1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
6 * The MPX commands "show/set mpx bound" have been deprecated, as Intel
7 listed MPX as removed in 2019.
9 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++17 compiler.
10 For example, GCC 9 or later.
12 * GDB index now contains information about the main function. This speeds up
13 startup when it is being used for some large binaries.
15 * On hosts where threading is available, DWARF reading is now done in
16 the background, resulting in faster startup. This can be controlled
17 using "maint set dwarf synchronous".
22 Attempting to use both the 'r' and 'b' flags with the disassemble
23 command will now give an error. Previously the 'b' flag would
24 always override the 'r' flag.
28 GDB now generates sparse core files, on systems that support it.
30 maintenance info line-table
31 Add an EPILOGUE-BEGIN column to the output of the command. It indicates
32 if the line is considered the start of the epilgoue, and thus a point at
33 which the frame can be considered destroyed.
35 set unwindonsignal on|off
37 These commands are now aliases for the new set/show unwind-on-signal.
40 This command now gives an error if any unexpected arguments are
41 found after the command.
44 When using the command "list ." in a location that has no debug information
45 or no file loaded, GDB now says that there is no debug information to print
46 lines. This makes it more obvious that there is no information, as opposed
47 to implying there is no inferior loaded.
51 info missing-debug-handler
52 List all the registered missing debug handlers.
54 enable missing-debug-handler LOCUS HANDLER
55 disable missing-debug-handler LOCUS HANDLER
56 Enable or disable a missing debug handler with a name matching the
57 regular expression HANDLER, in LOCUS.
59 LOCUS can be 'global' to operate on global missing debug handler,
60 'progspace' to operate on handlers within the current program space,
61 or can be a regular expression which is matched against the filename
62 of the primary executable in each program space.
64 maintenance info linux-lwps
65 List all LWPs under control of the linux-nat target.
67 set remote thread-options-packet
68 show remote thread-options-packet
69 Set/show the use of the thread options packet.
71 set direct-call-timeout SECONDS
72 show direct-call-timeout
73 set indirect-call-timeout SECONDS
74 show indirect-call-timeout
75 These new settings can be used to limit how long GDB will wait for
76 an inferior function call to complete. The direct timeout is used
77 for inferior function calls from e.g. 'call' and 'print' commands,
78 while the indirect timeout is used for inferior function calls from
79 within a conditional breakpoint expression.
81 The default for the direct timeout is unlimited, while the default
82 for the indirect timeout is 30 seconds.
84 These timeouts will only have an effect for targets that are
85 operating in async mode. For non-async targets the timeouts are
86 ignored, GDB will wait indefinitely for an inferior function to
87 complete, unless interrupted by the user using Ctrl-C.
89 set unwind-on-timeout on|off
90 show unwind-on-timeout
91 These commands control whether GDB should unwind the stack when a
92 timeout occurs during an inferior function call. The default is
93 off, in which case the inferior will remain in the frame where the
94 timeout occurred. When on, GDB will unwind the stack removing the
95 dummy frame that was added for the inferior call, and restoring the
96 inferior state to how it was before the inferior call started.
98 set unwind-on-signal on|off
100 These new commands replaces the existing set/show unwindonsignal. The
101 old command is maintained as an alias.
103 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
105 ** The --remote-debug and --event-loop-debug command line options
108 ** The --debug command line option now takes an optional comma
109 separated list of components to emit debug for. The currently
110 supported components are: all, threads, event-loop, and remote.
111 If no components are given then threads is assumed.
113 ** The 'monitor set remote-debug' and 'monitor set event-loop-debug'
114 command have been removed.
116 ** The 'monitor set debug 0|1' command has been extended to take a
117 component name, e.g.: 'monitor set debug COMPONENT off|on'.
118 Possible component names are: all, threads, event-loop, and
123 ** New function gdb.notify_mi(NAME, DATA), that emits custom
124 GDB/MI async notification.
126 ** New read/write attribute gdb.Value.bytes that contains a bytes
127 object holding the contents of this value.
129 ** New module gdb.missing_debug that facilitates dealing with
130 objfiles that are missing any debug information.
132 ** New function gdb.missing_debug.register_handler that can register
133 an instance of a sub-class of gdb.missing_debug.MissingDebugInfo
134 as a handler for objfiles that are missing debug information.
136 ** New class gdb.missing_debug.MissingDebugInfo which can be
137 sub-classed to create handlers for objfiles with missing debug
140 ** Stop events now have a "details" attribute that holds a
141 dictionary that carries the same information as an MI "*stopped"
144 ** New function gdb.interrupt(), that interrupts GDB as if the user
147 ** New gdb.InferiorThread.ptid_string attribute. This read-only
148 attribute contains the string that appears in the 'Target Id'
149 column of the 'info threads' command output.
151 ** It is no longer possible to create new gdb.Progspace object using
152 'gdb.Progspace()', this will result in a TypeError. Progspace
153 objects can still be obtained through calling other API
154 functions, for example 'gdb.current_progspace()'.
156 ** User defined attributes can be added to a gdb.Inferior object,
157 these will be stored in the object's new Inferior.__dict__
160 ** User defined attributes can be added to a gdb.InferiorThread
161 object, these will be stored in the object's new
162 InferiorThread.__dict__ attribute.
164 ** New constants gdb.SYMBOL_TYPE_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTION_DOMAIN,
165 and gdb.SEARCH_*_DOMAIN corresponding to all the existing symbol
166 domains. Symbol lookup can now search in multiple domains at
167 once, and can also narrowly search for just a type or function.
169 * Debugger Adapter Protocol changes
171 ** GDB now emits the "process" event.
173 ** GDB now supports the "cancel" request.
175 ** The "attach" request now supports specifying the program.
177 ** New command "set debug dap-log-level" controls DAP logging.
179 ** The "set debug dap-log-file" command is now documented. This
180 command was available in GDB 14 but not documented.
184 ** New constants SYMBOL_TYPE_DOMAIN, SYMBOL_FUNCTION_DOMAIN, and
185 SEARCH_*_DOMAIN corresponding to all the existing symbol domains.
186 Symbol lookup can now search in multiple domains at once, and can
187 also narrowly search for just a type or function.
191 New stop reason: clone
192 Indicates that a clone system call was executed.
195 Enable/disable optional event reporting, on a per-thread basis.
196 Currently supported options are GDB_THREAD_OPTION_CLONE, to enable
197 clone event reporting, and GDB_THREAD_OPTION_EXIT to enable thread
198 exit event reporting.
200 QThreadOptions in qSupported
201 The qSupported packet allows GDB to inform the stub it supports the
202 QThreadOptions packet, and the qSupported response can contain the
203 set of thread options the remote stub supports.
206 This new packet allows GDB to query the stub about a given address to check
207 if it is tagged or not. Many memory tagging-related GDB commands need to
208 perform this check before they read/write the allocation tag related to an
209 address. Currently, however, this is done through a 'vFile' request to read
210 the file /proc/<PID>/smaps and check if the address is in a region reported
211 as memory tagged. Since not all targets have a notion of what the smaps
212 file is about, this new packet provides a more generic way to perform such
215 *** Changes in GDB 14
217 * GDB now supports the AArch64 Scalable Matrix Extension 2 (SME2), which
218 includes a new 512 bit lookup table register named ZT0.
220 * GDB now supports the AArch64 Scalable Matrix Extension (SME), which includes
221 a new matrix register named ZA, a new thread register TPIDR2 and a new vector
222 length register SVG (streaming vector granule). GDB also supports tracking
223 ZA state across signal frames.
225 Some features are still under development or are dependent on ABI specs that
226 are still in alpha stage. For example, manual function calls with ZA state
227 don't have any special handling, and tracking of SVG changes based on
228 DWARF information is still not implemented, but there are plans to do so in
231 * GDB now recognizes the NO_COLOR environment variable and disables
232 styling according to the spec. See https://no-color.org/.
233 Styling can be re-enabled with "set style enabled on".
235 * The AArch64 'org.gnu.gdb.aarch64.pauth' Pointer Authentication feature string
236 has been deprecated in favor of the 'org.gnu.gdb.aarch64.pauth_v2' feature
239 * GDB now has some support for integer types larger than 64 bits.
241 * Removed targets and native configurations
243 GDB no longer supports AIX 4.x, AIX 5.x and AIX 6.x. The minimum supported
244 AIX version is now AIX 7.1.
246 * Multi-target feature configuration
248 GDB now supports the individual configuration of remote targets' feature
249 sets. Based on the current selection of a target, the commands 'set remote
250 <name>-packet (on|off|auto)' and 'show remote <name>-packet' can be used to
251 configure a target's feature packet and to display its configuration,
254 The individual packet sizes can be configured and shown using the commands
255 ** 'set remote memory-read-packet-size (number of bytes|fixed|limit)'
256 ** 'set remote memory-write-packet-size (number of bytes|fixed|limit)'
257 ** 'show remote memory-read-packet-size'
258 ** 'show remote memory-write-packet-size'.
260 The configuration of the packet itself, as well as the size of a memory-read
261 or memory-write packet applies to the currently selected target (if
262 available). If no target is selected, it applies to future remote
263 connections. Similarly, the show commands print the configuration of the
264 currently selected target. If no remote target is selected, the default
265 configuration for future connections is shown.
267 * GDB has initial built-in support for the Debugger Adapter Protocol.
268 This support requires that GDB be built with Python scripting
271 * For the break command, multiple uses of the 'thread' or 'task'
272 keywords will now give an error instead of just using the thread or
273 task id from the last instance of the keyword. E.g.:
274 break foo thread 1 thread 2
275 will now give an error rather than using 'thread 2'.
277 * For the watch command, multiple uses of the 'task' keyword will now
278 give an error instead of just using the task id from the last
279 instance of the keyword. E.g.:
280 watch my_var task 1 task 2
281 will now give an error rather than using 'task 2'. The 'thread'
282 keyword already gave an error when used multiple times with the
283 watch command, this remains unchanged.
285 * The 'set print elements' setting now helps when printing large arrays.
286 If an array would otherwise exceed max-value-size, but 'print elements'
287 is set such that the size of elements to print is less than or equal
288 to 'max-value-size', GDB will now still print the array, however only
289 'max-value-size' worth of data will be added into the value history.
291 * For both the break and watch commands, it is now invalid to use both
292 the 'thread' and 'task' keywords within the same command. For
293 example the following commnds will now give an error:
294 break foo thread 1 task 1
295 watch var thread 2 task 3
297 * The printf command now accepts a '%V' output format which will
298 format an expression just as the 'print' command would. Print
299 options can be placed withing '[...]' after the '%V' to modify how
300 the value is printed. E.g:
301 printf "%V", some_array
302 printf "%V[-array-indexes on]", some_array
303 will print the array without, or with array indexes included, just
304 as the array would be printed by the 'print' command. This
305 functionality is also available for dprintf when dprintf-style is
308 * When the printf command requires a string to be fetched from the
309 inferior, GDB now uses the existing 'max-value-size' setting to the
310 limit the memory allocated within GDB. The default 'max-value-size'
311 is 64k. To print longer strings you should increase
314 * The Ada 2022 Enum_Rep and Enum_Val attributes are now supported.
316 * The Ada 2022 target name symbol ('@') is now supported by the Ada
319 * The 'list' command now accepts '.' as an argument, which tells GDB to
320 print the location around the point of execution within the current frame.
321 If the inferior hasn't started yet, the command will print around the
322 beginning of the 'main' function.
324 * Using the 'list' command with no arguments in a situation where the
325 command would attempt to list past the end of the file now warns the
326 user that the end of file has been reached, refers the user to the
327 newly added '.' argument
329 * Breakpoints can now be inferior-specific. This is similar to the
330 existing thread-specific breakpoint support. Breakpoint conditions
331 can include the 'inferior' keyword followed by an inferior id (as
332 displayed in the 'info inferiors' output). It is invalid to use the
333 'inferior' keyword with either the 'thread' or 'task' keywords when
334 creating a breakpoint.
336 * New convenience function "$_shell", to execute a shell command and
337 return the result. This lets you run shell commands in expressions.
340 (gdb) p $_shell("true")
342 (gdb) p $_shell("false")
344 (gdb) break func if $_shell("some command") == 0
348 --additional-debug-dirs=PATHs
350 Provide a colon-separated list of additional directories to search for
351 separate debug info. These directories are added to the default value of
352 the 'debug-file-directory' GDB parameter.
356 set debug breakpoint on|off
357 show debug breakpoint
358 Print additional debug messages about breakpoint insertion and removal.
360 maintenance print record-instruction [ N ]
361 Print the recorded information for a given instruction. If N is not given
362 prints how GDB would undo the last instruction executed. If N is negative,
363 prints how GDB would undo the N-th previous instruction, and if N is
364 positive, it prints how GDB will redo the N-th following instruction.
366 maintenance info frame-unwinders
367 List the frame unwinders currently in effect, starting with the highest
370 maintenance wait-for-index-cache
371 Wait until all pending writes to the index cache have completed.
373 set always-read-ctf on|off
375 When off, CTF is only read if DWARF is not present. When on, CTF is
376 read regardless of whether DWARF is present. Off by default.
379 Get main symbol to identify entry point into program.
381 set tui mouse-events [on|off]
382 show tui mouse-events
383 When on (default), mouse clicks control the TUI and can be accessed by
384 Python extensions. When off, mouse clicks are handled by the terminal,
385 enabling terminal-native text selection.
389 ** MI version 1 has been removed.
391 ** mi now reports 'no-history' as a stop reason when hitting the end of the
392 reverse execution history.
394 ** When creating a thread-specific breakpoint using the '-p' option,
395 the -break-insert command would report the 'thread' field twice in
396 the reply. The content of both fields was always identical. This
397 has now been fixed; the 'thread' field will be reported just once
398 for thread-specific breakpoints, or not at all for breakpoints
399 without a thread restriction. The same is also true for the 'task'
400 field of an Ada task-specific breakpoint.
402 ** It is no longer possible to create a thread-specific breakpoint for
403 a thread that doesn't exist using '-break-insert -p ID'. Creating
404 breakpoints for non-existent threads is not allowed when using the
405 CLI, that the MI allowed it was a long standing bug, which has now
408 ** The '--simple-values' argument to the '-stack-list-arguments',
409 '-stack-list-locals', '-stack-list-variables', and '-var-list-children'
410 commands now takes reference types into account: that is, a value is now
411 considered simple if it is neither an array, structure, or union, nor a
412 reference to an array, structure, or union. (Previously all references were
413 considered simple.) Support for this feature can be verified by using the
414 '-list-features' command, which should contain "simple-values-ref-types".
416 ** The -break-insert command now accepts a '-g thread-group-id' option
417 to allow for the creation of inferior-specific breakpoints.
419 ** The bkpt tuple, which appears in breakpoint-created notifications,
420 and in the result of the -break-insert command can now include an
421 optional 'inferior' field for both the main breakpoint, and each
422 location, when the breakpoint is inferior-specific.
426 ** gdb.ThreadExitedEvent added. Emits a ThreadEvent.
428 ** The gdb.unwinder.Unwinder.name attribute is now read-only.
430 ** The name argument passed to gdb.unwinder.Unwinder.__init__ must
431 now be of type 'str' otherwise a TypeError will be raised.
433 ** The gdb.unwinder.Unwinder.enabled attribute can now only accept
434 values of type 'bool'. Changing this attribute will now
435 invalidate GDB's frame-cache, which means GDB will need to
436 rebuild its frame-cache when next required - either with, or
437 without the particular unwinder, depending on how 'enabled' was
440 ** New methods added to the gdb.PendingFrame class. These methods
441 have the same behaviour as the corresponding methods on
442 gdb.Frame. The new methods are:
444 - gdb.PendingFrame.name: Return the name for the frame's
446 - gdb.PendingFrame.is_valid: Return True if the pending frame
448 - gdb.PendingFrame.pc: Return the $pc register value for this
450 - gdb.PendingFrame.language: Return a string containing the
451 language for this frame, or None.
452 - gdb.PendingFrame.find_sal: Return a gdb.Symtab_and_line
453 object for the current location within the pending frame, or
455 - gdb.PendingFrame.block: Return a gdb.Block for the current
456 pending frame, or None.
457 - gdb.PendingFrame.function: Return a gdb.Symbol for the
458 current pending frame, or None.
460 ** The frame-id passed to gdb.PendingFrame.create_unwind_info can
461 now use either an integer or a gdb.Value object for each of its
462 'sp', 'pc', and 'special' attributes.
464 ** A new class gdb.unwinder.FrameId has been added. Instances of
465 this class are constructed with 'sp' (stack-pointer) and 'pc'
466 (program-counter) values, and can be used as the frame-id when
467 calling gdb.PendingFrame.create_unwind_info.
469 ** It is now no longer possible to sub-class the
470 gdb.disassembler.DisassemblerResult type.
472 ** The Disassembler API from the gdb.disassembler module has been
473 extended to include styling support:
475 - The DisassemblerResult class can now be initialized with a list
476 of parts. Each part represents part of the disassembled
477 instruction along with the associated style information. This
478 list of parts can be accessed with the new
479 DisassemblerResult.parts property.
481 - New constants gdb.disassembler.STYLE_* representing all the
482 different styles part of an instruction might have.
484 - New methods DisassembleInfo.text_part and
485 DisassembleInfo.address_part which are used to create the new
486 styled parts of a disassembled instruction.
488 - Changes are backwards compatible, the older API can still be
489 used to disassemble instructions without styling.
491 ** New function gdb.execute_mi(COMMAND, [ARG]...), that invokes a
492 GDB/MI command and returns the output as a Python dictionary.
494 ** New function gdb.block_signals(). This returns a context manager
495 that blocks any signals that GDB needs to handle itself.
497 ** New class gdb.Thread. This is a subclass of threading.Thread
498 that calls gdb.block_signals in its "start" method.
500 ** gdb.parse_and_eval now has a new "global_context" parameter.
501 This can be used to request that the parse only examine global
504 ** gdb.Inferior now has a new "arguments" attribute. This holds the
505 command-line arguments to the inferior, if known.
507 ** gdb.Inferior now has a new "main_name" attribute. This holds the
508 name of the inferior's "main", if known.
510 ** gdb.Inferior now has new methods "clear_env", "set_env", and
511 "unset_env". These can be used to modify the inferior's
512 environment before it is started.
514 ** gdb.Value now has the 'assign' method.
516 ** gdb.Value now has the 'to_array' method. This converts an
517 array-like Value to an array.
519 ** gdb.Progspace now has the new method "objfile_for_address". This
520 returns the gdb.Objfile, if any, that covers a given address.
522 ** gdb.Breakpoint now has an "inferior" attribute. If the
523 Breakpoint object is inferior specific then this attribute holds
524 the inferior-id (an integer). If the Breakpoint object is not
525 inferior specific, then this field contains None. This field can
528 ** gdb.Type now has the "is_array_like" and "is_string_like"
529 methods. These reflect GDB's internal idea of whether a type
530 might be array- or string-like, even if they do not have the
531 corresponding type code.
533 ** gdb.ValuePrinter is a new class that can be used as the base
534 class for the result of applying a pretty-printer. As a base
535 class, it signals to gdb that the printer may implement new
536 pretty-printer methods.
538 ** New attribute Progspace.symbol_file. This attribute holds the
539 gdb.Objfile that corresponds to Progspace.filename (when
540 Progspace.filename is not None), otherwise, this attribute is
543 ** New attribute Progspace.executable_filename. This attribute
544 holds a string containing a file name set by the "exec-file" or
545 "file" commands, or None if no executable file is set. This
546 isn't the exact string passed by the user to these commands; the
547 file name will have been partially resolved to an absolute file
550 ** A new executable_changed event registry is available. This event
551 emits ExecutableChangedEvent objects, which have 'progspace' (a
552 gdb.Progspace) and 'reload' (a Boolean) attributes. This event
553 is emitted when gdb.Progspace.executable_filename changes.
555 ** New event registries gdb.events.new_progspace and
556 gdb.events.free_progspace, these emit NewProgspaceEvent and
557 FreeProgspaceEvent event types respectively. Both of these event
558 types have a single 'progspace' attribute, which is the
559 gdb.Progspace that is either being added to GDB, or removed from
562 ** gdb.LazyString now implements the __str__ method.
564 ** New method gdb.Frame.static_link that returns the outer frame
565 of a nested function frame.
567 *** Changes in GDB 13
569 * MI version 1 is deprecated, and will be removed in GDB 14.
571 * GDB now supports dumping memory tag data for AArch64 MTE. It also supports
572 reading memory tag data for AArch64 MTE from core files generated by
573 the gcore command or the Linux kernel.
575 When a process uses memory-mapped pages protected by memory tags (for
576 example, AArch64 MTE), this additional information will be recorded in
577 the core file in the event of a crash or if GDB generates a core file
578 from the current process state. GDB will show this additional information
579 automatically, or through one of the memory-tag subcommands.
581 * Scheduler-locking and new threads
583 When scheduler-locking is in effect, only the current thread may run
584 when the inferior is resumed. However, previously, new threads
585 created by the resumed thread would still be able to run free. Now,
586 they are held stopped.
588 * "info breakpoints" now displays enabled breakpoint locations of
589 disabled breakpoints as in the "y-" state. For example:
591 (gdb) info breakpoints
592 Num Type Disp Enb Address What
593 1 breakpoint keep n <MULTIPLE>
594 1.1 y- 0x00000000000011b6 in ...
595 1.2 y- 0x00000000000011c2 in ...
596 1.3 n 0x00000000000011ce in ...
598 * Support for Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on FreeBSD arm and
599 aarch64 architectures.
601 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on FreeBSD/Aarch64.
603 * Remove support for building against Python 2, it is now only possible to
604 build GDB against Python 3.
606 * DBX mode has been removed.
608 * GDB now honours the DWARF prologue_end line-table entry flag the compiler can
609 emit to indicate where a breakpoint should be placed to break in a function
612 * Completion now also offers "NUMBER" for "set" commands that accept
613 a numeric argument and the "unlimited" keyword. For example:
615 (gdb) set width <TAB>
620 (gdb) complete set width
624 * Disassembler styling using libopcodes. GDB now supports
625 disassembler styling using libopcodes. This is only available for
626 some targets (currently x86 and RISC-V). For unsupported targets
627 Python Pygments is still used. For supported targets, libopcodes
628 styling is used by default.
630 * The Windows native target now supports target async.
632 * gdb now supports zstd compressed debug sections (ELFCOMPRESS_ZSTD) for ELF.
634 * The format of 'disassemble /r' and 'record instruction-history /r'
635 has changed. The instruction bytes could now be grouped together,
636 and displayed in the endianness of the instruction. This is the
637 same layout as used by GNU objdump when disassembling.
639 There is now 'disassemble /b' and 'record instruction-history /b'
640 which will always display the instructions bytes one at a time in
641 memory order, that is, the byte at the lowest address first.
643 For both /r and /b GDB is now better at using whitespace in order to
644 align the disassembled instruction text.
646 * The TUI no longer styles the source and assembly code highlighted by
647 the current position indicator by default. You can however
648 re-enable styling using the new "set style tui-current-position"
651 * New convenience variable $_inferior_thread_count contains the number
652 of live threads in the current inferior.
654 * When a breakpoint with multiple code locations is hit, GDB now prints
655 the code location using the syntax <breakpoint_number>.<location_number>
657 Thread 1 "zeoes" hit Breakpoint 2.3, some_func () at zeoes.c:8
659 * When a breakpoint is hit, GDB now sets the convenience variables $_hit_bpnum
660 and $_hit_locno to the hit breakpoint number and code location number.
661 This allows to disable the last hit breakpoint using
662 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum
663 or disable only the specific breakpoint code location using
664 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum.$_hit_locno
665 These commands can be used inside the command list of a breakpoint to
666 automatically disable the just encountered breakpoint (or the just
667 encountered specific breakpoint code location).
668 When a breakpoint has only one location, $_hit_locno is set to 1 so that
669 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum.$_hit_locno
671 (gdb) disable $_hit_bpnum
672 are both disabling the breakpoint.
676 maintenance set ignore-prologue-end-flag on|off
677 maintenance show ignore-prologue-end-flag
678 This setting, which is off by default, controls whether GDB ignores the
679 PROLOGUE-END flag from the line-table when skipping prologue. This can be
680 used to force GDB to use prologue analyzers if the line-table is constructed
681 from erroneous debug information.
683 set print nibbles [on|off]
685 This controls whether the 'print/t' command will display binary values
686 in groups of four bits, known as "nibbles". The default is 'off'.
688 maintenance set libopcodes-styling on|off
689 maintenance show libopcodes-styling
690 These can be used to force off libopcodes based styling, the Python
691 Pygments styling will then be used instead.
693 set style disassembler comment
694 show style disassembler comment
695 set style disassembler immediate
696 show style disassembler immediate
697 set style disassembler mnemonic
698 show style disassembler mnemonic
699 set style disassembler register
700 show style disassembler register
701 set style disassembler address
702 show style disassembler address
703 set style disassembler symbol
704 show style disassembler symbol
705 For targets that support libopcodes based styling, these settings
706 control how various aspects of the disassembler output are styled.
707 The 'disassembler address' and 'disassembler symbol' styles are
708 aliases for the 'address' and 'function' styles respectively.
710 maintenance print frame-id [ LEVEL ]
711 Print GDB's internal frame-id for the frame at LEVEL. If LEVEL is
712 not given, then print the frame-id for the currently selected frame.
714 set debug infcall on|off
716 Print additional debug messages about inferior function calls.
718 set debug solib on|off
720 Print additional debug messages about shared library handling.
722 set style tui-current-position [on|off]
723 Whether to style the source and assembly code highlighted by the
724 TUI's current position indicator. The default is off.
726 set print characters LIMIT
727 show print characters
728 This new setting is like 'set print elements', but controls how many
729 characters of a string are printed. This functionality used to be
730 covered by 'set print elements', but it can be controlled separately
731 now. LIMIT can be set to a numerical value to request that particular
732 character count, to 'unlimited' to print all characters of a string,
733 or to 'elements', which is also the default, to follow the setting of
734 'set print elements' as it used to be.
736 print -characters LIMIT
737 This new option to the 'print' command has the same effect as a temporary
738 use of 'set print characters'.
742 document user-defined
743 It is now possible to document user-defined aliases.
744 When a user-defined alias is documented, the help and apropos commands
745 use the provided documentation instead of the documentation of the
747 Documenting a user-defined alias is particularly useful when the alias
748 is a set of nested 'with' commands to avoid showing the help of
749 the with command for an alias that will in fact launch the
750 last command given in the nested commands.
752 maintenance info line-table
753 Add a PROLOGUE-END column to the output which indicates that an
754 entry corresponds to an address where a breakpoint should be placed
755 to be at the first instruction past a function's prologue.
759 set debug aix-solib on|off
761 set debug solib-frv on|off
763 Removed in favor of "set/show debug solib".
765 maintenance info program-spaces
766 This command now includes a 'Core File' column which indicates the
767 name of the core file associated with each program space.
771 GNU/Linux/LoongArch (gdbserver) loongarch*-*-linux*
773 GNU/Linux/CSKY (gdbserver) csky*-*linux*
779 ** The async record stating the stopped reason 'breakpoint-hit' now
780 contains an optional field locno giving the code location number
781 when the breakpoint has multiple code locations.
785 ** GDB will now reformat the doc string for gdb.Command and
786 gdb.Parameter sub-classes to remove unnecessary leading
787 whitespace from each line before using the string as the help
790 ** New function gdb.format_address(ADDRESS, PROGSPACE, ARCHITECTURE),
791 that formats ADDRESS as 'address <symbol+offset>', where symbol is
792 looked up in PROGSPACE, and ARCHITECTURE is used to format address.
793 This is the same format that GDB uses when printing address, symbol,
794 and offset information from the disassembler.
796 ** New function gdb.current_language that returns the name of the
797 current language. Unlike gdb.parameter('language'), this will
800 ** New method gdb.Frame.language that returns the name of the
803 ** New Python API for wrapping GDB's disassembler:
805 - gdb.disassembler.register_disassembler(DISASSEMBLER, ARCH).
806 DISASSEMBLER is a sub-class of gdb.disassembler.Disassembler.
807 ARCH is either None or a string containing a bfd architecture
808 name. DISASSEMBLER is registered as a disassembler for
809 architecture ARCH, or for all architectures if ARCH is None.
810 The previous disassembler registered for ARCH is returned, this
811 can be None if no previous disassembler was registered.
813 - gdb.disassembler.Disassembler is the class from which all
814 disassemblers should inherit. Its constructor takes a string,
815 a name for the disassembler, which is currently only used in
816 some debug output. Sub-classes should override the __call__
817 method to perform disassembly, invoking __call__ on this base
818 class will raise an exception.
820 - gdb.disassembler.DisassembleInfo is the class used to describe
821 a single disassembly request from GDB. An instance of this
822 class is passed to the __call__ method of
823 gdb.disassembler.Disassembler and has the following read-only
824 attributes: 'address', and 'architecture', as well as the
825 following method: 'read_memory'.
827 - gdb.disassembler.builtin_disassemble(INFO, MEMORY_SOURCE),
828 calls GDB's builtin disassembler on INFO, which is a
829 gdb.disassembler.DisassembleInfo object. MEMORY_SOURCE is
830 optional, its default value is None. If MEMORY_SOURCE is not
831 None then it must be an object that has a 'read_memory' method.
833 - gdb.disassembler.DisassemblerResult is a class that can be used
834 to wrap the result of a call to a Disassembler. It has
835 read-only attributes 'length' and 'string'.
837 ** gdb.Objfile now has an attribute named "is_file". This is True
838 if the objfile comes from a file, and False otherwise.
840 ** New function gdb.print_options that returns a dictionary of the
841 prevailing print options, in the form accepted by
842 gdb.Value.format_string.
844 ** gdb.Value.format_string now uses the format provided by 'print',
845 if it is called during a 'print' or other similar operation.
847 ** gdb.Value.format_string now accepts the 'summary' keyword. This
848 can be used to request a shorter representation of a value, the
849 way that 'set print frame-arguments scalars' does.
851 ** New Python type gdb.BreakpointLocation.
852 The new attribute 'locations' of gdb.Breakpoint returns a list of
853 gdb.BreakpointLocation objects specifying the locations where the
854 breakpoint is inserted into the debuggee.
856 ** The gdb.register_window_type method now restricts the set of
857 acceptable window names. The first character of a window's name
858 must start with a character in the set [a-zA-Z], every subsequent
859 character of a window's name must be in the set [-_.a-zA-Z0-9].
861 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
863 ** GDBserver is now supported on LoongArch GNU/Linux.
865 ** GDBserver is now supported on CSKY GNU/Linux.
867 * LoongArch floating-point support
869 GDB now supports floating-point on LoongArch GNU/Linux.
871 * AMD GPU ROCm debugging support
873 GDB now supports debugging programs offloaded to AMD GPUs using the ROCm
876 *** Changes in GDB 12
878 * DBX mode is deprecated, and will be removed in GDB 13
880 * GDB 12 is the last release of GDB that will support building against
881 Python 2. From GDB 13, it will only be possible to build GDB itself
882 with Python 3 support.
884 * The disable-randomization setting now works on Windows.
886 * Improved C++ template support
888 GDB now treats functions/types involving C++ templates like it does function
889 overloads. Users may omit parameter lists to set breakpoints on families of
890 template functions, including types/functions composed of multiple template types:
892 (gdb) break template_func(template_1, int)
894 The above will set breakpoints at every function `template_func' where
895 the first function parameter is any template type named `template_1' and
896 the second function parameter is `int'.
898 TAB completion also gains similar improvements.
900 * The FreeBSD native target now supports async mode.
906 Enable or disable multithreaded symbol loading. This is enabled
907 by default, but passing --disable-threading or --enable-threading=no
908 to configure will disable it.
910 Disabling this can cause a performance penalty when there are a lot of
911 symbols to load, but is useful for debugging purposes.
915 maint set backtrace-on-fatal-signal on|off
916 maint show backtrace-on-fatal-signal
917 This setting is 'on' by default. When 'on' GDB will print a limited
918 backtrace to stderr in the situation where GDB terminates with a
919 fatal signal. This only supported on some platforms where the
920 backtrace and backtrace_symbols_fd functions are available.
922 set source open on|off
924 This setting, which is on by default, controls whether GDB will try
925 to open source code files. Switching this off will stop GDB trying
926 to open and read source code files, which can be useful if the files
927 are located over a slow network connection.
931 These are now deprecated aliases for "set max-value-size" and
932 "show max-value-size".
934 task apply [all | TASK-IDS...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
935 Like "thread apply", but applies COMMAND to Ada tasks.
938 Watchpoints can now be restricted to a specific Ada task.
940 maint set internal-error backtrace on|off
941 maint show internal-error backtrace
942 maint set internal-warning backtrace on|off
943 maint show internal-warning backtrace
944 GDB can now print a backtrace of itself when it encounters either an
945 internal-error, or an internal-warning. This is on by default for
946 internal-error and off by default for internal-warning.
949 Deprecated and replaced by "set logging enabled on|off".
951 set logging enabled on|off
953 These commands set or show whether logging is enabled or disabled.
956 You can now exit GDB by using the new command "exit", in addition to
957 the existing "quit" command.
959 set debug threads on|off
961 Print additional debug messages about thread creation and deletion.
963 set debug linux-nat on|off
965 These new commands replaced the old 'set debug lin-lwp' and 'show
966 debug lin-lwp' respectively. Turning this setting on prints debug
967 messages relating to GDB's handling of native Linux inferiors.
969 maint flush source-cache
970 Flush the contents of the source code cache.
972 maint set gnu-source-highlight enabled on|off
973 maint show gnu-source-highlight enabled
974 Whether GDB should use the GNU Source Highlight library for adding
975 styling to source code. When off, the library will not be used, even
976 when available. When GNU Source Highlight isn't used, or can't add
977 styling to a particular source file, then the Python Pygments
978 library will be used instead.
980 set suppress-cli-notifications (on|off)
981 show suppress-cli-notifications
982 This controls whether printing the notifications is suppressed for CLI.
983 CLI notifications occur when you change the selected context
984 (i.e., the current inferior, thread and/or the frame), or when
985 the program being debugged stops (e.g., because of hitting a
986 breakpoint, completing source-stepping, an interrupt, etc.).
988 set style disassembler enabled on|off
989 show style disassembler enabled
990 If GDB is compiled with Python support, and the Python Pygments
991 package is available, then, when this setting is on, disassembler
992 output will have styling applied.
994 set ada source-charset
995 show ada source-charset
996 Set the character set encoding that is assumed for Ada symbols. Valid
997 values for this follow the values that can be passed to the GNAT
998 compiler via the '-gnati' option. The default is ISO-8859-1.
1004 These are the new names for the old 'layout', 'focus', 'refresh',
1005 and 'winheight' tui commands respectively. The old names still
1006 exist as aliases to these new commands.
1010 The new command 'tui window width', and the alias 'winwidth' allow
1011 the width of a tui window to be adjusted when windows are laid out
1014 set debug tui on|off
1016 Control the display of debug output about GDB's tui.
1021 Printing of floating-point values with base-modifying formats like
1022 /x has been changed to display the underlying bytes of the value in
1023 the desired base. This was GDB's documented behavior, but was never
1024 implemented correctly.
1027 This command can now print a reply, if the reply includes
1028 non-printable characters. Any non-printable characters are printed
1029 as escaped hex, e.g. \x?? where '??' is replaces with the value of
1030 the non-printable character.
1033 The clone-inferior command now ensures that the TTY, CMD and ARGS
1034 settings are copied from the original inferior to the new one.
1035 All modifications to the environment variables done using the 'set
1036 environment' or 'unset environment' commands are also copied to the new
1039 set debug lin-lwp on|off
1041 These commands have been removed from GDB. The new command 'set
1042 debug linux-nat' and 'show debug linux-nat' should be used
1046 This command now includes information about the width of the tui
1047 windows in its output.
1053 These commands are now aliases for the 'tui layout', 'tui focus',
1054 'tui refresh', and 'tui window height' commands respectively.
1056 * GDB's Ada parser now supports an extension for specifying the exact
1057 byte contents of a floating-point literal. This can be useful for
1058 setting floating-point registers to a precise value without loss of
1059 precision. The syntax is an extension of the based literal syntax.
1060 Use, e.g., "16lf#0123abcd#" -- the number of "l"s controls the width
1061 of the floating-point type, and the "f" is the marker for floating
1066 ** The '-add-inferior' with no option flags now inherits the
1067 connection of the current inferior, this restores the behaviour of
1068 GDB as it was prior to GDB 10.
1070 ** The '-add-inferior' command now accepts a '--no-connection'
1071 option, which causes the new inferior to start without a
1074 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 4 (-i=mi4).
1076 ** The "script" field in breakpoint output (which is syntactically
1077 incorrect in MI 3 and below) has changed in MI 4 to become a list.
1078 This affects the following commands and events:
1082 - =breakpoint-created
1083 - =breakpoint-modified
1085 The -fix-breakpoint-script-output command can be used to enable
1086 this behavior with previous MI versions.
1090 GNU/Linux/LoongArch loongarch*-*-linux*
1098 ** New function gdb.add_history(), which takes a gdb.Value object
1099 and adds the value it represents to GDB's history list. An
1100 integer, the index of the new item in the history list, is
1103 ** New function gdb.history_count(), which returns the number of
1104 values in GDB's value history.
1106 ** New gdb.events.gdb_exiting event. This event is called with a
1107 gdb.GdbExitingEvent object which has the read-only attribute
1108 'exit_code', which contains the value of the GDB exit code. This
1109 event is triggered once GDB decides it is going to exit, but
1110 before GDB starts to clean up its internal state.
1112 ** New function gdb.architecture_names(), which returns a list
1113 containing all of the possible Architecture.name() values. Each
1116 ** New function gdb.Architecture.integer_type(), which returns an
1117 integer type given a size and a signed-ness.
1119 ** New gdb.TargetConnection object type that represents a connection
1120 (as displayed by the 'info connections' command). A sub-class,
1121 gdb.RemoteTargetConnection, is used to represent 'remote' and
1122 'extended-remote' connections.
1124 ** The gdb.Inferior type now has a 'connection' property which is an
1125 instance of gdb.TargetConnection, the connection used by this
1126 inferior. This can be None if the inferior has no connection.
1128 ** New 'gdb.events.connection_removed' event registry, which emits a
1129 'gdb.ConnectionEvent' when a connection is removed from GDB.
1130 This event has a 'connection' property, a gdb.TargetConnection
1131 object for the connection being removed.
1133 ** New gdb.connections() function that returns a list of all
1134 currently active connections.
1136 ** New gdb.RemoteTargetConnection.send_packet(PACKET) method. This
1137 is equivalent to the existing 'maint packet' CLI command; it
1138 allows a user specified packet to be sent to the remote target.
1140 ** New function gdb.host_charset(), returns a string, which is the
1141 name of the current host charset.
1143 ** New gdb.set_parameter(NAME, VALUE). This sets the gdb parameter
1146 ** New gdb.with_parameter(NAME, VALUE). This returns a context
1147 manager that temporarily sets the gdb parameter NAME to VALUE,
1148 then resets it when the context is exited.
1150 ** The gdb.Value.format_string method now takes a 'styling'
1151 argument, which is a boolean. When true, the returned string can
1152 include escape sequences to apply styling. The styling will only
1153 be present if styling is otherwise turned on in GDB (see 'help
1154 set styling'). When false, which is the default if the argument
1155 is not given, then no styling is applied to the returned string.
1157 ** New read-only attribute gdb.InferiorThread.details, which is
1158 either a string, containing additional, target specific thread
1159 state information, or None, if there is no such additional
1162 ** New read-only attribute gdb.Type.is_scalar, which is True for
1163 scalar types, and False for all other types.
1165 ** New read-only attribute gdb.Type.is_signed. This attribute
1166 should only be read when Type.is_scalar is True, and will be True
1167 for signed types, and False for all other types. Attempting to
1168 read this attribute for non-scalar types will raise a ValueError.
1170 ** It is now possible to add GDB/MI commands implemented in Python.
1172 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1174 ** GDBserver is now supported on OpenRISC GNU/Linux.
1176 * New native configurations
1178 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
1180 *** Changes in GDB 11
1182 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
1185 * GDB now supports general memory tagging functionality if the underlying
1186 architecture supports the proper primitives and hooks. Currently this is
1187 enabled only for AArch64 MTE.
1191 - Additional information when the inferior crashes with a SIGSEGV caused by
1192 a memory tag violation.
1194 - A new modifier 'm' for the "x" command, which displays allocation tags for a
1195 particular memory range.
1197 - Display of memory tag mismatches by "print", for addresses and
1198 pointers, if memory tagging is supported by the architecture.
1200 * Building GDB now requires GMP (The GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic
1205 ** '-break-insert --qualified' and '-dprintf-insert --qualified'
1207 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
1208 new "--qualified" option that makes GDB interpret a specified
1209 function name as a complete fully-qualified name. This is the
1210 equivalent of the CLI's "break -qualified" and "dprintf
1213 ** '-break-insert --force-condition' and '-dprintf-insert --force-condition'
1215 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
1216 '--force-condition' flag to forcibly define a condition even when
1217 the condition is invalid at all locations of the breakpoint. This
1218 is equivalent to the '-force-condition' flag of the CLI's "break"
1221 ** '-break-condition --force'
1223 The MI -break-condition command now supports a '--force' flag to
1224 forcibly define a condition even when the condition is invalid at
1225 all locations of the selected breakpoint. This is equivalent to
1226 the '-force' flag of the CLI's "cond" command.
1228 ** '-file-list-exec-source-files [--group-by-objfile]
1229 [--basename | --dirname]
1232 The existing -file-list-exec-source-files command now takes an
1233 optional REGEXP which is used to filter the source files that are
1234 included in the results.
1236 By default REGEXP is matched against the full filename of the
1237 source file. When one of --basename or --dirname is given then
1238 REGEXP is only matched against the specified part of the full
1241 When the optional --group-by-objfile flag is used the output
1242 format is changed, the results are now a list of object files
1243 (executable and libraries) with the source files that are
1244 associated with each object file.
1246 The results from -file-list-exec-source-files now include a
1247 'debug-fully-read' field which takes the value 'true' or 'false'.
1248 A 'true' value indicates the source file is from a compilation
1249 unit that has had its debug information fully read in by GDB, a
1250 value of 'false' indicates GDB has only performed a partial scan
1251 of the debug information so far.
1253 * GDB now supports core file debugging for x86_64 Cygwin programs.
1255 * GDB will now look for the .gdbinit file in a config directory before
1256 looking for ~/.gdbinit. The file is searched for in the following
1257 locations: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.config/gdb/gdbinit,
1258 $HOME/.gdbinit. On Apple hosts the search order is instead:
1259 $HOME/Library/Preferences/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.gdbinit.
1261 * GDB now supports fixed point types which are described in DWARF
1262 as base types with a fixed-point encoding. Additionally, support
1263 for the DW_AT_GNU_numerator and DW_AT_GNU_denominator has also
1266 For Ada, this allows support for fixed point types without requiring
1267 the use of the GNAT encoding (based on information added to the type's
1268 name following a GNAT-specific format).
1270 * GDB will now load and process commands from ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit
1271 or ~/.gdbearlyinit if these files are present. These files are
1272 processed earlier than any of the other initialization files and
1273 can affect parts of GDB's startup that previously had already been
1274 completed before the initialization files were read, for example
1275 styling of the initial GDB greeting.
1277 * GDB now has two new options "--early-init-command" and
1278 "--early-init-eval-command" with corresponding short options "-eix"
1279 and "-eiex" that allow options (that would normally appear in a
1280 gdbearlyinit file) to be passed on the command line.
1282 * For RISC-V targets, the target feature "org.gnu.gdb.riscv.vector" is
1283 now understood by GDB, and can be used to describe the vector
1284 registers of a target. The precise requirements of this register
1285 feature are documented in the GDB manual.
1287 * For ARM targets, the "org.gnu.gdb.arm.m-profile-mve" feature is now
1288 supported by GDB and describes a new VPR register from the ARM MVE
1289 (Helium) extension. See the GDB manual for more information.
1293 ** TUI windows now support mouse actions. The mouse wheel scrolls
1294 the appropriate window.
1296 ** Key combinations that do not have a specific action on the
1297 focused window are passed to GDB. For example, you now can use
1298 Ctrl-Left/Ctrl-Right to move between words in the command window
1299 regardless of which window is in focus. Previously you would
1300 need to focus on the command window for such key combinations to
1305 set debug event-loop
1306 show debug event-loop
1307 Control the display of debug output about GDB's event loop.
1309 set print memory-tag-violations
1310 show print memory-tag-violations
1311 Control whether to display additional information about memory tag violations
1312 when printing pointers and addresses. Architecture support for memory
1313 tagging is required for this option to have an effect.
1315 maintenance flush symbol-cache
1316 maintenance flush register-cache
1317 These new commands are equivalent to the already existing commands
1318 'maintenance flush-symbol-cache' and 'flushregs' respectively.
1320 maintenance flush dcache
1321 A new command to flush the dcache.
1323 maintenance info target-sections
1324 Print GDB's internal target sections table.
1326 maintenance info jit
1327 Print the JIT code objects in the inferior known to GDB.
1329 memory-tag show-logical-tag POINTER
1330 Print the logical tag for POINTER.
1331 memory-tag with-logical-tag POINTER TAG
1332 Print POINTER with logical tag TAG.
1333 memory-tag show-allocation-tag ADDRESS
1334 Print the allocation tag for ADDRESS.
1335 memory-tag set-allocation-tag ADDRESS LENGTH TAGS
1336 Set the allocation tag for [ADDRESS, ADDRESS + LENGTH) to TAGS.
1337 memory-tag check POINTER
1338 Validate that POINTER's logical tag matches the allocation tag.
1340 set startup-quietly on|off
1341 show startup-quietly
1342 When 'on', this causes GDB to act as if "-silent" were passed on the
1343 command line. This command needs to be added to an early
1344 initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to
1347 set print type hex on|off
1349 When 'on', the 'ptype' command uses hexadecimal notation to print sizes
1350 and offsets of struct members. When 'off', decimal notation is used.
1352 set python ignore-environment on|off
1353 show python ignore-environment
1354 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to ignore any
1355 environment variables that would otherwise affect how Python
1356 behaves. This command needs to be added to an early initialization
1357 file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to affect GDB.
1359 set python dont-write-bytecode auto|on|off
1360 show python dont-write-bytecode
1361 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to not write any
1362 byte-code (.pyc files) to disk. This command needs to be added to
1363 an early initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in
1364 order to affect GDB. When 'off' byte-code will always be written.
1365 When set to 'auto' (the default) Python will check the
1366 PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE environment variable.
1370 break [PROBE_MODIFIER] [LOCATION] [thread THREADNUM]
1371 [-force-condition] [if CONDITION]
1372 This command would previously refuse setting a breakpoint if the
1373 CONDITION expression is invalid at a location. It now accepts and
1374 defines the breakpoint if there is at least one location at which
1375 the CONDITION is valid. The locations for which the CONDITION is
1376 invalid, are automatically disabled. If CONDITION is invalid at all
1377 of the locations, setting the breakpoint is still rejected. However,
1378 the '-force-condition' flag can be used in this case for forcing GDB to
1379 define the breakpoint, making all the current locations automatically
1380 disabled. This may be useful if the user knows the condition will
1381 become meaningful at a future location, e.g. due to a shared library
1384 condition [-force] N COND
1385 The behavior of this command is changed the same way for the 'break'
1386 command as explained above. The '-force' flag can be used to force
1387 GDB into defining the condition even when COND is invalid for all the
1388 current locations of breakpoint N.
1391 maintenance flush-symbol-cache
1392 These commands are deprecated in favor of the new commands
1393 'maintenance flush register-cache' and 'maintenance flush
1394 symbol-cache' respectively.
1396 set style version foreground COLOR
1397 set style version background COLOR
1398 set style version intensity VALUE
1399 Control the styling of GDB's version number text.
1402 When the ID parameter is omitted, then this command prints information
1403 about the current inferior. When the ID parameter is present, the
1404 behavior of the command is unchanged and have the inferior ID become
1405 the current inferior.
1407 maintenance info sections
1408 The ALLOBJ keyword has been replaced with an -all-objects command
1409 line flag. It is now possible to filter which sections are printed
1410 even when -all-objects is passed.
1412 ptype[/FLAGS] TYPE | EXPRESSION
1413 The 'ptype' command has two new flags. When '/x' is set, hexadecimal
1414 notation is used when printing sizes and offsets of struct members.
1415 When '/d' is set, decimal notation is used when printing sizes and
1416 offsets of struct members. Default behavior is given by 'show print
1420 The info sources command output has been restructured. The results
1421 are now based around a list of objfiles (executable and libraries),
1422 and for each objfile the source files that are part of that objfile
1425 * Removed targets and native configurations
1427 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1429 * New remote packets
1432 Request the remote to send allocation tags for a particular memory range.
1434 Request the remote to store the specified allocation tags to the requested
1439 ** Improved support for rvalue reference values:
1440 TYPE_CODE_RVALUE_REF is now exported as part of the API and the
1441 value-referenced-value procedure now handles rvalue reference
1444 ** New procedures for obtaining value variants:
1445 value-reference-value, value-rvalue-reference-value and
1448 ** Temporary breakpoints can now be created with make-breakpoint and
1449 tested for using breakpoint-temporary?.
1453 ** Inferior objects now contain a read-only 'connection_num' attribute that
1454 gives the connection number as seen in 'info connections' and
1457 ** New method gdb.Frame.level() which returns the stack level of the
1460 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.level() which returns the stack level
1461 of the frame object.
1463 ** When hitting a catchpoint, the Python API will now emit a
1464 gdb.BreakpointEvent rather than a gdb.StopEvent. The
1465 gdb.Breakpoint attached to the event will have type BP_CATCHPOINT.
1467 ** Python TUI windows can now receive mouse click events. If the
1468 Window object implements the click method, it is called for each
1469 mouse click event in this window.
1471 *** Changes in GDB 10
1473 * There are new feature names for ARC targets: "org.gnu.gdb.arc.core"
1474 and "org.gnu.gdb.arc.aux". The old names are still supported but
1475 must be considered obsolete. They will be deprecated after some
1478 * Help and apropos commands will now show the documentation of a
1479 command only once, even if that command has one or more aliases.
1480 These commands now show the command name, then all of its aliases,
1481 and finally the description of the command.
1483 * 'help aliases' now shows only the user defined aliases. GDB predefined
1484 aliases are shown together with their aliased command.
1486 * GDB now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing ELF/DWARF
1487 debugging information as well as source code.
1489 When built with debuginfod, GDB can automatically query debuginfod
1490 servers for the separate debug files and source code of the executable
1493 To build GDB with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure (this
1494 requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library).
1496 debuginfod is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178.
1498 You can get the latest version from https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
1500 * Multi-target debugging support
1502 GDB now supports debugging multiple target connections
1503 simultaneously. For example, you can now have each inferior
1504 connected to different remote servers running in different machines,
1505 or have one inferior debugging a local native process, an inferior
1506 debugging a core dump, etc.
1508 This support is experimental and comes with some limitations -- you
1509 can only resume multiple targets simultaneously if all targets
1510 support non-stop mode, and all remote stubs or servers must support
1511 the same set of remote protocol features exactly. See also "info
1512 connections" and "add-inferior -no-connection" below, and "maint set
1513 target-non-stop" in the user manual.
1515 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1517 ** GDBserver is now supported on ARC GNU/Linux.
1519 ** GDBserver is now supported on RISC-V GNU/Linux.
1521 ** GDBserver no longer supports these host triplets:
1523 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1532 i[34567]86-*-mingw32ce*
1534 * Debugging MS-Windows processes now sets $_exitsignal when the
1535 inferior is terminated by a signal, instead of setting $_exitcode.
1537 * Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
1538 that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
1539 performance for programs with many symbols.
1541 * The $_siginfo convenience variable now also works on Windows targets,
1542 and will display the EXCEPTION_RECORD of the last handled exception.
1544 * TUI windows can now be arranged horizontally.
1546 * The command history filename can now be set to the empty string
1547 either using 'set history filename' or by setting 'GDBHISTFILE=' in
1548 the environment. The effect of setting this filename to the empty
1549 string is that GDB will not try to load any previous command
1552 * On Windows targets, it is now possible to debug 32-bit programs with a
1557 set exec-file-mismatch -- Set exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
1558 show exec-file-mismatch -- Show exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
1559 Set or show the option 'exec-file-mismatch'. When GDB attaches to a
1560 running process, this new option indicates whether to detect
1561 a mismatch between the current executable file loaded by GDB and the
1562 executable file used to start the process. If 'ask', the default,
1563 display a warning and ask the user whether to load the process
1564 executable file; if 'warn', just display a warning; if 'off', don't
1565 attempt to detect a mismatch.
1567 tui new-layout NAME WINDOW WEIGHT [WINDOW WEIGHT]...
1568 Define a new TUI layout, specifying its name and the windows that
1571 maintenance print xml-tdesc [FILE]
1572 Prints the current target description as an XML document. If the
1573 optional FILE is provided (which is an XML target description) then
1574 the target description is read from FILE into GDB, and then
1577 maintenance print core-file-backed-mappings
1578 Prints file-backed mappings loaded from a core file's note section.
1579 Output is expected to be similar to that of "info proc mappings".
1581 set debug fortran-array-slicing on|off
1582 show debug fortran-array-slicing
1583 Print debugging when taking slices of Fortran arrays.
1585 set fortran repack-array-slices on|off
1586 show fortran repack-array-slices
1587 When taking slices from Fortran arrays and strings, if the slice is
1588 non-contiguous within the original value then, when this option is
1589 on, the new value will be repacked into a single contiguous value.
1590 When this option is off, then the value returned will consist of a
1591 descriptor that describes the slice within the memory of the
1592 original parent value.
1596 alias [-a] [--] ALIAS = COMMAND [DEFAULT-ARGS...]
1597 The alias command can now specify default args for an alias.
1598 GDB automatically prepends the alias default args to the argument list
1599 provided explicitly by the user.
1600 For example, to have a backtrace with full details, you can define
1601 an alias 'bt_ALL' as
1602 'alias bt_ALL = backtrace -entry-values both -frame-arg all
1603 -past-main -past-entry -full'.
1604 Alias default arguments can also use a set of nested 'with' commands,
1605 e.g. 'alias pp10 = with print pretty -- with print elem 10 -- print'
1606 defines the alias pp10 that will pretty print a maximum of 10 elements
1607 of the given expression (if the expression is an array).
1611 GNU/Linux/RISC-V (gdbserver) riscv*-*-linux*
1612 BPF bpf-unknown-none
1617 ** gdb.register_window_type can be used to implement new TUI windows
1620 ** Dynamic types can now be queried. gdb.Type has a new attribute,
1621 "dynamic", and gdb.Type.sizeof can be None for a dynamic type. A
1622 field of a dynamic type may have None for its "bitpos" attribute
1625 ** Commands written in Python can be in the "TUI" help class by
1626 registering with the new constant gdb.COMMAND_TUI.
1628 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.architecture () to retrieve the
1629 architecture of the pending frame.
1631 ** New gdb.Architecture.registers method that returns a
1632 gdb.RegisterDescriptorIterator object, an iterator that returns
1633 gdb.RegisterDescriptor objects. The new RegisterDescriptor is a
1634 way to query the registers available for an architecture.
1636 ** New gdb.Architecture.register_groups method that returns a
1637 gdb.RegisterGroupIterator object, an iterator that returns
1638 gdb.RegisterGroup objects. The new RegisterGroup is a way to
1639 discover the available register groups.
1643 ** GDB can now be built with GNU Guile 3.0 and 2.2 in addition to 2.0.
1645 ** Procedures 'memory-port-read-buffer-size',
1646 'set-memory-port-read-buffer-size!', 'memory-port-write-buffer-size',
1647 and 'set-memory-port-write-buffer-size!' are deprecated. When
1648 using Guile 2.2 and later, users who need to control the size of
1649 a memory port's internal buffer can use the 'setvbuf' procedure.
1651 *** Changes in GDB 9
1653 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
1655 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
1656 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
1657 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
1658 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
1659 such as in system-wide init files.
1661 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
1662 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
1663 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
1664 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
1665 current GDB settings.
1667 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
1668 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
1669 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
1670 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
1672 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
1673 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
1676 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
1677 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
1679 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
1680 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
1681 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
1683 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
1684 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
1687 * Command names can now use the . character.
1689 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
1691 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
1694 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
1696 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
1697 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
1699 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
1700 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
1701 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
1703 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
1705 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
1706 not visible in the current scope.
1708 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
1709 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
1710 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
1711 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
1712 compiled with support for that language.
1714 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
1715 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
1716 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
1720 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
1721 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
1722 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
1723 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
1724 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
1726 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
1727 type was defined in.
1729 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
1730 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
1731 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
1734 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
1735 symbols with static linkage.
1737 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
1738 all static symbols with static linkage.
1740 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
1741 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
1743 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
1744 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
1748 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
1749 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
1750 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
1751 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
1752 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
1753 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
1754 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
1756 define-prefix COMMAND
1757 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
1759 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
1760 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
1761 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
1762 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
1763 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
1764 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
1765 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
1766 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
1767 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
1768 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
1769 of array elements to print.
1771 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
1772 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
1774 set may-call-functions [on|off]
1775 show may-call-functions
1776 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
1777 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
1778 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
1779 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
1780 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
1781 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
1784 set print finish [on|off]
1786 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
1787 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
1788 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
1792 show print max-depth
1793 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
1794 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
1795 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
1796 the old behavior back.
1798 set print raw-values [on|off]
1799 show print raw-values
1800 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
1801 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
1802 of commands. The default is 'off'.
1804 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
1805 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
1806 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
1808 set style title foreground COLOR
1809 set style title background COLOR
1810 set style title intensity VALUE
1811 Control the styling of titles.
1813 set style highlight foreground COLOR
1814 set style highlight background COLOR
1815 set style highlight intensity VALUE
1816 Control the styling of highlightings.
1818 maint set worker-threads
1819 maint show worker-threads
1820 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
1821 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
1822 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
1823 the names of linker symbols.
1825 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
1826 set style tui-border background COLOR
1827 Control the styling of TUI borders.
1829 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
1830 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
1831 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
1833 maint set test-settings KIND
1834 maint show test-settings KIND
1835 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
1838 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
1839 maint show tui-resize-message
1840 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
1841 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
1844 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
1845 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
1846 show print frame-info
1847 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
1848 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
1849 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
1850 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
1852 set tui compact-source
1853 show tui compact-source
1855 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
1856 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
1857 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
1858 line numbers from the source.
1860 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
1861 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
1864 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
1865 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
1866 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
1867 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
1868 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
1869 matches against the function name.
1871 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
1872 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
1873 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
1874 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
1875 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
1876 against the variable name.
1878 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
1879 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
1880 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
1882 The default is 512 bytes.
1885 Lists the target connections currently in use.
1890 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
1891 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
1895 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
1896 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
1897 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
1898 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
1899 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
1903 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
1904 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
1905 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
1906 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
1908 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
1909 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
1910 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
1911 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
1915 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
1916 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
1917 the user visualize the different styles.
1919 set print frame-arguments
1920 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
1921 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
1923 set print raw-frame-arguments
1924 show print raw-frame-arguments
1926 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
1927 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
1928 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
1931 add-inferior [-no-connection]
1932 The add-inferior command now supports a "-no-connection" flag that
1933 makes the new inferior start with no target connection associated.
1934 By default, the new inferior inherits the target connection of the
1935 current inferior. See also "info connections".
1938 This command's output now includes a new "Connection" column
1939 indicating which target connection an inferior is bound to. See
1940 "info connections" above.
1942 maint test-options require-delimiter
1943 maint test-options unknown-is-error
1944 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
1945 maint show test-options-completion-result
1946 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
1949 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
1950 These commands are now case-sensitive.
1952 * New command options, command completion
1954 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
1955 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
1956 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
1957 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
1958 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
1959 number of commands got support for new command options in this
1962 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
1963 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
1964 set by "set print" subcommands:
1968 -array-indexes [on|off]
1969 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
1973 -raw-values [on|off]
1974 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
1975 -static-members [on|off]
1980 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
1981 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
1982 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
1983 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
1985 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
1986 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
1987 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
1989 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
1990 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
1991 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
1992 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
1993 |location-and-address|short-location
1995 -past-entry [on|off]
1997 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
1998 exposed as command options too:
2004 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
2005 support the following options:
2008 -past-entry [on|off]
2010 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
2011 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
2013 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
2014 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
2015 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
2018 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
2020 The above is equivalent to:
2022 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
2024 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
2025 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
2026 variables" and "info functions".
2028 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
2029 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
2030 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
2033 * Completion improvements
2035 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
2036 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
2039 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
2040 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
2043 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
2044 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
2045 completes on filenames.
2047 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
2048 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
2050 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
2052 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
2053 elements unlimited".
2058 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2059 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
2060 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
2062 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
2063 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
2064 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
2066 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
2067 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
2068 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
2070 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
2073 -symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
2074 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
2075 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
2079 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
2081 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
2082 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
2083 the following commands and events:
2087 - =breakpoint-created
2088 - =breakpoint-modified
2090 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
2091 this behavior with previous MI versions.
2093 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
2094 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
2095 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
2100 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
2101 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
2102 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
2103 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
2105 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
2107 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
2108 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
2110 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
2112 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
2113 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
2115 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
2116 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
2117 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
2119 * Removed targets and native configurations
2121 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
2122 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
2123 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
2129 * Removed targets and native configurations
2131 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
2132 sparc*-*-solaris2.10
2134 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
2136 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
2137 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
2140 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
2141 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
2142 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
2145 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
2148 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
2149 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
2150 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
2152 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
2153 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
2155 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
2156 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2157 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2158 in the GDB user manual.
2160 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
2163 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
2165 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
2166 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
2167 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
2168 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
2169 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
2170 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
2171 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
2172 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
2173 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
2174 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
2175 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
2176 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
2178 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
2179 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
2180 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
2183 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
2188 set debug compile-cplus-types
2189 show debug compile-cplus-types
2190 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
2191 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiling
2192 for other languages.
2196 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
2199 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
2200 Apply a command to some frames.
2201 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
2202 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
2205 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
2206 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
2209 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
2210 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
2213 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
2215 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
2217 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
2218 maint show dwarf unwinders
2219 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
2222 Display a list of open files for a process.
2226 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
2227 These commands all now take a frame specification which
2228 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
2229 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
2230 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
2231 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
2232 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
2234 target remote FILENAME
2235 target extended-remote FILENAME
2236 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
2237 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
2239 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
2240 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
2241 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
2242 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
2243 These commands can now print only the searched entities
2244 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
2245 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
2246 printing headers or informations messages.
2252 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
2253 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
2254 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
2257 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
2258 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
2259 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
2260 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
2262 set tui tab-width NCHARS
2263 show tui tab-width NCHARS
2264 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
2266 set style enabled [on|off]
2268 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
2269 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
2271 set style sources [on|off]
2273 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
2274 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
2275 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
2277 set style filename foreground COLOR
2278 set style filename background COLOR
2279 set style filename intensity VALUE
2280 Control the styling of file names.
2282 set style function foreground COLOR
2283 set style function background COLOR
2284 set style function intensity VALUE
2285 Control the styling of function names.
2287 set style variable foreground COLOR
2288 set style variable background COLOR
2289 set style variable intensity VALUE
2290 Control the styling of variable names.
2292 set style address foreground COLOR
2293 set style address background COLOR
2294 set style address intensity VALUE
2295 Control the styling of addresses.
2299 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
2300 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
2301 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
2302 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
2303 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
2305 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
2306 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
2308 * New native configurations
2310 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
2311 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
2315 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
2316 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
2317 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
2318 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
2320 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
2324 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
2329 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
2331 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
2332 space associated to that inferior.
2334 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
2335 of objfiles associated to that program space.
2337 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
2338 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
2341 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
2342 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
2343 correct and did not work properly.
2345 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
2346 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
2352 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
2353 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
2354 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
2355 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
2356 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
2358 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
2360 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
2361 for the MIPS target.
2363 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
2364 offset to all sections.
2366 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
2367 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
2368 address of individual sections using '-s'.
2370 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
2371 (address of the text section).
2373 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
2374 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
2375 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
2376 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
2379 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
2380 for the rest of the current command.
2382 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
2383 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
2385 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
2386 files created on FreeBSD systems.
2388 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
2391 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
2392 the vector length while the process is running.
2398 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
2400 set|show varsize-limit
2401 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
2402 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
2403 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
2405 set|show record btrace cpu
2406 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
2407 branch trace decode.
2409 maint check libthread-db
2410 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
2413 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
2414 maint show check-libthread-db
2415 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
2416 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
2417 perform such checks.
2421 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
2423 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
2424 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
2426 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
2428 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
2429 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
2430 of convenience variables.
2432 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
2433 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
2434 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
2438 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
2440 * Removed targets and native configurations
2442 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
2443 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
2444 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
2445 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
2447 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
2449 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
2450 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
2451 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
2452 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
2453 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
2454 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
2459 --enable-codesign=CERT
2460 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
2461 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
2462 gdb to work properly.
2464 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
2465 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
2467 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
2469 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
2470 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
2471 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
2473 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
2474 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
2476 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
2477 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
2478 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
2479 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
2480 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
2482 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
2483 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
2484 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
2485 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
2487 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
2488 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
2490 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
2491 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
2492 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
2494 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
2495 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
2496 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
2498 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
2499 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
2500 environment" command.
2502 * Completion improvements
2504 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
2505 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
2506 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
2507 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
2510 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
2511 (gdb) b function(int)
2513 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
2514 C++ anonymous namespaces:
2517 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
2518 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
2519 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
2521 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
2522 completion support, that better understands what you're
2523 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
2524 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
2525 setting a breakpoint.
2527 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
2529 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
2531 * New command line options (gcore)
2534 Dump all memory mappings.
2536 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
2538 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
2539 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
2540 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
2542 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
2547 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
2550 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
2551 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
2552 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
2553 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
2554 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
2555 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
2556 a breakpoint from Python.
2558 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
2560 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
2561 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
2562 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
2564 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
2566 function[abi:cxx11](int)
2569 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
2572 (gdb) b function(int)
2574 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
2576 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
2578 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
2582 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
2583 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
2584 description of these.
2586 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
2587 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
2588 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
2590 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
2591 manual for a further description of this feature.
2594 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2596 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
2597 specified initial working directory.
2599 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
2600 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
2602 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
2603 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
2605 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
2606 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
2608 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
2609 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
2610 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
2611 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
2612 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
2614 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
2615 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
2616 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
2618 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
2619 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
2620 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
2621 in the *stopped notification.
2623 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
2624 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
2626 * New remote packets
2628 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
2629 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
2630 the inferior when starting it.
2633 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
2634 before starting the remote inferior.
2637 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
2638 user-set environment variables should be unset).
2641 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
2644 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
2647 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
2648 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
2650 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
2651 filter the tests to be run.
2653 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
2654 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
2659 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
2661 set|show compile-gcc
2662 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
2663 with the 'compile' commands.
2665 set debug separate-debug-file
2666 show debug separate-debug-file
2667 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
2669 set dump-excluded-mappings
2670 show dump-excluded-mappings
2671 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
2672 dumped when generating a core file.
2674 maint info selftests
2675 List the registered selftests.
2678 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
2681 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
2683 set|show print type nested-type-limit
2684 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
2685 type printer will show.
2687 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
2690 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
2692 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
2695 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
2696 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
2697 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
2698 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
2700 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
2701 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
2702 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
2703 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
2704 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
2705 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
2707 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
2708 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
2709 unless you tell it the variable's type:
2712 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
2716 * New native configurations
2718 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
2719 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
2723 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
2724 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
2725 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
2727 * Removed targets and native configurations
2729 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
2731 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
2733 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
2734 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
2735 available in future Intel CPUs.
2737 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
2741 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
2742 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
2744 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
2747 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
2749 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
2751 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
2752 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
2755 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
2757 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
2758 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
2760 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
2762 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
2763 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
2764 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
2765 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
2768 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
2770 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
2771 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
2774 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
2776 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
2777 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
2779 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
2781 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
2786 eval "print $arg%d", $i
2791 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
2793 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
2794 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
2796 * New native configurations
2798 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
2802 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
2803 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
2805 * Removed targets and native configurations
2807 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2808 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
2813 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
2815 maint print arc arc-instruction address
2816 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
2820 set disassembler-options
2821 show disassembler-options
2822 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
2823 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
2824 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
2825 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
2826 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
2831 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
2832 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
2834 -file-list-shared-libraries
2835 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
2836 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
2839 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
2840 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
2842 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
2844 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
2846 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
2847 default. One must now explicitly configure with
2848 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
2849 option will be removed in a future release.
2851 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
2854 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
2855 memory backward from the given address. For example:
2858 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
2859 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
2860 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
2861 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
2862 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
2863 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
2864 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
2865 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
2866 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
2868 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
2869 arrays of dynamic types.
2871 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
2872 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
2873 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
2874 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
2875 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
2876 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
2878 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
2881 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
2882 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
2883 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
2885 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
2887 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
2888 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
2889 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
2890 signal received and code location.
2894 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
2895 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
2896 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
2897 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
2899 * Rust language support.
2900 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
2901 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
2904 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
2906 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
2907 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
2908 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
2909 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
2910 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
2911 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
2912 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
2913 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
2914 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
2915 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
2918 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
2920 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
2921 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
2926 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
2927 skip -function function
2928 skip -rfunction regular-expression
2929 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
2930 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
2931 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
2933 maint info line-table REGEXP
2934 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data structure.
2937 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
2940 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
2941 using the TTY file for input/output.
2945 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
2946 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
2947 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
2948 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
2949 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
2951 signal-event EVENTID
2952 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
2953 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
2954 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
2955 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
2956 signalling an event.
2958 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
2959 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
2960 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
2962 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
2965 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
2966 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
2967 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
2968 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
2969 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
2970 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
2972 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
2973 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
2974 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
2975 bytecode into native code.
2977 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
2978 recording. For example:
2980 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
2982 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
2984 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
2988 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
2990 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
2992 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
2994 * Per-inferior thread numbers
2996 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
2997 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
2998 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
3002 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
3003 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
3004 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
3005 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
3007 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
3008 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
3009 are no longer unique between inferiors.
3011 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
3012 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
3013 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
3015 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
3018 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
3019 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
3022 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
3025 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
3026 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
3027 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
3028 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
3031 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
3034 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
3037 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
3040 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
3041 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
3044 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
3045 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
3047 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
3049 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
3051 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
3052 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
3054 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
3055 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
3058 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
3059 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
3062 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
3063 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
3066 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
3068 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
3069 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
3070 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
3072 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
3073 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
3077 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
3078 maint show target-non-stop
3079 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
3080 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
3081 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
3083 maint set bfd-sharing
3084 maint show bfd-sharing
3085 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
3088 show debug bfd-cache
3089 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
3093 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
3095 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
3096 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
3097 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
3099 set remote thread-events
3100 show remote thread-events
3101 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
3103 set ada print-signatures on|off
3104 show ada print-signatures"
3105 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
3106 selection menus. It is activated (@code{on}) by default.
3110 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
3111 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
3112 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
3114 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
3115 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
3116 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
3117 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
3118 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
3119 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
3121 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
3122 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
3124 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
3125 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
3127 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
3129 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
3130 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
3131 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
3132 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
3133 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
3134 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
3136 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
3137 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
3140 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
3142 * New remote packets
3145 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
3147 exec-events feature in qSupported
3148 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
3149 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
3150 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
3151 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
3154 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
3157 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
3158 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
3160 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
3161 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
3164 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
3165 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
3166 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
3167 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
3168 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
3169 stop for that same thread.
3172 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
3173 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
3174 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
3177 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
3178 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
3180 syscall_entry stop reason
3181 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
3183 syscall_return stop reason
3184 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
3186 * Extended-remote exec events
3188 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
3189 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
3190 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
3192 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
3193 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
3194 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
3196 * Thread names in remote protocol
3198 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
3201 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
3203 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
3204 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
3205 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
3206 fork and exec catchpoints.
3208 * Remote syscall events
3210 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
3211 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
3213 set remote catch-syscall-packet
3214 show remote catch-syscall-packet
3215 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
3219 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
3220 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
3225 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
3226 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
3227 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
3228 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
3229 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
3230 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
3232 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
3234 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
3235 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
3236 including advance SIMD instructions.
3238 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
3240 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
3241 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
3242 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
3243 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
3244 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
3245 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
3246 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
3248 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
3250 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
3252 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
3253 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
3256 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
3257 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
3258 and may include things like its command line arguments.
3260 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
3261 is now available on all platforms.
3263 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
3264 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
3265 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
3266 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
3267 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
3268 backward compatibility.
3270 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
3271 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
3272 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
3273 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
3275 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
3276 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
3277 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
3278 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
3281 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
3283 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
3285 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
3286 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
3287 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
3288 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
3289 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
3290 See "New remote packets" below.
3292 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
3293 available register groups, including target specific groups.
3295 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
3296 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
3297 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
3298 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
3303 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
3307 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
3308 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
3309 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
3310 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
3311 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
3312 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
3313 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
3314 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
3315 "const" version of the value respectively.
3319 maint print symbol-cache
3320 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
3322 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
3323 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
3325 maint flush-symbol-cache
3326 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
3330 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
3333 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
3337 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
3340 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
3341 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
3345 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
3348 Print information about branch tracing internals.
3350 maint btrace packet-history
3351 Print the raw branch tracing data.
3353 maint btrace clear-packet-history
3354 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
3357 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
3358 anew by the next "record" command.
3363 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
3364 show debug dwarf-die
3365 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
3367 set debug dwarf-read
3368 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
3369 show debug dwarf-read
3370 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
3372 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
3373 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
3374 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
3375 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
3377 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
3378 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
3379 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
3380 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
3382 set debug dwarf-line
3383 show debug dwarf-line
3384 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
3387 show max-completions
3388 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
3389 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
3390 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
3391 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
3393 set history remove-duplicates
3394 show history remove-duplicates
3395 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
3397 maint set symbol-cache-size
3398 maint show symbol-cache-size
3399 Control the size of the symbol cache.
3401 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
3402 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
3404 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
3405 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
3407 set debug linux-namespaces
3408 show debug linux-namespaces
3409 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
3411 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
3412 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
3413 Intel Processor Trace format.
3414 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
3415 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
3417 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
3418 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
3421 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
3422 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
3424 * Python/Guile scripting
3426 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
3427 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
3429 * New remote packets
3431 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
3432 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
3434 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
3435 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
3438 Enable Intel Processor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
3439 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
3442 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
3443 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
3447 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
3448 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
3449 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
3453 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
3454 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
3457 Return information about files on the remote system.
3459 qXfer:exec-file:read
3460 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
3461 create a process running on the remote system.
3464 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
3465 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
3466 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
3467 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
3470 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
3473 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
3475 vforkdone stop reason
3476 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
3477 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
3479 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
3480 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
3481 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
3482 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
3483 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
3484 whether these features are enabled.
3486 * Extended-remote fork events
3488 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
3489 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
3490 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
3491 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
3493 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
3494 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
3495 the btrace record target.
3496 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
3498 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
3499 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
3501 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
3504 * Removed command line options
3506 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
3508 * Removed targets and native configurations
3510 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
3511 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
3513 * New configure options
3516 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
3517 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
3519 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
3520 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
3521 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
3522 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
3524 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
3528 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
3530 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
3532 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
3536 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
3537 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
3538 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
3539 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
3540 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
3541 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
3542 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
3543 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
3544 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
3545 selecting a new file to debug.
3546 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
3547 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
3549 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
3552 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
3553 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
3554 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
3555 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
3557 * New Python-based convenience functions:
3559 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
3560 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
3561 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
3562 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
3564 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
3565 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
3566 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
3567 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
3568 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
3569 interface with this new feature are:
3571 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
3572 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
3576 demangle [-l language] [--] name
3577 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
3578 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
3579 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
3580 as "maint demangler-warning".
3582 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
3583 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
3585 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
3586 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
3589 maint print user-registers
3590 List all currently available "user" registers.
3592 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
3593 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
3594 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
3596 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
3597 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
3598 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
3601 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
3602 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
3603 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
3604 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
3607 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
3608 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
3609 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
3610 switched threads meanwhile.
3612 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
3614 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
3615 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
3616 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
3617 is now the default mode.
3621 set debug symbol-lookup
3622 show debug symbol-lookup
3623 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
3627 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
3628 inferiors that have exited.
3632 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
3636 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
3638 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
3639 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
3640 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
3641 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
3642 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
3644 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
3645 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
3646 its alias "share", instead.
3648 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
3650 * New command line options
3653 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
3655 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
3656 as specified in ISO C99.
3658 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
3659 with or without disassembly.
3663 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
3664 available is determined at configure time.
3665 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
3666 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
3668 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3672 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
3676 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
3678 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
3679 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
3681 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
3682 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
3686 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
3687 show print symbol-loading
3688 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
3689 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
3690 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
3691 becomes less useful.
3693 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
3694 show guile print-stack
3695 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
3697 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
3698 show auto-load guile-scripts
3699 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
3701 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
3702 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
3703 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
3704 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
3705 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
3706 usage of this option.
3708 set auto-connect-native-target
3710 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
3711 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
3712 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
3714 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
3715 show record btrace replay-memory-access
3716 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
3718 maint set target-async (on|off)
3719 maint show target-async
3720 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
3721 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
3722 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
3723 occurring only in synchronous mode.
3725 set mi-async (on|off)
3727 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
3728 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
3730 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
3731 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
3733 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
3734 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
3735 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
3736 "set target-async on" command.
3738 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3740 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
3741 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
3742 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
3743 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
3744 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
3746 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
3747 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
3748 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
3750 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
3751 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
3752 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
3753 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
3754 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
3755 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
3756 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
3758 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
3759 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
3761 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
3762 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
3763 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
3765 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
3766 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
3767 memory or registers.
3769 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
3771 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
3772 remote. It now works with all targets.
3774 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
3775 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
3776 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
3777 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
3778 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
3779 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
3780 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
3781 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
3782 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
3785 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
3786 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
3787 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
3789 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
3791 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
3792 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
3793 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
3795 * New remote packets
3797 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
3798 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
3799 branch trace incrementally.
3803 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
3804 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
3806 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
3807 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
3808 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
3809 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
3810 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
3813 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
3815 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
3816 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
3817 its alias "share", instead.
3819 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
3820 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
3825 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
3826 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
3827 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
3828 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
3829 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
3830 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
3831 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
3832 commands and CLI execution commands.
3834 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
3836 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
3837 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
3838 recording has been added.
3840 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
3842 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
3843 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
3845 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
3846 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
3847 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
3848 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
3849 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
3850 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
3853 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
3855 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
3857 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
3858 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
3859 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
3860 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
3865 (gdb) info registers rax
3868 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
3869 "*value not available*".
3871 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
3876 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
3877 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
3878 ** Line tables representation has been added.
3879 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
3880 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
3881 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
3885 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
3886 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
3887 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
3889 * Removed native configurations
3891 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
3892 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
3894 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3895 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3896 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
3897 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
3898 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3899 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3900 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3904 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
3905 maint check-psymtabs
3906 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
3908 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
3909 maint expand-symtabs
3910 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
3913 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
3915 maint set|show per-command
3916 maint set|show per-command space
3917 maint set|show per-command time
3918 maint set|show per-command symtab
3919 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
3921 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
3922 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
3923 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
3924 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
3925 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
3928 info exceptions REGEXP
3929 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
3930 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
3935 set debug symfile off|on
3937 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
3938 symbol tables within those files
3940 set print raw frame-arguments
3941 show print raw frame-arguments
3942 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
3943 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
3945 set remote trace-status-packet
3946 show remote trace-status-packet
3947 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
3951 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
3955 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
3957 set startup-with-shell
3958 show startup-with-shell
3959 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
3964 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
3965 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
3967 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
3968 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
3969 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
3970 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
3973 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
3974 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
3975 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
3977 * New command-line options
3979 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
3981 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
3982 buffer in Common Trace Format.
3984 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
3987 * GDB now implements the C++ 'typeid' operator.
3989 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
3990 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
3992 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
3993 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
3995 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
3996 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
3997 due to an uncaught signal.
4001 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
4002 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
4003 command, which should contain "language-option".
4005 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
4006 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
4008 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
4009 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
4010 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
4011 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
4012 "undefined-command-error-code".
4014 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
4017 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
4019 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
4020 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
4023 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
4024 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
4026 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
4027 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
4028 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
4030 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
4031 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
4032 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
4033 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
4034 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
4035 "exec-run-start-option".
4037 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
4038 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
4040 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
4041 the new "info exceptions" command.
4043 * New system-wide configuration scripts
4044 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
4045 configuration scripts for the following systems:
4049 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
4050 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
4051 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
4054 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
4055 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
4057 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
4058 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
4059 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
4061 * New remote packets
4065 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
4066 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
4067 involvemement at each single-step.
4069 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
4070 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
4071 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
4072 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
4073 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
4074 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
4077 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
4079 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
4080 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
4082 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
4083 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
4084 trace state variables.
4086 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
4089 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
4090 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
4092 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
4094 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
4095 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
4096 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
4097 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4099 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
4101 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
4102 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
4103 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
4104 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
4106 set|show record full insn-number-max
4107 set|show record full stop-at-limit
4108 set|show record full memory-query
4110 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
4111 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
4112 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
4113 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
4114 This new recording method can be enabled using:
4118 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
4119 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
4121 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
4122 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
4123 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
4125 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
4126 instruction granularity
4128 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
4129 function granularity
4131 * New native configurations
4133 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
4134 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
4135 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
4136 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
4140 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
4141 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
4142 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
4143 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
4144 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
4146 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
4147 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
4148 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
4149 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
4150 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
4151 --data-directory command-line option.
4153 * New command line options:
4155 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
4156 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
4158 * Removed command line options
4160 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
4163 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
4166 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
4170 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
4172 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
4174 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
4176 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
4178 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
4179 of architecture in the Python API.
4181 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
4182 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
4184 * New Python-based convenience functions:
4186 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
4187 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
4189 ** $_regex(str, regex)
4191 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
4194 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
4195 default for GCC since November 2000.
4197 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
4199 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
4200 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
4202 * New configure options
4204 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
4205 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
4206 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
4207 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
4208 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
4209 options allow the user to override that default.
4210 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
4211 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
4212 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
4214 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4217 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
4218 conditions to be attached.
4221 List the BFDs known to GDB.
4223 python-interactive [command]
4225 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
4226 and print the result of expressions.
4229 "py" is a new alias for "python".
4231 enable type-printer [name]...
4232 disable type-printer [name]...
4233 Enable or disable type printers.
4237 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
4238 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
4243 set print type methods (on|off)
4244 show print type methods
4245 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
4246 The default is to show them.
4248 set print type typedefs (on|off)
4249 show print type typedefs
4250 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
4251 The default is to show them.
4253 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
4254 show filename-display
4255 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
4256 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
4258 set trace-buffer-size
4259 show trace-buffer-size
4260 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
4262 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
4263 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
4264 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
4268 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
4271 set debug coff-pe-read
4272 show debug coff-pe-read
4273 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
4278 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
4281 set debug notification
4282 show debug notification
4283 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
4287 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
4288 "=cmd-param-changed".
4289 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
4290 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
4291 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
4292 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
4293 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
4294 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
4295 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
4296 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
4298 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
4299 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
4300 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
4301 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
4302 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
4303 library load/unload events.
4304 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
4305 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
4306 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
4307 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
4308 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
4309 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
4310 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
4311 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
4313 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
4314 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
4315 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
4316 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
4318 * New remote packets
4321 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
4322 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
4325 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
4326 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
4330 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
4331 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
4334 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
4335 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
4337 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
4339 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
4340 for more x32 ABI info.
4342 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
4344 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
4346 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
4347 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
4348 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
4349 "info os files" lists file descriptors
4350 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
4351 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
4352 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
4353 "info os msg" lists message queues
4354 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
4356 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
4357 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
4358 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
4359 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
4360 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
4361 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
4363 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
4364 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
4365 record/replay support.
4367 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
4371 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
4374 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
4376 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
4377 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
4379 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
4381 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
4382 the source at which the symbol was defined.
4384 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
4385 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
4386 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
4389 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
4390 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
4392 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
4393 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
4394 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
4396 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
4397 object associated with a PC value.
4399 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
4400 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
4402 * Go language support.
4403 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
4406 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
4407 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
4409 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
4410 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
4412 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
4413 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
4414 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
4415 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
4416 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
4419 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
4420 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
4421 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
4422 build/libcpp/expr.c.
4424 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
4425 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
4427 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
4428 since December 2007.
4430 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
4431 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
4432 command does. For instance:
4434 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
4436 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
4437 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
4438 created, using the "condition" command.
4440 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
4441 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
4443 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
4445 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
4446 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
4447 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
4448 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
4449 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
4450 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
4451 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
4452 files with older .gdb_index sections.
4454 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
4455 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
4456 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
4457 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
4458 the .gdb_index section.
4460 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
4462 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
4467 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
4469 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
4473 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
4474 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
4475 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
4477 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
4478 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
4480 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
4483 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
4484 C++ and Java objects.
4486 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
4487 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
4488 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
4489 configured with '--with-python'.
4491 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
4492 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
4493 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
4494 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
4495 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
4496 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
4497 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
4499 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
4500 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
4501 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
4502 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
4504 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
4505 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
4506 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
4507 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
4509 ** "set print symbol"
4511 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
4512 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
4513 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
4515 * Deprecated commands
4517 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
4518 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
4522 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
4523 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
4525 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
4526 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
4527 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
4528 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
4533 set mips compression
4534 show mips compression
4535 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
4536 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
4539 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
4541 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
4542 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
4543 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
4544 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
4546 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
4550 Disable auto-loading globally.
4553 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
4555 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
4556 show auto-load gdb-scripts
4557 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
4559 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
4560 show auto-load python-scripts
4561 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
4563 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
4564 show auto-load local-gdbinit
4565 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
4567 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
4568 show auto-load libthread-db
4569 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
4571 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
4572 show auto-load scripts-directory
4573 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
4574 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
4575 of the directories listed by this option.
4576 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
4578 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
4579 show auto-load safe-path
4580 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
4581 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
4583 set debug auto-load on|off
4584 show debug auto-load
4585 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
4587 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
4589 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
4590 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
4591 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
4592 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
4594 set dprintf-function <expr>
4595 show dprintf-function
4596 set dprintf-channel <expr>
4597 show dprintf-channel
4598 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
4599 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
4601 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
4602 show disconnected-dprintf
4603 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
4604 after GDB disconnects.
4606 * New configure options
4608 --with-auto-load-dir
4609 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
4610 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
4611 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
4612 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
4613 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
4615 --with-auto-load-safe-path
4616 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
4617 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
4619 --without-auto-load-safe-path
4620 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
4623 * New remote packets
4625 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
4627 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
4628 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
4629 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
4630 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
4634 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
4635 program without GDB involvement.
4637 * New command line options
4639 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
4640 before loading inferior.
4641 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
4642 execute it before loading inferior.
4644 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
4646 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
4647 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
4648 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
4649 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
4652 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
4653 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
4655 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
4656 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
4657 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
4658 target hardware watchpoint.
4660 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
4661 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
4662 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
4663 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
4667 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
4668 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
4671 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
4672 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
4673 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
4674 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
4675 now "message", which just prints the error message without
4678 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
4681 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
4682 modules library. This module provides functionality for
4683 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
4684 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
4685 corresponding value.
4687 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
4688 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
4689 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
4692 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
4693 static_block will return the global and static blocks
4694 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
4695 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
4697 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
4699 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
4702 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
4703 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
4704 available in the CLI.
4706 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
4707 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
4708 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
4709 "some_type.items()".
4711 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
4714 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
4715 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
4716 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
4717 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
4718 any anonymous fields.
4722 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
4725 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
4726 "=breakpoint-modified".
4728 ** New command -ada-task-info.
4730 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
4731 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
4732 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
4735 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
4736 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
4737 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
4738 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
4739 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
4741 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
4742 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
4744 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
4745 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
4746 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
4747 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
4748 use this option to specify where to find it.
4750 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
4751 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
4752 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
4753 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
4754 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
4755 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
4756 section in the user manual for more details.
4758 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
4759 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
4760 become available after that.
4762 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
4764 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
4765 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
4771 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
4772 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
4776 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
4777 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
4778 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
4780 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
4781 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
4782 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
4784 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
4785 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
4786 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
4787 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
4788 name starts with a hyphen.
4790 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
4791 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
4792 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
4793 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
4794 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
4795 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
4796 number of bytes that will be collected.
4799 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
4800 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
4801 setting the variable trace-notes.
4804 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
4805 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
4806 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
4809 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
4810 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
4811 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
4812 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
4813 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
4816 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
4817 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
4818 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
4822 set debug dwarf2-read
4823 show debug dwarf2-read
4824 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
4825 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
4827 set debug symtab-create
4828 show debug symtab-create
4829 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
4830 creation. The default is off.
4833 show extended-prompt
4834 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
4835 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
4836 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
4837 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
4838 prompt is displayed.
4840 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
4841 show print entry-values
4842 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
4843 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
4844 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
4846 set debug entry-values
4847 show debug entry-values
4848 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
4849 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
4851 set basenames-may-differ
4852 show basenames-may-differ
4853 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
4854 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
4855 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
4856 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
4857 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
4858 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
4859 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
4860 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
4866 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
4867 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
4868 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
4869 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
4871 set trace-stop-notes
4872 show trace-stop-notes
4873 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
4874 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
4875 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
4876 started by someone else.
4878 * New remote packets
4882 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
4886 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
4890 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
4894 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
4898 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
4901 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
4902 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
4906 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
4910 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
4912 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
4914 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
4916 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
4918 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
4919 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
4920 matches the given regular expression.
4922 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
4924 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
4925 dumping the instruction opcodes.
4927 * New command line options
4929 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
4930 This is mostly for testing purposes.
4932 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
4933 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
4935 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
4936 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
4937 source path list instead of augmenting it.
4939 * GDB now understands thread names.
4941 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
4942 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
4944 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
4945 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
4948 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
4949 has been integrated into GDB.
4953 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
4954 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
4955 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
4957 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
4958 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
4959 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
4960 and allows for more dynamic content.
4962 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
4963 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
4964 have an is_valid method.
4966 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
4967 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
4968 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
4970 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
4972 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
4973 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
4974 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
4975 that function like so:
4977 result = some_value (10,20)
4979 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
4980 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
4981 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
4983 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
4984 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
4985 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
4986 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
4987 New function: register_pretty_printer.
4989 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
4990 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
4992 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
4994 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
4997 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
4998 holds the thread's name.
5000 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
5001 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
5002 occurring in the process being debugged.
5003 The following events are currently supported:
5004 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
5005 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
5006 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
5010 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
5011 instantiation. For example, if you have:
5013 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
5015 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
5016 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
5017 was added to GCC 4.5.
5019 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
5020 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
5021 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
5022 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
5023 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
5024 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
5026 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
5027 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
5028 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
5029 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
5030 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
5032 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
5033 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
5034 execution to a label.
5036 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
5037 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
5038 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
5039 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
5041 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
5042 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
5043 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
5046 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
5048 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
5049 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
5050 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
5051 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
5052 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
5053 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
5056 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
5058 While now you see this:
5061 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
5063 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
5066 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
5067 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
5068 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
5069 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
5071 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
5072 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
5073 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
5074 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
5075 section in the user manual for more details.
5077 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
5079 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
5080 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
5082 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
5084 * New native configurations
5086 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
5090 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
5092 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
5093 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
5094 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
5095 in the GDB user manual.
5097 * Guile support was removed.
5099 * New features in the GNU simulator
5101 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
5103 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
5105 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
5107 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
5109 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
5110 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
5111 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
5112 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
5113 was always disabled for such configurations.
5117 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
5119 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
5120 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
5130 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
5131 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
5132 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
5134 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
5136 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
5137 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
5138 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
5139 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
5141 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
5142 mentioned flavors of operators.
5144 ** static const class members
5146 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
5147 class definition has been fixed.
5149 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
5151 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
5152 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
5153 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
5154 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
5155 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
5156 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
5158 * Static tracepoints
5160 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
5161 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
5162 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
5163 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
5164 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
5165 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
5166 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
5167 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
5168 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
5169 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
5170 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
5171 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
5172 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
5173 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
5174 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
5175 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
5176 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
5177 the "New remote packets" section below.
5179 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
5181 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
5182 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
5183 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
5184 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
5188 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
5189 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
5190 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
5191 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
5192 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
5193 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
5194 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
5196 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
5199 * New remote packets
5203 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
5207 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
5208 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
5209 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
5210 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
5211 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
5212 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
5216 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
5220 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
5223 qXfer:statictrace:read
5225 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
5226 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
5227 to gdb's qSupported query.
5231 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
5235 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
5236 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
5238 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
5239 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
5242 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
5244 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
5245 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
5246 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
5247 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
5249 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
5250 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
5251 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
5252 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
5253 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
5254 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
5255 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
5257 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
5258 for static tracepoints support.
5260 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
5262 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
5263 it understands register description.
5265 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
5267 * X86 general purpose registers
5269 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
5270 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
5271 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
5272 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
5273 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
5275 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
5276 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
5277 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
5278 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
5279 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
5280 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
5282 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
5283 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
5284 in the specified file.
5286 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
5287 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
5288 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
5289 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
5290 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
5291 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
5292 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
5293 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
5294 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
5295 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
5299 eval template, expressions...
5300 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
5301 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
5303 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
5304 show target-file-system-kind
5305 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
5308 save breakpoints <filename>
5309 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
5310 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
5311 definitions, use the `source' command.
5313 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
5316 info static-tracepoint-markers
5317 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
5319 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
5320 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
5321 function, line, address, or marker ID.
5325 Enable and disable observer mode.
5327 set may-write-registers on|off
5328 set may-write-memory on|off
5329 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
5330 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
5331 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
5332 set may-interrupt on|off
5333 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
5334 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
5335 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
5336 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
5337 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
5338 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
5339 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
5341 set record memory-query on|off
5342 show record memory-query
5343 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
5344 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
5349 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
5353 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
5354 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
5355 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
5356 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
5357 GDB using Python' in the manual.
5359 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
5360 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
5361 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
5362 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
5364 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
5365 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
5367 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
5369 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
5371 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
5373 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
5374 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
5375 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
5377 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
5378 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
5379 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
5380 regular breakpoints.
5384 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
5386 * D language support.
5387 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
5390 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
5391 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
5392 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
5393 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
5394 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
5396 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
5397 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
5398 conditions of the form:
5400 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
5402 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
5403 interface mentioned above.
5405 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
5409 ** Namespace Support
5411 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
5412 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
5413 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
5414 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
5415 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
5419 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
5420 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
5425 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
5426 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
5430 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
5435 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
5438 * Multi-program debugging.
5440 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
5441 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
5442 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
5443 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
5444 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
5445 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
5446 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
5447 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
5449 * New tracing features
5451 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
5453 ** Trace state variables
5455 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
5456 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
5457 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
5458 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
5459 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
5460 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
5461 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
5462 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
5463 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
5464 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
5468 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
5469 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
5470 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
5471 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
5472 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
5473 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
5474 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
5475 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
5476 the regular trace command.
5478 ** Disconnected tracing
5480 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
5481 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
5482 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
5483 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
5484 connection is lost unexpectedly.
5488 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
5489 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
5490 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
5491 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
5492 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
5493 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
5496 ** Circular trace buffer
5498 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
5499 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
5500 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
5501 not be available for all target agents.
5506 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
5507 the arguments to be comma-separated.
5510 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
5511 which only declare a variable are not shown.
5514 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
5515 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
5518 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
5519 "set script-extension" (see below).
5521 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
5523 record save [<FILENAME>]
5524 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
5525 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
5527 record restore <FILENAME>
5528 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
5529 earlier time, for replay debugging.
5531 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
5534 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
5535 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
5536 inferior has loaded.
5541 maint info program-spaces
5542 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
5544 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
5545 show remote interrupt-sequence
5546 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
5547 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
5548 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
5549 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
5550 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
5552 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
5553 show remote interrupt-on-connect
5554 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
5555 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
5558 set remotebreak [on | off]
5560 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
5562 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
5563 Create or modify a trace state variable.
5566 List trace state variables and their values.
5568 delete tvariable $NAME ...
5569 Delete one or more trace state variables.
5572 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
5573 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
5575 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
5576 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
5578 * New expression syntax
5580 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
5581 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
5585 set follow-exec-mode new|same
5586 show follow-exec-mode
5587 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
5588 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
5589 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
5591 set default-collect EXPR, ...
5592 show default-collect
5593 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
5594 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
5595 such as registers or a critical global variable.
5597 set disconnected-tracing
5598 show disconnected-tracing
5599 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
5600 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
5603 set circular-trace-buffer
5604 show circular-trace-buffer
5605 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
5606 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
5607 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
5608 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
5610 set script-extension off|soft|strict
5611 show script-extension
5612 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
5613 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
5614 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
5615 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
5617 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
5619 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
5620 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
5621 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
5622 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
5623 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
5624 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
5625 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
5628 * Python API Improvements
5630 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
5631 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
5632 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
5634 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
5635 `is_base_class' attribute.
5637 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
5639 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
5640 evaluate an expression.
5642 * New remote packets
5645 Define a trace state variable.
5648 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
5651 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
5654 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
5657 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
5661 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
5663 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
5664 much more reliable. In particular:
5665 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
5666 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
5667 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
5668 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
5669 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
5670 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
5671 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
5672 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
5673 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
5674 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
5675 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
5676 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
5677 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
5678 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
5679 non-threaded programs.
5681 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
5682 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
5683 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
5686 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
5688 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
5689 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
5690 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
5691 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
5692 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
5694 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
5695 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
5696 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
5697 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
5698 for tracepoint actions.
5700 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
5701 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
5702 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
5704 * Process record and replay
5706 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
5707 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
5708 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
5711 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
5712 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
5713 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
5716 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
5717 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
5720 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
5721 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
5722 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
5723 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
5724 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
5725 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
5726 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
5727 the installation instructions for more information.
5729 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
5730 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
5731 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
5732 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
5734 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
5735 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
5737 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
5738 now complete on file names.
5740 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
5741 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
5742 For instance, consider:
5744 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
5745 # struct example variable;
5748 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
5749 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
5751 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
5752 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
5754 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
5755 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
5758 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
5759 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
5760 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
5762 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
5763 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
5764 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
5765 and simulator targets may also provide them.
5767 * New remote packets
5770 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
5773 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
5774 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
5775 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
5778 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
5779 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
5782 Obtains additional operating system information
5786 Read or write additional signal information.
5788 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
5790 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
5791 packet that permitted the stub to pass a process id was removed.
5792 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
5794 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
5795 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
5797 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
5798 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
5799 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
5801 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
5802 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
5804 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
5806 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
5808 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
5809 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
5811 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote protocol packet now allows passing a
5812 list of section offsets.
5814 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
5815 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
5816 have also been fixed.
5818 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
5819 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
5820 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
5822 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
5825 template<typename T> class C { };
5828 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
5830 ptype C<char const *>
5831 ptype C<char const*>
5832 ptype C<const char *>
5833 ptype C<const char*>
5835 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
5837 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
5838 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
5840 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
5841 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
5842 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
5844 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
5845 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
5847 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
5850 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
5851 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
5853 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
5854 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
5859 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
5860 available is determined at configure time.
5862 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
5864 * Ada tasking support
5866 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
5870 Print the list of Ada tasks.
5872 Print detailed information about task number N.
5874 Print the task number of the current task.
5876 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
5878 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
5879 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
5881 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
5883 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
5884 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
5885 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
5886 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
5887 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
5888 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
5891 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
5892 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
5895 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
5896 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
5897 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
5898 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
5901 * Multi-architecture debugging.
5903 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
5904 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
5905 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
5906 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
5907 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
5909 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
5910 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
5911 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
5912 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
5913 --enable-targets configure option.
5915 * Non-stop mode debugging.
5917 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
5918 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
5919 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
5920 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
5921 section in the user manual for more information.
5923 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
5924 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
5925 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
5926 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
5927 extensions on linux targets.
5929 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
5931 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
5932 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
5933 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
5934 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
5935 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
5936 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
5937 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
5938 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
5939 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
5941 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
5943 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
5945 maint set python print-stack
5946 maint show python print-stack
5947 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
5950 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
5955 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
5959 Show operating system information about processes.
5962 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
5965 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
5968 Detach from inferior number NUM.
5971 Kill inferior number NUM.
5975 set spu stop-on-load
5976 show spu stop-on-load
5977 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
5979 set spu auto-flush-cache
5980 show spu auto-flush-cache
5981 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
5982 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
5984 set sh calling-convention
5985 show sh calling-convention
5986 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
5989 show debug timestamp
5990 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
5992 set disassemble-next-line
5993 show disassemble-next-line
5994 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
5997 set remote noack-packet
5998 show remote noack-packet
5999 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
6000 under "New remote packets."
6002 set remote query-attached-packet
6003 show remote query-attached-packet
6004 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
6006 set remote read-siginfo-object
6007 show remote read-siginfo-object
6008 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
6011 set remote write-siginfo-object
6012 show remote write-siginfo-object
6013 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
6016 set remote reverse-continue
6017 show remote reverse-continue
6018 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
6020 set remote reverse-step
6021 show remote reverse-step
6022 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
6024 set displaced-stepping
6025 show displaced-stepping
6026 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
6027 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
6028 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
6031 show debug displaced
6032 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
6034 maint set internal-error
6035 maint show internal-error
6036 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
6038 maint set internal-warning
6039 maint show internal-warning
6040 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
6045 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
6047 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
6048 show multiple-symbols
6049 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
6050 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
6051 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
6053 set breakpoint always-inserted
6054 show breakpoint always-inserted
6055 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
6056 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
6057 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
6059 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
6060 show arm fallback-mode
6061 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
6063 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
6064 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
6065 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
6066 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
6068 set arm unwind-secure-frames
6069 Enable unwinding from Non-secure to Secure mode on Cortex-M with
6071 This can trigger security exceptions when unwinding exception stacks.
6073 set disable-randomization
6074 show disable-randomization
6075 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
6076 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
6077 multiple debugging sessions.
6081 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
6086 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
6087 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
6088 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
6089 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
6091 set target-wide-charset
6092 show target-wide-charset
6093 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
6094 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
6096 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
6098 set tcp connect-timeout
6099 show tcp connect-timeout
6100 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
6101 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
6102 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
6104 set libthread-db-search-path
6105 show libthread-db-search-path
6106 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
6109 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
6110 show schedule-multiple
6111 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
6112 the current process.
6116 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
6117 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
6118 affecting correctness.
6120 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
6121 show interactive-mode
6122 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
6123 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
6124 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
6125 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
6126 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
6131 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
6132 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
6133 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
6137 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
6138 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
6139 alias for the `fork' command.
6142 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
6143 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
6144 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
6147 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
6148 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
6149 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
6153 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
6154 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
6155 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
6158 * New native configurations
6160 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
6162 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
6166 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
6167 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
6168 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
6171 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
6172 (mingw32ce) debugging.
6178 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
6180 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
6182 * New native configurations
6184 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
6185 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
6189 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
6190 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
6192 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
6194 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
6195 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
6196 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
6197 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
6199 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
6200 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
6202 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
6205 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
6206 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
6207 and in inlined functions.
6209 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
6210 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
6211 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
6213 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
6215 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
6216 registers on PowerPC targets.
6218 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
6219 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
6221 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
6222 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
6224 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
6225 extended-remote mode.
6227 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
6228 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
6229 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
6230 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
6232 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
6233 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
6234 target architectures.
6236 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
6237 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
6238 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
6239 stored in two consecutive float registers.
6241 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
6244 * Improved support for debugging Ada
6245 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
6247 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
6248 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
6249 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
6250 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
6252 - Improved command completion in Ada
6255 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
6260 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
6261 show print frame-arguments
6262 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
6263 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
6268 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
6275 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
6277 * New remote packets
6284 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
6287 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
6291 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
6293 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
6295 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
6296 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
6297 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
6299 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
6300 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
6301 -Bsymbolic linker option.
6303 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
6304 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
6307 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
6308 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
6310 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
6311 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
6313 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
6315 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
6316 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
6317 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
6319 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
6320 automatically displayed as character or string data.
6322 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
6323 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
6326 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
6327 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
6328 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
6330 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
6333 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
6334 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
6335 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
6337 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
6339 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
6341 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
6342 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
6343 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
6345 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
6346 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
6348 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
6349 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
6350 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
6351 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
6352 Windows and SymbianOS).
6354 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
6355 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
6357 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
6358 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
6364 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
6365 when debugging using remote targets.
6367 set mem inaccessible-by-default
6368 show mem inaccessible-by-default
6369 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
6370 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
6371 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
6372 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
6373 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
6375 set breakpoint auto-hw
6376 show breakpoint auto-hw
6377 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
6378 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
6379 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
6380 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
6381 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
6382 including "next" and "finish".
6385 catch exception unhandled
6386 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
6389 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
6393 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
6394 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
6395 an alias to "set sysroot".
6398 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
6399 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
6402 * New native configurations
6404 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
6407 unset tdesc filename
6409 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
6410 not query the target for its built-in description.
6414 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
6415 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
6416 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
6418 * New remote packets
6421 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
6422 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
6424 qXfer:features:read:
6425 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
6430 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
6431 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
6433 qXfer:libraries:read:
6434 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
6435 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
6436 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
6437 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
6441 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
6449 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
6450 i[34567]86-*-netware*
6451 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
6452 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
6454 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
6457 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
6458 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
6467 * Other removed features
6474 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
6481 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
6486 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
6487 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
6492 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
6493 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
6495 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
6497 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
6498 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
6499 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
6500 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
6502 MIPS ".pdr" sections
6504 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
6505 in debugging information.
6509 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
6510 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
6512 set mips stack-arg-size
6513 set mips saved-gpreg-size
6515 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
6517 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
6522 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
6524 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
6525 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
6526 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
6528 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
6529 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
6532 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
6533 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
6535 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
6536 stub provides the required support.
6538 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
6539 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
6544 unset substitute-path
6545 show substitute-path
6546 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
6547 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
6548 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
6549 between compilation and debugging.
6553 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
6554 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
6555 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
6559 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
6561 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
6562 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
6564 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
6566 * New remote packets
6569 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
6570 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
6571 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
6572 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
6576 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
6577 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
6579 qXfer:memory-map:read:
6580 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
6581 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
6586 Erase and program a flash memory device.
6588 * Removed remote packets
6591 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
6592 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
6594 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
6598 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
6600 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
6604 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
6605 only if it doesn't already have a value.
6607 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
6609 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
6611 restart <n> Return the program state to a
6612 previously saved state.
6614 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
6616 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
6618 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
6619 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
6621 info forks List forks of the user program that
6622 are available to be debugged.
6624 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
6625 forks of the user program that are
6626 available to be debugged.
6628 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
6629 that are available to be debugged (and
6630 kill the forked process).
6632 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
6633 that are available to be debugged (and
6634 allow the process to continue).
6638 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
6640 * Improved Windows host support
6642 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
6643 native console support, and remote communications using either
6644 network sockets or serial ports.
6646 * Improved Modula-2 language support
6648 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
6649 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
6650 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
6651 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
6652 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
6653 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
6657 The ARM rdi-share module.
6659 The Netware NLM debug server.
6661 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
6663 * New native configurations
6665 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
6666 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
6670 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
6672 * New command line options
6674 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
6675 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
6676 the child (debugged) program exited with.
6677 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
6678 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
6679 specified multiple times and in conjunction
6680 with the --command (-x) option.
6682 * Deprecated commands removed
6684 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
6688 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
6689 othernames set arm disassembler
6690 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
6691 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
6692 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
6695 * New BSD user-level threads support
6697 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
6698 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
6701 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
6702 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
6703 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
6705 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
6706 are not yet supported.
6708 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
6709 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
6711 * REMOVED configurations and files
6713 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
6714 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
6715 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
6717 * New "set print array-indexes" command
6719 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
6720 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
6723 * VAX floating point support
6725 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
6727 * User-defined command support
6729 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
6730 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
6731 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
6733 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
6735 * New command line option
6737 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
6740 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
6742 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
6743 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
6744 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
6745 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
6746 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
6748 * Internationalization
6750 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
6751 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
6752 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
6756 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
6757 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
6758 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
6760 * New native configurations
6762 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
6766 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
6767 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
6769 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
6771 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
6772 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
6773 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
6776 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the registers[]
6777 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
6778 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
6788 powerpc bdm protocol
6790 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
6791 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
6793 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6795 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6796 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6797 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6798 permanently REMOVED.
6807 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
6809 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
6811 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
6812 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
6815 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
6817 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
6818 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
6819 IRIX long double values).
6823 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
6824 command. This problem has been fixed.
6826 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
6828 * Fix for ``many threads''
6830 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
6831 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
6834 ptrace: No such process.
6835 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
6837 This problem has been fixed.
6839 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
6841 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
6844 * New ``start'' command.
6846 This command runs the program until the beginning of the main procedure.
6848 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
6850 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
6851 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
6852 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
6854 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
6855 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
6856 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
6857 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
6858 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
6859 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
6860 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
6861 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
6862 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
6864 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
6866 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
6867 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
6868 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
6869 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
6870 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
6872 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
6873 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
6874 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
6876 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
6878 * New native configurations
6880 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
6881 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
6882 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
6883 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
6884 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6885 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
6886 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6888 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
6890 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
6891 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
6892 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
6893 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
6894 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
6895 work, was also included.
6897 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
6898 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
6908 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
6909 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
6911 * REMOVED configurations and files
6913 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
6914 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
6915 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
6916 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
6917 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
6918 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
6919 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
6920 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
6921 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
6922 sonymips mips-sony-*
6923 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
6925 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
6927 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
6929 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
6930 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
6931 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
6932 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
6935 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
6937 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
6938 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
6939 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
6940 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
6941 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
6942 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
6945 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
6947 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
6949 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
6950 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
6951 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
6953 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
6955 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
6956 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
6958 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
6960 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
6961 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
6962 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
6964 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
6966 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
6967 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
6969 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
6971 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
6972 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
6973 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
6975 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
6977 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
6978 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
6979 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
6981 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
6983 * Removed --with-mmalloc
6985 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
6986 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
6988 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
6990 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
6991 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
6992 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
6993 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
6995 * Revised SPARC target
6997 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
6998 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
6999 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
7000 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
7001 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
7005 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
7006 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
7007 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
7010 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
7012 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
7013 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
7016 * C++ nested types and namespaces
7018 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
7019 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
7020 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
7021 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
7022 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
7023 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
7024 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
7025 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
7026 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
7028 * New native configurations
7030 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
7031 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
7032 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
7033 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
7034 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
7036 * New debugging protocols
7038 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
7040 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
7042 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
7043 and its very obscure effect on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
7044 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
7046 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7048 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7049 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7050 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7051 permanently REMOVED.
7053 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
7054 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
7055 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
7056 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
7057 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
7058 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
7059 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
7060 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
7061 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
7062 sonymips mips-sony-*
7063 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
7065 * REMOVED configurations and files
7067 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
7068 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7069 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
7070 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
7071 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
7072 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
7073 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
7074 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
7075 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
7076 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
7077 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
7078 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
7079 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
7080 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
7081 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
7082 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7083 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7085 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
7089 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
7090 integrated into GDB.
7092 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
7094 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
7095 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
7096 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
7099 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
7100 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
7101 DWARF 2 CFI support.
7105 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
7106 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
7107 remote protocol documentation for details.
7109 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
7111 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
7112 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
7113 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
7116 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
7118 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
7119 per-thread variables.
7121 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
7123 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
7124 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
7126 * Separate debug info.
7128 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
7129 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
7130 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
7131 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
7132 and optional debug files.
7134 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
7136 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
7137 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
7140 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
7141 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
7145 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
7146 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
7147 considered "useable".
7149 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
7151 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
7152 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
7155 * GDB supports logging output to a file
7157 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
7158 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
7160 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
7162 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
7163 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
7166 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
7168 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
7169 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
7173 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
7174 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
7175 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
7176 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
7177 data, for more informative profiling results.
7179 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
7181 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
7182 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
7183 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
7185 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
7188 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
7189 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
7190 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
7191 in a subsequent -var-update.
7193 * New native configurations.
7195 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
7197 * Multi-arched targets.
7199 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
7200 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
7202 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7204 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7205 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7206 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7207 permanently REMOVED.
7209 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
7210 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
7211 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
7212 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
7213 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
7214 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
7215 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
7216 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
7217 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
7218 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
7219 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7220 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7222 * REMOVED configurations and files
7225 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7226 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7227 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
7228 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
7229 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
7230 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
7232 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
7233 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
7234 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
7235 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7236 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
7237 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
7239 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
7241 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
7242 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
7243 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
7244 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
7245 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
7247 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
7249 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
7251 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
7252 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
7253 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
7254 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
7255 shared libs like mad''.
7257 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
7259 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
7260 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
7261 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
7262 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
7264 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
7266 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
7267 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
7270 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
7271 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
7273 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
7274 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
7276 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
7277 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
7278 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
7279 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
7281 * Multi-arched targets.
7283 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
7284 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
7286 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
7287 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
7288 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
7292 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
7295 * New native configurations
7297 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
7298 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
7299 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
7300 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
7302 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7304 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7305 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7306 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7307 permanently REMOVED.
7309 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
7310 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
7311 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7312 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7313 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7314 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
7315 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
7316 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
7317 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
7318 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
7320 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
7321 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
7323 * OBSOLETE languages
7325 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
7327 * REMOVED configurations and files
7329 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
7330 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
7331 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7332 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7333 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7335 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
7337 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
7339 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
7340 commands. The default is 1024.
7342 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
7344 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
7346 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
7348 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
7349 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
7350 from a file into memory (restore).
7352 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
7354 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
7355 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
7356 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
7358 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
7366 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
7367 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
7368 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
7370 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
7371 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
7372 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
7374 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
7375 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
7376 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
7378 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
7379 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
7380 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
7382 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
7384 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
7386 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
7387 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
7388 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
7389 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
7390 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
7391 (notably embedded) targets.
7393 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
7395 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
7396 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
7397 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
7398 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
7400 * New command line option
7402 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
7404 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
7406 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
7407 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
7408 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
7409 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
7410 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
7411 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
7412 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
7413 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
7414 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
7415 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
7417 * Changes in ARM configurations.
7419 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
7420 configuration is fully multi-arch.
7422 * New native configurations
7424 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
7425 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
7426 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
7427 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
7431 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
7433 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7435 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7436 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7437 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7438 permanently REMOVED.
7440 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
7441 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
7442 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7443 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7444 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7446 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
7448 * REMOVED configurations and files
7450 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7452 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
7453 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
7454 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
7455 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
7456 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
7457 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7458 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
7459 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
7460 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
7461 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
7462 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
7464 * Changes to command line processing
7466 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
7467 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
7469 * Changes to key bindings
7471 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
7473 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
7475 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
7477 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
7480 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
7482 Numerous documentation fixes.
7484 Numerous testsuite fixes.
7486 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
7488 * New native configurations
7490 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
7491 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
7492 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
7493 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
7494 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
7495 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
7499 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
7501 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
7503 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
7505 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
7506 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
7507 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
7508 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7509 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7511 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
7512 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
7513 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
7514 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
7515 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
7516 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
7517 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
7518 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
7520 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
7521 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
7523 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
7524 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
7525 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
7526 permanently REMOVED.
7528 * REMOVED configurations and files
7530 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
7531 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
7533 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
7537 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
7539 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
7540 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
7545 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
7547 * The MI enabled by default.
7549 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
7550 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
7551 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
7552 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
7553 which is now deprecated.
7555 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
7557 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
7558 main features are supported:
7560 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
7562 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
7565 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
7567 - a Pascal expression parser.
7569 However, some important features are not yet supported.
7571 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
7573 - there are some problems with boolean types;
7575 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
7576 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
7578 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
7580 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
7582 * Changes in completion.
7584 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
7585 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
7586 users expect at the shell prompt.
7588 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
7589 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
7590 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
7591 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
7592 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
7593 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
7594 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
7596 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
7598 * New platform-independent commands:
7600 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
7601 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
7602 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
7604 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
7606 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
7607 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
7608 many threads as your system allows you to have.
7610 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
7612 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
7613 multi-threaded programs though.
7615 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
7617 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
7619 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
7620 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
7623 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
7625 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
7626 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
7627 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
7628 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
7629 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
7632 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
7633 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
7634 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
7636 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
7638 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
7639 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
7641 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
7642 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
7645 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
7646 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
7647 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
7648 a given linear address.
7650 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
7651 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
7652 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
7654 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
7656 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
7658 * Changes in documentation.
7660 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
7661 Documentation License.
7663 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
7666 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
7668 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
7671 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
7672 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
7673 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
7675 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
7677 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
7678 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
7679 contents of this file.
7683 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
7685 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7687 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
7689 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
7690 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
7691 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
7692 greater level of detail.
7694 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
7696 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
7697 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
7698 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
7701 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
7703 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
7704 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
7705 machines ``out of the box''.
7707 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
7708 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
7709 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
7710 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
7711 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
7713 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
7714 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
7715 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
7716 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
7717 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
7719 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
7720 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
7723 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
7726 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
7727 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
7728 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
7729 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
7731 * New native configurations
7733 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
7734 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
7738 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
7739 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
7740 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7741 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7743 * OBSOLETE configurations
7745 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
7746 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
7748 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
7751 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
7752 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
7753 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
7754 be permanently REMOVED.
7756 * Gould support removed
7758 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
7760 * New features for SVR4
7762 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
7763 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
7764 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
7766 * Many C++ enhancements
7768 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
7769 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
7771 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
7773 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
7774 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
7775 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
7776 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
7778 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
7779 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
7781 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
7783 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
7784 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
7785 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
7787 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
7788 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
7790 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
7792 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
7793 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
7794 include ``set remote P-packet''.
7796 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
7798 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
7799 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
7800 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
7802 * ``apropos'' command added.
7804 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
7805 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
7806 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
7810 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
7811 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7812 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
7813 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
7814 enabled by configuring with:
7816 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
7818 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
7820 * New native configurations
7822 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
7823 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
7824 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
7828 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7829 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
7830 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
7832 * OBSOLETE configurations
7834 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
7836 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
7837 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
7838 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
7839 be permanently REMOVED.
7843 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
7844 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
7845 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
7846 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
7847 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
7848 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
7849 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
7854 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
7856 * set extension-language
7858 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
7859 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
7860 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
7861 set extension-language .c c++
7862 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
7863 and their associated languages.
7865 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
7867 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
7868 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
7869 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
7873 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
7874 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
7876 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
7877 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
7879 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
7880 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
7881 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
7882 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
7883 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
7884 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
7885 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
7886 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
7888 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
7889 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
7890 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
7891 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
7895 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
7896 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
7897 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
7898 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
7899 for xdb and dbx commands.
7903 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
7904 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
7905 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
7907 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
7908 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
7909 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
7911 * Debugging across forks
7913 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
7918 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
7919 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
7920 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
7922 * GDB remote protocol additions
7924 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
7925 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
7926 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
7927 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
7929 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
7930 full 64-bit address. The command
7932 set remoteaddresssize 32
7934 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
7935 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
7938 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
7939 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
7941 maint packet heythere
7943 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
7944 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
7947 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
7948 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
7949 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
7951 * Tracing can collect general expressions
7953 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
7954 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
7955 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
7957 * mask-address variable for Mips
7959 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
7960 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
7961 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
7963 * Higher serial baud rates
7965 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
7966 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
7967 to achieve all of these rates.)
7971 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
7972 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
7975 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
7977 * New native configurations
7979 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
7980 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
7981 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
7982 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
7983 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
7984 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
7985 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
7989 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
7990 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
7991 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
7992 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
7993 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
7994 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
7995 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
7996 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
7997 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
7998 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7999 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
8001 * New debugging protocols
8003 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
8004 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
8005 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
8006 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
8007 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
8008 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
8012 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
8013 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
8018 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
8019 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
8021 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
8023 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
8024 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
8025 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
8027 * Live range splitting
8029 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
8030 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
8031 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
8035 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
8036 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
8040 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
8041 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
8042 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
8047 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
8052 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
8053 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
8054 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
8055 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
8056 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
8057 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
8061 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
8062 the symbol at the specified address.
8066 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
8067 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
8068 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
8069 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
8070 file tracepoint.c for more details.
8074 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
8075 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
8076 of most MIPS variants.
8080 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
8081 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
8082 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
8086 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
8087 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
8088 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
8089 the possible architectures.
8091 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
8093 * New native configurations
8095 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
8096 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
8097 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
8098 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
8099 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
8100 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
8104 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
8105 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
8106 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
8107 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
8108 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
8110 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
8114 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
8115 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
8116 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
8117 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
8118 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
8122 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
8124 * Windows 95/NT native
8126 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
8127 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
8128 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
8129 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
8130 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
8132 * dont-repeat command
8134 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
8135 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
8136 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
8137 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
8139 * Send break instead of ^C
8141 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
8142 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
8143 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
8145 * Remote protocol timeout
8147 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
8148 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
8149 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
8151 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
8153 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
8154 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
8155 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
8156 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
8157 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
8159 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
8160 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
8161 automatically on hpux10.
8163 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
8165 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
8167 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
8169 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
8170 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
8171 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
8172 every character. The default value is 1050.
8174 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
8176 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
8177 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
8178 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
8179 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
8180 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
8181 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
8183 * Speedups for remote debugging
8185 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
8186 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
8187 and more efficient S-record downloading.
8189 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
8191 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
8192 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
8194 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
8196 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
8198 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
8199 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
8201 * Remote targets use caching
8203 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
8204 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
8205 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
8206 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
8207 off' turns the data cache off.
8209 * Remote targets may have threads
8211 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
8212 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
8213 gdb/remote.c for details.
8217 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
8218 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
8219 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
8220 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
8221 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
8222 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
8223 sequence is something like
8225 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
8227 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
8231 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
8232 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
8233 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
8234 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
8235 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
8236 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
8237 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
8238 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
8242 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
8243 but does simplify configuration and building.
8247 GDB now supports hpux10.
8249 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
8251 * New native configurations
8253 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
8254 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
8255 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
8256 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
8260 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
8261 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
8262 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
8263 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
8266 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
8268 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
8269 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
8270 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
8271 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
8272 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
8274 * Arguments to user-defined commands
8276 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
8277 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
8280 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
8282 To execute the command use:
8285 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
8286 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
8287 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
8289 * New `if' and `while' commands
8291 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
8292 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
8293 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
8294 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
8295 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
8296 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
8297 if the expression is zero.
8299 * Fortran source language mode
8301 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
8302 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
8303 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
8304 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
8307 * Better HPUX support
8309 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
8310 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
8311 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
8312 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
8313 that behavior do the following before running the program:
8319 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
8320 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
8326 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
8327 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
8330 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
8331 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
8333 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
8335 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
8336 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
8337 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
8338 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
8339 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
8340 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
8342 * New DOS host serial code
8344 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
8345 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
8348 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
8350 * New "complete" command
8352 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
8353 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
8355 * Trailing space optional in prompt
8357 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
8358 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
8360 * Breakpoint hit counts
8362 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
8363 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
8364 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
8365 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
8366 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
8369 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
8371 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
8372 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
8373 arrays actually contain only short strings.
8375 * Shared library breakpoints
8377 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
8378 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
8380 * Hardware watchpoints
8382 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
8383 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
8385 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
8389 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
8390 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
8392 * Improved Irix 5 support
8394 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
8396 * Improved HPPA support
8398 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
8400 * New native configurations
8402 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
8403 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
8404 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
8405 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
8409 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
8410 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
8413 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
8415 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
8416 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
8420 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
8421 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
8423 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
8425 * Irix 5 is now supported
8429 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
8430 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
8431 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
8432 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
8433 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
8436 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
8438 * User visible changes:
8442 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
8443 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
8444 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
8445 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
8446 debugging info for the mips target).
8448 * DEC Alpha native support
8450 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
8451 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
8452 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
8453 Alpha-specific notes.
8455 * Preliminary thread implementation
8457 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
8459 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
8461 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
8462 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
8465 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
8467 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
8468 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
8469 call methods, ...etc.
8471 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
8473 * User visible changes:
8475 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
8476 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
8477 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
8478 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
8480 Filename completion now works.
8482 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
8483 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
8484 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
8486 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
8487 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
8488 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
8489 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
8490 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
8494 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
8495 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
8498 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
8502 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
8503 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
8504 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
8508 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
8509 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
8510 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
8511 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
8512 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
8516 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
8517 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
8518 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
8520 * New targets supported
8522 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
8523 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
8524 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
8525 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
8526 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
8528 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
8529 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
8530 GO32 memory extender.
8532 * New remote protocols
8534 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
8536 * New source languages supported
8538 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
8539 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
8540 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
8543 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
8545 * HP Precision Architecture supported
8547 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
8548 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
8549 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
8550 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
8551 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
8552 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
8554 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
8556 * Faster and better demangling
8558 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
8559 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
8560 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
8561 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
8562 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
8563 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
8566 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
8567 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
8568 compiler does not actually implement.
8570 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
8572 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
8573 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
8574 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
8575 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
8576 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
8577 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
8580 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
8581 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
8583 * Improved configure script
8585 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
8586 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
8587 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
8588 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
8590 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
8591 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
8592 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
8593 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
8594 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
8595 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
8597 * Documentation improvements
8599 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
8600 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
8601 before submitting changes.
8603 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
8604 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
8605 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
8606 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
8607 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
8609 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
8610 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
8611 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
8612 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
8613 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
8614 around this problem.
8618 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
8619 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
8620 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
8623 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
8624 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
8626 * New native hosts supported
8628 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
8629 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
8631 * New targets supported
8633 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
8635 * New file formats supported
8637 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
8638 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
8642 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
8644 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
8645 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
8647 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
8648 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
8649 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
8651 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
8652 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
8654 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
8655 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
8656 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
8659 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
8660 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
8661 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
8662 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
8663 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
8665 * Internal improvements
8667 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
8668 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
8670 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
8671 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
8672 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
8673 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
8674 shared code that handles any of them.
8676 * New command line options
8678 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
8682 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
8683 General Public License.
8685 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
8687 * Host/native/target split
8689 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
8690 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
8691 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
8692 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
8693 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
8695 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
8696 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
8697 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
8698 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
8699 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
8700 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
8701 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
8703 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
8704 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
8705 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
8707 * New hosts supported
8709 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
8710 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
8711 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
8713 * New targets supported
8715 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
8716 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
8718 * New native hosts supported
8720 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
8721 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
8722 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
8724 * New file formats supported
8726 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
8727 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
8728 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
8732 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
8733 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
8734 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
8736 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
8738 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
8739 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
8740 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
8741 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
8745 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
8746 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
8747 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
8749 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
8753 The crash that occurred when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
8754 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
8757 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
8758 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
8760 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
8761 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
8762 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
8763 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
8764 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
8765 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
8767 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
8768 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
8769 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
8770 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
8774 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
8775 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
8776 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
8777 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
8778 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
8780 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
8781 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
8782 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
8783 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
8787 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
8788 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
8789 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
8790 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
8791 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
8792 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
8793 each instruction being stepped through.
8795 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
8796 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
8798 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
8799 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
8800 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
8801 processor with a serial port.
8805 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
8806 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
8807 supported, and what files each one uses.
8811 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
8812 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
8813 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
8814 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
8816 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
8817 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
8818 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
8819 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
8823 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
8824 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
8825 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
8826 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
8827 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
8828 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
8830 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
8833 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
8835 * Better support for C++ function names
8837 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
8838 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
8839 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
8840 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
8841 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
8843 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
8844 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
8845 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
8846 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
8847 for the list of formats.
8849 * G++ symbol mangling problem
8851 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
8852 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
8853 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
8854 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compiling gdb/symtab.c. The
8855 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
8856 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
8859 * New 'maintenance' command
8861 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
8862 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
8863 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
8865 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
8866 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
8867 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
8868 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
8869 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
8870 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
8872 The following commands are new:
8874 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
8875 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
8876 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
8878 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
8880 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
8881 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
8882 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
8883 read after argv processing.
8885 * New hosts supported
8887 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
8889 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
8891 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
8892 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
8893 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
8894 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
8895 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
8898 * New targets supported
8900 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
8902 * More smarts about finding #include files
8904 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
8905 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
8906 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
8907 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
8908 the one that contains your sources.
8910 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
8911 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
8912 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
8914 * Interesting infernals change
8916 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
8917 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
8918 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
8919 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
8921 * Bug fixes (of course!)
8923 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
8924 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
8925 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
8927 See the ChangeLog for details.
8929 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
8931 * New machines supported (host and target)
8933 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
8935 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
8937 * New malloc package
8939 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
8940 Mmalloc is capable of handling multiple heaps of memory. It is also
8941 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
8942 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
8943 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
8944 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
8948 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
8949 'help info proc' for details.
8951 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
8953 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
8954 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
8957 * File name changes for MS-DOS
8959 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
8960 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
8961 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
8962 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
8963 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
8964 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
8966 * Cross byte order fixes
8968 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
8969 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
8971 * New -mapped and -readnow options
8973 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
8974 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
8975 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
8976 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
8977 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
8978 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
8979 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
8980 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
8981 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
8982 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
8984 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
8985 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
8986 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
8987 slower, but makes future operations faster.
8989 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
8990 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
8991 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
8994 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
8996 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
8997 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
8998 shared across multiple host platforms.
9000 * longjmp() handling
9002 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
9003 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
9004 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
9005 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
9009 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
9010 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
9015 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
9016 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
9017 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
9019 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
9021 * New machines supported (host and target)
9023 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
9025 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
9026 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
9028 * New machines supported (target)
9030 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
9034 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
9035 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
9036 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
9038 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
9039 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
9040 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
9041 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
9042 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
9045 * New features for SVR4
9047 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
9048 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
9049 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
9051 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
9052 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
9053 it prints the address mappings of the process.
9055 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
9056 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
9058 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
9060 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
9061 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
9062 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
9063 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
9064 same code linked statically.
9068 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
9069 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
9070 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
9071 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
9072 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
9073 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
9077 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
9078 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
9079 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
9082 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
9084 * New machines supported (host and target)
9086 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
9087 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
9088 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
9090 * Almost SCO Unix support
9092 We had hoped to support:
9093 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
9094 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
9095 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
9096 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
9098 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
9100 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
9101 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
9102 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
9103 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
9108 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
9109 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
9110 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
9114 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
9115 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
9116 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
9118 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
9120 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
9121 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
9122 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
9124 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
9125 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
9126 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
9127 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
9130 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
9131 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
9132 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
9133 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
9136 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
9137 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
9140 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
9141 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
9142 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
9145 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
9147 * Improved configuration
9149 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
9150 Porting BFD is simpler.
9154 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
9155 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
9156 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
9157 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
9161 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
9163 * New host supported (not target)
9165 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
9168 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
9170 * Multiple source language support
9172 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
9173 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
9174 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
9175 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
9176 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
9177 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
9181 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
9182 currently under development at the State University of New York at
9183 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
9184 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
9186 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
9187 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
9188 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
9190 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
9191 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
9195 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
9196 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
9197 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
9198 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
9201 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
9203 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
9204 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
9205 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
9206 examining core files.
9210 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
9213 * New machines supported (host and target)
9215 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
9216 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
9217 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
9219 * New hosts supported (not targets)
9221 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
9223 * New targets supported (not hosts)
9225 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
9226 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
9227 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
9229 * New remote interfaces
9235 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
9239 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
9241 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
9242 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
9243 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
9244 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
9245 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
9246 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
9247 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
9248 stub on the target system.
9250 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
9252 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
9253 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
9254 object file types such as a.out and coff.
9256 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
9257 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
9260 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
9262 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
9263 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
9265 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
9266 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
9267 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
9269 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
9270 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
9271 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
9272 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
9274 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
9275 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
9276 it is already running. Default is ON.
9278 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
9279 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
9280 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
9281 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
9284 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
9285 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
9286 or the value of the environment variable
9289 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
9290 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
9293 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
9294 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
9295 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
9297 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
9298 history expansion will be performed on
9299 command line input. The default is OFF.
9301 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
9302 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
9303 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
9305 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
9306 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
9307 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
9310 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
9311 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
9312 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
9315 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
9316 ``set width'' instead.
9318 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
9319 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
9320 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
9321 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
9323 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
9326 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
9329 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
9332 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
9335 * Support for Epoch Environment.
9337 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
9338 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
9339 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
9343 * Support for Shared Libraries
9345 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
9346 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
9347 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
9348 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
9349 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
9350 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
9351 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
9352 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
9354 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
9355 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
9356 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
9358 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
9363 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
9364 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
9365 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
9366 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
9367 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
9368 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
9370 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
9372 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
9374 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
9375 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
9376 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
9379 * C++ multiple inheritance
9381 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
9384 * C++ exception handling
9386 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
9387 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
9388 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
9391 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
9392 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
9393 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
9395 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
9396 current stack frame.
9399 * Minor command changes
9401 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
9402 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
9403 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
9405 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
9406 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
9407 frames without printing.
9409 * New directory command
9411 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
9412 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
9413 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
9414 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
9415 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
9417 * Configuring GDB for compilation
9419 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
9422 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
9423 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
9424 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
9425 where the program that you are debugging will run.