1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 12
6 * "info breakpoints" now displays enabled breakpoint locations of
7 disabled breakpoints as in the "y-" state. For example:
10 Num Type Disp Enb Address What
11 1 breakpoint keep n <MULTIPLE>
12 1.1 y- 0x00000000000011b6 in ...
13 1.2 y- 0x00000000000011c2 in ...
14 1.3 n 0x00000000000011ce in ...
16 * Support for Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on FreeBSD arm and
17 aarch64 architectures.
19 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on FreeBSD/Aarch64.
21 * Remove support for building against Python 2, it is now only possible to
22 build GDB against Python 3.
24 * DBX mode has been removed.
26 * GDB now honours the DWARF prologue_end line-table entry flag the compiler can
27 emit to indicate where a breakpoint should be placed to break in a function
32 ** GDB will now reformat the doc string for gdb.Command and
33 gdb.Parameter sub-classes to remove unnecessary leading
34 whitespace from each line before using the string as the help
39 maintenance set ignore-prologue-end-flag on|off
40 maintenance show ignore-prologue-end-flag
41 This setting, which is off by default, controls whether GDB ignores the
42 PROLOGUE-END flag from the line-table when skipping prologue. This can be
43 used to force GDB to use prologue analyzers if the line-table is constructed
44 from erroneous debug information.
48 maintenance info line-table
49 Add a PROLOGUE-END column to the output which indicates that an
50 entry corresponds to an address where a breakpoint should be placed
51 to be at the first instruction past a function's prologue.
55 ** New function gdb.format_address(ADDRESS, PROGSPACE, ARCHITECTURE),
56 that formats ADDRESS as 'address <symbol+offset>', where symbol is
57 looked up in PROGSPACE, and ARCHITECTURE is used to format address.
58 This is the same format that GDB uses when printing address, symbol,
59 and offset information from the disassembler.
63 * DBX mode is deprecated, and will be removed in GDB 13
65 * GDB 12 is the last release of GDB that will support building against
66 Python 2. From GDB 13, it will only be possible to build GDB itself
67 with Python 3 support.
69 * Improved C++ template support
71 GDB now treats functions/types involving C++ templates like it does function
72 overloads. Users may omit parameter lists to set breakpoints on families of
73 template functions, including types/functions composed of multiple template types:
75 (gdb) break template_func(template_1, int)
77 The above will set breakpoints at every function `template_func' where
78 the first function parameter is any template type named `template_1' and
79 the second function parameter is `int'.
81 TAB completion also gains similar improvements.
83 * The FreeBSD native target now supports async mode.
89 Enable or disable multithreaded symbol loading. This is enabled
90 by default, but passing --disable-threading or --enable-threading=no
91 to configure will disable it.
93 Disabling this can cause a performance penalty when there are a lot of
94 symbols to load, but is useful for debugging purposes.
98 maint set backtrace-on-fatal-signal on|off
99 maint show backtrace-on-fatal-signal
100 This setting is 'on' by default. When 'on' GDB will print a limited
101 backtrace to stderr in the situation where GDB terminates with a
102 fatal signal. This only supported on some platforms where the
103 backtrace and backtrace_symbols_fd functions are available.
105 set source open on|off
107 This setting, which is on by default, controls whether GDB will try
108 to open source code files. Switching this off will stop GDB trying
109 to open and read source code files, which can be useful if the files
110 are located over a slow network connection.
114 These are now deprecated aliases for "set max-value-size" and
115 "show max-value-size".
117 task apply [all | TASK-IDS...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
118 Like "thread apply", but applies COMMAND to Ada tasks.
121 Watchpoints can now be restricted to a specific Ada task.
123 maint set internal-error backtrace on|off
124 maint show internal-error backtrace
125 maint set internal-warning backtrace on|off
126 maint show internal-warning backtrace
127 GDB can now print a backtrace of itself when it encounters either an
128 internal-error, or an internal-warning. This is on by default for
129 internal-error and off by default for internal-warning.
132 Deprecated and replaced by "set logging enabled on|off".
134 set logging enabled on|off
136 These commands set or show whether logging is enabled or disabled.
139 You can now exit GDB by using the new command "exit", in addition to
140 the existing "quit" command.
142 set debug threads on|off
144 Print additional debug messages about thread creation and deletion.
146 set debug linux-nat on|off
148 These new commands replaced the old 'set debug lin-lwp' and 'show
149 debug lin-lwp' respectively. Turning this setting on prints debug
150 messages relating to GDB's handling of native Linux inferiors.
152 maint flush source-cache
153 Flush the contents of the source code cache.
155 maint set gnu-source-highlight enabled on|off
156 maint show gnu-source-highlight enabled
157 Whether GDB should use the GNU Source Highlight library for adding
158 styling to source code. When off, the library will not be used, even
159 when available. When GNU Source Highlight isn't used, or can't add
160 styling to a particular source file, then the Python Pygments
161 library will be used instead.
163 set suppress-cli-notifications (on|off)
164 show suppress-cli-notifications
165 This controls whether printing the notifications is suppressed for CLI.
166 CLI notifications occur when you change the selected context
167 (i.e., the current inferior, thread and/or the frame), or when
168 the program being debugged stops (e.g., because of hitting a
169 breakpoint, completing source-stepping, an interrupt, etc.).
171 set style disassembler enabled on|off
172 show style disassembler enabled
173 If GDB is compiled with Python support, and the Python Pygments
174 package is available, then, when this setting is on, disassembler
175 output will have styling applied.
177 set ada source-charset
178 show ada source-charset
179 Set the character set encoding that is assumed for Ada symbols. Valid
180 values for this follow the values that can be passed to the GNAT
181 compiler via the '-gnati' option. The default is ISO-8859-1.
187 These are the new names for the old 'layout', 'focus', 'refresh',
188 and 'winheight' tui commands respectively. The old names still
189 exist as aliases to these new commands.
193 The new command 'tui window width', and the alias 'winwidth' allow
194 the width of a tui window to be adjusted when windows are laid out
199 Control the display of debug output about GDB's tui.
204 Printing of floating-point values with base-modifying formats like
205 /x has been changed to display the underlying bytes of the value in
206 the desired base. This was GDB's documented behavior, but was never
207 implemented correctly.
210 This command can now print a reply, if the reply includes
211 non-printable characters. Any non-printable characters are printed
212 as escaped hex, e.g. \x?? where '??' is replaces with the value of
213 the non-printable character.
216 The clone-inferior command now ensures that the TTY, CMD and ARGS
217 settings are copied from the original inferior to the new one.
218 All modifications to the environment variables done using the 'set
219 environment' or 'unset environment' commands are also copied to the new
222 set debug lin-lwp on|off
224 These commands have been removed from GDB. The new command 'set
225 debug linux-nat' and 'show debug linux-nat' should be used
229 This command now includes information about the width of the tui
230 windows in its output.
236 These commands are now aliases for the 'tui layout', 'tui focus',
237 'tui refresh', and 'tui window height' commands respectively.
239 * GDB's Ada parser now supports an extension for specifying the exact
240 byte contents of a floating-point literal. This can be useful for
241 setting floating-point registers to a precise value without loss of
242 precision. The syntax is an extension of the based literal syntax.
243 Use, e.g., "16lf#0123abcd#" -- the number of "l"s controls the width
244 of the floating-point type, and the "f" is the marker for floating
249 ** The '-add-inferior' with no option flags now inherits the
250 connection of the current inferior, this restores the behaviour of
251 GDB as it was prior to GDB 10.
253 ** The '-add-inferior' command now accepts a '--no-connection'
254 option, which causes the new inferior to start without a
259 GNU/Linux/LoongArch loongarch*-*-linux*
267 ** New function gdb.add_history(), which takes a gdb.Value object
268 and adds the value it represents to GDB's history list. An
269 integer, the index of the new item in the history list, is
272 ** New function gdb.history_count(), which returns the number of
273 values in GDB's value history.
275 ** New gdb.events.gdb_exiting event. This event is called with a
276 gdb.GdbExitingEvent object which has the read-only attribute
277 'exit_code', which contains the value of the GDB exit code. This
278 event is triggered once GDB decides it is going to exit, but
279 before GDB starts to clean up its internal state.
281 ** New function gdb.architecture_names(), which returns a list
282 containing all of the possible Architecture.name() values. Each
285 ** New function gdb.Architecture.integer_type(), which returns an
286 integer type given a size and a signed-ness.
288 ** New gdb.TargetConnection object type that represents a connection
289 (as displayed by the 'info connections' command). A sub-class,
290 gdb.RemoteTargetConnection, is used to represent 'remote' and
291 'extended-remote' connections.
293 ** The gdb.Inferior type now has a 'connection' property which is an
294 instance of gdb.TargetConnection, the connection used by this
295 inferior. This can be None if the inferior has no connection.
297 ** New 'gdb.events.connection_removed' event registry, which emits a
298 'gdb.ConnectionEvent' when a connection is removed from GDB.
299 This event has a 'connection' property, a gdb.TargetConnection
300 object for the connection being removed.
302 ** New gdb.connections() function that returns a list of all
303 currently active connections.
305 ** New gdb.RemoteTargetConnection.send_packet(PACKET) method. This
306 is equivalent to the existing 'maint packet' CLI command; it
307 allows a user specified packet to be sent to the remote target.
309 ** New function gdb.host_charset(), returns a string, which is the
310 name of the current host charset.
312 ** New gdb.set_parameter(NAME, VALUE). This sets the gdb parameter
315 ** New gdb.with_parameter(NAME, VALUE). This returns a context
316 manager that temporarily sets the gdb parameter NAME to VALUE,
317 then resets it when the context is exited.
319 ** The gdb.Value.format_string method now takes a 'styling'
320 argument, which is a boolean. When true, the returned string can
321 include escape sequences to apply styling. The styling will only
322 be present if styling is otherwise turned on in GDB (see 'help
323 set styling'). When false, which is the default if the argument
324 is not given, then no styling is applied to the returned string.
326 ** New read-only attribute gdb.InferiorThread.details, which is
327 either a string, containing additional, target specific thread
328 state information, or None, if there is no such additional
331 ** New read-only attribute gdb.Type.is_scalar, which is True for
332 scalar types, and False for all other types.
334 ** New read-only attribute gdb.Type.is_signed. This attribute
335 should only be read when Type.is_scalar is True, and will be True
336 for signed types, and False for all other types. Attempting to
337 read this attribute for non-scalar types will raise a ValueError.
339 ** It is now possible to add GDB/MI commands implemented in Python.
341 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
343 ** GDBserver is now supported on OpenRISC GNU/Linux.
345 * New native configurations
347 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
349 *** Changes in GDB 11
351 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
354 * GDB now supports general memory tagging functionality if the underlying
355 architecture supports the proper primitives and hooks. Currently this is
356 enabled only for AArch64 MTE.
360 - Additional information when the inferior crashes with a SIGSEGV caused by
361 a memory tag violation.
363 - A new modifier 'm' for the "x" command, which displays allocation tags for a
364 particular memory range.
366 - Display of memory tag mismatches by "print", for addresses and
367 pointers, if memory tagging is supported by the architecture.
369 * Building GDB now requires GMP (The GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic
374 ** '-break-insert --qualified' and '-dprintf-insert --qualified'
376 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
377 new "--qualified" option that makes GDB interpret a specified
378 function name as a complete fully-qualified name. This is the
379 equivalent of the CLI's "break -qualified" and "dprintf
382 ** '-break-insert --force-condition' and '-dprintf-insert --force-condition'
384 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
385 '--force-condition' flag to forcibly define a condition even when
386 the condition is invalid at all locations of the breakpoint. This
387 is equivalent to the '-force-condition' flag of the CLI's "break"
390 ** '-break-condition --force'
392 The MI -break-condition command now supports a '--force' flag to
393 forcibly define a condition even when the condition is invalid at
394 all locations of the selected breakpoint. This is equivalent to
395 the '-force' flag of the CLI's "cond" command.
397 ** '-file-list-exec-source-files [--group-by-objfile]
398 [--basename | --dirname]
401 The existing -file-list-exec-source-files command now takes an
402 optional REGEXP which is used to filter the source files that are
403 included in the results.
405 By default REGEXP is matched against the full filename of the
406 source file. When one of --basename or --dirname is given then
407 REGEXP is only matched against the specified part of the full
410 When the optional --group-by-objfile flag is used the output
411 format is changed, the results are now a list of object files
412 (executable and libraries) with the source files that are
413 associated with each object file.
415 The results from -file-list-exec-source-files now include a
416 'debug-fully-read' field which takes the value 'true' or 'false'.
417 A 'true' value indicates the source file is from a compilation
418 unit that has had its debug information fully read in by GDB, a
419 value of 'false' indicates GDB has only performed a partial scan
420 of the debug information so far.
422 * GDB now supports core file debugging for x86_64 Cygwin programs.
424 * GDB will now look for the .gdbinit file in a config directory before
425 looking for ~/.gdbinit. The file is searched for in the following
426 locations: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.config/gdb/gdbinit,
427 $HOME/.gdbinit. On Apple hosts the search order is instead:
428 $HOME/Library/Preferences/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.gdbinit.
430 * GDB now supports fixed point types which are described in DWARF
431 as base types with a fixed-point encoding. Additionally, support
432 for the DW_AT_GNU_numerator and DW_AT_GNU_denominator has also
435 For Ada, this allows support for fixed point types without requiring
436 the use of the GNAT encoding (based on information added to the type's
437 name following a GNAT-specific format).
439 * GDB will now load and process commands from ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit
440 or ~/.gdbearlyinit if these files are present. These files are
441 processed earlier than any of the other initialization files and
442 can affect parts of GDB's startup that previously had already been
443 completed before the initialization files were read, for example
444 styling of the initial GDB greeting.
446 * GDB now has two new options "--early-init-command" and
447 "--early-init-eval-command" with corresponding short options "-eix"
448 and "-eiex" that allow options (that would normally appear in a
449 gdbearlyinit file) to be passed on the command line.
451 * For RISC-V targets, the target feature "org.gnu.gdb.riscv.vector" is
452 now understood by GDB, and can be used to describe the vector
453 registers of a target. The precise requirements of this register
454 feature are documented in the GDB manual.
456 * For ARM targets, the "org.gnu.gdb.arm.m-profile-mve" feature is now
457 supported by GDB and describes a new VPR register from the ARM MVE
458 (Helium) extension. See the GDB manual for more information.
462 ** TUI windows now support mouse actions. The mouse wheel scrolls
463 the appropriate window.
465 ** Key combinations that do not have a specific action on the
466 focused window are passed to GDB. For example, you now can use
467 Ctrl-Left/Ctrl-Right to move between words in the command window
468 regardless of which window is in focus. Previously you would
469 need to focus on the command window for such key combinations to
475 show debug event-loop
476 Control the display of debug output about GDB's event loop.
478 set print memory-tag-violations
479 show print memory-tag-violations
480 Control whether to display additional information about memory tag violations
481 when printing pointers and addresses. Architecture support for memory
482 tagging is required for this option to have an effect.
484 maintenance flush symbol-cache
485 maintenance flush register-cache
486 These new commands are equivalent to the already existing commands
487 'maintenance flush-symbol-cache' and 'flushregs' respectively.
489 maintenance flush dcache
490 A new command to flush the dcache.
492 maintenance info target-sections
493 Print GDB's internal target sections table.
496 Print the JIT code objects in the inferior known to GDB.
498 memory-tag show-logical-tag POINTER
499 Print the logical tag for POINTER.
500 memory-tag with-logical-tag POINTER TAG
501 Print POINTER with logical tag TAG.
502 memory-tag show-allocation-tag ADDRESS
503 Print the allocation tag for ADDRESS.
504 memory-tag set-allocation-tag ADDRESS LENGTH TAGS
505 Set the allocation tag for [ADDRESS, ADDRESS + LENGTH) to TAGS.
506 memory-tag check POINTER
507 Validate that POINTER's logical tag matches the allocation tag.
509 set startup-quietly on|off
511 When 'on', this causes GDB to act as if "-silent" were passed on the
512 command line. This command needs to be added to an early
513 initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to
516 set print type hex on|off
518 When 'on', the 'ptype' command uses hexadecimal notation to print sizes
519 and offsets of struct members. When 'off', decimal notation is used.
521 set python ignore-environment on|off
522 show python ignore-environment
523 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to ignore any
524 environment variables that would otherwise affect how Python
525 behaves. This command needs to be added to an early initialization
526 file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in order to affect GDB.
528 set python dont-write-bytecode auto|on|off
529 show python dont-write-bytecode
530 When 'on', this causes GDB's builtin Python to not write any
531 byte-code (.pyc files) to disk. This command needs to be added to
532 an early initialization file (e.g. ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit) in
533 order to affect GDB. When 'off' byte-code will always be written.
534 When set to 'auto' (the default) Python will check the
535 PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE environment variable.
539 break [PROBE_MODIFIER] [LOCATION] [thread THREADNUM]
540 [-force-condition] [if CONDITION]
541 This command would previously refuse setting a breakpoint if the
542 CONDITION expression is invalid at a location. It now accepts and
543 defines the breakpoint if there is at least one location at which
544 the CONDITION is valid. The locations for which the CONDITION is
545 invalid, are automatically disabled. If CONDITION is invalid at all
546 of the locations, setting the breakpoint is still rejected. However,
547 the '-force-condition' flag can be used in this case for forcing GDB to
548 define the breakpoint, making all the current locations automatically
549 disabled. This may be useful if the user knows the condition will
550 become meaningful at a future location, e.g. due to a shared library
553 condition [-force] N COND
554 The behavior of this command is changed the same way for the 'break'
555 command as explained above. The '-force' flag can be used to force
556 GDB into defining the condition even when COND is invalid for all the
557 current locations of breakpoint N.
560 maintenance flush-symbol-cache
561 These commands are deprecated in favor of the new commands
562 'maintenance flush register-cache' and 'maintenance flush
563 symbol-cache' respectively.
565 set style version foreground COLOR
566 set style version background COLOR
567 set style version intensity VALUE
568 Control the styling of GDB's version number text.
571 When the ID parameter is omitted, then this command prints information
572 about the current inferior. When the ID parameter is present, the
573 behavior of the command is unchanged and have the inferior ID become
574 the current inferior.
576 maintenance info sections
577 The ALLOBJ keyword has been replaced with an -all-objects command
578 line flag. It is now possible to filter which sections are printed
579 even when -all-objects is passed.
581 ptype[/FLAGS] TYPE | EXPRESSION
582 The 'ptype' command has two new flags. When '/x' is set, hexadecimal
583 notation is used when printing sizes and offsets of struct members.
584 When '/d' is set, decimal notation is used when printing sizes and
585 offsets of struct members. Default behavior is given by 'show print
589 The info sources command output has been restructured. The results
590 are now based around a list of objfiles (executable and libraries),
591 and for each objfile the source files that are part of that objfile
594 * Removed targets and native configurations
596 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
601 Request the remote to send allocation tags for a particular memory range.
603 Request the remote to store the specified allocation tags to the requested
608 ** Improved support for rvalue reference values:
609 TYPE_CODE_RVALUE_REF is now exported as part of the API and the
610 value-referenced-value procedure now handles rvalue reference
613 ** New procedures for obtaining value variants:
614 value-reference-value, value-rvalue-reference-value and
617 ** Temporary breakpoints can now be created with make-breakpoint and
618 tested for using breakpoint-temporary?.
622 ** Inferior objects now contain a read-only 'connection_num' attribute that
623 gives the connection number as seen in 'info connections' and
626 ** New method gdb.Frame.level() which returns the stack level of the
629 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.level() which returns the stack level
632 ** When hitting a catchpoint, the Python API will now emit a
633 gdb.BreakpointEvent rather than a gdb.StopEvent. The
634 gdb.Breakpoint attached to the event will have type BP_CATCHPOINT.
636 ** Python TUI windows can now receive mouse click events. If the
637 Window object implements the click method, it is called for each
638 mouse click event in this window.
640 *** Changes in GDB 10
642 * There are new feature names for ARC targets: "org.gnu.gdb.arc.core"
643 and "org.gnu.gdb.arc.aux". The old names are still supported but
644 must be considered obsolete. They will be deprecated after some
647 * Help and apropos commands will now show the documentation of a
648 command only once, even if that command has one or more aliases.
649 These commands now show the command name, then all of its aliases,
650 and finally the description of the command.
652 * 'help aliases' now shows only the user defined aliases. GDB predefined
653 aliases are shown together with their aliased command.
655 * GDB now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing ELF/DWARF
656 debugging information as well as source code.
658 When built with debuginfod, GDB can automatically query debuginfod
659 servers for the separate debug files and source code of the executable
662 To build GDB with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure (this
663 requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library).
665 debuginfod is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178.
667 You can get the latest version from https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
669 * Multi-target debugging support
671 GDB now supports debugging multiple target connections
672 simultaneously. For example, you can now have each inferior
673 connected to different remote servers running in different machines,
674 or have one inferior debugging a local native process, an inferior
675 debugging a core dump, etc.
677 This support is experimental and comes with some limitations -- you
678 can only resume multiple targets simultaneously if all targets
679 support non-stop mode, and all remote stubs or servers must support
680 the same set of remote protocol features exactly. See also "info
681 connections" and "add-inferior -no-connection" below, and "maint set
682 target-non-stop" in the user manual.
684 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
686 ** GDBserver is now supported on ARC GNU/Linux.
688 ** GDBserver is now supported on RISC-V GNU/Linux.
690 ** GDBserver no longer supports these host triplets:
701 i[34567]86-*-mingw32ce*
703 * Debugging MS-Windows processes now sets $_exitsignal when the
704 inferior is terminated by a signal, instead of setting $_exitcode.
706 * Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
707 that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
708 performance for programs with many symbols.
710 * The $_siginfo convenience variable now also works on Windows targets,
711 and will display the EXCEPTION_RECORD of the last handled exception.
713 * TUI windows can now be arranged horizontally.
715 * The command history filename can now be set to the empty string
716 either using 'set history filename' or by setting 'GDBHISTFILE=' in
717 the environment. The effect of setting this filename to the empty
718 string is that GDB will not try to load any previous command
721 * On Windows targets, it is now possible to debug 32-bit programs with a
726 set exec-file-mismatch -- Set exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
727 show exec-file-mismatch -- Show exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
728 Set or show the option 'exec-file-mismatch'. When GDB attaches to a
729 running process, this new option indicates whether to detect
730 a mismatch between the current executable file loaded by GDB and the
731 executable file used to start the process. If 'ask', the default,
732 display a warning and ask the user whether to load the process
733 executable file; if 'warn', just display a warning; if 'off', don't
734 attempt to detect a mismatch.
736 tui new-layout NAME WINDOW WEIGHT [WINDOW WEIGHT]...
737 Define a new TUI layout, specifying its name and the windows that
740 maintenance print xml-tdesc [FILE]
741 Prints the current target description as an XML document. If the
742 optional FILE is provided (which is an XML target description) then
743 the target description is read from FILE into GDB, and then
746 maintenance print core-file-backed-mappings
747 Prints file-backed mappings loaded from a core file's note section.
748 Output is expected to be similar to that of "info proc mappings".
750 set debug fortran-array-slicing on|off
751 show debug fortran-array-slicing
752 Print debugging when taking slices of Fortran arrays.
754 set fortran repack-array-slices on|off
755 show fortran repack-array-slices
756 When taking slices from Fortran arrays and strings, if the slice is
757 non-contiguous within the original value then, when this option is
758 on, the new value will be repacked into a single contiguous value.
759 When this option is off, then the value returned will consist of a
760 descriptor that describes the slice within the memory of the
761 original parent value.
765 alias [-a] [--] ALIAS = COMMAND [DEFAULT-ARGS...]
766 The alias command can now specify default args for an alias.
767 GDB automatically prepends the alias default args to the argument list
768 provided explicitly by the user.
769 For example, to have a backtrace with full details, you can define
771 'alias bt_ALL = backtrace -entry-values both -frame-arg all
772 -past-main -past-entry -full'.
773 Alias default arguments can also use a set of nested 'with' commands,
774 e.g. 'alias pp10 = with print pretty -- with print elem 10 -- print'
775 defines the alias pp10 that will pretty print a maximum of 10 elements
776 of the given expression (if the expression is an array).
780 GNU/Linux/RISC-V (gdbserver) riscv*-*-linux*
786 ** gdb.register_window_type can be used to implement new TUI windows
789 ** Dynamic types can now be queried. gdb.Type has a new attribute,
790 "dynamic", and gdb.Type.sizeof can be None for a dynamic type. A
791 field of a dynamic type may have None for its "bitpos" attribute
794 ** Commands written in Python can be in the "TUI" help class by
795 registering with the new constant gdb.COMMAND_TUI.
797 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.architecture () to retrieve the
798 architecture of the pending frame.
800 ** New gdb.Architecture.registers method that returns a
801 gdb.RegisterDescriptorIterator object, an iterator that returns
802 gdb.RegisterDescriptor objects. The new RegisterDescriptor is a
803 way to query the registers available for an architecture.
805 ** New gdb.Architecture.register_groups method that returns a
806 gdb.RegisterGroupIterator object, an iterator that returns
807 gdb.RegisterGroup objects. The new RegisterGroup is a way to
808 discover the available register groups.
812 ** GDB can now be built with GNU Guile 3.0 and 2.2 in addition to 2.0.
814 ** Procedures 'memory-port-read-buffer-size',
815 'set-memory-port-read-buffer-size!', 'memory-port-write-buffer-size',
816 and 'set-memory-port-write-buffer-size!' are deprecated. When
817 using Guile 2.2 and later, users who need to control the size of
818 a memory port's internal buffer can use the 'setvbuf' procedure.
822 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
824 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
825 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
826 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
827 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
828 such as in system-wide init files.
830 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
831 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
832 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
833 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
834 current GDB settings.
836 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
837 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
838 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
839 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
841 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
842 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
845 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
846 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
848 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
849 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
850 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
852 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
853 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
856 * Command names can now use the . character.
858 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
860 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
863 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
865 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
866 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
868 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
869 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
870 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
872 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
874 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
875 not visible in the current scope.
877 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
878 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
879 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
880 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
881 compiled with support for that language.
883 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
884 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
885 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
889 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
890 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
891 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
892 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
893 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
895 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
898 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
899 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
900 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
903 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
904 symbols with static linkage.
906 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
907 all static symbols with static linkage.
909 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
910 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
912 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
913 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
917 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
918 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
919 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
920 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
921 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
922 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
923 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
925 define-prefix COMMAND
926 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
928 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
929 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
930 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
931 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
932 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
933 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
934 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
935 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
936 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
937 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
938 of array elements to print.
940 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
941 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
943 set may-call-functions [on|off]
944 show may-call-functions
945 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
946 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
947 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
948 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
949 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
950 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
953 set print finish [on|off]
955 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
956 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
957 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
962 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
963 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
964 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
965 the old behavior back.
967 set print raw-values [on|off]
968 show print raw-values
969 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
970 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
971 of commands. The default is 'off'.
973 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
974 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
975 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
977 set style title foreground COLOR
978 set style title background COLOR
979 set style title intensity VALUE
980 Control the styling of titles.
982 set style highlight foreground COLOR
983 set style highlight background COLOR
984 set style highlight intensity VALUE
985 Control the styling of highlightings.
987 maint set worker-threads
988 maint show worker-threads
989 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
990 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
991 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
992 the names of linker symbols.
994 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
995 set style tui-border background COLOR
996 Control the styling of TUI borders.
998 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
999 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
1000 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
1002 maint set test-settings KIND
1003 maint show test-settings KIND
1004 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
1007 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
1008 maint show tui-resize-message
1009 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
1010 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
1013 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
1014 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
1015 show print frame-info
1016 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
1017 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
1018 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
1019 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
1021 set tui compact-source
1022 show tui compact-source
1024 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
1025 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
1026 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
1027 line numbers from the source.
1029 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
1030 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
1033 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
1034 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
1035 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
1036 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
1037 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
1038 matches against the function name.
1040 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
1041 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
1042 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
1043 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
1044 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
1045 against the variable name.
1047 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
1048 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
1049 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
1051 The default is 512 bytes.
1054 Lists the target connections currently in use.
1059 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
1060 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
1064 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
1065 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
1066 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
1067 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
1068 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
1072 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
1073 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
1074 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
1075 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
1077 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
1078 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
1079 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
1080 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
1084 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
1085 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
1086 the user visualize the different styles.
1088 set print frame-arguments
1089 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
1090 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
1092 set print raw-frame-arguments
1093 show print raw-frame-arguments
1095 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
1096 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
1097 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
1100 add-inferior [-no-connection]
1101 The add-inferior command now supports a "-no-connection" flag that
1102 makes the new inferior start with no target connection associated.
1103 By default, the new inferior inherits the target connection of the
1104 current inferior. See also "info connections".
1107 This command's output now includes a new "Connection" column
1108 indicating which target connection an inferior is bound to. See
1109 "info connections" above.
1111 maint test-options require-delimiter
1112 maint test-options unknown-is-error
1113 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
1114 maint show test-options-completion-result
1115 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
1118 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
1119 These commands are now case-sensitive.
1121 * New command options, command completion
1123 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
1124 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
1125 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
1126 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
1127 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
1128 number of commands got support for new command options in this
1131 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
1132 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
1133 set by "set print" subcommands:
1137 -array-indexes [on|off]
1138 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
1142 -raw-values [on|off]
1143 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
1144 -static-members [on|off]
1149 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
1150 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
1151 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
1152 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
1154 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
1155 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
1156 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
1158 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
1159 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
1160 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
1161 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
1162 |location-and-address|short-location
1164 -past-entry [on|off]
1166 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
1167 exposed as command options too:
1173 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
1174 support the following options:
1177 -past-entry [on|off]
1179 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
1180 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
1182 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
1183 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
1184 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
1187 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
1189 The above is equivalent to:
1191 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
1193 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
1194 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
1195 variables" and "info functions".
1197 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
1198 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
1199 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
1202 * Completion improvements
1204 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
1205 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
1208 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
1209 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
1212 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
1213 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
1214 completes on filenames.
1216 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
1217 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
1219 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
1221 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
1222 elements unlimited".
1227 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1228 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
1229 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
1231 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
1232 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
1233 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
1235 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
1236 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
1237 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
1239 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
1242 -symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
1243 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
1244 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
1248 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
1250 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
1251 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
1252 the following commands and events:
1256 - =breakpoint-created
1257 - =breakpoint-modified
1259 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
1260 this behavior with previous MI versions.
1262 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
1263 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
1264 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
1269 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
1270 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
1271 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
1272 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
1274 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
1276 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
1277 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
1279 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
1281 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
1282 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
1284 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
1285 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
1286 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
1288 * Removed targets and native configurations
1290 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
1291 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
1292 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
1298 * Removed targets and native configurations
1300 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
1301 sparc*-*-solaris2.10
1303 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
1305 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
1306 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
1309 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
1310 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
1311 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
1314 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
1317 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
1318 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
1319 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
1321 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
1322 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
1324 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
1325 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1326 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1327 in the GDB user manual.
1329 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
1332 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
1334 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
1335 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
1336 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
1337 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
1338 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
1339 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
1340 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
1341 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
1342 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
1343 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
1344 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
1345 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
1347 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
1348 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
1349 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
1352 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
1357 set debug compile-cplus-types
1358 show debug compile-cplus-types
1359 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
1360 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiling
1361 for other languages.
1365 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
1368 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
1369 Apply a command to some frames.
1370 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
1371 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
1374 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
1375 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
1378 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
1379 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
1382 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
1384 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
1386 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
1387 maint show dwarf unwinders
1388 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
1391 Display a list of open files for a process.
1395 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
1396 These commands all now take a frame specification which
1397 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
1398 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
1399 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
1400 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
1401 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
1403 target remote FILENAME
1404 target extended-remote FILENAME
1405 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
1406 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
1408 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1409 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1410 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1411 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
1412 These commands can now print only the searched entities
1413 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
1414 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
1415 printing headers or informations messages.
1421 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
1422 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
1423 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
1426 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
1427 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
1428 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
1429 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
1431 set tui tab-width NCHARS
1432 show tui tab-width NCHARS
1433 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
1435 set style enabled [on|off]
1437 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
1438 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
1440 set style sources [on|off]
1442 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
1443 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
1444 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
1446 set style filename foreground COLOR
1447 set style filename background COLOR
1448 set style filename intensity VALUE
1449 Control the styling of file names.
1451 set style function foreground COLOR
1452 set style function background COLOR
1453 set style function intensity VALUE
1454 Control the styling of function names.
1456 set style variable foreground COLOR
1457 set style variable background COLOR
1458 set style variable intensity VALUE
1459 Control the styling of variable names.
1461 set style address foreground COLOR
1462 set style address background COLOR
1463 set style address intensity VALUE
1464 Control the styling of addresses.
1468 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
1469 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
1470 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
1471 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
1472 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
1474 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
1475 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
1477 * New native configurations
1479 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
1480 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
1484 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
1485 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
1486 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
1487 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
1489 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
1493 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
1498 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
1500 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
1501 space associated to that inferior.
1503 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
1504 of objfiles associated to that program space.
1506 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
1507 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
1510 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
1511 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
1512 correct and did not work properly.
1514 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
1515 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
1521 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
1522 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
1523 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
1524 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
1525 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
1527 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
1529 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
1530 for the MIPS target.
1532 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
1533 offset to all sections.
1535 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
1536 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
1537 address of individual sections using '-s'.
1539 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
1540 (address of the text section).
1542 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
1543 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
1544 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
1545 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
1548 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
1549 for the rest of the current command.
1551 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
1552 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
1554 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
1555 files created on FreeBSD systems.
1557 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
1560 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
1561 the vector length while the process is running.
1567 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
1569 set|show varsize-limit
1570 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
1571 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
1572 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
1574 set|show record btrace cpu
1575 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
1576 branch trace decode.
1578 maint check libthread-db
1579 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
1582 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
1583 maint show check-libthread-db
1584 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
1585 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
1586 perform such checks.
1590 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
1592 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
1593 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
1595 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
1597 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
1598 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
1599 of convenience variables.
1601 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
1602 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
1603 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
1607 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
1609 * Removed targets and native configurations
1611 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
1612 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
1613 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
1614 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
1616 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
1618 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
1619 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
1620 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
1621 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
1622 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
1623 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
1628 --enable-codesign=CERT
1629 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
1630 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
1631 gdb to work properly.
1633 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
1634 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
1636 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
1638 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
1639 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
1640 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
1642 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
1643 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
1645 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
1646 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
1647 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
1648 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
1649 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
1651 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
1652 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
1653 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
1654 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
1656 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
1657 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
1659 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
1660 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
1661 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
1663 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
1664 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
1665 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
1667 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
1668 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
1669 environment" command.
1671 * Completion improvements
1673 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
1674 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
1675 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
1676 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
1679 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
1680 (gdb) b function(int)
1682 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
1683 C++ anonymous namespaces:
1686 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
1687 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
1688 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
1690 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
1691 completion support, that better understands what you're
1692 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
1693 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
1694 setting a breakpoint.
1696 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
1698 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
1700 * New command line options (gcore)
1703 Dump all memory mappings.
1705 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
1707 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
1708 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
1709 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
1711 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
1716 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
1719 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
1720 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
1721 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
1722 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
1723 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
1724 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
1725 a breakpoint from Python.
1727 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1729 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1730 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
1731 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
1733 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
1735 function[abi:cxx11](int)
1738 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
1741 (gdb) b function(int)
1743 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
1745 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
1747 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
1751 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
1752 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
1753 description of these.
1755 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
1756 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
1757 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
1759 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
1760 manual for a further description of this feature.
1763 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1765 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
1766 specified initial working directory.
1768 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
1769 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
1771 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
1772 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
1774 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
1775 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
1777 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
1778 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
1779 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
1780 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
1781 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
1783 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
1784 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
1785 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
1787 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
1788 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
1789 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
1790 in the *stopped notification.
1792 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
1793 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
1795 * New remote packets
1797 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
1798 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
1799 the inferior when starting it.
1802 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
1803 before starting the remote inferior.
1806 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
1807 user-set environment variables should be unset).
1810 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
1813 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
1816 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
1817 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
1819 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
1820 filter the tests to be run.
1822 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
1823 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
1828 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
1830 set|show compile-gcc
1831 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
1832 with the 'compile' commands.
1834 set debug separate-debug-file
1835 show debug separate-debug-file
1836 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
1838 set dump-excluded-mappings
1839 show dump-excluded-mappings
1840 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
1841 dumped when generating a core file.
1843 maint info selftests
1844 List the registered selftests.
1847 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
1850 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
1852 set|show print type nested-type-limit
1853 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
1854 type printer will show.
1856 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
1859 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
1861 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
1864 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
1865 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
1866 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
1867 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
1869 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
1870 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
1871 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
1872 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1873 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
1874 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1876 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
1877 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
1878 unless you tell it the variable's type:
1881 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
1885 * New native configurations
1887 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1888 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1892 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1893 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1894 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
1896 * Removed targets and native configurations
1898 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
1900 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
1902 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
1903 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
1904 available in future Intel CPUs.
1906 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
1910 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
1911 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
1913 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
1916 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
1918 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
1920 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
1921 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
1924 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
1926 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
1927 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
1929 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
1931 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
1932 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
1933 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
1934 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
1937 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
1939 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
1940 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
1943 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
1945 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
1946 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
1948 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
1950 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
1955 eval "print $arg%d", $i
1960 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
1962 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
1963 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
1965 * New native configurations
1967 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1971 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
1972 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1974 * Removed targets and native configurations
1976 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1977 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
1982 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
1984 maint print arc arc-instruction address
1985 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
1989 set disassembler-options
1990 show disassembler-options
1991 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
1992 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
1993 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
1994 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
1995 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
2000 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
2001 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
2003 -file-list-shared-libraries
2004 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
2005 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
2008 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
2009 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
2011 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
2013 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
2015 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
2016 default. One must now explicitly configure with
2017 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
2018 option will be removed in a future release.
2020 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
2023 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
2024 memory backward from the given address. For example:
2027 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
2028 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
2029 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
2030 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
2031 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
2032 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
2033 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
2034 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
2035 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
2037 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
2038 arrays of dynamic types.
2040 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
2041 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
2042 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
2043 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
2044 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
2045 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
2047 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
2050 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
2051 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
2052 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
2054 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
2056 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
2057 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
2058 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
2059 signal received and code location.
2063 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
2064 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
2065 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
2066 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
2068 * Rust language support.
2069 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
2070 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
2073 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
2075 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
2076 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
2077 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
2078 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
2079 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
2080 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
2081 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
2082 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
2083 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
2084 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
2087 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
2089 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
2090 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
2095 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
2096 skip -function function
2097 skip -rfunction regular-expression
2098 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
2099 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
2100 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
2102 maint info line-table REGEXP
2103 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data structure.
2106 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
2109 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
2110 using the TTY file for input/output.
2114 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
2115 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
2116 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
2117 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
2118 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
2120 signal-event EVENTID
2121 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
2122 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
2123 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
2124 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
2125 signalling an event.
2127 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
2128 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
2129 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
2131 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
2134 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
2135 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
2136 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
2137 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
2138 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
2139 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
2141 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
2142 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
2143 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
2144 bytecode into native code.
2146 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
2147 recording. For example:
2149 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
2151 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
2153 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
2157 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
2159 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
2161 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
2163 * Per-inferior thread numbers
2165 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
2166 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
2167 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
2171 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
2172 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
2173 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
2174 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
2176 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
2177 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
2178 are no longer unique between inferiors.
2180 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
2181 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
2182 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
2184 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
2187 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
2188 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
2191 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
2194 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
2195 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
2196 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
2197 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
2200 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
2203 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
2206 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
2209 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
2210 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
2213 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
2214 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
2216 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
2218 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
2220 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
2221 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
2223 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
2224 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
2227 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2228 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
2231 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
2232 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
2235 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2237 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
2238 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
2239 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
2241 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
2242 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
2246 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
2247 maint show target-non-stop
2248 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
2249 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
2250 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
2252 maint set bfd-sharing
2253 maint show bfd-sharing
2254 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
2257 show debug bfd-cache
2258 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
2262 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
2264 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
2265 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
2266 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
2268 set remote thread-events
2269 show remote thread-events
2270 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
2272 set ada print-signatures on|off
2273 show ada print-signatures"
2274 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
2275 selection menus. It is activated (@code{on}) by default.
2279 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
2280 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
2281 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
2283 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
2284 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
2285 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
2286 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
2287 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
2288 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
2290 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
2291 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
2293 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
2294 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
2296 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
2298 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
2299 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
2300 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
2301 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
2302 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
2303 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
2305 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
2306 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
2309 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
2311 * New remote packets
2314 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
2316 exec-events feature in qSupported
2317 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
2318 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
2319 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
2320 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
2323 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
2326 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
2327 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
2329 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
2330 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
2333 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
2334 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
2335 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
2336 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
2337 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
2338 stop for that same thread.
2341 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
2342 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
2343 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
2346 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
2347 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
2349 syscall_entry stop reason
2350 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
2352 syscall_return stop reason
2353 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
2355 * Extended-remote exec events
2357 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
2358 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
2359 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
2361 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
2362 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
2363 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
2365 * Thread names in remote protocol
2367 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
2370 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
2372 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
2373 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
2374 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
2375 fork and exec catchpoints.
2377 * Remote syscall events
2379 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
2380 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
2382 set remote catch-syscall-packet
2383 show remote catch-syscall-packet
2384 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
2388 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
2389 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
2394 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
2395 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
2396 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
2397 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
2398 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
2399 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
2401 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
2403 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
2404 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
2405 including advance SIMD instructions.
2407 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
2409 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
2410 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
2411 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
2412 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
2413 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
2414 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
2415 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
2417 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2419 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
2421 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
2422 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
2425 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
2426 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
2427 and may include things like its command line arguments.
2429 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
2430 is now available on all platforms.
2432 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
2433 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
2434 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
2435 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
2436 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
2437 backward compatibility.
2439 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
2440 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
2441 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
2442 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
2444 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
2445 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
2446 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
2447 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
2450 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
2452 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
2454 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
2455 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
2456 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
2457 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
2458 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
2459 See "New remote packets" below.
2461 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
2462 available register groups, including target specific groups.
2464 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
2465 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
2466 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
2467 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
2472 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
2476 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
2477 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
2478 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
2479 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
2480 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
2481 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
2482 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
2483 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
2484 "const" version of the value respectively.
2488 maint print symbol-cache
2489 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
2491 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
2492 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
2494 maint flush-symbol-cache
2495 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
2499 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
2502 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
2506 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
2509 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
2510 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
2514 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
2517 Print information about branch tracing internals.
2519 maint btrace packet-history
2520 Print the raw branch tracing data.
2522 maint btrace clear-packet-history
2523 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
2526 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
2527 anew by the next "record" command.
2532 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
2533 show debug dwarf-die
2534 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
2536 set debug dwarf-read
2537 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
2538 show debug dwarf-read
2539 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
2541 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
2542 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
2543 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
2544 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
2546 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
2547 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
2548 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
2549 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
2551 set debug dwarf-line
2552 show debug dwarf-line
2553 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
2556 show max-completions
2557 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
2558 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
2559 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
2560 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
2562 set history remove-duplicates
2563 show history remove-duplicates
2564 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
2566 maint set symbol-cache-size
2567 maint show symbol-cache-size
2568 Control the size of the symbol cache.
2570 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
2571 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
2573 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
2574 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
2576 set debug linux-namespaces
2577 show debug linux-namespaces
2578 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
2580 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
2581 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
2582 Intel Processor Trace format.
2583 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
2584 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
2586 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
2587 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
2590 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
2591 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
2593 * Python/Guile scripting
2595 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
2596 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
2598 * New remote packets
2600 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
2601 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
2603 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
2604 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
2607 Enable Intel Processor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
2608 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
2611 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
2612 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
2616 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
2617 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
2618 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
2622 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
2623 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
2626 Return information about files on the remote system.
2628 qXfer:exec-file:read
2629 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
2630 create a process running on the remote system.
2633 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
2634 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
2635 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
2636 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
2639 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
2642 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
2644 vforkdone stop reason
2645 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
2646 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
2648 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
2649 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
2650 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
2651 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
2652 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
2653 whether these features are enabled.
2655 * Extended-remote fork events
2657 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
2658 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
2659 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
2660 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
2662 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
2663 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
2664 the btrace record target.
2665 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
2667 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
2668 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
2670 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
2673 * Removed command line options
2675 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
2677 * Removed targets and native configurations
2679 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
2680 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2682 * New configure options
2685 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
2686 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
2688 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
2689 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
2690 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
2691 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
2693 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
2697 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
2699 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
2701 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
2705 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
2706 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
2707 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
2708 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
2709 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
2710 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
2711 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
2712 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
2713 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
2714 selecting a new file to debug.
2715 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
2716 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
2718 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
2721 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
2722 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
2723 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
2724 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
2726 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2728 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2729 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2730 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2731 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2733 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
2734 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
2735 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
2736 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
2737 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
2738 interface with this new feature are:
2740 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
2741 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
2745 demangle [-l language] [--] name
2746 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
2747 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
2748 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
2749 as "maint demangler-warning".
2751 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
2752 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
2754 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
2755 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
2758 maint print user-registers
2759 List all currently available "user" registers.
2761 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
2762 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
2763 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
2765 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
2766 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
2767 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
2770 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
2771 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
2772 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
2773 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
2776 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
2777 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
2778 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
2779 switched threads meanwhile.
2781 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
2783 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
2784 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
2785 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
2786 is now the default mode.
2790 set debug symbol-lookup
2791 show debug symbol-lookup
2792 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
2796 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
2797 inferiors that have exited.
2801 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
2805 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2807 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
2808 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
2809 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
2810 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
2811 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
2813 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2814 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2815 its alias "share", instead.
2817 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
2819 * New command line options
2822 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
2824 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
2825 as specified in ISO C99.
2827 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
2828 with or without disassembly.
2832 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
2833 available is determined at configure time.
2834 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
2835 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
2837 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2841 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
2845 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
2847 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
2848 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
2850 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
2851 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
2855 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
2856 show print symbol-loading
2857 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
2858 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
2859 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
2860 becomes less useful.
2862 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
2863 show guile print-stack
2864 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
2866 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
2867 show auto-load guile-scripts
2868 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
2870 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
2871 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
2872 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
2873 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
2874 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
2875 usage of this option.
2877 set auto-connect-native-target
2879 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
2880 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
2881 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
2883 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
2884 show record btrace replay-memory-access
2885 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
2887 maint set target-async (on|off)
2888 maint show target-async
2889 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
2890 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
2891 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
2892 occurring only in synchronous mode.
2894 set mi-async (on|off)
2896 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
2897 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
2899 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
2900 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
2902 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
2903 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
2904 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
2905 "set target-async on" command.
2907 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2909 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
2910 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
2911 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
2912 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
2913 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
2915 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
2916 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
2917 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
2919 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
2920 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
2921 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
2922 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
2923 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
2924 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
2925 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
2927 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
2928 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
2930 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
2931 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
2932 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
2934 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
2935 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
2936 memory or registers.
2938 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
2940 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
2941 remote. It now works with all targets.
2943 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
2944 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
2945 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
2946 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
2947 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
2948 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
2949 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
2950 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
2951 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
2954 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
2955 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
2956 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
2958 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
2960 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
2961 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
2962 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
2964 * New remote packets
2966 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
2967 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
2968 branch trace incrementally.
2972 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
2973 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
2975 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
2976 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
2977 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
2978 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
2979 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
2982 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
2984 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2985 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2986 its alias "share", instead.
2988 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
2989 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
2994 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
2995 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
2996 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
2997 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
2998 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
2999 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
3000 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
3001 commands and CLI execution commands.
3003 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
3005 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
3006 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
3007 recording has been added.
3009 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
3011 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
3012 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
3014 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
3015 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
3016 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
3017 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
3018 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
3019 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
3022 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
3024 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
3026 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
3027 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
3028 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
3029 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
3034 (gdb) info registers rax
3037 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
3038 "*value not available*".
3040 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
3045 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
3046 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
3047 ** Line tables representation has been added.
3048 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
3049 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
3050 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
3054 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
3055 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
3056 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
3058 * Removed native configurations
3060 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
3061 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
3063 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3064 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3065 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
3066 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
3067 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3068 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3069 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
3073 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
3074 maint check-psymtabs
3075 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
3077 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
3078 maint expand-symtabs
3079 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
3082 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
3084 maint set|show per-command
3085 maint set|show per-command space
3086 maint set|show per-command time
3087 maint set|show per-command symtab
3088 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
3090 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
3091 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
3092 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
3093 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
3094 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
3097 info exceptions REGEXP
3098 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
3099 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
3104 set debug symfile off|on
3106 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
3107 symbol tables within those files
3109 set print raw frame-arguments
3110 show print raw frame-arguments
3111 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
3112 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
3114 set remote trace-status-packet
3115 show remote trace-status-packet
3116 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
3120 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
3124 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
3126 set startup-with-shell
3127 show startup-with-shell
3128 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
3133 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
3134 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
3136 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
3137 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
3138 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
3139 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
3142 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
3143 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
3144 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
3146 * New command-line options
3148 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
3150 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
3151 buffer in Common Trace Format.
3153 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
3156 * GDB now implements the C++ 'typeid' operator.
3158 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
3159 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
3161 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
3162 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
3164 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
3165 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
3166 due to an uncaught signal.
3170 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
3171 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
3172 command, which should contain "language-option".
3174 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
3175 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
3177 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
3178 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
3179 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
3180 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
3181 "undefined-command-error-code".
3183 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
3186 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
3188 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
3189 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
3192 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
3193 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
3195 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
3196 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
3197 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
3199 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
3200 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
3201 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
3202 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
3203 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
3204 "exec-run-start-option".
3206 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
3207 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
3209 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
3210 the new "info exceptions" command.
3212 * New system-wide configuration scripts
3213 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
3214 configuration scripts for the following systems:
3218 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
3219 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
3220 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
3223 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
3224 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
3226 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
3227 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
3228 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
3230 * New remote packets
3234 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
3235 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
3236 involvemement at each single-step.
3238 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
3239 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
3240 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
3241 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
3242 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
3243 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
3246 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3248 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
3249 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
3251 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
3252 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
3253 trace state variables.
3255 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
3258 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
3259 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
3261 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
3263 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
3264 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
3265 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
3266 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3268 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
3270 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
3271 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
3272 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
3273 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
3275 set|show record full insn-number-max
3276 set|show record full stop-at-limit
3277 set|show record full memory-query
3279 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
3280 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
3281 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
3282 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
3283 This new recording method can be enabled using:
3287 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
3288 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
3290 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
3291 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
3292 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
3294 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
3295 instruction granularity
3297 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
3298 function granularity
3300 * New native configurations
3302 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
3303 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
3304 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
3305 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
3309 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
3310 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
3311 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
3312 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
3313 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
3315 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
3316 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
3317 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
3318 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
3319 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
3320 --data-directory command-line option.
3322 * New command line options:
3324 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
3325 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
3327 * Removed command line options
3329 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
3332 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
3335 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
3339 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
3341 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
3343 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
3345 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
3347 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
3348 of architecture in the Python API.
3350 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
3351 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
3353 * New Python-based convenience functions:
3355 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
3356 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
3358 ** $_regex(str, regex)
3360 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
3363 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
3364 default for GCC since November 2000.
3366 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
3368 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
3369 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
3371 * New configure options
3373 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
3374 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
3375 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
3376 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
3377 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
3378 options allow the user to override that default.
3379 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
3380 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
3381 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
3383 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3386 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
3387 conditions to be attached.
3390 List the BFDs known to GDB.
3392 python-interactive [command]
3394 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
3395 and print the result of expressions.
3398 "py" is a new alias for "python".
3400 enable type-printer [name]...
3401 disable type-printer [name]...
3402 Enable or disable type printers.
3406 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
3407 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
3412 set print type methods (on|off)
3413 show print type methods
3414 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
3415 The default is to show them.
3417 set print type typedefs (on|off)
3418 show print type typedefs
3419 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
3420 The default is to show them.
3422 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
3423 show filename-display
3424 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
3425 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
3427 set trace-buffer-size
3428 show trace-buffer-size
3429 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
3431 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
3432 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
3433 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
3437 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
3440 set debug coff-pe-read
3441 show debug coff-pe-read
3442 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
3447 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
3450 set debug notification
3451 show debug notification
3452 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
3456 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
3457 "=cmd-param-changed".
3458 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
3459 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
3460 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
3461 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
3462 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
3463 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
3464 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
3465 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
3467 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
3468 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
3469 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
3470 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
3471 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
3472 library load/unload events.
3473 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
3474 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
3475 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
3476 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
3477 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
3478 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
3479 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
3480 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
3482 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
3483 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
3484 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
3485 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
3487 * New remote packets
3490 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
3491 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3494 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
3495 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
3499 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
3500 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3503 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
3504 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
3506 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
3508 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
3509 for more x32 ABI info.
3511 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
3513 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
3515 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
3516 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
3517 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
3518 "info os files" lists file descriptors
3519 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
3520 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
3521 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
3522 "info os msg" lists message queues
3523 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
3525 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
3526 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
3527 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
3528 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
3529 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
3530 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
3532 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
3533 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
3534 record/replay support.
3536 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
3540 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
3543 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
3545 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
3546 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
3548 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
3550 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
3551 the source at which the symbol was defined.
3553 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
3554 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
3555 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
3558 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
3559 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
3561 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
3562 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
3563 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
3565 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
3566 object associated with a PC value.
3568 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
3569 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
3571 * Go language support.
3572 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
3575 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
3576 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
3578 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
3579 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
3581 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
3582 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
3583 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
3584 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
3585 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
3588 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
3589 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
3590 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
3591 build/libcpp/expr.c.
3593 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
3594 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
3596 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
3597 since December 2007.
3599 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
3600 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
3601 command does. For instance:
3603 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
3605 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
3606 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
3607 created, using the "condition" command.
3609 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
3610 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
3612 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
3614 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
3615 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
3616 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
3617 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
3618 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
3619 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
3620 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
3621 files with older .gdb_index sections.
3623 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
3624 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
3625 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
3626 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
3627 the .gdb_index section.
3629 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
3631 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
3636 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
3638 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
3642 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
3643 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
3644 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
3646 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
3647 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
3649 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
3652 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
3653 C++ and Java objects.
3655 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
3656 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
3657 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
3658 configured with '--with-python'.
3660 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
3661 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
3662 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
3663 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
3664 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
3665 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
3666 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
3668 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
3669 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
3670 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
3671 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
3673 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
3674 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
3675 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
3676 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
3678 ** "set print symbol"
3680 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
3681 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
3682 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
3684 * Deprecated commands
3686 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
3687 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
3691 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3692 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
3694 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
3695 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
3696 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
3697 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
3702 set mips compression
3703 show mips compression
3704 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
3705 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
3708 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
3710 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
3711 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
3712 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
3713 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
3715 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
3719 Disable auto-loading globally.
3722 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
3724 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
3725 show auto-load gdb-scripts
3726 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
3728 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
3729 show auto-load python-scripts
3730 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
3732 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
3733 show auto-load local-gdbinit
3734 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
3736 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
3737 show auto-load libthread-db
3738 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
3740 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3741 show auto-load scripts-directory
3742 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
3743 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
3744 of the directories listed by this option.
3745 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3747 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3748 show auto-load safe-path
3749 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
3750 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3752 set debug auto-load on|off
3753 show debug auto-load
3754 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
3756 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
3758 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
3759 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
3760 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
3761 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
3763 set dprintf-function <expr>
3764 show dprintf-function
3765 set dprintf-channel <expr>
3766 show dprintf-channel
3767 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
3768 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
3770 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
3771 show disconnected-dprintf
3772 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
3773 after GDB disconnects.
3775 * New configure options
3777 --with-auto-load-dir
3778 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
3779 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
3780 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
3781 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
3782 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
3784 --with-auto-load-safe-path
3785 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
3786 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
3788 --without-auto-load-safe-path
3789 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
3792 * New remote packets
3794 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
3796 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
3797 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
3798 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
3799 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
3803 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
3804 program without GDB involvement.
3806 * New command line options
3808 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
3809 before loading inferior.
3810 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
3811 execute it before loading inferior.
3813 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
3815 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
3816 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
3817 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
3818 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
3821 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
3822 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
3824 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
3825 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
3826 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
3827 target hardware watchpoint.
3829 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
3830 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
3831 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
3832 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
3836 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
3837 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
3840 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
3841 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
3842 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
3843 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
3844 now "message", which just prints the error message without
3847 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3850 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
3851 modules library. This module provides functionality for
3852 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
3853 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
3854 corresponding value.
3856 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
3857 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
3858 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
3861 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
3862 static_block will return the global and static blocks
3863 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
3864 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
3866 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
3868 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
3871 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
3872 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
3873 available in the CLI.
3875 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
3876 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
3877 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
3878 "some_type.items()".
3880 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
3883 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
3884 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
3885 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
3886 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
3887 any anonymous fields.
3891 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
3894 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
3895 "=breakpoint-modified".
3897 ** New command -ada-task-info.
3899 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
3900 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
3901 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
3904 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
3905 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
3906 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
3907 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
3908 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
3910 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
3911 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
3913 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
3914 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
3915 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
3916 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
3917 use this option to specify where to find it.
3919 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3920 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
3921 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
3922 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
3923 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
3924 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3925 section in the user manual for more details.
3927 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
3928 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
3929 become available after that.
3931 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
3933 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
3934 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
3940 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
3941 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
3945 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
3946 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
3947 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
3949 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
3950 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
3951 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
3953 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
3954 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
3955 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
3956 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
3957 name starts with a hyphen.
3959 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
3960 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
3961 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
3962 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
3963 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
3964 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
3965 number of bytes that will be collected.
3968 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
3969 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
3970 setting the variable trace-notes.
3973 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
3974 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
3975 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
3978 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
3979 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
3980 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
3981 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
3982 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
3985 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
3986 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
3987 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
3991 set debug dwarf2-read
3992 show debug dwarf2-read
3993 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
3994 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
3996 set debug symtab-create
3997 show debug symtab-create
3998 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
3999 creation. The default is off.
4002 show extended-prompt
4003 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
4004 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
4005 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
4006 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
4007 prompt is displayed.
4009 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
4010 show print entry-values
4011 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
4012 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
4013 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
4015 set debug entry-values
4016 show debug entry-values
4017 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
4018 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
4020 set basenames-may-differ
4021 show basenames-may-differ
4022 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
4023 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
4024 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
4025 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
4026 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
4027 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
4028 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
4029 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
4035 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
4036 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
4037 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
4038 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
4040 set trace-stop-notes
4041 show trace-stop-notes
4042 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
4043 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
4044 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
4045 started by someone else.
4047 * New remote packets
4051 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
4055 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
4059 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
4063 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
4067 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
4070 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
4071 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
4075 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
4079 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
4081 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
4083 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
4085 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
4087 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
4088 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
4089 matches the given regular expression.
4091 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
4093 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
4094 dumping the instruction opcodes.
4096 * New command line options
4098 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
4099 This is mostly for testing purposes.
4101 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
4102 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
4104 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
4105 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
4106 source path list instead of augmenting it.
4108 * GDB now understands thread names.
4110 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
4111 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
4113 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
4114 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
4117 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
4118 has been integrated into GDB.
4122 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
4123 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
4124 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
4126 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
4127 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
4128 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
4129 and allows for more dynamic content.
4131 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
4132 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
4133 have an is_valid method.
4135 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
4136 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
4137 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
4139 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
4141 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
4142 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
4143 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
4144 that function like so:
4146 result = some_value (10,20)
4148 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
4149 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
4150 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
4152 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
4153 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
4154 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
4155 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
4156 New function: register_pretty_printer.
4158 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
4159 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
4161 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
4163 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
4166 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
4167 holds the thread's name.
4169 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
4170 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
4171 occurring in the process being debugged.
4172 The following events are currently supported:
4173 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
4174 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
4175 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
4179 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
4180 instantiation. For example, if you have:
4182 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
4184 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
4185 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
4186 was added to GCC 4.5.
4188 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
4189 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
4190 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
4191 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
4192 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
4193 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
4195 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
4196 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
4197 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
4198 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
4199 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
4201 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
4202 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
4203 execution to a label.
4205 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
4206 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
4207 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
4208 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
4210 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
4211 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
4212 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
4215 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
4217 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
4218 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
4219 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
4220 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
4221 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
4222 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
4225 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
4227 While now you see this:
4230 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
4232 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
4235 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
4236 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
4237 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
4238 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
4240 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
4241 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
4242 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
4243 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
4244 section in the user manual for more details.
4246 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
4248 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
4249 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
4251 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
4253 * New native configurations
4255 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
4259 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
4261 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
4262 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
4263 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
4264 in the GDB user manual.
4266 * Guile support was removed.
4268 * New features in the GNU simulator
4270 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
4272 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
4274 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
4276 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
4278 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
4279 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
4280 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
4281 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
4282 was always disabled for such configurations.
4286 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
4288 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
4289 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
4299 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
4300 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
4301 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
4303 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
4305 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
4306 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
4307 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
4308 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
4310 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
4311 mentioned flavors of operators.
4313 ** static const class members
4315 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
4316 class definition has been fixed.
4318 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
4320 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
4321 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
4322 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
4323 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
4324 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
4325 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
4327 * Static tracepoints
4329 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
4330 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
4331 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
4332 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
4333 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
4334 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
4335 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
4336 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
4337 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
4338 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
4339 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
4340 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
4341 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
4342 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
4343 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
4344 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
4345 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
4346 the "New remote packets" section below.
4348 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
4350 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
4351 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
4352 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
4353 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
4357 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
4358 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
4359 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
4360 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
4361 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
4362 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
4363 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
4365 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
4368 * New remote packets
4372 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
4376 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
4377 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
4378 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
4379 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
4380 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
4381 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
4385 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
4389 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
4392 qXfer:statictrace:read
4394 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
4395 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
4396 to gdb's qSupported query.
4400 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
4404 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
4405 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
4407 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
4408 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
4411 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
4413 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
4414 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
4415 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
4416 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
4418 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
4419 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
4420 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
4421 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
4422 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
4423 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
4424 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
4426 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
4427 for static tracepoints support.
4429 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
4431 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
4432 it understands register description.
4434 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
4436 * X86 general purpose registers
4438 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
4439 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
4440 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
4441 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
4442 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
4444 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
4445 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
4446 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
4447 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
4448 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
4449 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
4451 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
4452 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
4453 in the specified file.
4455 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
4456 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
4457 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
4458 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
4459 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
4460 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
4461 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
4462 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
4463 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
4464 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
4468 eval template, expressions...
4469 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
4470 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
4472 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
4473 show target-file-system-kind
4474 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
4477 save breakpoints <filename>
4478 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
4479 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
4480 definitions, use the `source' command.
4482 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
4485 info static-tracepoint-markers
4486 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
4488 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
4489 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
4490 function, line, address, or marker ID.
4494 Enable and disable observer mode.
4496 set may-write-registers on|off
4497 set may-write-memory on|off
4498 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
4499 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
4500 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
4501 set may-interrupt on|off
4502 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
4503 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
4504 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
4505 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
4506 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
4507 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
4508 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
4510 set record memory-query on|off
4511 show record memory-query
4512 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
4513 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
4518 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
4522 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
4523 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
4524 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
4525 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
4526 GDB using Python' in the manual.
4528 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
4529 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
4530 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
4531 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
4533 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
4534 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
4536 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
4538 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
4540 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
4542 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
4543 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
4544 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
4546 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
4547 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
4548 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
4549 regular breakpoints.
4553 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
4555 * D language support.
4556 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
4559 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
4560 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
4561 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
4562 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
4563 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
4565 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
4566 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
4567 conditions of the form:
4569 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
4571 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
4572 interface mentioned above.
4574 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
4578 ** Namespace Support
4580 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
4581 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
4582 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
4583 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
4584 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
4588 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
4589 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
4594 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
4595 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
4599 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
4604 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
4607 * Multi-program debugging.
4609 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
4610 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
4611 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
4612 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
4613 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
4614 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
4615 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
4616 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
4618 * New tracing features
4620 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
4622 ** Trace state variables
4624 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
4625 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
4626 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
4627 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
4628 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
4629 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
4630 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
4631 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
4632 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
4633 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
4637 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
4638 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
4639 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
4640 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
4641 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
4642 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
4643 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
4644 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
4645 the regular trace command.
4647 ** Disconnected tracing
4649 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
4650 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
4651 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
4652 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
4653 connection is lost unexpectedly.
4657 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
4658 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
4659 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
4660 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
4661 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
4662 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
4665 ** Circular trace buffer
4667 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
4668 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
4669 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
4670 not be available for all target agents.
4675 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
4676 the arguments to be comma-separated.
4679 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
4680 which only declare a variable are not shown.
4683 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
4684 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
4687 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
4688 "set script-extension" (see below).
4690 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4692 record save [<FILENAME>]
4693 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
4694 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
4696 record restore <FILENAME>
4697 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
4698 earlier time, for replay debugging.
4700 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
4703 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
4704 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
4705 inferior has loaded.
4710 maint info program-spaces
4711 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
4713 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
4714 show remote interrupt-sequence
4715 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
4716 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
4717 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
4718 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
4719 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
4721 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
4722 show remote interrupt-on-connect
4723 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
4724 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
4727 set remotebreak [on | off]
4729 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
4731 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
4732 Create or modify a trace state variable.
4735 List trace state variables and their values.
4737 delete tvariable $NAME ...
4738 Delete one or more trace state variables.
4741 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
4742 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
4744 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
4745 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
4747 * New expression syntax
4749 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
4750 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
4754 set follow-exec-mode new|same
4755 show follow-exec-mode
4756 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
4757 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
4758 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
4760 set default-collect EXPR, ...
4761 show default-collect
4762 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
4763 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
4764 such as registers or a critical global variable.
4766 set disconnected-tracing
4767 show disconnected-tracing
4768 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
4769 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
4772 set circular-trace-buffer
4773 show circular-trace-buffer
4774 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
4775 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
4776 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
4777 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
4779 set script-extension off|soft|strict
4780 show script-extension
4781 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
4782 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
4783 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
4784 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
4786 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
4788 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
4789 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
4790 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
4791 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
4792 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
4793 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
4794 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
4797 * Python API Improvements
4799 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
4800 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
4801 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
4803 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
4804 `is_base_class' attribute.
4806 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
4808 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
4809 evaluate an expression.
4811 * New remote packets
4814 Define a trace state variable.
4817 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
4820 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
4823 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
4826 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
4830 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
4832 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
4833 much more reliable. In particular:
4834 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
4835 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
4836 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
4837 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
4838 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
4839 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
4840 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
4841 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
4842 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
4843 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
4844 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
4845 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
4846 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
4847 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
4848 non-threaded programs.
4850 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
4851 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
4852 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
4855 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
4857 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
4858 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
4859 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
4860 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
4861 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
4863 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
4864 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
4865 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
4866 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
4867 for tracepoint actions.
4869 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
4870 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
4871 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
4873 * Process record and replay
4875 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
4876 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
4877 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
4880 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
4881 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
4882 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
4885 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
4886 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
4889 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
4890 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
4891 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
4892 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
4893 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
4894 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
4895 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
4896 the installation instructions for more information.
4898 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
4899 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
4900 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
4901 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
4903 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
4904 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
4906 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
4907 now complete on file names.
4909 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
4910 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
4911 For instance, consider:
4913 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
4914 # struct example variable;
4917 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
4918 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
4920 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
4921 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
4923 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
4924 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
4927 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
4928 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
4929 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
4931 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
4932 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
4933 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
4934 and simulator targets may also provide them.
4936 * New remote packets
4939 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4942 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
4943 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
4944 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
4947 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
4948 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
4951 Obtains additional operating system information
4955 Read or write additional signal information.
4957 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
4959 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
4960 packet that permitted the stub to pass a process id was removed.
4961 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
4963 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
4964 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
4966 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
4967 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
4968 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
4970 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
4971 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
4973 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
4975 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
4977 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
4978 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
4980 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote protocol packet now allows passing a
4981 list of section offsets.
4983 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
4984 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
4985 have also been fixed.
4987 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
4988 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
4989 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
4991 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
4994 template<typename T> class C { };
4997 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
4999 ptype C<char const *>
5000 ptype C<char const*>
5001 ptype C<const char *>
5002 ptype C<const char*>
5004 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
5006 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
5007 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
5009 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
5010 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
5011 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
5013 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
5014 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
5016 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
5019 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
5020 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
5022 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
5023 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
5028 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
5029 available is determined at configure time.
5031 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
5033 * Ada tasking support
5035 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
5039 Print the list of Ada tasks.
5041 Print detailed information about task number N.
5043 Print the task number of the current task.
5045 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
5047 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
5048 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
5050 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
5052 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
5053 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
5054 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
5055 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
5056 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
5057 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
5060 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
5061 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
5064 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
5065 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
5066 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
5067 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
5070 * Multi-architecture debugging.
5072 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
5073 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
5074 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
5075 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
5076 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
5078 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
5079 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
5080 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
5081 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
5082 --enable-targets configure option.
5084 * Non-stop mode debugging.
5086 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
5087 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
5088 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
5089 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
5090 section in the user manual for more information.
5092 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
5093 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
5094 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
5095 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
5096 extensions on linux targets.
5098 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
5100 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
5101 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
5102 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
5103 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
5104 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
5105 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
5106 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
5107 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
5108 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
5110 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
5112 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
5114 maint set python print-stack
5115 maint show python print-stack
5116 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
5119 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
5124 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
5128 Show operating system information about processes.
5131 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
5134 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
5137 Detach from inferior number NUM.
5140 Kill inferior number NUM.
5144 set spu stop-on-load
5145 show spu stop-on-load
5146 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
5148 set spu auto-flush-cache
5149 show spu auto-flush-cache
5150 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
5151 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
5153 set sh calling-convention
5154 show sh calling-convention
5155 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
5158 show debug timestamp
5159 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
5161 set disassemble-next-line
5162 show disassemble-next-line
5163 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
5166 set remote noack-packet
5167 show remote noack-packet
5168 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
5169 under "New remote packets."
5171 set remote query-attached-packet
5172 show remote query-attached-packet
5173 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
5175 set remote read-siginfo-object
5176 show remote read-siginfo-object
5177 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
5180 set remote write-siginfo-object
5181 show remote write-siginfo-object
5182 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
5185 set remote reverse-continue
5186 show remote reverse-continue
5187 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
5189 set remote reverse-step
5190 show remote reverse-step
5191 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
5193 set displaced-stepping
5194 show displaced-stepping
5195 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
5196 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
5197 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
5200 show debug displaced
5201 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
5203 maint set internal-error
5204 maint show internal-error
5205 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
5207 maint set internal-warning
5208 maint show internal-warning
5209 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
5214 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
5216 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
5217 show multiple-symbols
5218 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
5219 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
5220 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
5222 set breakpoint always-inserted
5223 show breakpoint always-inserted
5224 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
5225 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
5226 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
5228 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
5229 show arm fallback-mode
5230 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
5232 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
5233 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
5234 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
5235 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
5237 set arm unwind-secure-frames
5238 Enable unwinding from Non-secure to Secure mode on Cortex-M with
5240 This can trigger security exceptions when unwinding exception stacks.
5242 set disable-randomization
5243 show disable-randomization
5244 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
5245 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
5246 multiple debugging sessions.
5250 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
5255 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
5256 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
5257 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
5258 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
5260 set target-wide-charset
5261 show target-wide-charset
5262 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
5263 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
5265 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
5267 set tcp connect-timeout
5268 show tcp connect-timeout
5269 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
5270 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
5271 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
5273 set libthread-db-search-path
5274 show libthread-db-search-path
5275 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
5278 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
5279 show schedule-multiple
5280 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
5281 the current process.
5285 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
5286 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
5287 affecting correctness.
5289 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
5290 show interactive-mode
5291 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
5292 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
5293 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
5294 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
5295 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
5300 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
5301 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
5302 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
5306 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
5307 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
5308 alias for the `fork' command.
5311 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
5312 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
5313 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
5316 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
5317 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
5318 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
5322 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
5323 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
5324 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
5327 * New native configurations
5329 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
5331 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
5335 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
5336 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
5337 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5340 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
5341 (mingw32ce) debugging.
5347 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
5349 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
5351 * New native configurations
5353 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
5354 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
5358 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
5359 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
5361 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5363 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
5364 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
5365 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
5366 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
5368 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
5369 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
5371 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
5374 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
5375 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
5376 and in inlined functions.
5378 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
5379 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
5380 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
5382 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
5384 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
5385 registers on PowerPC targets.
5387 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
5388 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
5390 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
5391 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
5393 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
5394 extended-remote mode.
5396 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
5397 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
5398 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
5399 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
5401 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
5402 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
5403 target architectures.
5405 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
5406 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
5407 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
5408 stored in two consecutive float registers.
5410 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
5413 * Improved support for debugging Ada
5414 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
5416 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
5417 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
5418 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
5419 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
5421 - Improved command completion in Ada
5424 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
5429 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
5430 show print frame-arguments
5431 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
5432 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
5437 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
5444 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
5446 * New remote packets
5453 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
5456 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
5460 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
5462 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
5464 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
5465 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
5466 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
5468 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
5469 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
5470 -Bsymbolic linker option.
5472 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
5473 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
5476 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
5477 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
5479 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
5480 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
5482 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
5484 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
5485 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
5486 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
5488 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
5489 automatically displayed as character or string data.
5491 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
5492 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
5495 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
5496 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
5497 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
5499 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
5502 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
5503 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
5504 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
5506 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
5508 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
5510 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
5511 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
5512 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
5514 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
5515 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
5517 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
5518 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
5519 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
5520 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
5521 Windows and SymbianOS).
5523 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
5524 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
5526 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
5527 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
5533 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
5534 when debugging using remote targets.
5536 set mem inaccessible-by-default
5537 show mem inaccessible-by-default
5538 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
5539 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
5540 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
5541 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
5542 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
5544 set breakpoint auto-hw
5545 show breakpoint auto-hw
5546 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
5547 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
5548 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
5549 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
5550 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
5551 including "next" and "finish".
5554 catch exception unhandled
5555 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
5558 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
5562 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
5563 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
5564 an alias to "set sysroot".
5567 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
5568 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
5571 * New native configurations
5573 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
5576 unset tdesc filename
5578 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
5579 not query the target for its built-in description.
5583 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
5584 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
5585 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
5587 * New remote packets
5590 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
5591 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
5593 qXfer:features:read:
5594 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
5599 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
5600 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
5602 qXfer:libraries:read:
5603 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
5604 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
5605 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
5606 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
5610 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
5618 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
5619 i[34567]86-*-netware*
5620 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
5621 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
5623 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
5626 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
5627 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
5636 * Other removed features
5643 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
5650 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
5655 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
5656 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
5661 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
5662 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
5664 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
5666 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
5667 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
5668 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
5669 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
5671 MIPS ".pdr" sections
5673 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
5674 in debugging information.
5678 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
5679 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
5681 set mips stack-arg-size
5682 set mips saved-gpreg-size
5684 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
5686 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
5691 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
5693 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
5694 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
5695 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
5697 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
5698 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
5701 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
5702 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
5704 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
5705 stub provides the required support.
5707 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
5708 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
5713 unset substitute-path
5714 show substitute-path
5715 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
5716 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
5717 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
5718 between compilation and debugging.
5722 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
5723 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
5724 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
5728 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
5730 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
5731 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
5733 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
5735 * New remote packets
5738 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
5739 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
5740 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
5741 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
5745 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
5746 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
5748 qXfer:memory-map:read:
5749 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
5750 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
5755 Erase and program a flash memory device.
5757 * Removed remote packets
5760 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
5761 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
5763 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
5767 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
5769 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5773 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
5774 only if it doesn't already have a value.
5776 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
5778 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
5780 restart <n> Return the program state to a
5781 previously saved state.
5783 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
5785 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
5787 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
5788 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
5790 info forks List forks of the user program that
5791 are available to be debugged.
5793 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
5794 forks of the user program that are
5795 available to be debugged.
5797 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5798 that are available to be debugged (and
5799 kill the forked process).
5801 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5802 that are available to be debugged (and
5803 allow the process to continue).
5807 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
5809 * Improved Windows host support
5811 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
5812 native console support, and remote communications using either
5813 network sockets or serial ports.
5815 * Improved Modula-2 language support
5817 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
5818 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
5819 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
5820 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
5821 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
5822 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
5826 The ARM rdi-share module.
5828 The Netware NLM debug server.
5830 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
5832 * New native configurations
5834 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
5835 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
5839 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5841 * New command line options
5843 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
5844 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
5845 the child (debugged) program exited with.
5846 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
5847 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
5848 specified multiple times and in conjunction
5849 with the --command (-x) option.
5851 * Deprecated commands removed
5853 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
5857 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
5858 othernames set arm disassembler
5859 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
5860 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
5861 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
5864 * New BSD user-level threads support
5866 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
5867 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
5870 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5871 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
5872 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
5874 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
5875 are not yet supported.
5877 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
5878 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
5880 * REMOVED configurations and files
5882 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
5883 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5884 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
5886 * New "set print array-indexes" command
5888 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
5889 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
5892 * VAX floating point support
5894 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
5896 * User-defined command support
5898 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
5899 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
5900 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
5902 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
5904 * New command line option
5906 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
5909 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
5911 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
5912 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
5913 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
5914 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
5915 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
5917 * Internationalization
5919 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
5920 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
5921 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
5925 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
5926 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
5927 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
5929 * New native configurations
5931 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
5935 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
5936 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
5938 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
5940 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5941 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
5942 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
5945 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the registers[]
5946 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
5947 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
5957 powerpc bdm protocol
5959 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5960 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
5962 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5964 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5965 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5966 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5967 permanently REMOVED.
5976 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
5978 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
5980 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
5981 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
5984 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
5986 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
5987 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
5988 IRIX long double values).
5992 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
5993 command. This problem has been fixed.
5995 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
5997 * Fix for ``many threads''
5999 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
6000 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
6003 ptrace: No such process.
6004 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
6006 This problem has been fixed.
6008 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
6010 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
6013 * New ``start'' command.
6015 This command runs the program until the beginning of the main procedure.
6017 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
6019 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
6020 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
6021 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
6023 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
6024 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
6025 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
6026 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
6027 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
6028 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
6029 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
6030 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
6031 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
6033 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
6035 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
6036 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
6037 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
6038 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
6039 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
6041 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
6042 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
6043 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
6045 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
6047 * New native configurations
6049 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
6050 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
6051 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
6052 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
6053 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6054 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
6055 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6057 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
6059 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
6060 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
6061 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
6062 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
6063 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
6064 work, was also included.
6066 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
6067 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
6077 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
6078 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
6080 * REMOVED configurations and files
6082 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
6083 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
6084 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
6085 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
6086 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
6087 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
6088 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
6089 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
6090 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
6091 sonymips mips-sony-*
6092 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
6094 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
6096 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
6098 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
6099 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
6100 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
6101 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
6104 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
6106 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
6107 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
6108 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
6109 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
6110 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
6111 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
6114 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
6116 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
6118 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
6119 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
6120 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
6122 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
6124 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
6125 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
6127 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
6129 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
6130 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
6131 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
6133 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
6135 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
6136 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
6138 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
6140 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
6141 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
6142 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
6144 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
6146 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
6147 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
6148 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
6150 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
6152 * Removed --with-mmalloc
6154 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
6155 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
6157 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
6159 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
6160 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
6161 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
6162 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
6164 * Revised SPARC target
6166 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
6167 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
6168 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
6169 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
6170 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
6174 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
6175 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
6176 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
6179 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
6181 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
6182 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
6185 * C++ nested types and namespaces
6187 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
6188 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
6189 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
6190 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
6191 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
6192 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
6193 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
6194 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
6195 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
6197 * New native configurations
6199 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
6200 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
6201 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
6202 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
6203 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
6205 * New debugging protocols
6207 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
6209 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
6211 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
6212 and its very obscure effect on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
6213 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
6215 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6217 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6218 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6219 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6220 permanently REMOVED.
6222 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
6223 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
6224 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
6225 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
6226 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
6227 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
6228 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
6229 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
6230 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
6231 sonymips mips-sony-*
6232 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
6234 * REMOVED configurations and files
6236 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6237 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6238 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6239 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6240 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6241 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
6242 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6243 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
6244 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
6245 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
6246 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
6247 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
6248 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
6249 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
6250 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
6251 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6252 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6254 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
6258 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
6259 integrated into GDB.
6261 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
6263 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
6264 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
6265 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
6268 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
6269 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
6270 DWARF 2 CFI support.
6274 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
6275 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
6276 remote protocol documentation for details.
6278 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
6280 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
6281 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
6282 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
6285 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
6287 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
6288 per-thread variables.
6290 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
6292 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
6293 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
6295 * Separate debug info.
6297 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
6298 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
6299 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
6300 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
6301 and optional debug files.
6303 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
6305 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
6306 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
6309 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
6310 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
6314 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
6315 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
6316 considered "useable".
6318 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
6320 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
6321 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
6324 * GDB supports logging output to a file
6326 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
6327 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
6329 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
6331 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
6332 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
6335 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
6337 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
6338 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
6342 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
6343 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
6344 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
6345 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
6346 data, for more informative profiling results.
6348 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
6350 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
6351 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
6352 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
6354 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
6357 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
6358 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
6359 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
6360 in a subsequent -var-update.
6362 * New native configurations.
6364 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
6366 * Multi-arched targets.
6368 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
6369 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6371 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6373 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6374 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6375 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6376 permanently REMOVED.
6378 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6379 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6380 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6381 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
6382 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6383 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
6384 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
6385 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
6386 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
6387 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
6388 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6389 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6391 * REMOVED configurations and files
6394 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6395 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
6396 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
6397 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
6398 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
6399 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
6401 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
6402 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6403 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6404 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6405 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6406 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6408 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
6410 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
6411 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
6412 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
6413 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
6414 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
6416 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
6418 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
6420 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
6421 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
6422 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
6423 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
6424 shared libs like mad''.
6426 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6428 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
6429 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
6430 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
6431 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6433 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
6435 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
6436 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
6439 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
6440 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
6442 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
6443 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
6445 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
6446 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
6447 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
6448 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
6450 * Multi-arched targets.
6452 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
6453 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
6455 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
6456 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
6457 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
6461 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
6464 * New native configurations
6466 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
6467 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
6468 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
6469 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
6471 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6473 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6474 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6475 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6476 permanently REMOVED.
6478 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6479 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6480 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
6481 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6482 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6483 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6484 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
6485 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
6486 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
6487 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
6489 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
6490 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6492 * OBSOLETE languages
6494 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
6496 * REMOVED configurations and files
6498 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
6499 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6500 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6501 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6502 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6504 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
6506 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
6508 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
6509 commands. The default is 1024.
6511 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
6513 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
6515 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
6517 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
6518 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
6519 from a file into memory (restore).
6521 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
6523 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
6524 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
6525 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
6527 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
6535 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
6536 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
6537 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
6539 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
6540 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
6541 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
6543 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
6544 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
6545 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
6547 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
6548 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
6549 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
6551 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
6553 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
6555 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
6556 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
6557 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
6558 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
6559 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
6560 (notably embedded) targets.
6562 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
6564 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
6565 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
6566 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
6567 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
6569 * New command line option
6571 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
6573 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
6575 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
6576 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
6577 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
6578 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
6579 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
6580 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
6581 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
6582 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
6583 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
6584 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
6586 * Changes in ARM configurations.
6588 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
6589 configuration is fully multi-arch.
6591 * New native configurations
6593 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
6594 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
6595 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
6596 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
6600 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
6602 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6604 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6605 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6606 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6607 permanently REMOVED.
6609 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
6610 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6611 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6612 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6613 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6615 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
6617 * REMOVED configurations and files
6619 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6621 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6622 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6623 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
6624 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
6625 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
6626 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
6627 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
6628 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
6629 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
6630 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
6631 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
6633 * Changes to command line processing
6635 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
6636 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
6638 * Changes to key bindings
6640 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
6642 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
6644 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
6646 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
6649 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
6651 Numerous documentation fixes.
6653 Numerous testsuite fixes.
6655 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
6657 * New native configurations
6659 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
6660 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
6661 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
6662 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6663 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
6664 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
6668 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
6670 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
6672 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6674 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
6675 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
6676 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
6677 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
6678 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6680 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
6681 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6682 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6683 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
6684 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
6685 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
6686 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
6687 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
6689 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
6690 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
6692 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6693 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6694 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6695 permanently REMOVED.
6697 * REMOVED configurations and files
6699 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6700 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6702 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6706 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
6708 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
6709 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
6714 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
6716 * The MI enabled by default.
6718 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
6719 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
6720 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
6721 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
6722 which is now deprecated.
6724 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
6726 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
6727 main features are supported:
6729 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
6731 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
6734 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
6736 - a Pascal expression parser.
6738 However, some important features are not yet supported.
6740 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
6742 - there are some problems with boolean types;
6744 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
6745 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
6747 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
6749 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
6751 * Changes in completion.
6753 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
6754 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
6755 users expect at the shell prompt.
6757 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
6758 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
6759 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
6760 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
6761 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
6762 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
6763 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
6765 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
6767 * New platform-independent commands:
6769 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
6770 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
6771 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
6773 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
6775 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
6776 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
6777 many threads as your system allows you to have.
6779 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
6781 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
6782 multi-threaded programs though.
6784 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
6786 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
6788 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
6789 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
6792 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
6794 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
6795 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
6796 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
6797 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
6798 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
6801 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
6802 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
6803 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
6805 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
6807 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
6808 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
6810 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
6811 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
6814 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
6815 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
6816 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
6817 a given linear address.
6819 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
6820 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
6821 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
6823 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
6825 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
6827 * Changes in documentation.
6829 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
6830 Documentation License.
6832 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6835 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
6837 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6840 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
6841 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
6842 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
6844 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
6846 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
6847 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
6848 contents of this file.
6852 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
6854 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
6856 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
6858 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
6859 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
6860 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
6861 greater level of detail.
6863 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
6865 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
6866 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
6867 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
6870 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
6872 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
6873 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
6874 machines ``out of the box''.
6876 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
6877 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
6878 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
6879 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
6880 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
6882 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
6883 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
6884 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
6885 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
6886 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
6888 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
6889 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
6892 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
6895 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
6896 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
6897 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
6898 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
6900 * New native configurations
6902 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
6903 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6907 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
6908 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
6909 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
6910 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6912 * OBSOLETE configurations
6914 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6915 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6917 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6920 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6921 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6922 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6923 be permanently REMOVED.
6925 * Gould support removed
6927 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
6929 * New features for SVR4
6931 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
6932 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
6933 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
6935 * Many C++ enhancements
6937 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
6938 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
6940 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
6942 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
6943 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
6944 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
6945 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
6947 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
6948 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
6950 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
6952 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
6953 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
6954 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
6956 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
6957 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
6959 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
6961 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
6962 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
6963 include ``set remote P-packet''.
6965 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
6967 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
6968 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
6969 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
6971 * ``apropos'' command added.
6973 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
6974 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
6975 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
6979 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
6980 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
6981 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
6982 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
6983 enabled by configuring with:
6985 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
6987 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
6989 * New native configurations
6991 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
6992 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
6993 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
6997 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6998 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
6999 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
7001 * OBSOLETE configurations
7003 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
7005 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
7006 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
7007 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
7008 be permanently REMOVED.
7012 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
7013 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
7014 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
7015 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
7016 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
7017 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
7018 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
7023 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
7025 * set extension-language
7027 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
7028 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
7029 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
7030 set extension-language .c c++
7031 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
7032 and their associated languages.
7034 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
7036 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
7037 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
7038 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
7042 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
7043 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
7045 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
7046 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
7048 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
7049 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
7050 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
7051 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
7052 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
7053 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
7054 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
7055 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
7057 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
7058 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
7059 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
7060 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
7064 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
7065 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
7066 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
7067 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
7068 for xdb and dbx commands.
7072 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
7073 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
7074 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
7076 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
7077 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
7078 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
7080 * Debugging across forks
7082 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
7087 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
7088 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
7089 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
7091 * GDB remote protocol additions
7093 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
7094 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
7095 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
7096 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
7098 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
7099 full 64-bit address. The command
7101 set remoteaddresssize 32
7103 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
7104 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
7107 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
7108 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
7110 maint packet heythere
7112 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
7113 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
7116 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
7117 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
7118 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
7120 * Tracing can collect general expressions
7122 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
7123 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
7124 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
7126 * mask-address variable for Mips
7128 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
7129 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
7130 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
7132 * Higher serial baud rates
7134 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
7135 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
7136 to achieve all of these rates.)
7140 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
7141 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
7144 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
7146 * New native configurations
7148 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
7149 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
7150 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
7151 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
7152 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
7153 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
7154 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
7158 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
7159 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
7160 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
7161 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
7162 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
7163 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
7164 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
7165 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
7166 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
7167 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7168 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
7170 * New debugging protocols
7172 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
7173 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
7174 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
7175 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
7176 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
7177 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
7181 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
7182 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
7187 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
7188 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
7190 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
7192 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
7193 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
7194 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
7196 * Live range splitting
7198 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
7199 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
7200 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
7204 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
7205 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
7209 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
7210 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
7211 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
7216 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
7221 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
7222 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
7223 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
7224 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
7225 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
7226 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
7230 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
7231 the symbol at the specified address.
7235 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
7236 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
7237 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
7238 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
7239 file tracepoint.c for more details.
7243 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
7244 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
7245 of most MIPS variants.
7249 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
7250 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
7251 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
7255 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
7256 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
7257 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
7258 the possible architectures.
7260 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
7262 * New native configurations
7264 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
7265 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
7266 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
7267 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
7268 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
7269 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
7273 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
7274 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
7275 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
7276 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
7277 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
7279 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
7283 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
7284 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
7285 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
7286 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
7287 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
7291 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
7293 * Windows 95/NT native
7295 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
7296 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
7297 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
7298 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
7299 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
7301 * dont-repeat command
7303 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
7304 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
7305 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
7306 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
7308 * Send break instead of ^C
7310 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
7311 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
7312 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
7314 * Remote protocol timeout
7316 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
7317 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
7318 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
7320 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
7322 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
7323 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
7324 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
7325 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
7326 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
7328 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
7329 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
7330 automatically on hpux10.
7332 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
7334 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
7336 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
7338 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
7339 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
7340 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
7341 every character. The default value is 1050.
7343 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
7345 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
7346 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
7347 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
7348 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
7349 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
7350 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
7352 * Speedups for remote debugging
7354 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
7355 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
7356 and more efficient S-record downloading.
7358 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
7360 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
7361 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
7363 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
7365 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
7367 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
7368 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
7370 * Remote targets use caching
7372 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
7373 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
7374 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
7375 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
7376 off' turns the data cache off.
7378 * Remote targets may have threads
7380 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
7381 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
7382 gdb/remote.c for details.
7386 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
7387 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
7388 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
7389 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
7390 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
7391 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
7392 sequence is something like
7394 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
7396 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
7400 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
7401 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
7402 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
7403 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
7404 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
7405 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
7406 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
7407 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
7411 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
7412 but does simplify configuration and building.
7416 GDB now supports hpux10.
7418 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
7420 * New native configurations
7422 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
7423 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
7424 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
7425 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
7429 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
7430 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
7431 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
7432 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
7435 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
7437 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
7438 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
7439 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
7440 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
7441 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
7443 * Arguments to user-defined commands
7445 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
7446 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
7449 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
7451 To execute the command use:
7454 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
7455 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
7456 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
7458 * New `if' and `while' commands
7460 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
7461 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
7462 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
7463 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
7464 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
7465 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
7466 if the expression is zero.
7468 * Fortran source language mode
7470 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
7471 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
7472 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
7473 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
7476 * Better HPUX support
7478 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
7479 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
7480 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
7481 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
7482 that behavior do the following before running the program:
7488 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
7489 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
7495 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
7496 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
7499 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
7500 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
7502 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
7504 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
7505 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
7506 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
7507 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
7508 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
7509 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
7511 * New DOS host serial code
7513 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
7514 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
7517 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
7519 * New "complete" command
7521 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
7522 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
7524 * Trailing space optional in prompt
7526 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
7527 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
7529 * Breakpoint hit counts
7531 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
7532 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
7533 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
7534 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
7535 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
7538 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
7540 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
7541 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
7542 arrays actually contain only short strings.
7544 * Shared library breakpoints
7546 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
7547 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
7549 * Hardware watchpoints
7551 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
7552 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
7554 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
7558 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
7559 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
7561 * Improved Irix 5 support
7563 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
7565 * Improved HPPA support
7567 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
7569 * New native configurations
7571 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
7572 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
7573 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
7574 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
7578 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
7579 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
7582 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
7584 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
7585 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
7589 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
7590 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
7592 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
7594 * Irix 5 is now supported
7598 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
7599 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
7600 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
7601 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
7602 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
7605 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
7607 * User visible changes:
7611 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
7612 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
7613 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
7614 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
7615 debugging info for the mips target).
7617 * DEC Alpha native support
7619 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
7620 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
7621 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
7622 Alpha-specific notes.
7624 * Preliminary thread implementation
7626 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
7628 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
7630 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
7631 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
7634 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
7636 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
7637 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
7638 call methods, ...etc.
7640 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
7642 * User visible changes:
7644 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
7645 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
7646 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
7647 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
7649 Filename completion now works.
7651 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
7652 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
7653 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
7655 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
7656 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
7657 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
7658 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
7659 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
7663 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
7664 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
7667 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
7671 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
7672 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
7673 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
7677 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
7678 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
7679 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
7680 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
7681 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
7685 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
7686 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
7687 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
7689 * New targets supported
7691 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7692 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
7693 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
7694 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
7695 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
7697 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
7698 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
7699 GO32 memory extender.
7701 * New remote protocols
7703 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
7705 * New source languages supported
7707 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
7708 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
7709 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
7712 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
7714 * HP Precision Architecture supported
7716 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
7717 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
7718 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
7719 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
7720 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
7721 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
7723 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
7725 * Faster and better demangling
7727 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
7728 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
7729 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
7730 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
7731 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
7732 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
7735 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
7736 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
7737 compiler does not actually implement.
7739 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
7741 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
7742 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
7743 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
7744 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
7745 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
7746 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
7749 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
7750 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
7752 * Improved configure script
7754 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
7755 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
7756 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
7757 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
7759 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
7760 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
7761 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
7762 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
7763 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
7764 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
7766 * Documentation improvements
7768 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
7769 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
7770 before submitting changes.
7772 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
7773 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
7774 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
7775 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
7776 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
7778 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
7779 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
7780 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
7781 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
7782 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
7783 around this problem.
7787 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
7788 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
7789 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
7792 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
7793 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
7795 * New native hosts supported
7797 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
7798 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
7800 * New targets supported
7802 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
7804 * New file formats supported
7806 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
7807 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
7811 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
7813 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
7814 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
7816 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
7817 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
7818 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
7820 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
7821 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
7823 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
7824 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
7825 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
7828 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
7829 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
7830 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
7831 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
7832 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
7834 * Internal improvements
7836 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
7837 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
7839 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
7840 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
7841 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
7842 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
7843 shared code that handles any of them.
7845 * New command line options
7847 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
7851 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
7852 General Public License.
7854 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
7856 * Host/native/target split
7858 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
7859 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
7860 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
7861 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
7862 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
7864 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
7865 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
7866 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
7867 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
7868 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
7869 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
7870 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
7872 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
7873 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
7874 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
7876 * New hosts supported
7878 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
7879 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7880 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
7882 * New targets supported
7884 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7885 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
7887 * New native hosts supported
7889 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7890 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
7891 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
7893 * New file formats supported
7895 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
7896 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
7897 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
7901 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
7902 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
7903 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
7905 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
7907 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
7908 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
7909 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
7910 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
7914 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
7915 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
7916 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
7918 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
7922 The crash that occurred when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
7923 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
7926 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
7927 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
7929 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
7930 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
7931 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
7932 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
7933 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
7934 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
7936 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
7937 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
7938 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
7939 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
7943 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
7944 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
7945 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
7946 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
7947 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
7949 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
7950 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
7951 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
7952 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
7956 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
7957 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
7958 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
7959 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
7960 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
7961 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
7962 each instruction being stepped through.
7964 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
7965 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
7967 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
7968 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
7969 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
7970 processor with a serial port.
7974 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
7975 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
7976 supported, and what files each one uses.
7980 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
7981 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
7982 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
7983 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
7985 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
7986 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
7987 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
7988 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
7992 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
7993 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
7994 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
7995 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
7996 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
7997 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
7999 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
8002 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
8004 * Better support for C++ function names
8006 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
8007 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
8008 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
8009 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
8010 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
8012 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
8013 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
8014 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
8015 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
8016 for the list of formats.
8018 * G++ symbol mangling problem
8020 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
8021 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
8022 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
8023 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compiling gdb/symtab.c. The
8024 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
8025 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
8028 * New 'maintenance' command
8030 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
8031 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
8032 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
8034 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
8035 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
8036 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
8037 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
8038 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
8039 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
8041 The following commands are new:
8043 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
8044 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
8045 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
8047 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
8049 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
8050 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
8051 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
8052 read after argv processing.
8054 * New hosts supported
8056 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
8058 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
8060 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
8061 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
8062 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
8063 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
8064 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
8067 * New targets supported
8069 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
8071 * More smarts about finding #include files
8073 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
8074 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
8075 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
8076 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
8077 the one that contains your sources.
8079 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
8080 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
8081 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
8083 * Interesting infernals change
8085 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
8086 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
8087 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
8088 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
8090 * Bug fixes (of course!)
8092 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
8093 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
8094 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
8096 See the ChangeLog for details.
8098 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
8100 * New machines supported (host and target)
8102 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
8104 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
8106 * New malloc package
8108 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
8109 Mmalloc is capable of handling multiple heaps of memory. It is also
8110 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
8111 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
8112 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
8113 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
8117 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
8118 'help info proc' for details.
8120 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
8122 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
8123 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
8126 * File name changes for MS-DOS
8128 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
8129 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
8130 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
8131 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
8132 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
8133 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
8135 * Cross byte order fixes
8137 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
8138 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
8140 * New -mapped and -readnow options
8142 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
8143 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
8144 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
8145 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
8146 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
8147 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
8148 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
8149 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
8150 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
8151 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
8153 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
8154 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
8155 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
8156 slower, but makes future operations faster.
8158 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
8159 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
8160 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
8163 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
8165 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
8166 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
8167 shared across multiple host platforms.
8169 * longjmp() handling
8171 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
8172 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
8173 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
8174 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
8178 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
8179 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
8184 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
8185 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
8186 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
8188 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
8190 * New machines supported (host and target)
8192 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
8194 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
8195 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
8197 * New machines supported (target)
8199 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
8203 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
8204 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
8205 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
8207 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
8208 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
8209 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
8210 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
8211 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
8214 * New features for SVR4
8216 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
8217 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
8218 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
8220 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
8221 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
8222 it prints the address mappings of the process.
8224 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
8225 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
8227 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
8229 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
8230 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
8231 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
8232 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
8233 same code linked statically.
8237 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
8238 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
8239 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
8240 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
8241 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
8242 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
8246 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
8247 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
8248 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
8251 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
8253 * New machines supported (host and target)
8255 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
8256 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
8257 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
8259 * Almost SCO Unix support
8261 We had hoped to support:
8262 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
8263 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
8264 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
8265 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
8267 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
8269 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
8270 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
8271 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
8272 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
8277 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
8278 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
8279 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
8283 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
8284 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
8285 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
8287 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
8289 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
8290 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
8291 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
8293 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
8294 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
8295 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
8296 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
8299 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
8300 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
8301 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
8302 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
8305 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
8306 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
8309 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
8310 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
8311 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
8314 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
8316 * Improved configuration
8318 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
8319 Porting BFD is simpler.
8323 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
8324 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
8325 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
8326 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
8330 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
8332 * New host supported (not target)
8334 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
8337 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
8339 * Multiple source language support
8341 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
8342 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
8343 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
8344 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
8345 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
8346 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
8350 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
8351 currently under development at the State University of New York at
8352 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
8353 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
8355 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
8356 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
8357 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
8359 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
8360 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
8364 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
8365 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
8366 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
8367 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
8370 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
8372 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
8373 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
8374 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
8375 examining core files.
8379 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
8382 * New machines supported (host and target)
8384 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
8385 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
8386 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
8388 * New hosts supported (not targets)
8390 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
8392 * New targets supported (not hosts)
8394 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
8395 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
8396 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
8398 * New remote interfaces
8404 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
8408 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
8410 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
8411 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
8412 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
8413 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
8414 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
8415 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
8416 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
8417 stub on the target system.
8419 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
8421 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
8422 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
8423 object file types such as a.out and coff.
8425 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
8426 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
8429 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
8431 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
8432 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
8434 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
8435 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
8436 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
8438 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
8439 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
8440 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
8441 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
8443 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
8444 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
8445 it is already running. Default is ON.
8447 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
8448 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
8449 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
8450 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
8453 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
8454 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
8455 or the value of the environment variable
8458 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
8459 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
8462 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
8463 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
8464 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
8466 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
8467 history expansion will be performed on
8468 command line input. The default is OFF.
8470 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
8471 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
8472 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
8474 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
8475 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
8476 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
8479 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
8480 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
8481 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
8484 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
8485 ``set width'' instead.
8487 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
8488 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
8489 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
8490 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
8492 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
8495 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
8498 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
8501 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
8504 * Support for Epoch Environment.
8506 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
8507 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
8508 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
8512 * Support for Shared Libraries
8514 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
8515 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
8516 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
8517 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
8518 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
8519 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
8520 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
8521 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
8523 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
8524 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
8525 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
8527 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
8532 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
8533 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
8534 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
8535 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
8536 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
8537 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
8539 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
8541 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
8543 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8544 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8545 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
8548 * C++ multiple inheritance
8550 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
8553 * C++ exception handling
8555 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
8556 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
8557 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
8560 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
8561 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
8562 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
8564 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
8565 current stack frame.
8568 * Minor command changes
8570 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
8571 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
8572 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
8574 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
8575 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
8576 frames without printing.
8578 * New directory command
8580 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
8581 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
8582 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
8583 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
8584 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
8586 * Configuring GDB for compilation
8588 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
8591 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
8592 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
8593 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
8594 where the program that you are debugging will run.