* spu-tdep.c (spu_frame_unwind_cache): Add comment.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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c906108c
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
6dd09645
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.6
5
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6* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
7recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
8is not supported.
9
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10* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
11frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
12
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13* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
1432-bit or 64-bit register values.
15
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16* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
17
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18* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
19target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
20a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
21
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22* Arrays of explicitly SIGNED or UNSIGNED CHARs are now printed as arrays
23 of numbers.
24
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25* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
26for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
27only ARM).
28
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29* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
30iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 31
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32* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
33ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
34has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
35
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36* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
37
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38* New commands
39
40set mem inaccessible-by-default
41show mem inaccessible-by-default
42 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
43 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
44 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
45 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
46 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
47
48set breakpoint auto-hw
49show breakpoint auto-hw
50 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
51 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
52 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
53 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
54 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
55 including "next" and "finish".
56
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57catch exception
58catch exception unhandled
59 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
60
61catch assert
62 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
63
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64set sysroot
65show sysroot
66 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
67 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
68 an alias to "set sysroot".
69
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70* New native configurations
71
72OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
73
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74set tdesc filename
75unset tdesc filename
76show tdesc filename
77 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
78 not query the target for its built-in description.
79
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80* New targets
81
54fe9172 82OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 83MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 84Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 85
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86* New remote packets
87
88QPassSignals:
89 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
90 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
91
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92qXfer:features:read:
93 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
94 features.
6dd09645 95
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96* Removed targets
97
98Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
99
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100alpha*-*-osf1*
101alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 102d10v-*-*
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103hppa*-*-hiux*
104i[34567]86-ncr-*
105i[34567]86-*-dgux*
106i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
107i[34567]86-*-netware*
108i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
109i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
110i[34567]86-*-sco*
111i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
112i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
113i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
114i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
115i[34567]86-*-unixware*
116i[34567]86-*-sysv*
117i[34567]86-*-isc*
118m68*-cisco*-*
119m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 120mips*-*-pe
483367ee 121rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 122sh*-*-pe
483367ee 123
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124* Other removed features
125
126target abug
127target cpu32bug
128target est
129target rom68k
130
131 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
132
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133target hms
134target e7000
135target sh3
136target sh3e
137
138 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
139 H8/300.
140
141target ocd
142
143 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
144 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
145 interfaces.
146
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147DWARF 1 support
148
149 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
150 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
151
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152Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
153
154 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
155 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
156 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
157 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
158
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159MIPS ".pdr" sections
160
161 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
162 in debugging information.
163
164Scheme support
165
166 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
167 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
168
6dd09645 169*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 170
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171* New targets
172
173Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 174Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 175
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176* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
177(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
178running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
179
180* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
181Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
182supported.
183
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184* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
185broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
186
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187* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
188stub provides the required support.
189
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190* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
191longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
192
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193* New commands
194
195set substitute-path
196unset substitute-path
197show substitute-path
198 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
199 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
200 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
201 between compilation and debugging.
202
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203set trace-commands
204show trace-commands
205 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
206 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
207 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
208
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209* REMOVED features
210
211The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
212
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213Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
214an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
215
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216The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
217
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218* New remote packets
219
220qSupported:
221 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
222 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
223 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
224 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
225 target.
226
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227qXfer:auxv:read:
228 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
229 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
230
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231qXfer:memory-map:read:
232 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
233 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
234
235vFlashErase:
236vFlashWrite:
237vFlashDone:
238 Erase and program a flash memory device.
239
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240* Removed remote packets
241
242qPart:auxv:read:
243 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
244 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
245
e374b601 246*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 247
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248* New targets
249
250Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
251
252Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
253
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254* New commands
255
256init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
257 only if it doesn't already have a value.
258
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259The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
260
261checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
262
263restart <n> Return the program state to a
264 previously saved state.
265
266info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
267
268delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
269
270set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
271 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
272
273info forks List forks of the user program that
274 are available to be debugged.
275
276fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
277 forks of the user program that are
278 available to be debugged.
279
280delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
281 that are available to be debugged (and
282 kill the forked process).
283
284detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
285 that are available to be debugged (and
286 allow the process to continue).
287
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288* New architecture
289
290Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
291
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292* Improved Windows host support
293
294GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
295native console support, and remote communications using either
296network sockets or serial ports.
297
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298* Improved Modula-2 language support
299
300GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
301basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
302pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
303printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
304written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
305GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
306
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307* REMOVED features
308
309The ARM rdi-share module.
310
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311The Netware NLM debug server.
312
53e5f3cf 313*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 314
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315* New native configurations
316
02a677ac 317OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
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318OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
319
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320* New targets
321
322Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
323
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324* New command line options
325
326--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
327--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
328 the child (debugged) program exited with.
329--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
330 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
331 specified multiple times and in conjunction
332 with the --command (-x) option.
333
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334* Deprecated commands removed
335
336The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
337removed:
338
339 Command Replacement
340 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
341 othernames set arm disassembler
342 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
343 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
344 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
345 regs info registers
346
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347* New BSD user-level threads support
348
349It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
350library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
351configurations are:
352
353FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
354FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
355OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
356
357Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
358are not yet supported.
359
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360* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
361(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
362
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363* REMOVED configurations and files
364
365VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 366Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 367National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 368
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369* New "set print array-indexes" command
370
371After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
372when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
373behavior.
374
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375* VAX floating point support
376
377GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
378
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379* User-defined command support
380
381In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
382to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
383section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
384
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385*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
386
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387* New command line option
388
389GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
390debugging.
391
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392* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
393
394GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
395information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
396by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
397proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
398to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 399
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400* Internationalization
401
402When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
403internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
404continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
405
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406* Ada
407
408Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
409implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
410into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
411
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412* New native configurations
413
414GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
415
416* Remote 'p' packet
417
418GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
419packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
420
421* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
422
423GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
424The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
425features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
426i386 application).
427
428GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
429compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
430continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
431configurations:
432
433hppa-*-hpux
434ia64-*-aix
435mips-*-irix*
436*-*-lynx
437mips-*-linux-gnu
438sds protocol
439xdr protocol
440powerpc bdm protocol
441
442Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
443made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
444
445* OBSOLETE configurations and files
446
447Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
448been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
449configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
450permanently REMOVED.
451
452h8300-*-*
453mcore-*-*
454mn10300-*-*
455ns32k-*-*
456sh64-*-*
457v850-*-*
458
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459*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
460
461* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
462
463When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
464heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
465been fixed.
466
467* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
468
469When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
470fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
471IRIX long double values).
472
473* VAX and "next"
474
475A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
476command. This problem has been fixed.
477
860660cb 478*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 479
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480* Fix for ``many threads''
481
482On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
483rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
484error message:
485
486 ptrace: No such process.
487 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
488
489This problem has been fixed.
490
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491* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
492
493Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
494GDB to dump core).
495
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496* New ``start'' command.
497
498This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
499
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500* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
501
502Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
503live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
504platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
505
506FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
507FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
508NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
509NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
510NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
511OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
512OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
513OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
514OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
515
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516* Signal trampoline code overhauled
517
518Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
519These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
520of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
521call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
522signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
523
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524Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
525features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
526include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 527
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528* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
529
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530* New native configurations
531
97dc871c 532GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 533OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
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534OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
535OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 536OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 537NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 538OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 539
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540* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
541
542GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
543The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
544including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
545migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
546compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
547work, was also included.
548
549GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
550module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
551
552h8300-*-*
553mcore-*-*
554mn10300-*-*
555ns32k-*-*
556sh64-*-*
557v850-*-*
558xstormy16-*-*
559
560Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
561made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
562
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563* REMOVED configurations and files
564
565Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
566Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
567Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
568Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
569Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
570AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
571Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
572decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
573riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
574sonymips mips-sony-*
575sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
576
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577*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
578
579* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
580
581The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
582GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
583command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
584program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
585with GDB".
586
587* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
588
589Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
590libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
591cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
592GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
593shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
594the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
595are created.
596
597Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
598
599* Fixed ISO-C build problems
600
601The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
602non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
603compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
604
605* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
606
607Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
608wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
609
610* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
611
612The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
613permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
614systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
615
616* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
617
618Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
619has been updated to use constant array sizes.
620
621* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
622
623GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
624its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
625panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
626
627* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
628
629When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
630by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
631not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
632
faae5abe 633*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 634
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635* Removed --with-mmalloc
636
637Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
638conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
639
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640* Changes in AMD64 configurations
641
642The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
643the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
644and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
645you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
646
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647* Revised SPARC target
648
649The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
650FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
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651support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
652from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
653(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 654
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655* New C++ demangler
656
657GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
658names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
659with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
660programs.
661
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662* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
663
664GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
665arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
666encountered these.
667
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DC
668* C++ nested types and namespaces
669
670GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
671improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
672is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
673Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
674namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
675"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
676frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
677if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
678GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
679
cced5e27
MK
680* New native configurations
681
682NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 683OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 684OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
685OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
686OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 687
b4b4b794
KI
688* New debugging protocols
689
690M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
691
7989c619
AC
692* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
693
694The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
695and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
696tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
697
5994185b
AC
698* OBSOLETE configurations and files
699
700Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
701been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
702configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
703permanently REMOVED.
704
705Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
706Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
707Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
708Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
709Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
710AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
711Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
712decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
713riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
714sonymips mips-sony-*
715sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 716
0ddabb4c
AC
717* REMOVED configurations and files
718
719SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
720SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
721Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
722Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
723H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
724HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
725HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
726HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
727PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 728386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
729Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
730 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
731 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
732SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
733SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
734Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
735Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 736
c7f1390e
DJ
737*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
738
1fe43d45
AC
739* Objective-C
740
741Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
742integrated into GDB.
743
e6beb428
AC
744* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
745
746DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
747information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
748By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
749backtraces.
750
751The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
752have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
753DWARF 2 CFI support.
754
755* Hosted file I/O.
756
757GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
758file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
759remote protocol documentation for details.
760
761* All targets using the new architecture framework.
762
763All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
764architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
765to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
766ppc32 on ppc64).
767
768* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
769
770GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
771per-thread variables.
772
773* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
774
775GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
776GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
777
778* Separate debug info.
779
780GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
781automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
782of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
783system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
784and optional debug files.
785
786* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
787
788DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
789describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
790debugger.
791
792GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
793for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
794
795* Java
796
797A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
798Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
799considered "useable".
800
85f8f974
DJ
801* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
802
803The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
804commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
805kernel.
806
0fac0b41
DJ
807* GDB supports logging output to a file
808
809There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
810used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 811
6ad8ae5c
DJ
812* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
813
814The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
815disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
816command.
817
e286caf2 818* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
819
820The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
821registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
822
d28f9cdf
DJ
823* Profiling support
824
825A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
826be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
827session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
828"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
829data, for more informative profiling results.
830
da0f9dcd
AC
831* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
832
833The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
834option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 835"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
836
837Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
838removed.
839
fb9b6b35
JJ
840Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
841Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
842Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
843 in a subsequent -var-update.
844
954a4db8
MK
845* New native configurations.
846
847FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
848
6760f9e6
JB
849* Multi-arched targets.
850
b4263afa 851HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 852Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 853
1b831c93
AC
854* OBSOLETE configurations and files
855
856Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
857been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
858configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
859permanently REMOVED.
860
8b0e5691 861Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 862Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 863H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
864HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
865HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
866HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 867PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
868Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
869 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
870 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
871Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
872Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 873
5835abe7
NC
874* REMOVED configurations and files
875
876V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
877Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
878IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
879i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
880i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
881i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
882HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
883 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
884 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
885Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
886Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
887Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
888OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
889I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 890
a094c6fb
AC
891* MIPS $fp behavior changed
892
893The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
894the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
895context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
896address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
897The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
898
299ffc64 899*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 900
46248966
AC
901* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
902
903When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
904`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
905in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
906library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
907shared libs like mad''.
908
b9d14705 909* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 910
b9d14705
DJ
911Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
912the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
913arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
914powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 915
e0e9281e
JB
916* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
917
918GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
919and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
920they expand.
921
dd73b9bb
AC
922The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
923invocations in expression, and shows the result.
924
925The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
926macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
927
e0e9281e
JB
928Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
929information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
930your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
931information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
932
2250ee0c
CV
933* Multi-arched targets.
934
6e3ba3b8
JT
935DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
936DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 937NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 938National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
939Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
940Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 941
cd9bfe15 942* New targets.
e33ce519 943
456f8b9d
DB
944Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
945
e33ce519 946
da8ca43d
JT
947* New native configurations
948
949Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 950SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 951MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 952UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 953
cd9bfe15
AC
954* OBSOLETE configurations and files
955
956Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
957been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
958configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
959permanently REMOVED.
960
92eb23c5 961Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 962OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 963IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 964Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 965Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 966Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
967i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
968i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
969i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
970HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
971 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
972 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 973I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 974
db034ac5
AC
975* OBSOLETE languages
976
977CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
978
cd9bfe15
AC
979* REMOVED configurations and files
980
981AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
982A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
983AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
984AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
985AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
986
987testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
988
20f01a46
DH
989* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
990
991This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
992commands. The default is 1024.
993
a5941fbf
MK
994* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
995
996Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
997
89743e04
MS
998* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
999
1000These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1001to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1002from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 1003
9fb14e79
JB
1004* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1005
1006The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1007including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1008of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1009
2037aebb
AC
1010*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1011
1012* New targets.
1013
1014Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
1015
1016* Bug fixes
1017
1018gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1019mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1020Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1021
1022gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1023dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1024Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1025
1026Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1027Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1028By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1029
1030i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1031avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1032By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1033
37057839 1034*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 1035
1a703748
MS
1036* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1037
1038This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1039really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1040In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1041target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1042This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1043(notably embedded) targets.
1044
cefd4ef5
MS
1045* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1046
55241689
AC
1047This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1048process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1049GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1050hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 1051
352ed7b4
MS
1052* New command line option
1053
1054GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1055
1056* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1057
1058There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1059command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1060a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1061be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1062open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1063issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1064a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1065it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1066GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1067is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1068
fe419ffc
RE
1069* Changes in ARM configurations.
1070
1071Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1072configuration is fully multi-arch.
1073
eb7cedd9
MK
1074* New native configurations
1075
fe419ffc 1076ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 1077x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 1078AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 1079Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 1080
c9f63e6b
CV
1081* New targets
1082
1083Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1084
9b4ff276
AC
1085* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1086
1087Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1088been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1089configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1090permanently REMOVED.
1091
1092AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1093A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1094AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1095AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1096AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1097
b4ceaee6 1098testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 1099
e2caac18
AC
1100* REMOVED configurations and files
1101
1102TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 1103WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
1104PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1105PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1106PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 1107Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
1108Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1109 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 1110SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 1111Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
1112Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1113ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 1114Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 1115
c2a727fa
TT
1116* Changes to command line processing
1117
1118The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1119for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1120
467d8519
TT
1121* Changes to key bindings
1122
1123There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1124
7072a954
AC
1125*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1126
1127Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1128
1129Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1130corrupted.
1131
1132Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1133
1134Numerous documentation fixes.
1135
1136Numerous testsuite fixes.
1137
34f47bc4 1138*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
1139
1140* New native configurations
1141
1142Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1143x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 1144MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
1145MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1146ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 1147s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 1148
bf64bfd6
AC
1149* New targets
1150
def90278 1151Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 1152CRIS cris-axis
55241689 1153UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 1154
17e78a56 1155* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
1156
1157x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 1158Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
1159Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1160 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
1161TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1162WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 1163Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
1164PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1165PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1166PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 1167SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
1168Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1169ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 1170Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 1171
17e78a56
AC
1172stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1173kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1174
7fcca85b
AC
1175Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1176been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1177configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1178permanently REMOVED.
1179
a196c81c 1180* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
1181
1182Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1183Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1184Pyramid pyramid-*-*
1185ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1186Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 1187ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 1188
6d6b80e5 1189* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 1190
6d6b80e5 1191GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
1192sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1193present.
1194
bf64bfd6
AC
1195* Other news:
1196
e23194cb
EZ
1197* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1198
1199* The MI enabled by default.
1200
1201The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1202revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1203engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1204using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1205which is now deprecated.
1206
1207* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1208
1209GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1210main features are supported:
1211
1212 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1213
1214 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1215 extension;
1216
1217 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1218
1219 - a Pascal expression parser.
1220
1221However, some important features are not yet supported.
1222
1223 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1224
1225 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1226
1227 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1228 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1229
1230 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1231
1232 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1233
1234* Changes in completion.
1235
1236Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1237to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1238users expect at the shell prompt.
1239
1240Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1241`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1242program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1243files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1244be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1245considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1246name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1247
1248`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1249
1250* New platform-independent commands:
1251
1252It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1253hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1254documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1255
1256* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1257
d7275149
MK
1258Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1259revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1260many threads as your system allows you to have.
1261
e23194cb
EZ
1262Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1263
d7275149
MK
1264Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1265multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
1266
1267* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
1268
1269Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1270
e23194cb
EZ
1271GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1272debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1273supported.)
1274
1275* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1276
1277Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1278breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1279implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1280put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1281and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1282registers.
1283
1284The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1285debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1286watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1287
1288* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1289
1290New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1291the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1292
1293New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1294display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1295IDT.
1296
1297New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1298from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1299New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1300a given linear address.
1301
1302GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1303program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1304which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1305
1306DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1307
6c56c069
EZ
1308It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1309
e23194cb
EZ
1310* Changes in documentation.
1311
1312All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1313Documentation License.
1314
1315Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1316manual.
1317
1318TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1319
1320Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1321manual.
1322
1323The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1324documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1325hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1326
5d6640b1
AC
1327* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1328
1329The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1330``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1331contents of this file.
1332
1a1d8446
AC
1333* gdba.el deleted
1334
1335GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 1336
9debab2f 1337*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 1338
c63ce875
EZ
1339* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1340
1341Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1342programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1343displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1344greater level of detail.
1345
1346* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1347
1348It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1349bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1350on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1351written.
1352
1353* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1354
1355The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1356necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1357machines ``out of the box''.
1358
1359The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1360possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1361signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1362would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1363interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1364
1365It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1366standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1367even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1368and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1369terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1370
1371The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1372enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1373also works.
1374
1375DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1376GDB.
1377
1378It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1379directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1380times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1381breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1382
ed9a39eb
JM
1383* New native configurations
1384
1385ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 1386PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 1387
7a292a7a
SS
1388* New targets
1389
96baa820 1390Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
1391x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1392PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
1393TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1394
085dd6e6
JM
1395* OBSOLETE configurations
1396
1397Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1398Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 1399Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 1400ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 1401Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 1402
9debab2f
AC
1403Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1404but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1405these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1406be permanently REMOVED.
1407
5330533d
SS
1408* Gould support removed
1409
1410Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1411
bc9e5bbf
AC
1412* New features for SVR4
1413
1414On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1415without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1416load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1417
1418* Many C++ enhancements
1419
1420C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1421in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1422
adf40b2e
JM
1423* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1424
1425A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1426sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1427with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1428``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1429
1430 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1431 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1432
43e526b9
JM
1433* MIPS 64 remote protocol
1434
1435A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1436expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1437instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1438
1439The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1440added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1441
96baa820
JM
1442* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1443
1444The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1445``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1446include ``set remote P-packet''.
1447
11cf8741
JM
1448* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1449
1450The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1451accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1452``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1453
7876dd43
DB
1454* ``apropos'' command added.
1455
1456The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1457documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1458try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1459
bc9e5bbf
AC
1460* New MI interface
1461
1462A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1463interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
1464process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1465"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1466enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
1467
1468 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1469
c906108c
SS
1470*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1471
1472* New native configurations
1473
1474HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1475HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 1476M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
1477
1478* New targets
1479
1480Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1481Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1482Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1483
1484* OBSOLETE configurations
1485
1486Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1487
1488Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1489but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1490these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1491be permanently REMOVED.
1492
1493* ANSI/ISO C
1494
1495As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1496buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1497containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1498use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1499available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1500configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1501information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1502already.
1503
1504* Readline 2.2
1505
1506GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1507
1508* set extension-language
1509
1510You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1511languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1512you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1513 set extension-language .c c++
1514The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1515and their associated languages.
1516
1517* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1518
1519When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1520you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1521PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1522
1523 set processor NAME
1524
1525sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1526following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1527
1528 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1529 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1530 403 IBM PowerPC 403
1531 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1532 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1533 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1534 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1535 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1536 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1537 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1538 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1539
1540At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1541special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1542registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1543only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1544
1545* HP-UX support
1546
1547Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1548more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1549library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1550support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1551for xdb and dbx commands.
1552
1553* Catchpoints
1554
1555HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1556generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1557to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1558
1559This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1560argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1561output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1562
1563* Debugging across forks
1564
1565On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1566in the inferior.
1567
1568* TUI
1569
1570HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1571it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1572configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1573
1574* GDB remote protocol additions
1575
1576A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1577Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1578fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1579allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1580
1581For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1582full 64-bit address. The command
1583
1584 set remoteaddresssize 32
1585
1586can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1587the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1588will be discarded.
1589
1590In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1591command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1592
1593 maint packet heythere
1594
1595sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1596disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1597time.
1598
1599The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1600target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1601downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1602
1603* Tracing can collect general expressions
1604
1605You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1606further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1607doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1608
1609* mask-address variable for Mips
1610
1611For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1612a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1613of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1614
1615* Higher serial baud rates
1616
1617GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1618230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1619to achieve all of these rates.)
1620
1621* i960 simulator
1622
1623The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1624builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1625
1626
1627*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1628
1629* New native configurations
1630
1631Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1632Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1633Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1634PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1635PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1636Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1637Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1638
1639* New targets
1640
1641Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1642Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1643Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1644Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1645MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1646MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1647MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1648Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1649Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1650Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1651NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1652
1653* New debugging protocols
1654
1655ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1656M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1657DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1658PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1659PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1660Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1661
1662* DWARF 2
1663
1664All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1665format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1666information.
1667
1668* Java frontend
1669
1670GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1671only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1672
1673* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1674
1675For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1676loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1677locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1678
1679* Live range splitting
1680
1681GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1682range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1683more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1684
1685* Hurd support
1686
1687GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1688updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1689
1690* ARM Thumb support
1691
1692GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1693instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1694instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1695accordingly.
1696
1697* MIPS16 support
1698
1699GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1700instruction set.
1701
1702* Overlay support
1703
1704GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1705linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1706will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1707control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1708additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1709in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1710
1711* info symbol
1712
1713The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1714the symbol at the specified address.
1715
1716* Trace support
1717
1718The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1719asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1720extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1721includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1722file tracepoint.c for more details.
1723
1724* MIPS simulator
1725
1726Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1727by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1728of most MIPS variants.
1729
1730* Sparc simulator
1731
1732Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1733by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1734Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1735
1736* set architecture
1737
1738For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1739basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1740architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1741the possible architectures.
1742
1743*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1744
1745* New native configurations
1746
1747Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1748M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1749PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1750PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1751PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1752RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1753
1754* New targets
1755
1756ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1757I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1758MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1759MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1760PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1761Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
1762Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1763
1764* PowerPC simulator
1765
1766The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1767contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1768PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1769basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1770performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1771
1772* Solaris 2.5
1773
1774GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1775
1776* Windows 95/NT native
1777
1778GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1779To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1780which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1781Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1782ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1783
1784* dont-repeat command
1785
1786If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1787command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1788useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1789extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1790
1791* Send break instead of ^C
1792
1793The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1794rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1795GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1796
1797* Remote protocol timeout
1798
1799The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1800that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1801to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1802
1803* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1804
1805By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1806loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1807stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1808when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1809in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1810
1811Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1812/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1813automatically on hpux10.
1814
1815* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1816
1817Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1818
1819* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1820
1821When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1822may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1823the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1824every character. The default value is 1050.
1825
1826* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1827
1828If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1829a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1830replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1831details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1832remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1833to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1834
1835* Speedups for remote debugging
1836
1837GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1838the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1839and more efficient S-record downloading.
1840
1841* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1842
1843GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1844Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1845
1846*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1847
1848* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1849
1850The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1851can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1852
1853* Remote targets use caching
1854
1855Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1856remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1857it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1858debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1859off' turns the the data cache off.
1860
1861* Remote targets may have threads
1862
1863The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1864in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1865gdb/remote.c for details.
1866
1867* NetROM support
1868
1869If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1870support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1871acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1872write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1873support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1874another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1875sequence is something like
1876
1877 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1878 load <prog>
1879 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1880
1881* Macintosh host
1882
1883GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1884may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1885it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1886available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1887device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1888directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1889scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1890mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1891
1892* Autoconf
1893
1894GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1895but does simplify configuration and building.
1896
1897* hpux10
1898
1899GDB now supports hpux10.
1900
1901*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1902
1903* New native configurations
1904
1905x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1906x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1907NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1908Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1909
1910* New targets
1911
1912A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1913HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1914CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1915PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1916WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1917
1918* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1919
1920GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1921possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1922filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1923the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1924if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1925
1926* Arguments to user-defined commands
1927
1928User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1929Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1930trivial example:
1931define adder
1932 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1933
1934To execute the command use:
1935adder 1 2 3
1936
1937Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1938Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1939use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1940
1941* New `if' and `while' commands
1942
1943This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1944commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1945expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1946execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1947terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1948`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1949if the expression is zero.
1950
1951* Fortran source language mode
1952
1953GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1954Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1955variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1956with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1957Fortran compilers.
1958
1959* Better HPUX support
1960
1961Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1962running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1963processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1964for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1965that behavior do the following before running the program:
1966
1967 adb -w a.out
1968 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1969 control-d
1970
1971This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1972To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1973
1974 adb -w a.out
1975 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1976 control-d
1977
1978You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1979the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1980external linkage.
1981
1982GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1983HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1984
1985* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1986
1987You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1988commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1989current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1990"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1991associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1992configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1993
1994* New DOS host serial code
1995
1996This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1997no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1998a PC's serial port.
1999
2000*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2001
2002* New "complete" command
2003
2004This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2005were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2006
2007* Trailing space optional in prompt
2008
2009"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2010allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2011
2012* Breakpoint hit counts
2013
2014"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2015has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2016can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2017to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2018less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2019that breakpoint.
2020
2021* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2022
2023"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2024an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2025arrays actually contain only short strings.
2026
2027* Shared library breakpoints
2028
2029In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2030breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2031
2032* Hardware watchpoints
2033
2034There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2035targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2036
55241689 2037Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
2038
2039* Annotations
2040
2041Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2042and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2043
2044* Improved Irix 5 support
2045
2046GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2047
2048* Improved HPPA support
2049
2050GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2051
2052* New native configurations
2053
2054Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2055HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2056Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2057RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2058
2059* New targets
2060
2061OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2062MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2063Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
2064
2065* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2066
2067There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2068This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2069
2070* Fixes
2071
2072As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2073and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2074
2075*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2076
2077* Irix 5 is now supported
2078
2079* HPPA support
2080
2081GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2082to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2083GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2084of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2085can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2086
2087
2088*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2089
2090* User visible changes:
2091
2092* Remote Debugging
2093
2094The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2095target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2096debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2097integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2098debugging info for the mips target).
2099
2100* DEC Alpha native support
2101
2102GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2103debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2104work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2105Alpha-specific notes.
2106
2107* Preliminary thread implementation
2108
2109GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2110
2111* LynxOS native and target support for 386
2112
2113This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2114to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2115for details).
2116
2117* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2118
2119This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2120mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2121call methods, ...etc.
2122
2123*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2124
2125 * User visible changes:
2126
2127Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2128supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2129other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2130somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2131
2132Filename completion now works.
2133
2134When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2135arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2136addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2137
2138All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2139vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2140should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2141your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2142to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2143
2144 * DEC alpha support
2145
2146This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2147cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2148
2149
2150*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2151
2152 * Testsuite
2153
2154This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2155The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2156via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2157
2158 * C++ demangling
2159
2160'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2161emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2162Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2163disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2164use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2165
2166 * Simulators
2167
2168GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2169So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2170Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2171
2172 * New targets supported
2173
2174H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2175H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2176SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2177Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2178IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2179
2180Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2181version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2182GO32 memory extender.
2183
2184 * New remote protocols
2185
2186MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2187
2188 * New source languages supported
2189
2190This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2191used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2192into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2193
2194
2195*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2196
2197 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2198
2199GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2200version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2201University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2202compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2203format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2204(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2205
2206Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2207
2208 * Faster and better demangling
2209
2210We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2211demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2212character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2213only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2214This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2215increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2216symbol lookups.
2217
2218`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2219from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2220compiler does not actually implement.
2221
2222 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2223
2224In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2225inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2226recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2227very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2228The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2229circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2230fix.
2231
2232The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2233release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2234
2235 * Improved configure script
2236
2237The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2238you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2239host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2240done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2241
2242We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2243version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2244`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2245The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2246only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2247We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2248
2249 * Documentation improvements
2250
2251There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2252produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2253before submitting changes.
2254
2255The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2256M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2257`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2258you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2259a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2260
2261*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2262We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2263been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2264or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2265`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2266around this problem.
2267
2268 * New features
2269
2270GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2271the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2272`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2273the target program.
2274
2275The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2276how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2277
2278 * New native hosts supported
2279
2280HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2281386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2282
2283 * New targets supported
2284
2285AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2286
2287 * New file formats supported
2288
2289BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2290HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2291
2292 * Major bug fixes
2293
2294Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2295
2296We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2297printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2298
2299We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2300for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2301release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2302
2303You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2304will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2305
2306We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2307for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2308especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2309libraries.
2310
2311The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2312information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2313command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2314any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2315when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2316
2317 * Internal improvements
2318
2319GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2320debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2321
2322GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2323Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2324symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2325contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2326shared code that handles any of them.
2327
2328 * New command line options
2329
2330We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2331
2332 * Mmalloc licensing
2333
2334The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2335General Public License.
2336
2337*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2338
2339 * Host/native/target split
2340
2341GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2342hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2343target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2344local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2345ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2346
2347The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2348GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2349is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2350code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2351any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2352built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2353handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2354
2355GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2356It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2357plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2358
2359 * New hosts supported
2360
2361HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2362386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2363386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2364
2365 * New targets supported
2366
2367Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
236868030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2369
2370 * New native hosts supported
2371
2372386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2373 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2374386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2375
2376 * New file formats supported
2377
2378BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2379supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2380format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2381
2382 * New commands
2383
2384`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2385`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2386These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2387
2388`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2389
2390You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2391scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2392prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2393executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2394
2395 * C++ improvements
2396
2397We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2398info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2399symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2400
2401Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2402
2403 * Major bug fixes
2404
2405The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2406fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2407by the compiler.
2408
2409We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2410support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2411
2412John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2413slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2414that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2415purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2416the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2417mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2418
2419Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2420about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2421completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2422we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2423
2424 * AMD 29k support
2425
2426A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2427specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2428calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2429usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2430in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2431
2432We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2433Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2434of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2435resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2436
2437 * Remote interfaces
2438
2439We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2440with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2441message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2442This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2443needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2444breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2445each instruction being stepped through.
2446
2447The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2448registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2449
2450There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2451find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2452Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2453processor with a serial port.
2454
2455 * Configuration
2456
2457Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2458`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2459supported, and what files each one uses.
2460
2461 * Library changes
2462
2463There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2464disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2465Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2466disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2467
2468The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2469Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2470can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2471grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2472
2473 * Documentation
2474
2475The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2476reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2477as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2478encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2479system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2480bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2481
2482And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2483
2484
2485*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2486
2487 * Better support for C++ function names
2488
2489GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2490names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2491(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2492single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2493Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2494
2495GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2496the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2497You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2498lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2499for the list of formats.
2500
2501 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2502
2503Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2504C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2505directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2506can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2507usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2508about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2509this problem.)
2510
2511 * New 'maintenance' command
2512
2513All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2514the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2515can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2516
2517 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2518 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2519 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2520 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2521 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2522 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2523
2524The following commands are new:
2525
2526 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2527 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2528 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2529
2530 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2531
2532We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2533(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2534be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2535read after argv processing.
2536
2537 * New hosts supported
2538
2539Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2540
55241689 2541GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
2542
2543We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2544is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2545for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2546masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2547fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2548It costs extra.
2549
2550 * New targets supported
2551
2552Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2553
2554 * More smarts about finding #include files
2555
2556GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2557all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2558greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2559especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2560the one that contains your sources.
2561
2562We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2563breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2564try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2565
2566 * Interesting infernals change
2567
2568GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2569section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2570target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2571stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2572
2573 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2574
2575There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2576 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2577 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2578
2579See the ChangeLog for details.
2580
2581*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2582
2583 * New machines supported (host and target)
2584
2585IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2586
2587SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2588
2589 * New malloc package
2590
2591GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2592Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2593capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2594This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2595pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2596more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2597
2598 * info proc
2599
2600The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2601'help info proc' for details.
2602
2603 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2604
2605The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2606Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2607possible.
2608
2609 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2610
2611Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2612support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2613conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2614environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2615that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2616in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2617
2618 * Cross byte order fixes
2619
2620Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2621targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2622
2623 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2624
2625If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2626system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2627`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2628program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2629called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2630Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2631and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2632the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2633option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2634starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2635
2636You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2637the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2638information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2639slower, but makes future operations faster.
2640
2641The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2642build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2643A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2644use is:
2645
2646 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2647
2648The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2649It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2650shared across multiple host platforms.
2651
2652 * longjmp() handling
2653
2654GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2655siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2656all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2657platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2658
2659 * Solaris 2.0
2660
2661Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2662this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2663reading symbols.
2664
2665 * Bug fixes
2666
2667As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2668People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2669crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2670
2671*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2672
2673 * New machines supported (host and target)
2674
2675SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2676 (except core files)
2677BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2678Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2679
2680 * New machines supported (target)
2681
2682AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2683
2684 * C++ support
2685
2686GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2687The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2688per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2689
2690GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2691`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2692extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2693good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2694will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2695released.
2696
2697 * New features for SVR4
2698
2699GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2700shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2701only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2702
2703The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2704on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2705it prints the address mappings of the process.
2706
2707If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2708bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2709
2710 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2711
2712Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2713now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2714skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2715make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2716same code linked statically.
2717
2718 * New Getopt
2719
2720GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2721version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2722continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2723Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2724added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2725future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2726
2727 * Bugs fixed
2728
2729The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2730Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2731See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2732
2733
2734*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2735
2736 * New machines supported (host and target)
2737
2738Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2739NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2740Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2741
2742 * Almost SCO Unix support
2743
2744We had hoped to support:
2745SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2746(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2747that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2748about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2749
2750 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2751
2752GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2753debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2754is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2755send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2756reqired (if any).
2757
2758 * New Readline
2759
2760GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2761is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2762required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2763
2764 * Bugs fixed
2765
2766The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2767Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2768See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2769
2770 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2771
2772GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2773supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2774symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2775
2776Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2777mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2778debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2779mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2780version 2.
2781
2782Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2783really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2784line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2785variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2786situation somewhat.
2787
2788When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2789However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2790methods.
2791
2792We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2793DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2794encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2795
2796
2797*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2798
2799 * Improved configuration
2800
2801Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2802Porting BFD is simpler.
2803
2804 * Stepping improved
2805
2806The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2807of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2808in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2809function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2810
2811 * Bug fixing
2812
2813Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2814
2815 * New host supported (not target)
2816
2817Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2818
2819
2820*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2821
2822 * Multiple source language support
2823
2824GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2825It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2826and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2827language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2828You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2829`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2830
2831 * GDB and Modula-2
2832
2833GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2834currently under development at the State University of New York at
2835Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2836continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2837
2838Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2839debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2840symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2841
2842There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2843in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2844
2845 * set write on/off
2846
2847GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2848a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2849the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2850by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2851effect immediately.
2852
2853 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2854
2855When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2856shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2857The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2858examining core files.
2859
2860 * set listsize
2861
2862You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2863The default is 10.
2864
2865 * New machines supported (host and target)
2866
2867SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2868Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2869Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2870
2871 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2872
2873IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2874
2875 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2876
2877AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2878AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2879Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2880
2881 * New remote interfaces
2882
2883AMD 29000 Adapt
2884AMD 29000 Minimon
2885
2886
2887*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2888
2889 * New Facilities
2890
2891Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2892
2893Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2894target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2895is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2896remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2897remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2898also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2899using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2900stub on the target system.
2901
2902New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2903
2904GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2905library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2906object file types such as a.out and coff.
2907
2908There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2909refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2910
2911
2912 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2913
2914All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2915by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2916
2917For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2918``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2919Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2920
2921What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2922print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2923will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2924all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2925
2926confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2927 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2928 it is already running. Default is ON.
2929
2930editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2931 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2932 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2933 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2934 Default is ON.
2935
2936history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2937 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2938 or the value of the environment variable
2939 GDBHISTFILE.
2940
2941history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2942 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2943 HISTSIZE.
2944
2945history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2946 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2947 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2948
2949history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2950 history expansion will be performed on
2951 command line input. The default is OFF.
2952
2953radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2954 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2955 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2956
2957height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2958 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2959 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2960 variable TERM.
2961
2962width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2963 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2964 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2965 variable TERM.
2966
2967Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2968``set width'' instead.
2969
2970print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2971 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2972 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2973 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2974
2975print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2976 is OFF.
2977
2978print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2979 "raw" form if off.
2980
2981print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2982 like instructions.
2983
2984print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2985
2986
2987 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2988
2989The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2990new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2991are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2992window.
2993
2994
2995 * Support for Shared Libraries
2996
2997GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2998Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2999before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3000happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3001At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3002from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3003shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3004It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3005
3006sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3007 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3008 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3009
3010info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3011
3012
3013 * Watchpoints
3014
3015A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3016expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3017tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3018quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3019problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3020more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3021
3022watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3023
3024info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3025
3026delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3027disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3028enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3029
3030
3031 * C++ multiple inheritance
3032
3033When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3034for C++ programs.
3035
3036 * C++ exception handling
3037
3038Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3039ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3040the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3041handler's context).
3042
3043catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3044 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3045 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3046
3047info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3048 current stack frame.
3049
3050
3051 * Minor command changes
3052
3053The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3054command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3055is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3056
3057The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3058at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3059frames without printing.
3060
3061 * New directory command
3062
3063'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3064The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3065about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3066with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3067find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3068
3069 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3070
3071For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3072for more details.
3073
3074GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3075two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3076Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3077where the program that you are debugging will run.
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