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+<p>
+Next: <a href="GDB_002fMI-Output-Records.html#GDB_002fMI-Output-Records" accesskey="n" rel="next">GDB/MI Output Records</a>, Previous: <a href="GDB_002fMI-Compatibility-with-CLI.html#GDB_002fMI-Compatibility-with-CLI" accesskey="p" rel="previous">GDB/MI Compatibility with CLI</a>, Up: <a href="GDB_002fMI.html#GDB_002fMI" accesskey="u" rel="up">GDB/MI</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
+</div>
+<hr>
+<a name="GDB_002fMI-Development-and-Front-Ends-1"></a>
+<h3 class="section">27.4 <small>GDB/MI</small> Development and Front Ends</h3>
+<a name="index-GDB_002fMI-development"></a>
+
+<p>The application which takes the MI output and presents the state of the
+program being debugged to the user is called a <em>front end</em>.
+</p>
+<p>Since <small>GDB/MI</small> is used by a variety of front ends to <small>GDB</small>, changes
+to the MI interface may break existing usage. This section describes how the
+protocol changes and how to request previous version of the protocol when it
+does.
+</p>
+<p>Some changes in MI need not break a carefully designed front end, and
+for these the MI version will remain unchanged. The following is a
+list of changes that may occur within one level, so front ends should
+parse MI output in a way that can handle them:
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li> New MI commands may be added.
+
+</li><li> New fields may be added to the output of any MI command.
+
+</li><li> The range of values for fields with specified values, e.g.,
+<code>in_scope</code> (see <a href="GDB_002fMI-Variable-Objects.html#g_t_002dvar_002dupdate">-var-update</a>) may be extended.
+
+
+</li></ul>
+
+<p>If the changes are likely to break front ends, the MI version level
+will be increased by one. The new versions of the MI protocol are not compatible
+with the old versions. Old versions of MI remain available, allowing front ends
+to keep using them until they are modified to use the latest MI version.
+</p>
+<p>Since <code>--interpreter=mi</code> always points to the latest MI version, it is
+recommended that front ends request a specific version of MI when launching
+<small>GDB</small> (e.g. <code>--interpreter=mi2</code>) to make sure they get an
+interpreter with the MI version they expect.
+</p>
+<p>The following table gives a summary of the released versions of the MI
+interface: the version number, the version of GDB in which it first appeared
+and the breaking changes compared to the previous version.
+</p>
+<table>
+<thead><tr><th width="10%">MI version</th><th width="10%">GDB version</th><th width="80%">Breaking changes</th></tr></thead>
+<tr><td width="10%"><div align="center">1
+</div></td><td width="10%"><div align="center">5.1
+</div></td><td width="80%">None</td></tr>
+<tr><td width="10%"><div align="center">2
+</div></td><td width="10%"><div align="center">6.0
+</div></td><td width="80%"><ul>
+<li> The <code>-environment-pwd</code>, <code>-environment-directory</code> and
+<code>-environment-path</code> commands now returns values using the MI output
+syntax, rather than CLI output syntax.
+
+</li><li> <code>-var-list-children</code>&rsquo;s <code>children</code> result field is now a list, rather
+than a tuple.
+
+</li><li> <code>-var-update</code>&rsquo;s <code>changelist</code> result field is now a list, rather than
+a tuple.
+</li></ul></td></tr>
+<tr><td width="10%"><div align="center">3
+</div></td><td width="10%"><div align="center">9.1
+</div></td><td width="80%"><ul>
+<li> The output of information about multi-location breakpoints has changed in the
+responses to the <code>-break-insert</code> and <code>-break-info</code> commands, as well
+as in the <code>=breakpoint-created</code> and <code>=breakpoint-modified</code> events.
+The multiple locations are now placed in a <code>locations</code> field, whose value
+is a list.
+</li></ul></td></tr>
+<tr><td width="10%"><div align="center">4
+</div></td><td width="10%"><div align="center">13.1
+</div></td><td width="80%"><ul>
+<li> The syntax of the &quot;script&quot; field in breakpoint output has changed in the
+responses to the <code>-break-insert</code> and <code>-break-info</code> commands, as
+well as the <code>=breakpoint-created</code> and <code>=breakpoint-modified</code>
+events. The previous output was syntactically invalid. The new output is
+a list.
+</li></ul></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>If your front end cannot yet migrate to a more recent version of the
+MI protocol, you can nevertheless selectively enable specific features
+available in those recent MI versions, using the following commands:
+</p>
+<dl compact="compact">
+<dt><code>-fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output</code></dt>
+<dd><p>Use the output for multi-location breakpoints which was introduced by
+MI 3, even when using MI versions below 3. This command has no
+effect when using MI version 3 or later.
+</p>
+</dd>
+<dt><code>-fix-breakpoint-script-output</code></dt>
+<dd><p>Use the output for the breakpoint &quot;script&quot; field which was introduced by
+MI 4, even when using MI versions below 4. This command has no effect when
+using MI version 4 or later.
+</p>
+</dd>
+</dl>
+
+<p>The best way to avoid unexpected changes in MI that might break your front
+end is to make your project known to <small>GDB</small> developers and
+follow development on <a href="mailto:gdb@sourceware.org">gdb@sourceware.org</a> and
+<a href="mailto:gdb-patches@sourceware.org">gdb-patches@sourceware.org</a>.
+<a name="index-mailing-lists"></a>
+</p>
+<hr>
+<div class="header">
+<p>
+Next: <a href="GDB_002fMI-Output-Records.html#GDB_002fMI-Output-Records" accesskey="n" rel="next">GDB/MI Output Records</a>, Previous: <a href="GDB_002fMI-Compatibility-with-CLI.html#GDB_002fMI-Compatibility-with-CLI" accesskey="p" rel="previous">GDB/MI Compatibility with CLI</a>, Up: <a href="GDB_002fMI.html#GDB_002fMI" accesskey="u" rel="up">GDB/MI</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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