging is supported by the architecture.
1221 * Building GDB now requires GMP (The GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic
1226 ** '-break-insert --qualified' and '-dprintf-insert --qualified'
1228 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
1229 new "--qualified" option that makes GDB interpret a specified
1230 function name as a complete fully-qualified name. This is the
1231 equivalent of the CLI's "break -qualified" and "dprintf
1234 ** '-break-insert --force-condition' and '-dprintf-insert --force-condition'
1236 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
1237 '--force-condition' flag to forcibly define a condition even when
1238 the condition is invalid at all locations of the breakpoint. This
1239 is equivalent to the '-force-condition' flag of the CLI's "break"
1242 ** '-break-condition --force'
1244 The MI -break-condition command now supports a '--force' flag to
1245 forcibly define a condition even when the condition is invalid at
1246 all locations of the selected breakpoint. This is equivalent to
1247 the '-force' flag of the CLI's "cond" command.
1249 ** '-file-list-exec-source-files [--group-by-objfile]
1250 [--basename | --dirname]
1253 The existing -file-list-exec-source-files command now takes an
1254 optional REGEXP which is used to filter the source files that are
1255 included in the results.
1257 By default REGEXP is matched against the full filename of the
1258 source file. When one of --basename or --dirname is given then
1259 REGEXP is only matched against the specified part of the full
1262 When the optional --group-by-objfile flag is used the output
1263 format is changed, the results are now a list of object files
1264 (executable and libraries) with the source files that are
1265 associated with each object file.
1267 The results from -file-list-exec-source-files now include a
1268 'debug-fully-read' field which takes the value 'true' or 'false'.
1269 A 'true' value indicates the source file is from a compilation
1270 unit that has had its debug information fully read in by GDB, a
1271 value of 'false' indicates GDB has only performed a partial scan
1272 of the debug information so far.
1274 * GDB now supports core file debugging for x86_64 Cygwin programs.
1276 * GDB will now look for the .gdbinit file in a config directory before
1277 looking for ~/.gdbinit. The file is searched for in the following
1278 locations: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.config/gdb/gdbinit,
1279 $HOME/.gdbinit. On Apple hosts the search order is instead:
1280 $HOME/Library/Preferences/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.gdbinit.
1282 * GDB now supports fixed point types which are described in DWARF
1283 as base types with a fixed-point encoding. Additionally, support
1284 for the DW_AT_GNU_numerator and DW_AT_GNU_denominator has also
1287 For Ada, this allows support for fixed point types without requiring
1288 the use of the GNAT encoding (based on information added to the type's
1289 name following a GNAT-specific format).
1291 * GDB will now load and process commands from ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit
1292 or ~/.gdbearlyinit if these files are present. These files are
1293 processed earlier than any of the other initialization files and
1294 can affect parts of GDB's startup that previously had already been
1295 completed before the initialization files were read, for example
1296 styling of the initial GDB greeting.
1298 * GDB now has two new options "--early-init-command" and
1299 "--early-init-eval-command" with corresponding short options "-eix"
1300 and "-eiex" that allow options (that would normally appear in a
1301 gdbearlyinit file) to be passed on the command line.
1303 * For RISC-V targets, the target feature "org.gnu.gdb.riscv.vector" is
1304 now understood by GDB, and can be used to describe the vector
1305 registers of a target. The precise requirements of this register
1306 feature are documented in the GDB manual.
1308 * For ARM targets, the "org.gnu.gdb.arm.m-profile-mve" feature is now
1309 supported by GDB and describes a new VPR register from the ARM MVE
1310 (Helium) extension. See the GDB manual for more information.
1314 ** TUI windows now support mouse actions. The mouse wheel scrolls
1315 the appropriate window.
1317 ** Key combinations that do not have a specific action on the
1318 focused window are passed to GDB. For example, you now can use
1319 Ctrl-Left/Ctrl-Right to move between words in the command window
1320 regardless of which window is in focus. Previously you would
1321 need to focus on the command window for such key combinations to
1326 set debug event-loop
1327 show debug event-loop
1328 Control the display of debug output about GDB's event loop.
1330 set print memory-tag-violations
1331 show print memory-tag-violations
1332 Control whether to display additional information about memory tag violations
1333 when printing pointers and addresses. Architecture support for memory
1334 tagging is required for this option to have an effect.
1336 maintenance flush symbol-cache
1337 maintenance flush register-cache
1338 These new commands are equivalent to the already existing commands
1339 'maintenance flush-symbol-cache' and 'flushregs' respectively.
1341 maintenance flush dcache
1342 A new command to flush the dcache.
1344 maintenance info target-sections
1345 Print GDB's internal target sections table.
1347 maintenance info jit
1348 Print the JIT code objects in the inferior known to GDB.
1350 memory-tag show-logical-tag POINTER
1351 Print the logical tag for POINTER.
1352 memory-tag with-logical-tag POINTER TAG
1353 Print POINTER with logical tag TAG.
1354 memory-tag show-allocation-tag ADDRESS
1355 Print the allocation tag for ADDRESS.
1356 memory-tag set-allocation-tag ADDRESS LENGTH TAGS
1357 Set the allocation tag for [ADDRESS, ADDRESS + LENGTH) to TAGS.
1358 memory-tag check POINTER
1359 Validate that POINTER's logical tag matches the allocation tag.
1361 set startup-quietly on|off
1362 show startup-quietly
1363 When 'on', this causes GDB to act as if "-silent" were passed on the
1364 command line. This command needs to be added to an early
1365 initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to
1368 set print type hex on|off
1370 When 'on', the 'ptype' command uses hexadecimal notation to print sizes
1371 and offsets of struct members. When 'off', decimal notation is used.
1373 set python ignore-environment on|off
1374 show python ignore-environment
1375 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to ignore any
1376 environment variables that would otherwise affect how Python
1377 behaves. This command needs to be added to an early initialization
1378 file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to affect GDB.
1380 set python dont-write-bytecode auto|on|off
1381 show python dont-write-bytecode
1382 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to not write any
1383 byte-code (.pyc files) to disk. This command needs to be added to
1384 an early initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in
1385 order to affect GDB. When 'off' byte-code will always be written.
1386 When set to 'auto' (the default) Python will check the
1387 PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE environment variable.
1391 break [PROBE_MODIFIER] [LOCATION] [thread THREADNUM]
1392 [-force-condition] [if CONDITION]
1393 This command would previously refuse setting a breakpoint if the
1394 CONDITION expression is invalid at a location. It now accepts and
1395 defines the breakpoint if there is at least one location at which
1396 the CONDITION is valid. The locations for which the CONDITION is
1397 invalid, are automatically disabled. If CONDITION is invalid at all
1398 of the locations, setting the breakpoint is still rejected. However,
1399 the '-force-condition' flag can be used in this case for forcing GDB to
1400 define the breakpoint, making all the current locations automatically
1401 disabled. This may be useful if the user knows the condition will
1402 become meaningful at a future location, e.g. due to a shared library
1405 condition [-force] N COND
1406 The behavior of this command is changed the same way for the 'break'
1407 command as explained above. The '-force' flag can be used to force
1408 GDB into defining the condition even when COND is invalid for all the
1409 current locations of breakpoint N.
1412 maintenance flush-symbol-cache
1413 These commands are deprecated in favor of the new commands
1414 'maintenance flush register-cache' and 'maintenance flush
1415 symbol-cache' respectively.
1417 set style version foreground COLOR
1418 set style version background COLOR
1419 set style version intensity VALUE
1420 Control the styling of GDB's version number text.
1423 When the ID parameter is omitted, then this command prints information
1424 about the current inferior. When the ID parameter is present, the
1425 behavior of the command is unchanged and have the inferior ID become
1426 the current inferior.
1428 maintenance info sections
1429 The ALLOBJ keyword has been replaced with an -all-objects command
1430 line flag. It is now possible to filter which sections are printed
1431 even when -all-objects is passed.
1433 ptype[/FLAGS] TYPE | EXPRESSION
1434 The 'ptype' command has two new flags. When '/x' is set, hexadecimal
1435 notation is used when printing sizes and offsets of struct members.
1436 When '/d' is set, decimal notation is used when printing sizes and
1437 offsets of struct members. Default behavior is given by 'show print
1441 The info sources command output has been restructured. The results
1442 are now based around a list of objfiles (executable and libraries),
1443 and for each objfile the source files that are part of that objfile
1446 * Removed targets and native configurations
1448 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1450 * New remote packets
1453 Request the remote to send allocation tags for a particular memory range.
1455 Request the remote to store the specified allocation tags to the requested
1460 ** Improved support for rvalue reference values:
1461 TYPE_CODE_RVALUE_REF is now exported as part of the API and the
1462 value-referenced-value procedure now handles rvalue reference
1465 ** New procedures for obtaining value variants:
1466 value-reference-value, value-rvalue-reference-value and
1469 ** Temporary breakpoints can now be created with make-breakpoint and
1470 tested for using breakpoint-temporary?.
1474 ** Inferior objects now contain a read-only 'connection_num' attribute that
1475 gives the connection number as seen in 'info connections' and
1478 ** New method gdb.Frame.level() which returns the stack level of the
1481 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.level() which returns the stack level
1482 of the frame object.
1484 ** When hitting a catchpoint, the Python API will now emit a
1485 gdb.BreakpointEvent rather than a gdb.StopEvent. The
1486 gdb.Breakpoint attached to the event will have type BP_CATCHPOINT.
1488 ** Python TUI windows can now receive mouse click events. If the
1489 Window object implements the click method, it is called for each
1490 mouse click event in this window.
1492 *** Changes in GDB 10
1494 * There are new feature names for ARC targets: "org.gnu.gdb.arc.core"
1495 and "org.gnu.gdb.arc.aux". The old names are still supported but
1496 must be considered obsolete. They will be deprecated after some
1499 * Help and apropos commands will now show the documentation of a
1500 command only once, even if that command has one or more aliases.
1501 These commands now show the command name, then all of its aliases,
1502 and finally the description of the command.
1504 * 'help aliases' now shows only the user defined aliases. GDB predefined
1505 aliases are shown together with their aliased command.
1507 * GDB now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing ELF/DWARF
1508 debugging information as well as source code.
1510 When built with debuginfod, GDB can automatically query debuginfod
1511 servers for the separate debug files and source code of the executable
1514 To build GDB with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure (this
1515 requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library).
1517 debuginfod is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178.
1519 You can get the latest version from https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
1521 * Multi-target debugging support
1523 GDB now supports debugging multiple target connections
1524 simultaneously. For example, you can now have each inferior
1525 connected to different remote servers running in different machines,
1526 or have one inferior debugging a local native process, an inferior
1527 debugging a core dump, etc.
1529 This support is experimental and comes with some limitations -- you
1530 can only resume multiple targets simultaneously if all targets
1531 support non-stop mode, and all remote stubs or servers must support
1532 the same set of remote protocol features exactly. See also "info
1533 connections" and "add-inferior -no-connection" below, and "maint set
1534 target-non-stop" in the user manual.
1536 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1538 ** GDBserver is now supported on ARC GNU/Linux.
1540 ** GDBserver is now supported on RISC-V GNU/Linux.
1542 ** GDBserver no longer supports these host triplets:
1544 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1553 i[34567]86-*-mingw32ce*
1555 * Debugging MS-Windows processes now sets $_exitsignal when the
1556 inferior is terminated by a signal, instead of setting $_exitcode.
1558 * Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
1559 that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
1560 performance for programs with many symbols.
1562 * The $_siginfo convenience variable now also works on Windows targets,
1563 and will display the EXCEPTION_RECORD of the last handled exception.
1565 * TUI windows can now be arranged horizontally.
1567 * The command history filename can now be set to the empty string
1568 either using 'set history filename' or by setting 'GDBHISTFILE=' in
1569 the environment. The effect of setting this filename to the empty
1570 string is that GDB will not try to load any previous command
1573 * On Windows targets, it is now possible to debug 32-bit programs with a
1578 set exec-file-mismatch -- Set exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
1579 show exec-file-mismatch -- Show exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
1580 Set or show the option 'exec-file-mismatch'. When GDB attaches to a
1581 running process, this new option indicates whether to detect
1582 a mismatch between the current executable file loaded by GDB and the
1583 executable file used to start the process. If 'ask', the default,
1584 display a warning and ask the user whether to load the process
1585 executable file; if 'warn', just display a warning; if 'off', don't
1586 attempt to detect a mismatch.
1588 tui new-layout NAME WINDOW WEIGHT [WINDOW WEIGHT]...
1589 Define a new TUI layout, specifying its name and the windows that
1592 maintenance print xml-tdesc [FILE]
1593 Prints the current target description as an XML document. If the
1594 optional FILE is provided (which is an XML target description) then
1595 the target description is read from FILE into GDB, and then
1598 maintenance print core-file-backed-mappings
1599 Prints file-backed mappings loaded from a core file's note section.
1600 Output is expected to be similar to that of "info proc mappings".
1602 set debug fortran-array-slicing on|off
1603 show debug fortran-array-slicing
1604 Print debugging when taking slices of Fortran arrays.
1606 set fortran repack-array-slices on|off
1607 show fortran repack-array-slices
1608 When taking slices from Fortran arrays and strings, if the slice is
1609 non-contiguous within the original value then, when this option is
1610 on, the new value will be repacked into a single contiguous value.
1611 When this option is off, then the value returned will consist of a
1612 descriptor that describes the slice within the memory of the
1613 original parent value.
1617 alias [-a] [--] ALIAS = COMMAND [DEFAULT-ARGS...]
1618 The alias command can now specify default args for an alias.
1619 GDB automatically prepends the alias default args to the argument list
1620 provided explicitly by the user.
1621 For example, to have a backtrace with full details, you can define
1622 an alias 'bt_ALL' as
1623 'alias bt_ALL = backtrace -entry-values both -frame-arg all
1624 -past-main -past-entry -full'.
1625 Alias default arguments can also use a set of nested 'with' commands,
1626 e.g. 'alias pp10 = with print pretty -- with print elem 10 -- print'
1627 defines the alias pp10 that will pretty print a maximum of 10 elements
1628 of the given expression (if the expression is an array).
1632 GNU/Linux/RISC-V (gdbserver) riscv*-*-linux*
1633 BPF bpf-unknown-none
1638 ** gdb.register_window_type can be used to implement new TUI windows
1641 ** Dynamic types can now be queried. gdb.Type has a new attribute,
1642 "dynamic", and gdb.Type.sizeof can be None for a dynamic type. A
1643 field of a dynamic type may have None for its "bitpos" attribute
1646 ** Commands written in Python can be in the "TUI" help class by
1647 registering with the new constant gdb.COMMAND_TUI.
1649 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.architecture () to retrieve the
1650 architecture of the pending frame.
1652 ** New gdb.Architecture.registers method that returns a
1653 gdb.RegisterDescriptorIterator object, an iterator that returns
1654 gdb.RegisterDescriptor objects. The new RegisterDescriptor is a
1655 way to query the registers available for an architecture.
1657 ** New gdb.Architecture.register_groups method that returns a
1658 gdb.RegisterGroupIterator object, an iterator that returns
1659 gdb.RegisterGroup objects. The new RegisterGroup is a way to
1660 discover the available register groups.
1664 ** GDB can now be built with GNU Guile 3.0 and 2.2 in addition to 2.0.
1666 ** Procedures 'memory-port-read-buffer-size',
1667 'set-memory-port-read-buffer-size!', 'memory-port-write-buffer-size',
1668 and 'set-memory-port-write-buffer-size!' are deprecated. When
1669 using Guile 2.2 and later, users who need to control the size of
1670 a memory port's internal buffer can use the 'setvbuf' procedure.
1672 *** Changes in GDB 9
1674 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
1676 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
1677 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
1678 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
1679 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
1680 such as in system-wide init files.
1682 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
1683 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
1684 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
1685 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
1686 current GDB settings.
1688 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
1689 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
1690 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
1691 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
1693 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
1694 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
1697 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
1698 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
1700 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
1701 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
1702 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
1704 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
1705 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
1708 * Command names can now use the . character.
1710 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
1712 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
1715 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
1717 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
1718 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
1720 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
1721 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
1722 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
1724 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
1726 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
1727 not visible in the current scope.
1729 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
1730 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
1731 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
1732 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
1733 compiled with support for that language.
1735 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
1736 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
1737 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
1741 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
1742 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
1743 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
1744 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
1745 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
1747 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
1748 type was defined in.
1750 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
1751 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
1752 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
1755 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
1756 symbols with static linkage.
1758 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
1759 all static symbols with static linkage.
1761 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
1762 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
1764 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
1765 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
1769 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
1770 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
1771 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
1772 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
1773 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
1774 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
1775 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
1777 define-prefix COMMAND
1778 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
1780 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
1781 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
1782 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
1783 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
1784 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
1785 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
1786 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
1787 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
1788 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
1789 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
1790 of array elements to print.
1792 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
1793 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
1795 set may-call-functions [on|off]
1796 show may-call-functions
1797 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
1798 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
1799 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
1800 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
1801 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
1802 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
1805 set print finish [on|off]
1807 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
1808 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
1809 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
1813 show print max-depth
1814 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
1815 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
1816 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
1817 the old behavior back.
1819 set print raw-values [on|off]
1820 show print raw-values
1821 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
1822 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
1823 of commands. The default is 'off'.
1825 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
1826 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
1827 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
1829 set style title foreground COLOR
1830 set style title background COLOR
1831 set style title intensity VALUE
1832 Control the styling of titles.
1834 set style highlight foreground COLOR
1835 set style highlight background COLOR
1836 set style highlight intensity VALUE
1837 Control the styling of highlightings.
1839 maint set worker-threads
1840 maint show worker-threads
1841 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
1842 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
1843 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
1844 the names of linker symbols.
1846 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
1847 set style tui-border background COLOR
1848 Control the styling of TUI borders.
1850 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
1851 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
1852 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
1854 maint set test-settings KIND
1855 maint show test-settings KIND
1856 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
1859 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
1860 maint show tui-resize-message
1861 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
1862 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
1865 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
1866 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
1867 show print frame-info
1868 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
1869 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
1870 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
1871 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
1873 set tui compact-source
1874 show tui compact-source
1876 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
1877 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
1878 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
1879 line numbers from the source.
1881 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
1882 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
1885 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
1886 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
1887 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
1888 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
1889 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
1890 matches against the function name.
1892 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
1893 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
1894 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
1895 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
1896 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
1897 against the variable name.
1899 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
1900 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
1901 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
1903 The default is 512 bytes.
1906 Lists the target connections currently in use.
1911 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
1912 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
1916 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
1917 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
1918 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
1919 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
1920 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
1924 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
1925 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
1926 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
1927 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
1929 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
1930 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
1931 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
1932 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
1936 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
1937 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
1938 the user visualize the different styles.
1940 set print frame-arguments
1941 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
1942 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
1944 set print raw-frame-arguments
1945 show print raw-frame-arguments
1947 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
1948 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
1949 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
1952 add-inferior [-no-connection]
1953 The add-inferior command now supports a "-no-connection" flag that
1954 makes the new inferior start with no target connection associated.
1955 By default, the new inferior inherits the target connection of the
1956 current inferior. See also "info connections".
1959 This command's output now includes a new "Connection" column
1960 indicating which target connection an inferior is bound to. See
1961 "info connections" above.
1963 maint test-options require-delimiter
1964 maint test-options unknown-is-error
1965 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
1966 maint show test-options-completion-result
1967 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
1970 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
1971 These commands are now case-sensitive.
1973 * New command options, command completion
1975 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
1976 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
1977 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
1978 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
1979 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
1980 number of commands got support for new command options in this
1983 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
1984 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
1985 set by "set print" subcommands:
1989 -array-indexes [on|off]
1990 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
1994 -raw-values [on|off]
1995 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
1996 -static-members [on|off]
2001 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
2002 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
2003 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
2004 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
2006 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
2007 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
2008 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
2010 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
2011 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
2012 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
2013 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
2014 |location-and-address|short-location
2016 -past-entry [on|off]
2018 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
2019 exposed as command options too:
2025 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
2026 support the following options:
2029 -past-entry [on|off]
2031 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
2032 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
2034 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
2035 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
2036 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
2039 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
2041 The above is equivalent to:
2043 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
2045 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
2046 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
2047 variables" and "info functions".
2049 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
2050 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
2051 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
2054 * Completion improvements
2056 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
2057 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
2060 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
2061 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
2064 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
2065 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
2066 completes on filenames.
2068 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
2069 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
2071 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
2073 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
2074 elements unlimited".
2079 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2080 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
2081 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
2083 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
2084 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
2085 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
2087 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
2088 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
2089 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
2091 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
2094 -symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
2095 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
2096 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
2100 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
2102 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
2103 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
2104 the following commands and events:
2108 - =breakpoint-created
2109 - =breakpoint-modified
2111 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
2112 this behavior with previous MI versions.
2114 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
2115 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
2116 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
2121 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
2122 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
2123 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
2124 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
2126 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
2128 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
2129 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
2131 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
2133 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
2134 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
2136 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
2137 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
2138 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
2140 * Removed targets and native configurations
2142 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
2143 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
2144 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
2150 * Removed targets and native configurations
2152 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
2153 sparc*-*-solaris2.10
2155 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
2157 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
2158 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
2161 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
2162 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
2163 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
2166 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
2169 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
2170 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
2171 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
2173 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
2174 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
2176 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
2177 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2178 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2179 in the GDB user manual.
2181 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
2184 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
2186 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
2187 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
2188 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
2189 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
2190 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
2191 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
2192 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
2193 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
2194 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
2195 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
2196 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
2197 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
2199 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
2200 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
2201 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
2204 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
2209 set debug compile-cplus-types
2210 show debug compile-cplus-types
2211 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
2212 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiling
2213 for other languages.
2217 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
2220 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
2221 Apply a command to some frames.
2222 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
2223 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
2226 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
2227 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
2230 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
2231 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
2234 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
2236 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
2238 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
2239 maint show dwarf unwinders
2240 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
2243 Display a list of open files for a process.
2247 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
2248 These commands all now take a frame specification which
2249 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
2250 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
2251 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
2252 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
2253 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
2255 target remote FILENAME
2256 target extended-remote FILENAME
2257 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
2258 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
2260 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
2261 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
2262 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
2263 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
2264 These commands can now print only the searched entities
2265 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
2266 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
2267 printing headers or informations messages.
2273 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
2274 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
2275 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
2278 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
2279 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
2280 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
2281 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
2283 set tui tab-width NCHARS
2284 show tui tab-width NCHARS
2285 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
2287 set style enabled [on|off]
2289 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
2290 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
2292 set style sources [on|off]
2294 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
2295 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
2296 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
2298 set style filename foreground COLOR
2299 set style filename background COLOR
2300 set style filename intensity VALUE
2301 Control the styling of file names.
2303 set style function foreground COLOR
2304 set style function background COLOR
2305 set style function intensity VALUE
2306 Control the styling of function names.
2308 set style variable foreground COLOR
2309 set style variable background COLOR
2310 set style variable intensity VALUE
2311 Control the styling of variable names.
2313 set style address foreground COLOR
2314 set style address background COLOR
2315 set style address intensity VALUE
2316 Control the styling of addresses.
2320 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
2321 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
2322 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
2323 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
2324 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
2326 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
2327 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
2329 * New native configurations
2331 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
2332 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
2336 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
2337 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
2338 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
2339 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
2341 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
2345 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
2350 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
2352 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
2353 space associated to that inferior.
2355 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
2356 of objfiles associated to that program space.
2358 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
2359 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
2362 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
2363 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
2364 correct and did not work properly.
2366 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
2367 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
2373 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
2374 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
2375 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
2376 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
2377 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
2379 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
2381 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
2382 for the MIPS target.
2384 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
2385 offset to all sections.
2387 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
2388 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
2389 address of individual sections using '-s'.
2391 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
2392 (address of the text section).
2394 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
2395 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
2396 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
2397 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
2400 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
2401 for the rest of the current command.
2403 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
2404 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
2406 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
2407 files created on FreeBSD systems.
2409 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
2412 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
2413 the vector length while the process is running.
2419 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
2421 set|show varsize-limit
2422 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
2423 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
2424 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
2426 set|show record btrace cpu
2427 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
2428 branch trace decode.
2430 maint check libthread-db
2431 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
2434 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
2435 maint show check-libthread-db
2436 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
2437 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
2438 perform such checks.
2442 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
2444 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
2445 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
2447 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
2449 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
2450 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
2451 of convenience variables.
2453 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
2454 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
2455 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
2459 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
2461 * Removed targets and native configurations
2463 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
2464 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
2465 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
2466 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
2468 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
2470 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
2471 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
2472 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
2473 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
2474 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
2475 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
2480 --enable-codesign=CERT
2481 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
2482 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
2483 gdb to work properly.
2485 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
2486 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
2488 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
2490 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
2491 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
2492 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
2494 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
2495 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
2497 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
2498 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
2499 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
2500 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
2501 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
2503 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
2504 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
2505 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
2506 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
2508 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
2509 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
2511 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
2512 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
2513 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
2515 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
2516 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
2517 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
2519 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
2520 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
2521 environment" command.
2523 * Completion improvements
2525 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
2526 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
2527 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
2528 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
2531 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
2532 (gdb) b function(int)
2534 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
2535 C++ anonymous namespaces:
2538 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
2539 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
2540 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
2542 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
2543 completion support, that better understands what you're
2544 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
2545 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
2546 setting a breakpoint.
2548 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
2550 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
2552 * New command line options (gcore)
2555 Dump all memory mappings.
2557 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
2559 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
2560 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
2561 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
2563 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
2568 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
2571 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
2572 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
2573 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
2574 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
2575 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
2576 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
2577 a breakpoint from Python.
2579 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
2581 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
2582 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
2583 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
2585 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
2587 function[abi:cxx11](int)
2590 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
2593 (gdb) b function(int)
2595 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
2597 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
2599 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
2603 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
2604 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
2605 description of these.
2607 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
2608 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
2609 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
2611 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
2612 manual for a further description of this feature.
2615 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2617 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
2618 specified initial working directory.
2620 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
2621 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
2623 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
2624 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
2626 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
2627 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
2629 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
2630 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
2631 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
2632 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
2633 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
2635 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
2636 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
2637 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
2639 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
2640 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
2641 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
2642 in the *stopped notification.
2644 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
2645 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
2647 * New remote packets
2649 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
2650 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
2651 the inferior when starting it.
2654 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
2655 before starting the remote inferior.
2658 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
2659 user-set environment variables should be unset).
2662 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
2665 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
2668 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
2669 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
2671 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
2672 filter the tests to be run.
2674 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
2675 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
2680 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
2682 set|show compile-gcc
2683 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
2684 with the 'compile' commands.
2686 set debug separate-debug-file
2687 show debug separate-debug-file
2688 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
2690 set dump-excluded-mappings
2691 show dump-excluded-mappings
2692 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
2693 dumped when generating a core file.
2695 maint info selftests
2696 List the registered selftests.
2699 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
2702 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
2704 set|show print type nested-type-limit
2705 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
2706 type printer will show.
2708 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
2711 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
2713 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
2716 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
2717 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
2718 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
2719 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
2721 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
2722 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
2723 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
2724 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
2725 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
2726 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
2728 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
2729 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
2730 unless you tell it the variable's type:
2733 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
2737 * New native configurations
2739 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
2740 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
2744 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
2745 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
2746 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
2748 * Removed targets and native configurations
2750 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
2752 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
2754 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
2755 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
2756 available in future Intel CPUs.
2758 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
2762 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
2763 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
2765 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
2768 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
2770 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
2772 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
2773 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
2776 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
2778 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
2779 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
2781 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
2783 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
2784 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
2785 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
2786 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
2789 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
2791 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
2792 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
2795 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
2797 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
2798 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
2800 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
2802 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
2807 eval "print $arg%d", $i
2812 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
2814 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
2815 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
2817 * New native configurations
2819 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
2823 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
2824 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
2826 * Removed targets and native configurations
2828 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2829 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
2834 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
2836 maint print arc arc-instruction address
2837 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
2841 set disassembler-options
2842 show disassembler-options
2843 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
2844 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
2845 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
2846 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
2847 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
2852 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
2853 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
2855 -file-list-shared-libraries
2856 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
2857 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
2860 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
2861 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
2863 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
2865 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
2867 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
2868 default. One must now explicitly configure with
2869 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
2870 option will be removed in a future release.
2872 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
2875 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
2876 memory backward from the given address. For example:
2879 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
2880 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
2881 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
2882 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
2883 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
2884 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
2885 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
2886 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
2887 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
2889 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
2890 arrays of dynamic types.
2892 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
2893 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
2894 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
2895 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
2896 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
2897 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
2899 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
2902 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
2903 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
2904 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
2906 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
2908 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
2909 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
2910 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
2911 signal received and code location.
2915 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
2916 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
2917 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
2918 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
2920 * Rust language support.
2921 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
2922 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
2925 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
2927 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
2928 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
2929 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
2930 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
2931 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
2932 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
2933 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
2934 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
2935 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
2936 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
2939 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
2941 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
2942 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
2947 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
2948 skip -function function
2949 skip -rfunction regular-expression
2950 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
2951 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
2952 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
2954 maint info line-table REGEXP
2955 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data structure.
2958 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
2961 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
2962 using the TTY file for input/output.
2966 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
2967 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
2968 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
2969 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
2970 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
2972 signal-event EVENTID
2973 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
2974 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
2975 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
2976 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
2977 signalling an event.
2979 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
2980 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
2981 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
2983 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
2986 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
2987 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
2988 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
2989 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
2990 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
2991 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
2993 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
2994 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
2995 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
2996 bytecode into native code.
2998 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
2999 recording. For example:
3001 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
3003 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
3005 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
3009 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
3011 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
3013 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
3015 * Per-inferior thread numbers
3017 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
3018 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
3019 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
3023 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
3024 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
3025 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
3026 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
3028 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
3029 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
3030 are no longer unique between inferiors.
3032 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
3033 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
3034 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
3036 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
3039 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
3040 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
3043 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
3046 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
3047 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
3048 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
3049 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
3052 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
3055 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
3058 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
3061 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
3062 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
3065 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
3066 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
3068 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
3070 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
3072 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
3073 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
3075 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
3076 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
3079 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
3080 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
3083 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
3084 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
3087 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
3089 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
3090 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
3091 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
3093 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
3094 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
3098 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
3099 maint show target-non-stop
3100 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
3101 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
3102 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
3104 maint set bfd-sharing
3105 maint show bfd-sharing
3106 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
3109 show debug bfd-cache
3110 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
3114 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
3116 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
3117 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
3118 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
3120 set remote thread-events
3121 show remote thread-events
3122 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
3124 set ada print-signatures on|off
3125 show ada print-signatures"
3126 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
3127 selection menus. It is activated (@code{on}) by default.
3131 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
3132 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
3133 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
3135 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
3136 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
3137 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
3138 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
3139 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
3140 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
3142 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
3143 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
3145 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
3146 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
3148 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
3150 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
3151 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
3152 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
3153 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
3154 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
3155 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
3157 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
3158 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
3161 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
3163 * New remote packets
3166 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
3168 exec-events feature in qSupported
3169 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
3170 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
3171 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
3172 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
3175 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
3178 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
3179 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
3181 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
3182 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
3185 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
3186 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
3187 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
3188 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
3189 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
3190 stop for that same thread.
3193 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
3194 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
3195 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
3198 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
3199 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
3201 syscall_entry stop reason
3202 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
3204 syscall_return stop reason
3205 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
3207 * Extended-remote exec events
3209 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
3210 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
3211 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
3213 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
3214 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
3215 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
3217 * Thread names in remote protocol
3219 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
3222 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
3224 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
3225 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
3226 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
3227 fork and exec catchpoints.
3229 * Remote syscall events
3231 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
3232 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
3234 set remote catch-syscall-packet
3235 show remote catch-syscall-packet
3236 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
3240 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
3241 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
3246 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
3247 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
3248 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
3249 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
3250 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
3251 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
3253 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
3255 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
3256 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
3257 including advance SIMD instructions.
3259 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
3261 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
3262 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
3263 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
3264 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
3265 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
3266 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
3267 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
3269 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
3271 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
3273 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
3274 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
3277 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
3278 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
3279 and may include things like its command line arguments.
3281 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
3282 is now available on all platforms.
3284 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
3285 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
3286 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
3287 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
3288 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
3289 backward compatibility.
3291 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
3292 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
3293 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
3294 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
3296 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
3297 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
3298 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
3299 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
3302 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
3304 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
3306 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
3307 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
3308 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
3309 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
3310 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
3311 See "New remote packets" below.
3313 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
3314 available register groups, including target specific groups.
3316 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
3317 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
3318 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
3319 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
3324 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
3328 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
3329 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
3330 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
3331 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
3332 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
3333 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
3334 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
3335 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
3336 "const" version of the value respectively.
3340 maint print symbol-cache
3341 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
3343 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
3344 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
3346 maint flush-symbol-cache
3347 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
3351 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
3354 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
3358 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
3361 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
3362 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
3366 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
3369 Print information about branch tracing internals.
3371 maint btrace packet-history
3372 Print the raw branch tracing data.
3374 maint btrace clear-packet-history
3375 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
3378 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
3379 anew by the next "record" command.
3384 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
3385 show debug dwarf-die
3386 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
3388 set debug dwarf-read
3389 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
3390 show debug dwarf-read
3391 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
3393 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
3394 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
3395 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
3396 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
3398 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
3399 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
3400 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
3401 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
3403 set debug dwarf-line
3404 show debug dwarf-line
3405 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
3408 show max-completions
3409 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
3410 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
3411 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
3412 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
3414 set history remove-duplicates
3415 show history remove-duplicates
3416 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
3418 maint set symbol-cache-size
3419 maint show symbol-cache-size
3420 Control the size of the symbol cache.
3422 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
3423 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
3425 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
3426 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
3428 set debug linux-namespaces
3429 show debug linux-namespaces
3430 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
3432 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
3433 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
3434 Intel Processor Trace format.
3435 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
3436 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
3438 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
3439 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
3442 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
3443 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
3445 * Python/Guile scripting
3447 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
3448 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
3450 * New remote packets
3452 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
3453 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
3455 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
3456 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
3459 Enable Intel Processor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
3460 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
3463 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
3464 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
3468 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
3469 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
3470 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
3474 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
3475 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
3478 Return information about files on the remote system.
3480 qXfer:exec-file:read
3481 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
3482 create a process running on the remote system.
3485 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
3486 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
3487 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
3488 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
3491 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
3494 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
3496 vforkdone stop reason
3497 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
3498 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
3500 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
3501 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
3502 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
3503 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
3504 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
3505 whether these features are enabled.
3507 * Extended-remote fork events
3509 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
3510 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
3511 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
3512 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
3514 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
3515 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
3516 the btrace record target.
3517 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
3519 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
3520 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
3522 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
3525 * Removed command line options
3527 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
3529 * Removed targets and native configurations
3531 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
3532 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
3534 * New configure options
3537 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
3538 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
3540 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
3541 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
3542 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
3543 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
3545 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
3549 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
3551 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
3553 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
3557 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
3558 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
3559 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
3560 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
3561 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
3562 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
3563 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
3564 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
3565 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
3566 selecting a new file to debug.
3567 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
3568 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
3570 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
3573 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
3574 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
3575 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
3576 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
3578 * New Python-based convenience functions:
3580 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
3581 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
3582 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
3583 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
3585 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
3586 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
3587 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
3588 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
3589 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
3590 interface with this new feature are:
3592 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
3593 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
3597 demangle [-l language] [--] name
3598 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
3599 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
3600 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
3601 as "maint demangler-warning".
3603 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
3604 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
3606 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
3607 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
3610 maint print user-registers
3611 List all currently available "user" registers.
3613 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
3614 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
3615 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
3617 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
3618 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
3619 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
3622 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
3623 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
3624 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
3625 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
3628 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
3629 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
3630 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
3631 switched threads meanwhile.
3633 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
3635 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
3636 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
3637 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
3638 is now the default mode.
3642 set debug symbol-lookup
3643 show debug symbol-lookup
3644 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
3648 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
3649 inferiors that have exited.
3653 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
3657 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
3659 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
3660 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
3661 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
3662 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
3663 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
3665 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
3666 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
3667 its alias "share", instead.
3669 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
3671 * New command line options
3674 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
3676 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
3677 as specified in ISO C99.
3679 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
3680 with or without disassembly.
3684 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
3685 available is determined at configure time.
3686 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
3687 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
3689 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3693 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
3697 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
3699 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
3700 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
3702 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
3703 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
3707 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
3708 show print symbol-loading
3709 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
3710 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
3711 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
3712 becomes less useful.
3714 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
3715 show guile print-stack
3716 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
3718 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
3719 show auto-load guile-scripts
3720 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
3722 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
3723 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
3724 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
3725 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
3726 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
3727 usage of this option.
3729 set auto-connect-native-target
3731 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
3732 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
3733 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
3735 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
3736 show record btrace replay-memory-access
3737 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
3739 maint set target-async (on|off)
3740 maint show target-async
3741 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
3742 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
3743 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
3744 occurring only in synchronous mode.
3746 set mi-async (on|off)
3748 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
3749 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
3751 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
3752 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
3754 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
3755 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
3756 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
3757 "set target-async on" command.
3759 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3761 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
3762 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
3763 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
3764 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
3765 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
3767 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
3768 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
3769 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
3771 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
3772 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
3773 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
3774 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
3775 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
3776 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
3777 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
3779 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
3780 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
3782 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
3783 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
3784 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
3786 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
3787 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
3788 memory or registers.
3790 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
3792 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
3793 remote. It now works with all targets.
3795 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
3796 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
3797 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
3798 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
3799 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
3800 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
3801 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
3802 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
3803 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
3806 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
3807 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
3808 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
3810 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
3812 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
3813 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
3814 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
3816 * New remote packets
3818 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
3819 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
3820 branch trace incrementally.
3824 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
3825 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
3827 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
3828 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
3829 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
3830 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
3831 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
3834 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
3836 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
3837 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
3838 its alias "share", instead.
3840 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
3841 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
3846 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
3847 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
3848 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
3849 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
3850 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
3851 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
3852 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
3853 commands and CLI execution commands.
3855 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
3857 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
3858 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
3859 recording has been added.
3861 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
3863 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
3864 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
3866 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
3867 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
3868 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
3869 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
3870 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
3871 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
3874 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
3876 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
3878 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
3879 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
3880 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
3881 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
3886 (gdb) info registers rax
3889 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
3890 "*value not available*".
3892 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
3897 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
3898 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
3899 ** Line tables representation has been added.
3900 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
3901 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
3902 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
3906 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
3907 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
3908 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
3910 * Removed native configurations
3912 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
3913 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
3915 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3916 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3917 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
3918 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
3919 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3920 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3921 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3925 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
3926 maint check-psymtabs
3927 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
3929 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
3930 maint expand-symtabs
3931 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
3934 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
3936 maint set|show per-command
3937 maint set|show per-command space
3938 maint set|show per-command time
3939 maint set|show per-command symtab
3940 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
3942 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
3943 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
3944 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
3945 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
3946 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
3949 info exceptions REGEXP
3950 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
3951 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
3956 set debug symfile off|on
3958 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
3959 symbol tables within those files
3961 set print raw frame-arguments
3962 show print raw frame-arguments
3963 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
3964 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
3966 set remote trace-status-packet
3967 show remote trace-status-packet
3968 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
3972 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
3976 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
3978 set startup-with-shell
3979 show startup-with-shell
3980 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
3985 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
3986 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
3988 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
3989 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
3990 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
3991 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
3994 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
3995 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
3996 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
3998 * New command-line options
4000 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
4002 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
4003 buffer in Common Trace Format.
4005 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
4008 * GDB now implements the C++ 'typeid' operator.
4010 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
4011 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
4013 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
4014 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
4016 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
4017 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
4018 due to an uncaught signal.
4022 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
4023 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
4024 command, which should contain "language-option".
4026 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
4027 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
4029 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
4030 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
4031 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
4032 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
4033 "undefined-command-error-code".
4035 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
4038 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
4040 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
4041 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
4044 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
4045 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
4047 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
4048 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
4049 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
4051 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
4052 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
4053 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
4054 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
4055 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
4056 "exec-run-start-option".
4058 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
4059 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
4061 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
4062 the new "info exceptions" command.
4064 * New system-wide configuration scripts
4065 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
4066 configuration scripts for the following systems:
4070 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
4071 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
4072 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
4075 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
4076 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
4078 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
4079 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
4080 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
4082 * New remote packets
4086 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
4087 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
4088 involvemement at each single-step.
4090 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
4091 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
4092 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
4093 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
4094 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
4095 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
4098 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
4100 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
4101 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
4103 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
4104 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
4105 trace state variables.
4107 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
4110 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
4111 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
4113 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
4115 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
4116 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
4117 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
4118 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4120 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
4122 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
4123 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
4124 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
4125 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
4127 set|show record full insn-number-max
4128 set|show record full stop-at-limit
4129 set|show record full memory-query
4131 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
4132 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
4133 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
4134 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
4135 This new recording method can be enabled using:
4139 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
4140 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
4142 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
4143 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
4144 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
4146 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
4147 instruction granularity
4149 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
4150 function granularity
4152 * New native configurations
4154 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
4155 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
4156 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
4157 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
4161 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
4162 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
4163 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
4164 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
4165 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
4167 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
4168 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
4169 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
4170 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
4171 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
4172 --data-directory command-line option.
4174 * New command line options:
4176 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
4177 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
4179 * Removed command line options
4181 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
4184 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
4187 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
4191 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
4193 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
4195 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
4197 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
4199 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
4200 of architecture in the Python API.
4202 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
4203 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
4205 * New Python-based convenience functions:
4207 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
4208 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
4210 ** $_regex(str, regex)
4212 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
4215 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
4216 default for GCC since November 2000.
4218 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
4220 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
4221 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
4223 * New configure options
4225 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
4226 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
4227 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
4228 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
4229 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
4230 options allow the user to override that default.
4231 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
4232 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
4233 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
4235 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4238 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
4239 conditions to be attached.
4242 List the BFDs known to GDB.
4244 python-interactive [command]
4246 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
4247 and print the result of expressions.
4250 "py" is a new alias for "python".
4252 enable type-printer [name]...
4253 disable type-printer [name]...
4254 Enable or disable type printers.
4258 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
4259 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
4264 set print type methods (on|off)
4265 show print type methods
4266 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
4267 The default is to show them.
4269 set print type typedefs (on|off)
4270 show print type typedefs
4271 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
4272 The default is to show them.
4274 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
4275 show filename-display
4276 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
4277 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
4279 set trace-buffer-size
4280 show trace-buffer-size
4281 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
4283 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
4284 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
4285 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
4289 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
4292 set debug coff-pe-read
4293 show debug coff-pe-read
4294 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
4299 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
4302 set debug notification
4303 show debug notification
4304 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
4308 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
4309 "=cmd-param-changed".
4310 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
4311 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
4312 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
4313 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
4314 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
4315 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
4316 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
4317 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
4319 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
4320 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
4321 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
4322 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
4323 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
4324 library load/unload events.
4325 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
4326 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
4327 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
4328 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
4329 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
4330 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
4331 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
4332 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
4334 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
4335 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
4336 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
4337 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
4339 * New remote packets
4342 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
4343 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
4346 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
4347 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
4351 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
4352 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
4355 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
4356 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
4358 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
4360 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
4361 for more x32 ABI info.
4363 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
4365 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
4367 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
4368 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
4369 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
4370 "info os files" lists file descriptors
4371 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
4372 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
4373 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
4374 "info os msg" lists message queues
4375 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
4377 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
4378 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
4379 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
4380 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
4381 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
4382 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
4384 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
4385 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
4386 record/replay support.
4388 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
4392 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
4395 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
4397 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
4398 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
4400 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
4402 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
4403 the source at which the symbol was defined.
4405 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
4406 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
4407 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
4410 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
4411 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
4413 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
4414 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
4415 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
4417 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
4418 object associated with a PC value.
4420 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
4421 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
4423 * Go language support.
4424 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
4427 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
4428 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
4430 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
4431 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
4433 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
4434 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
4435 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
4436 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
4437 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
4440 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
4441 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
4442 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
4443 build/libcpp/expr.c.
4445 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
4446 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
4448 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
4449 since December 2007.
4451 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
4452 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
4453 command does. For instance:
4455 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
4457 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
4458 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
4459 created, using the "condition" command.
4461 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
4462 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
4464 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
4466 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
4467 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
4468 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
4469 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
4470 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
4471 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
4472 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
4473 files with older .gdb_index sections.
4475 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
4476 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
4477 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
4478 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
4479 the .gdb_index section.
4481 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
4483 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
4488 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
4490 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
4494 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
4495 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
4496 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
4498 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
4499 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
4501 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
4504 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
4505 C++ and Java objects.
4507 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
4508 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
4509 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
4510 configured with '--with-python'.
4512 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
4513 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
4514 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
4515 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
4516 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
4517 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
4518 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
4520 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
4521 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
4522 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
4523 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
4525 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
4526 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
4527 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
4528 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
4530 ** "set print symbol"
4532 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
4533 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
4534 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
4536 * Deprecated commands
4538 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
4539 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
4543 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
4544 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
4546 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
4547 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
4548 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
4549 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
4554 set mips compression
4555 show mips compression
4556 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
4557 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
4560 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
4562 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
4563 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
4564 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
4565 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
4567 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
4571 Disable auto-loading globally.
4574 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
4576 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
4577 show auto-load gdb-scripts
4578 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
4580 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
4581 show auto-load python-scripts
4582 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
4584 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
4585 show auto-load local-gdbinit
4586 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
4588 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
4589 show auto-load libthread-db
4590 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
4592 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
4593 show auto-load scripts-directory
4594 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
4595 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
4596 of the directories listed by this option.
4597 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
4599 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
4600 show auto-load safe-path
4601 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
4602 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
4604 set debug auto-load on|off
4605 show debug auto-load
4606 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
4608 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
4610 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
4611 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
4612 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
4613 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
4615 set dprintf-function <expr>
4616 show dprintf-function
4617 set dprintf-channel <expr>
4618 show dprintf-channel
4619 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
4620 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
4622 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
4623 show disconnected-dprintf
4624 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
4625 after GDB disconnects.
4627 * New configure options
4629 --with-auto-load-dir
4630 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
4631 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
4632 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
4633 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
4634 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
4636 --with-auto-load-safe-path
4637 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
4638 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
4640 --without-auto-load-safe-path
4641 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
4644 * New remote packets
4646 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
4648 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
4649 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
4650 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
4651 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
4655 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
4656 program without GDB involvement.
4658 * New command line options
4660 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
4661 before loading inferior.
4662 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
4663 execute it before loading inferior.
4665 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
4667 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
4668 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
4669 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
4670 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
4673 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
4674 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
4676 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
4677 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
4678 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
4679 target hardware watchpoint.
4681 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
4682 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
4683 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
4684 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
4688 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
4689 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
4692 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
4693 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
4694 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
4695 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
4696 now "message", which just prints the error message without
4699 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
4702 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
4703 modules library. This module provides functionality for
4704 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
4705 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
4706 corresponding value.
4708 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
4709 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
4710 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
4713 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
4714 static_block will return the global and static blocks
4715 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
4716 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
4718 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
4720 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
4723 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
4724 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
4725 available in the CLI.
4727 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
4728 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
4729 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
4730 "some_type.items()".
4732 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
4735 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
4736 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
4737 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
4738 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
4739 any anonymous fields.
4743 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
4746 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
4747 "=breakpoint-modified".
4749 ** New command -ada-task-info.
4751 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
4752 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
4753 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
4756 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
4757 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
4758 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
4759 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
4760 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
4762 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
4763 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
4765 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
4766 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
4767 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
4768 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
4769 use this option to specify where to find it.
4771 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
4772 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
4773 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
4774 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
4775 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
4776 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
4777 section in the user manual for more details.
4779 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
4780 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
4781 become available after that.
4783 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
4785 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
4786 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
4792 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
4793 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
4797 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
4798 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
4799 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
4801 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
4802 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
4803 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
4805 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
4806 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
4807 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
4808 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
4809 name starts with a hyphen.
4811 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
4812 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
4813 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
4814 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
4815 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
4816 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
4817 number of bytes that will be collected.
4820 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
4821 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
4822 setting the variable trace-notes.
4825 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
4826 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
4827 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
4830 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
4831 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
4832 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
4833 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
4834 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
4837 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
4838 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
4839 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
4843 set debug dwarf2-read
4844 show debug dwarf2-read
4845 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
4846 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
4848 set debug symtab-create
4849 show debug symtab-create
4850 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
4851 creation. The default is off.
4854 show extended-prompt
4855 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
4856 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
4857 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
4858 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
4859 prompt is displayed.
4861 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
4862 show print entry-values
4863 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
4864 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
4865 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
4867 set debug entry-values
4868 show debug entry-values
4869 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
4870 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
4872 set basenames-may-differ
4873 show basenames-may-differ
4874 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
4875 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
4876 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
4877 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
4878 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
4879 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
4880 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
4881 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
4887 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
4888 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
4889 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
4890 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
4892 set trace-stop-notes
4893 show trace-stop-notes
4894 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
4895 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
4896 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
4897 started by someone else.
4899 * New remote packets
4903 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
4907 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
4911 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
4915 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
4919 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
4922 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
4923 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
4927 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
4931 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
4933 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
4935 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
4937 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
4939 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
4940 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
4941 matches the given regular expression.
4943 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
4945 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
4946 dumping the instruction opcodes.
4948 * New command line options
4950 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
4951 This is mostly for testing purposes.
4953 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
4954 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
4956 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
4957 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
4958 source path list instead of augmenting it.
4960 * GDB now understands thread names.
4962 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
4963 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
4965 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
4966 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
4969 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
4970 has been integrated into GDB.
4974 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
4975 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
4976 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
4978 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
4979 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
4980 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
4981 and allows for more dynamic content.
4983 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
4984 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
4985 have an is_valid method.
4987 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
4988 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
4989 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
4991 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
4993 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
4994 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
4995 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
4996 that function like so:
4998 result = some_value (10,20)
5000 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
5001 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
5002 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
5004 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
5005 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
5006 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
5007 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
5008 New function: register_pretty_printer.
5010 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
5011 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
5013 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
5015 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
5018 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
5019 holds the thread's name.
5021 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
5022 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
5023 occurring in the process being debugged.
5024 The following events are currently supported:
5025 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
5026 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
5027 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
5031 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
5032 instantiation. For example, if you have:
5034 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
5036 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
5037 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
5038 was added to GCC 4.5.
5040 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
5041 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
5042 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
5043 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
5044 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
5045 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
5047 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
5048 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
5049 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
5050 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
5051 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
5053 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
5054 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
5055 execution to a label.
5057 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
5058 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
5059 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
5060 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
5062 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
5063 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
5064 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
5067 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
5069 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
5070 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
5071 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
5072 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
5073 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
5074 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
5077 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
5079 While now you see this:
5082 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
5084 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
5087 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
5088 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
5089 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
5090 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
5092 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
5093 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
5094 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
5095 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
5096 section in the user manual for more details.
5098 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
5100 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
5101 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
5103 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
5105 * New native configurations
5107 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
5111 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
5113 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
5114 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
5115 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
5116 in the GDB user manual.
5118 * Guile support was removed.
5120 * New features in the GNU simulator
5122 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
5124 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
5126 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
5128 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
5130 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
5131 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
5132 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
5133 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
5134 was always disabled for such configurations.
5138 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
5140 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
5141 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
5151 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
5152 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
5153 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
5155 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
5157 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
5158 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
5159 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
5160 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
5162 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
5163 mentioned flavors of operators.
5165 ** static const class members
5167 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
5168 class definition has been fixed.
5170 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
5172 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
5173 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
5174 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
5175 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
5176 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
5177 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
5179 * Static tracepoints
5181 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
5182 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
5183 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
5184 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
5185 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
5186 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
5187 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
5188 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
5189 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
5190 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
5191 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
5192 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
5193 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
5194 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
5195 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
5196 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
5197 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
5198 the "New remote packets" section below.
5200 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
5202 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
5203 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
5204 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
5205 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
5209 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
5210 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
5211 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
5212 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
5213 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
5214 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
5215 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
5217 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
5220 * New remote packets
5224 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
5228 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
5229 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
5230 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
5231 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
5232 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
5233 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
5237 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
5241 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
5244 qXfer:statictrace:read
5246 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
5247 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
5248 to gdb's qSupported query.
5252 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
5256 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
5257 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
5259 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
5260 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
5263 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
5265 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
5266 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
5267 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
5268 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
5270 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
5271 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
5272 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
5273 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
5274 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
5275 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
5276 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
5278 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
5279 for static tracepoints support.
5281 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
5283 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
5284 it understands register description.
5286 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
5288 * X86 general purpose registers
5290 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
5291 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
5292 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
5293 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
5294 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
5296 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
5297 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
5298 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
5299 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
5300 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
5301 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
5303 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
5304 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
5305 in the specified file.
5307 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
5308 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
5309 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
5310 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
5311 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
5312 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
5313 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
5314 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
5315 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
5316 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
5320 eval template, expressions...
5321 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
5322 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
5324 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
5325 show target-file-system-kind
5326 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
5329 save breakpoints <filename>
5330 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
5331 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
5332 definitions, use the `source' command.
5334 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
5337 info static-tracepoint-markers
5338 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
5340 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
5341 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
5342 function, line, address, or marker ID.
5346 Enable and disable observer mode.
5348 set may-write-registers on|off
5349 set may-write-memory on|off
5350 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
5351 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
5352 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
5353 set may-interrupt on|off
5354 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
5355 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
5356 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
5357 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
5358 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
5359 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
5360 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
5362 set record memory-query on|off
5363 show record memory-query
5364 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
5365 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
5370 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
5374 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
5375 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
5376 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
5377 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
5378 GDB using Python' in the manual.
5380 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
5381 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
5382 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
5383 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
5385 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
5386 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
5388 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
5390 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
5392 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
5394 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
5395 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
5396 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
5398 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
5399 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
5400 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
5401 regular breakpoints.
5405 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
5407 * D language support.
5408 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
5411 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
5412 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
5413 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
5414 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
5415 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
5417 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
5418 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
5419 conditions of the form:
5421 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
5423 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
5424 interface mentioned above.
5426 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
5430 ** Namespace Support
5432 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
5433 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
5434 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
5435 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
5436 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
5440 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
5441 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
5446 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
5447 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
5451 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
5456 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
5459 * Multi-program debugging.
5461 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
5462 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
5463 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
5464 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
5465 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
5466 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
5467 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
5468 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
5470 * New tracing features
5472 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
5474 ** Trace state variables
5476 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
5477 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
5478 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
5479 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
5480 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
5481 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
5482 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
5483 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
5484 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
5485 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
5489 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
5490 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
5491 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
5492 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
5493 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
5494 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
5495 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
5496 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
5497 the regular trace command.
5499 ** Disconnected tracing
5501 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
5502 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
5503 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
5504 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
5505 connection is lost unexpectedly.
5509 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
5510 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
5511 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
5512 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
5513 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
5514 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
5517 ** Circular trace buffer
5519 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
5520 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
5521 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
5522 not be available for all target agents.
5527 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
5528 the arguments to be comma-separated.
5531 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
5532 which only declare a variable are not shown.
5535 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
5536 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
5539 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
5540 "set script-extension" (see below).
5542 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
5544 record save [<FILENAME>]
5545 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
5546 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
5548 record restore <FILENAME>
5549 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
5550 earlier time, for replay debugging.
5552 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
5555 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
5556 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
5557 inferior has loaded.
5562 maint info program-spaces
5563 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
5565 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
5566 show remote interrupt-sequence
5567 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
5568 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
5569 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
5570 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
5571 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
5573 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
5574 show remote interrupt-on-connect
5575 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
5576 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
5579 set remotebreak [on | off]
5581 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
5583 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
5584 Create or modify a trace state variable.
5587 List trace state variables and their values.
5589 delete tvariable $NAME ...
5590 Delete one or more trace state variables.
5593 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
5594 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
5596 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
5597 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
5599 * New expression syntax
5601 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
5602 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
5606 set follow-exec-mode new|same
5607 show follow-exec-mode
5608 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
5609 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
5610 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
5612 set default-collect EXPR, ...
5613 show default-collect
5614 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
5615 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
5616 such as registers or a critical global variable.
5618 set disconnected-tracing
5619 show disconnected-tracing
5620 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
5621 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
5624 set circular-trace-buffer
5625 show circular-trace-buffer
5626 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
5627 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
5628 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
5629 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
5631 set script-extension off|soft|strict
5632 show script-extension
5633 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
5634 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
5635 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
5636 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
5638 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
5640 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
5641 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
5642 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
5643 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
5644 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
5645 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
5646 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
5649 * Python API Improvements
5651 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
5652 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
5653 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
5655 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
5656 `is_base_class' attribute.
5658 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
5660 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
5661 evaluate an expression.
5663 * New remote packets
5666 Define a trace state variable.
5669 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
5672 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
5675 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
5678 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
5682 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
5684 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
5685 much more reliable. In particular:
5686 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
5687 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
5688 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
5689 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
5690 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
5691 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
5692 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
5693 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
5694 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
5695 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
5696 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
5697 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
5698 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
5699 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
5700 non-threaded programs.
5702 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
5703 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
5704 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
5707 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
5709 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
5710 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
5711 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
5712 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
5713 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
5715 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
5716 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
5717 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
5718 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
5719 for tracepoint actions.
5721 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
5722 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
5723 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
5725 * Process record and replay
5727 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
5728 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
5729 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
5732 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
5733 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
5734 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
5737 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
5738 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
5741 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
5742 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
5743 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
5744 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
5745 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
5746 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
5747 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
5748 the installation instructions for more information.
5750 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
5751 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
5752 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
5753 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
5755 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
5756 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
5758 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
5759 now complete on file names.
5761 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
5762 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
5763 For instance, consider:
5765 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
5766 # struct example variable;
5769 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
5770 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
5772 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
5773 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
5775 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
5776 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
5779 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
5780 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
5781 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
5783 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
5784 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
5785 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
5786 and simulator targets may also provide them.
5788 * New remote packets
5791 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
5794 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
5795 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
5796 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
5799 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
5800 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
5803 Obtains additional operating system information
5807 Read or write additional signal information.
5809 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
5811 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
5812 packet that permitted the stub to pass a process id was removed.
5813 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
5815 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
5816 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
5818 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
5819 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
5820 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
5822 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
5823 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
5825 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
5827 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
5829 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
5830 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
5832 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote protocol packet now allows passing a
5833 list of section offsets.
5835 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
5836 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
5837 have also been fixed.
5839 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
5840 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
5841 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
5843 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
5846 template<typename T> class C { };
5849 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
5851 ptype C<char const *>
5852 ptype C<char const*>
5853 ptype C<const char *>
5854 ptype C<const char*>
5856 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
5858 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
5859 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
5861 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
5862 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
5863 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
5865 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
5866 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
5868 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
5871 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
5872 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
5874 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
5875 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
5880 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
5881 available is determined at configure time.
5883 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
5885 * Ada tasking support
5887 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
5891 Print the list of Ada tasks.
5893 Print detailed information about task number N.
5895 Print the task number of the current task.
5897 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
5899 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
5900 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
5902 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
5904 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
5905 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
5906 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
5907 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
5908 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
5909 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
5912 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
5913 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
5916 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
5917 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
5918 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
5919 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
5922 * Multi-architecture debugging.
5924 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
5925 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
5926 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
5927 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
5928 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
5930 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
5931 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
5932 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
5933 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
5934 --enable-targets configure option.
5936 * Non-stop mode debugging.
5938 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
5939 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
5940 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
5941 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
5942 section in the user manual for more information.
5944 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
5945 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
5946 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
5947 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
5948 extensions on linux targets.
5950 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
5952 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
5953 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
5954 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
5955 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
5956 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
5957 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
5958 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
5959 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
5960 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
5962 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
5964 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
5966 maint set python print-stack
5967 maint show python print-stack
5968 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
5971 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
5976 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
5980 Show operating system information about processes.
5983 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
5986 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
5989 Detach from inferior number NUM.
5992 Kill inferior number NUM.
5996 set spu stop-on-load
5997 show spu stop-on-load
5998 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
6000 set spu auto-flush-cache
6001 show spu auto-flush-cache
6002 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
6003 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
6005 set sh calling-convention
6006 show sh calling-convention
6007 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
6010 show debug timestamp
6011 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
6013 set disassemble-next-line
6014 show disassemble-next-line
6015 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
6018 set remote noack-packet
6019 show remote noack-packet
6020 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
6021 under "New remote packets."
6023 set remote query-attached-packet
6024 show remote query-attached-packet
6025 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
6027 set remote read-siginfo-object
6028 show remote read-siginfo-object
6029 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
6032 set remote write-siginfo-object
6033 show remote write-siginfo-object
6034 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
6037 set remote reverse-continue
6038 show remote reverse-continue
6039 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
6041 set remote reverse-step
6042 show remote reverse-step
6043 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
6045 set displaced-stepping
6046 show displaced-stepping
6047 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
6048 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
6049 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
6052 show debug displaced
6053 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
6055 maint set internal-error
6056 maint show internal-error
6057 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
6059 maint set internal-warning
6060 maint show internal-warning
6061 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
6066 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
6068 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
6069 show multiple-symbols
6070 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
6071 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
6072 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
6074 set breakpoint always-inserted
6075 show breakpoint always-inserted
6076 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
6077 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
6078 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
6080 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
6081 show arm fallback-mode
6082 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
6084 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
6085 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
6086 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
6087 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
6089 set arm unwind-secure-frames
6090 Enable unwinding from Non-secure to Secure mode on Cortex-M with
6092 This can trigger security exceptions when unwinding exception stacks.
6094 set disable-randomization
6095 show disable-randomization
6096 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
6097 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
6098 multiple debugging sessions.
6102 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
6107 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
6108 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
6109 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
6110 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
6112 set target-wide-charset
6113 show target-wide-charset
6114 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
6115 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
6117 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
6119 set tcp connect-timeout
6120 show tcp connect-timeout
6121 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
6122 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
6123 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
6125 set libthread-db-search-path
6126 show libthread-db-search-path
6127 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
6130 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
6131 show schedule-multiple
6132 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
6133 the current process.
6137 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
6138 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
6139 affecting correctness.
6141 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
6142 show interactive-mode
6143 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
6144 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
6145 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
6146 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
6147 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
6152 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
6153 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
6154 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
6158 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
6159 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
6160 alias for the `fork' command.
6163 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
6164 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
6165 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
6168 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
6169 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
6170 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
6174 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
6175 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
6176 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
6179 * New native configurations
6181 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
6183 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
6187 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
6188 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
6189 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
6192 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
6193 (mingw32ce) debugging.
6199 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
6201 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
6203 * New native configurations
6205 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
6206 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
6210 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
6211 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
6213 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
6215 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
6216 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
6217 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
6218 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
6220 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
6221 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
6223 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
6226 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
6227 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
6228 and in inlined functions.
6230 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
6231 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
6232 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
6234 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
6236 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
6237 registers on PowerPC targets.
6239 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
6240 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
6242 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
6243 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
6245 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
6246 extended-remote mode.
6248 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
6249 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
6250 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
6251 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
6253 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
6254 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
6255 target architectures.
6257 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
6258 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
6259 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
6260 stored in two consecutive float registers.
6262 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
6265 * Improved support for debugging Ada
6266 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
6268 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
6269 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
6270 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
6271 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
6273 - Improved command completion in Ada
6276 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
6281 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
6282 show print frame-arguments
6283 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
6284 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
6289 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
6296 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
6298 * New remote packets
6305 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
6308 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
6312 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
6314 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
6316 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
6317 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
6318 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
6320 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
6321 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
6322 -Bsymbolic linker option.
6324 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
6325 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
6328 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
6329 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
6331 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
6332 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
6334 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
6336 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
6337 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
6338 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
6340 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
6341 automatically displayed as character or string data.
6343 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
6344 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
6347 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
6348 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
6349 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
6351 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
6354 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
6355 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
6356 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
6358 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
6360 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
6362 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
6363 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
6364 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
6366 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
6367 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
6369 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
6370 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
6371 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
6372 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
6373 Windows and SymbianOS).
6375 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
6376 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
6378 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
6379 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
6385 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
6386 when debugging using remote targets.
6388 set mem inaccessible-by-default
6389 show mem inaccessible-by-default
6390 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
6391 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
6392 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
6393 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
6394 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
6396 set breakpoint auto-hw
6397 show breakpoint auto-hw
6398 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
6399 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
6400 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
6401 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
6402 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
6403 including "next" and "finish".
6406 catch exception unhandled
6407 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
6410 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
6414 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
6415 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
6416 an alias to "set sysroot".
6419 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
6420 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
6423 * New native configurations
6425 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
6428 unset tdesc filename
6430 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
6431 not query the target for its built-in description.
6435 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
6436 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
6437 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
6439 * New remote packets
6442 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
6443 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
6445 qXfer:features:read:
6446 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
6451 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
6452 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
6454 qXfer:libraries:read:
6455 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
6456 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
6457 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
6458 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
6462 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
6470 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
6471 i[34567]86-*-netware*
6472 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
6473 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
6475 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
6478 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
6479 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
6488 * Other removed features
6495 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
6502 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
6507 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
6508 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
6513 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
6514 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
6516 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
6518 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
6519 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
6520 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
6521 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
6523 MIPS ".pdr" sections
6525 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
6526 in debugging information.
6530 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
6531 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
6533 set mips stack-arg-size
6534 set mips saved-gpreg-size
6536 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
6538 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
6543 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
6545 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
6546 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
6547 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
6549 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
6550 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
6553 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
6554 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
6556 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
6557 stub provides the required support.
6559 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
6560 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
6565 unset substitute-path
6566 show substitute-path
6567 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
6568 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
6569 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
6570 between compilation and debugging.
6574 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
6575 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
6576 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
6580 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
6582 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
6583 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
6585 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
6587 * New remote packets
6590 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
6591 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
6592 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
6593 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
6597 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
6598 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
6600 qXfer:memory-map:read:
6601 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
6602 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
6607 Erase and program a flash memory device.
6609 * Removed remote packets
6612 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
6613 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
6615 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
6619 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
6621 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
6625 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
6626 only if it doesn't already have a value.
6628 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
6630 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
6632 restart <n> Return the program state to a
6633 previously saved state.
6635 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
6637 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
6639 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
6640 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
6642 info forks List forks of the user program that
6643 are available to be debugged.
6645 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
6646 forks of the user program that are
6647 available to be debugged.
6649 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
6650 that are available to be debugged (and
6651 kill the forked process).
6653 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
6654 that are available to be debugged (and
6655 allow the process to continue).
6659 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
6661 * Improved Windows host support
6663 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
6664 native console support, and remote communications using either
6665 network sockets or serial ports.
6667 * Improved Modula-2 language support
6669 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
6670 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
6671 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
6672 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
6673 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
6674 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
6678 The ARM rdi-share module.
6680 The Netware NLM debug server.
6682 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
6684 * New native configurations
6686 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
6687 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
6691 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
6693 * New command line options
6695 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
6696 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
6697 the child (debugged) program exited with.
6698 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
6699 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
6700 specified multiple times and in conjunction
6701 with the --command (-x) option.
6703 * Deprecated commands removed
6705 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
6709 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
6710 othernames set arm disassembler
6711 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
6712 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
6713 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
6716 * New BSD user-level threads support
6718 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
6719 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
6722 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
6723 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
6724 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
6726 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
6727 are not yet supported.
6729 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
6730 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
6732 * REMOVED configurations and files
6734 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
6735 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
6736 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
6738 * New "set print array-indexes" command
6740 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
6741 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
6744 * VAX floating point support
6746 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
6748 * User-defined command support
6750 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
6751 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
6752 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
6754 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
6756 * New command line option
6758 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
6761 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
6763 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
6764 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
6765 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
6766 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
6767 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
6769 * Internationalization
6771 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
6772 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
6773 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
6777 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
6778 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
6779 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
6781 * New native configurations
6783 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
6787 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
6788 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
6790 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
6792 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
6793 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
6794 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
6797 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the registers[]
6798 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
6799 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
6809 powerpc bdm protocol
6811 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
6812 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
6814 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6816 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6817 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6818 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6819 permanently REMOVED.
6828 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
6830 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
6832 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
6833 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
6836 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
6838 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
6839 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
6840 IRIX long double values).
6844 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
6845 command. This problem has been fixed.
6847 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
6849 * Fix for ``many threads''
6851 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
6852 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
6855 ptrace: No such process.
6856 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
6858 This problem has been fixed.
6860 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
6862 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
6865 * New ``start'' command.
6867 This command runs the program until the beginning of the main procedure.
6869 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
6871 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
6872 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
6873 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
6875 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
6876 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
6877 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
6878 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
6879 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
6880 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
6881 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
6882 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
6883 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
6885 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
6887 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
6888 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
6889 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
6890 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
6891 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
6893 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
6894 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
6895 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
6897 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
6899 * New native configurations
6901 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
6902 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
6903 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
6904 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
6905 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6906 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
6907 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6909 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
6911 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
6912 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
6913 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
6914 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
6915 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
6916 work, was also included.
6918 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
6919 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
6929 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
6930 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
6932 * REMOVED configurations and files
6934 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
6935 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
6936 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
6937 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
6938 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
6939 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
6940 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
6941 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
6942 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
6943 sonymips mips-sony-*
6944 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
6946 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
6948 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
6950 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
6951 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
6952 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
6953 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
6956 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
6958 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
6959 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
6960 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
6961 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
6962 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
6963 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
6966 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
6968 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
6970 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
6971 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
6972 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
6974 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
6976 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
6977 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
6979 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
6981 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
6982 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
6983 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
6985 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
6987 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
6988 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
6990 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
6992 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
6993 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
6994 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
6996 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
6998 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
6999 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
7000 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
7002 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
7004 * Removed --with-mmalloc
7006 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
7007 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
7009 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
7011 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
7012 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
7013 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
7014 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
7016 * Revised SPARC target
7018 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
7019 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
7020 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
7021 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
7022 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
7026 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
7027 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
7028 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
7031 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
7033 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
7034 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
7037 * C++ nested types and namespaces
7039 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
7040 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
7041 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
7042 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
7043 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
7044 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
7045 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
7046 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
7047 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
7049 * New native configurations
7051 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
7052 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
7053 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
7054 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
7055 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
7057 * New debugging protocols
7059 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
7061 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
7063 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
7064 and its very obscure effect on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
7065 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
7067 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7069 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7070 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7071 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7072 permanently REMOVED.
7074 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
7075 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
7076 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
7077 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
7078 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
7079 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
7080 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
7081 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
7082 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
7083 sonymips mips-sony-*
7084 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
7086 * REMOVED configurations and files
7088 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
7089 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7090 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
7091 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
7092 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
7093 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
7094 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
7095 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
7096 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
7097 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
7098 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
7099 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
7100 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
7101 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
7102 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
7103 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7104 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7106 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
7110 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
7111 integrated into GDB.
7113 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
7115 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
7116 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
7117 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
7120 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
7121 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
7122 DWARF 2 CFI support.
7126 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
7127 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
7128 remote protocol documentation for details.
7130 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
7132 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
7133 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
7134 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
7137 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
7139 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
7140 per-thread variables.
7142 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
7144 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
7145 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
7147 * Separate debug info.
7149 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
7150 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
7151 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
7152 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
7153 and optional debug files.
7155 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
7157 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
7158 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
7161 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
7162 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
7166 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
7167 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
7168 considered "useable".
7170 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
7172 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
7173 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
7176 * GDB supports logging output to a file
7178 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
7179 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
7181 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
7183 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
7184 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
7187 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
7189 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
7190 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
7194 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
7195 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
7196 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
7197 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
7198 data, for more informative profiling results.
7200 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
7202 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
7203 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
7204 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
7206 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
7209 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
7210 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
7211 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
7212 in a subsequent -var-update.
7214 * New native configurations.
7216 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
7218 * Multi-arched targets.
7220 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
7221 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
7223 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7225 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7226 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7227 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7228 permanently REMOVED.
7230 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
7231 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
7232 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
7233 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
7234 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
7235 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
7236 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
7237 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
7238 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
7239 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
7240 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7241 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7243 * REMOVED configurations and files
7246 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7247 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7248 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
7249 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
7250 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
7251 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
7253 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
7254 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
7255 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
7256 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7257 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
7258 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
7260 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
7262 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
7263 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
7264 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
7265 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
7266 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
7268 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
7270 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
7272 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
7273 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
7274 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
7275 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
7276 shared libs like mad''.
7278 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
7280 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
7281 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
7282 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
7283 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
7285 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
7287 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
7288 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
7291 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
7292 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
7294 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
7295 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
7297 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
7298 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
7299 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
7300 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
7302 * Multi-arched targets.
7304 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
7305 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
7307 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
7308 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
7309 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
7313 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
7316 * New native configurations
7318 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
7319 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
7320 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
7321 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
7323 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7325 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7326 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7327 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7328 permanently REMOVED.
7330 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
7331 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
7332 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7333 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7334 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7335 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
7336 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
7337 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
7338 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
7339 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
7341 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
7342 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
7344 * OBSOLETE languages
7346 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
7348 * REMOVED configurations and files
7350 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
7351 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
7352 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7353 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7354 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7356 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
7358 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
7360 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
7361 commands. The default is 1024.
7363 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
7365 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
7367 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
7369 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
7370 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
7371 from a file into memory (restore).
7373 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
7375 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
7376 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
7377 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
7379 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
7387 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
7388 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
7389 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
7391 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
7392 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
7393 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
7395 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
7396 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
7397 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
7399 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
7400 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
7401 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
7403 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
7405 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
7407 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
7408 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
7409 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
7410 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
7411 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
7412 (notably embedded) targets.
7414 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
7416 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
7417 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
7418 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
7419 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
7421 * New command line option
7423 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
7425 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
7427 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
7428 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
7429 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
7430 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
7431 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
7432 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
7433 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
7434 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
7435 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
7436 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
7438 * Changes in ARM configurations.
7440 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
7441 configuration is fully multi-arch.
7443 * New native configurations
7445 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
7446 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
7447 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
7448 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
7452 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
7454 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7456 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7457 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7458 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7459 permanently REMOVED.
7461 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
7462 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
7463 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7464 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7465 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7467 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
7469 * REMOVED configurations and files
7471 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7473 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
7474 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
7475 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
7476 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
7477 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
7478 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7479 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
7480 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
7481 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
7482 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
7483 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
7485 * Changes to command line processing
7487 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
7488 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
7490 * Changes to key bindings
7492 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
7494 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
7496 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
7498 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
7501 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
7503 Numerous documentation fixes.
7505 Numerous testsuite fixes.
7507 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
7509 * New native configurations
7511 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
7512 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
7513 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
7514 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
7515 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
7516 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
7520 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
7522 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
7524 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7526 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
7527 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
7528 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
7529 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7530 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7532 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
7533 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
7534 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
7535 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
7536 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
7537 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
7538 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
7539 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
7541 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
7542 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
7544 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7545 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7546 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7547 permanently REMOVED.
7549 * REMOVED configurations and files
7551 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
7552 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
7554 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
7558 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
7560 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
7561 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
7566 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
7568 * The MI enabled by default.
7570 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
7571 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
7572 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
7573 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
7574 which is now deprecated.
7576 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
7578 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
7579 main features are supported:
7581 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
7583 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
7586 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
7588 - a Pascal expression parser.
7590 However, some important features are not yet supported.
7592 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
7594 - there are some problems with boolean types;
7596 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
7597 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
7599 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
7601 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
7603 * Changes in completion.
7605 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
7606 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
7607 users expect at the shell prompt.
7609 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
7610 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
7611 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
7612 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
7613 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
7614 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
7615 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
7617 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
7619 * New platform-independent commands:
7621 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
7622 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
7623 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
7625 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
7627 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
7628 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
7629 many threads as your system allows you to have.
7631 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
7633 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
7634 multi-threaded programs though.
7636 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
7638 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
7640 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
7641 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
7644 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
7646 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
7647 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
7648 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
7649 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
7650 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
7653 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
7654 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
7655 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
7657 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
7659 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
7660 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
7662 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
7663 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
7666 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
7667 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
7668 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
7669 a given linear address.
7671 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
7672 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
7673 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
7675 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
7677 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
7679 * Changes in documentation.
7681 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
7682 Documentation License.
7684 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
7687 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
7689 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
7692 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
7693 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
7694 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
7696 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
7698 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
7699 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
7700 contents of this file.
7704 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
7706 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7708 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
7710 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
7711 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
7712 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
7713 greater level of detail.
7715 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
7717 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
7718 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
7719 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
7722 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
7724 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
7725 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
7726 machines ``out of the box''.
7728 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
7729 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
7730 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
7731 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
7732 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
7734 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
7735 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
7736 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
7737 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
7738 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
7740 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
7741 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
7744 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
7747 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
7748 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
7749 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
7750 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
7752 * New native configurations
7754 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
7755 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
7759 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
7760 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
7761 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7762 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7764 * OBSOLETE configurations
7766 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
7767 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
7769 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
7772 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
7773 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
7774 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
7775 be permanently REMOVED.
7777 * Gould support removed
7779 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
7781 * New features for SVR4
7783 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
7784 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
7785 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
7787 * Many C++ enhancements
7789 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
7790 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
7792 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
7794 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
7795 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
7796 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
7797 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
7799 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
7800 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
7802 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
7804 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
7805 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
7806 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
7808 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
7809 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
7811 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
7813 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
7814 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
7815 include ``set remote P-packet''.
7817 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
7819 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
7820 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
7821 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
7823 * ``apropos'' command added.
7825 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
7826 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
7827 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
7831 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
7832 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7833 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
7834 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
7835 enabled by configuring with:
7837 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
7839 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
7841 * New native configurations
7843 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
7844 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
7845 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
7849 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7850 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
7851 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
7853 * OBSOLETE configurations
7855 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
7857 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
7858 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
7859 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
7860 be permanently REMOVED.
7864 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
7865 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
7866 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
7867 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
7868 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
7869 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
7870 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
7875 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
7877 * set extension-language
7879 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
7880 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
7881 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
7882 set extension-language .c c++
7883 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
7884 and their associated languages.
7886 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
7888 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
7889 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
7890 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
7894 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
7895 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
7897 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
7898 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
7900 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
7901 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
7902 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
7903 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
7904 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
7905 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
7906 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
7907 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
7909 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
7910 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
7911 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
7912 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
7916 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
7917 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
7918 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
7919 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
7920 for xdb and dbx commands.
7924 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
7925 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
7926 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
7928 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
7929 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
7930 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
7932 * Debugging across forks
7934 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
7939 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
7940 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
7941 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
7943 * GDB remote protocol additions
7945 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
7946 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
7947 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
7948 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
7950 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
7951 full 64-bit address. The command
7953 set remoteaddresssize 32
7955 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
7956 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
7959 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
7960 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
7962 maint packet heythere
7964 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
7965 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
7968 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
7969 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
7970 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
7972 * Tracing can collect general expressions
7974 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
7975 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
7976 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
7978 * mask-address variable for Mips
7980 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
7981 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
7982 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
7984 * Higher serial baud rates
7986 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
7987 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
7988 to achieve all of these rates.)
7992 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
7993 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
7996 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
7998 * New native configurations
8000 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
8001 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
8002 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
8003 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
8004 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
8005 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
8006 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
8010 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
8011 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
8012 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
8013 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
8014 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
8015 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
8016 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
8017 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
8018 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
8019 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
8020 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
8022 * New debugging protocols
8024 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
8025 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
8026 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
8027 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
8028 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
8029 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
8033 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
8034 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
8039 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
8040 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
8042 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
8044 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
8045 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
8046 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
8048 * Live range splitting
8050 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
8051 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
8052 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
8056 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
8057 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
8061 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
8062 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
8063 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
8068 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
8073 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
8074 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
8075 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
8076 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
8077 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
8078 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
8082 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
8083 the symbol at the specified address.
8087 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
8088 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
8089 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
8090 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
8091 file tracepoint.c for more details.
8095 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
8096 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
8097 of most MIPS variants.
8101 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
8102 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
8103 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
8107 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
8108 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
8109 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
8110 the possible architectures.
8112 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
8114 * New native configurations
8116 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
8117 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
8118 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
8119 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
8120 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
8121 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
8125 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
8126 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
8127 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
8128 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
8129 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
8131 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
8135 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
8136 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
8137 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
8138 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
8139 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
8143 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
8145 * Windows 95/NT native
8147 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
8148 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
8149 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
8150 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
8151 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
8153 * dont-repeat command
8155 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
8156 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
8157 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
8158 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
8160 * Send break instead of ^C
8162 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
8163 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
8164 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
8166 * Remote protocol timeout
8168 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
8169 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
8170 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
8172 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
8174 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
8175 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
8176 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
8177 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
8178 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
8180 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
8181 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
8182 automatically on hpux10.
8184 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
8186 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
8188 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
8190 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
8191 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
8192 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
8193 every character. The default value is 1050.
8195 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
8197 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
8198 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
8199 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
8200 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
8201 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
8202 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
8204 * Speedups for remote debugging
8206 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
8207 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
8208 and more efficient S-record downloading.
8210 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
8212 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
8213 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
8215 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
8217 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
8219 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
8220 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
8222 * Remote targets use caching
8224 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
8225 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
8226 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
8227 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
8228 off' turns the data cache off.
8230 * Remote targets may have threads
8232 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
8233 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
8234 gdb/remote.c for details.
8238 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
8239 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
8240 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
8241 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
8242 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
8243 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
8244 sequence is something like
8246 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
8248 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
8252 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
8253 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
8254 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
8255 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
8256 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
8257 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
8258 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
8259 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
8263 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
8264 but does simplify configuration and building.
8268 GDB now supports hpux10.
8270 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
8272 * New native configurations
8274 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
8275 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
8276 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
8277 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
8281 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
8282 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
8283 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
8284 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
8287 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
8289 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
8290 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
8291 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
8292 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
8293 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
8295 * Arguments to user-defined commands
8297 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
8298 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
8301 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
8303 To execute the command use:
8306 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
8307 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
8308 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
8310 * New `if' and `while' commands
8312 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
8313 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
8314 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
8315 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
8316 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
8317 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
8318 if the expression is zero.
8320 * Fortran source language mode
8322 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
8323 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
8324 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
8325 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
8328 * Better HPUX support
8330 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
8331 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
8332 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
8333 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
8334 that behavior do the following before running the program:
8340 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
8341 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
8347 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
8348 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
8351 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
8352 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
8354 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
8356 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
8357 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
8358 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
8359 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
8360 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
8361 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
8363 * New DOS host serial code
8365 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
8366 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
8369 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
8371 * New "complete" command
8373 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
8374 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
8376 * Trailing space optional in prompt
8378 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
8379 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
8381 * Breakpoint hit counts
8383 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
8384 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
8385 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
8386 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
8387 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
8390 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
8392 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
8393 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
8394 arrays actually contain only short strings.
8396 * Shared library breakpoints
8398 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
8399 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
8401 * Hardware watchpoints
8403 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
8404 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
8406 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
8410 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
8411 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
8413 * Improved Irix 5 support
8415 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
8417 * Improved HPPA support
8419 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
8421 * New native configurations
8423 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
8424 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
8425 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
8426 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
8430 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
8431 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
8434 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
8436 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
8437 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
8441 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
8442 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
8444 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
8446 * Irix 5 is now supported
8450 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
8451 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
8452 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
8453 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
8454 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
8457 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
8459 * User visible changes:
8463 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
8464 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
8465 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
8466 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
8467 debugging info for the mips target).
8469 * DEC Alpha native support
8471 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
8472 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
8473 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
8474 Alpha-specific notes.
8476 * Preliminary thread implementation
8478 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
8480 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
8482 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
8483 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
8486 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
8488 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
8489 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
8490 call methods, ...etc.
8492 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
8494 * User visible changes:
8496 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
8497 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
8498 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
8499 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
8501 Filename completion now works.
8503 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
8504 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
8505 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
8507 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
8508 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
8509 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
8510 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
8511 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
8515 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
8516 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
8519 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
8523 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
8524 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
8525 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
8529 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
8530 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
8531 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
8532 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
8533 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
8537 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
8538 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
8539 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
8541 * New targets supported
8543 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
8544 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
8545 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
8546 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
8547 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
8549 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
8550 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
8551 GO32 memory extender.
8553 * New remote protocols
8555 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
8557 * New source languages supported
8559 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
8560 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
8561 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
8564 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
8566 * HP Precision Architecture supported
8568 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
8569 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
8570 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
8571 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
8572 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
8573 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
8575 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
8577 * Faster and better demangling
8579 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
8580 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
8581 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
8582 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
8583 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
8584 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
8587 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
8588 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
8589 compiler does not actually implement.
8591 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
8593 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
8594 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
8595 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
8596 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
8597 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
8598 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
8601 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
8602 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
8604 * Improved configure script
8606 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
8607 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
8608 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
8609 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
8611 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
8612 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
8613 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
8614 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
8615 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
8616 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
8618 * Documentation improvements
8620 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
8621 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
8622 before submitting changes.
8624 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
8625 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
8626 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
8627 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
8628 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
8630 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
8631 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
8632 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
8633 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
8634 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
8635 around this problem.
8639 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
8640 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
8641 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
8644 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
8645 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
8647 * New native hosts supported
8649 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
8650 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
8652 * New targets supported
8654 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
8656 * New file formats supported
8658 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
8659 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
8663 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
8665 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
8666 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
8668 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
8669 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
8670 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
8672 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
8673 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
8675 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
8676 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
8677 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
8680 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
8681 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
8682 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
8683 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
8684 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
8686 * Internal improvements
8688 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
8689 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
8691 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
8692 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
8693 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
8694 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
8695 shared code that handles any of them.
8697 * New command line options
8699 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
8703 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
8704 General Public License.
8706 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
8708 * Host/native/target split
8710 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
8711 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
8712 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
8713 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
8714 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
8716 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
8717 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
8718 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
8719 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
8720 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
8721 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
8722 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
8724 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
8725 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
8726 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
8728 * New hosts supported
8730 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
8731 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
8732 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
8734 * New targets supported
8736 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
8737 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
8739 * New native hosts supported
8741 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
8742 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
8743 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
8745 * New file formats supported
8747 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
8748 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
8749 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
8753 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
8754 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
8755 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
8757 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
8759 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
8760 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
8761 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
8762 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
8766 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
8767 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
8768 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
8770 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
8774 The crash that occurred when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
8775 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
8778 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
8779 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
8781 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
8782 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
8783 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
8784 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
8785 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
8786 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
8788 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
8789 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
8790 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
8791 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
8795 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
8796 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
8797 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
8798 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
8799 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
8801 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
8802 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
8803 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
8804 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
8808 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
8809 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
8810 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
8811 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
8812 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
8813 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
8814 each instruction being stepped through.
8816 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
8817 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
8819 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
8820 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
8821 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
8822 processor with a serial port.
8826 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
8827 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
8828 supported, and what files each one uses.
8832 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
8833 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
8834 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
8835 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
8837 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
8838 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
8839 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
8840 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
8844 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
8845 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
8846 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
8847 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
8848 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
8849 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
8851 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
8854 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
8856 * Better support for C++ function names
8858 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
8859 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
8860 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
8861 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
8862 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
8864 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
8865 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
8866 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
8867 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
8868 for the list of formats.
8870 * G++ symbol mangling problem
8872 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
8873 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
8874 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
8875 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compiling gdb/symtab.c. The
8876 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
8877 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
8880 * New 'maintenance' command
8882 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
8883 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
8884 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
8886 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
8887 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
8888 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
8889 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
8890 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
8891 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
8893 The following commands are new:
8895 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
8896 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
8897 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
8899 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
8901 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
8902 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
8903 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
8904 read after argv processing.
8906 * New hosts supported
8908 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
8910 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
8912 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
8913 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
8914 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
8915 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
8916 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
8919 * New targets supported
8921 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
8923 * More smarts about finding #include files
8925 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
8926 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
8927 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
8928 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
8929 the one that contains your sources.
8931 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
8932 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
8933 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
8935 * Interesting infernals change
8937 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
8938 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
8939 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
8940 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
8942 * Bug fixes (of course!)
8944 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
8945 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
8946 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
8948 See the ChangeLog for details.
8950 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
8952 * New machines supported (host and target)
8954 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
8956 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
8958 * New malloc package
8960 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
8961 Mmalloc is capable of handling multiple heaps of memory. It is also
8962 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
8963 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
8964 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
8965 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
8969 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
8970 'help info proc' for details.
8972 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
8974 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
8975 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
8978 * File name changes for MS-DOS
8980 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
8981 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
8982 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
8983 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
8984 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
8985 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
8987 * Cross byte order fixes
8989 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
8990 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
8992 * New -mapped and -readnow options
8994 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
8995 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
8996 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
8997 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
8998 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
8999 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
9000 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
9001 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
9002 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
9003 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
9005 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
9006 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
9007 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
9008 slower, but makes future operations faster.
9010 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
9011 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
9012 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
9015 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
9017 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
9018 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
9019 shared across multiple host platforms.
9021 * longjmp() handling
9023 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
9024 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
9025 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
9026 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
9030 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
9031 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
9036 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
9037 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
9038 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
9040 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
9042 * New machines supported (host and target)
9044 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
9046 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
9047 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
9049 * New machines supported (target)
9051 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
9055 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
9056 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
9057 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
9059 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
9060 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
9061 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
9062 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
9063 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
9066 * New features for SVR4
9068 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
9069 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
9070 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
9072 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
9073 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
9074 it prints the address mappings of the process.
9076 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
9077 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
9079 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
9081 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
9082 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
9083 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
9084 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
9085 same code linked statically.
9089 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
9090 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
9091 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
9092 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
9093 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
9094 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
9098 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
9099 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
9100 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
9103 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
9105 * New machines supported (host and target)
9107 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
9108 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
9109 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
9111 * Almost SCO Unix support
9113 We had hoped to support:
9114 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
9115 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
9116 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
9117 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
9119 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
9121 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
9122 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
9123 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
9124 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
9129 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
9130 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
9131 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
9135 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
9136 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
9137 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
9139 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
9141 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
9142 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
9143 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
9145 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
9146 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
9147 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
9148 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
9151 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
9152 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
9153 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
9154 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
9157 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
9158 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
9161 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
9162 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
9163 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
9166 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
9168 * Improved configuration
9170 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
9171 Porting BFD is simpler.
9175 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
9176 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
9177 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
9178 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
9182 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
9184 * New host supported (not target)
9186 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
9189 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
9191 * Multiple source language support
9193 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
9194 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
9195 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
9196 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
9197 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
9198 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
9202 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
9203 currently under development at the State University of New York at
9204 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
9205 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
9207 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
9208 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
9209 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
9211 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
9212 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
9216 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
9217 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
9218 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
9219 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
9222 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
9224 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
9225 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
9226 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
9227 examining core files.
9231 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
9234 * New machines supported (host and target)
9236 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
9237 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
9238 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
9240 * New hosts supported (not targets)
9242 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
9244 * New targets supported (not hosts)
9246 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
9247 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
9248 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
9250 * New remote interfaces
9256 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
9260 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
9262 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
9263 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
9264 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
9265 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
9266 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
9267 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
9268 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
9269 stub on the target system.
9271 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
9273 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
9274 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
9275 object file types such as a.out and coff.
9277 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
9278 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
9281 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
9283 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
9284 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
9286 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
9287 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
9288 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
9290 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
9291 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
9292 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
9293 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
9295 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
9296 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
9297 it is already running. Default is ON.
9299 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
9300 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
9301 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
9302 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
9305 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
9306 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
9307 or the value of the environment variable
9310 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
9311 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
9314 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
9315 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
9316 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
9318 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
9319 history expansion will be performed on
9320 command line input. The default is OFF.
9322 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
9323 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
9324 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
9326 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
9327 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
9328 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
9331 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
9332 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
9333 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
9336 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
9337 ``set width'' instead.
9339 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
9340 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
9341 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
9342 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
9344 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
9347 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
9350 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
9353 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
9356 * Support for Epoch Environment.
9358 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
9359 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
9360 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
9364 * Support for Shared Libraries
9366 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
9367 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
9368 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
9369 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
9370 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
9371 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
9372 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
9373 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
9375 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
9376 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
9377 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
9379 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
9384 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
9385 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
9386 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
9387 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
9388 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
9389 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
9391 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
9393 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
9395 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
9396 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
9397 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
9400 * C++ multiple inheritance
9402 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
9405 * C++ exception handling
9407 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
9408 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
9409 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
9412 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
9413 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
9414 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
9416 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
9417 current stack frame.
9420 * Minor command changes
9422 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
9423 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
9424 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
9426 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
9427 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
9428 frames without printing.
9430 * New directory command
9432 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
9433 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
9434 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
9435 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
9436 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
9438 * Configuring GDB for compilation
9440 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
9443 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
9444 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
9445 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
9446 where the program that you are debugging will run.