Add documentation for set/show interactive-mode.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.8
5
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6* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
7dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
8them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
9for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
10"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
11
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12* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
13breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
14or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
15the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
16for tracepoint actions.
17
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18* "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
19in hex as well as in symbolic form."
20
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21* Process record and replay
22
23 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
24 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
25 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
26 execute commands.
27
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28* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
29step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
30set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
31reverse execution.
32
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33* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
34feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
352.6.28 or later.
36
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37* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
38target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
39char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
40literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
41U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
42`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
43system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
44the installation instructions for more information.
45
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46* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
47remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
48with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
49the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
50
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51* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
52and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
53
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54* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
55now complete on file names.
56
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57* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
58completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
59For instance, consider:
60
61 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
62 # struct example variable;
63 (gdb) p variable.
64
65If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
66completions will be "f1" and "f2".
67
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68* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
69the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
70
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71* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
72operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
73macros.
74
47a3467a 75* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
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76the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
77implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
78
79* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
80registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
81can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
82and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 83
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84* New remote packets
85
86qSearch:memory:
87 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
88
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89QStartNoAckMode
90 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
91 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
92 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
93
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94vKill
95 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
96 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
97
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98qXfer:osdata:read
99 Obtains additional operating system information
100
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101qXfer:siginfo:read
102qXfer:siginfo:write
103 Read or write additional signal information.
104
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105* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
106
107 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
108 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
109 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
110
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111* The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
112source+assembly.
113
c055b101 114* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 115DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
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116
117* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
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118and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
119`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 120
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121* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
122with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
123
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124* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
125
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126* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
127
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128* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
129which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
130
1fddbabb 131* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 132list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 133
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134* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
135conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
136have also been fixed.
137
bfb8797a 138* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
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139From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
140are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 141
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142* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
143example, given:
144
145 template<typename T> class C { };
146 C<char const *> c;
147
148GDB will now correctly handle all of:
149
150 ptype C<char const *>
151 ptype C<char const*>
152 ptype C<const char *>
153 ptype C<const char*>
154
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155* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
156
157 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
158 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
159
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160 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
161 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
162 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
163
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164 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
165 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
166
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167 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
168 gdbserver.
169
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170 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
171 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
172
173 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
174 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
175 as appropriate.
176
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177* Python scripting
178
179 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
180 available is determined at configure time.
181
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182 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
183
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184* Ada tasking support
185
186 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
187 been introduced:
188
189 info tasks
190 Print the list of Ada tasks.
191 info task N
192 Print detailed information about task number N.
193 task
194 Print the task number of the current task.
195 task N
196 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
197
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198* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
199add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
200
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201* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
202
203 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
204 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
205 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
206 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
207 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
208 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
209 below.
210
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211* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
212"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
213information.
214
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215* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
216to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
217architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
218See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
219more information.
220
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221* Multi-architecture debugging.
222
223 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
224 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
225 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
226 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
227 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
228
229* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
230use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
231Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
232powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
233--enable-targets configure option.
234
d7713ae0 235* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 236
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237find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
238 val1 [, val2, ...]
239 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
240
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241maint set python print-stack
242maint show python print-stack
243 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
244
245python [CODE]
246 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
247
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248macro define
249macro list
250macro undef
251 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
252 interactively.
253
254info os processes
255 Show operating system information about processes.
256
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257info inferiors
258 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
259
260inferior NUM
261 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
262
263detach inferior NUM
264 Detach from inferior number NUM.
265
266kill inferior NUM
267 Kill inferior number NUM.
268
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269* New options
270
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271set spu stop-on-load
272show spu stop-on-load
273 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
274
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275set spu auto-flush-cache
276show spu auto-flush-cache
277 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
278 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
279
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280set sh calling-convention
281show sh calling-convention
282 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
283
e0a3ce09 284set debug timestamp
75feb17d 285show debug timestamp
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286 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
287
288set disassemble-next-line
289show disassemble-next-line
290 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
291 the debuggee stops.
292
293set remote noack-packet
294show remote noack-packet
295 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
296 under "New remote packets."
297
298set remote query-attached-packet
299show remote query-attached-packet
300 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
301
302set remote read-siginfo-object
303show remote read-siginfo-object
304 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
305 packet.
306
307set remote write-siginfo-object
308show remote write-siginfo-object
309 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
310 packet.
311
312set displaced-stepping
313show displaced-stepping
314 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
315 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
316 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
317
318set debug displaced
319show debug displaced
320 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
321
322maint set internal-error
323maint show internal-error
324 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
325
326maint set internal-warning
327maint show internal-warning
328 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 329
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330set exec-wrapper
331show exec-wrapper
332unset exec-wrapper
333 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 334
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335set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
336show multiple-symbols
337 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
338 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
339 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
340
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341set breakpoint always-inserted
342show breakpoint always-inserted
343 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
344 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
345 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
346
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347set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
348show arm fallback-mode
349set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
350show arm force-mode
351 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
352 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
353 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
354 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
355
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356set disable-randomization
357show disable-randomization
358 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
359 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
360 multiple debugging sessions.
361
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362set non-stop
363show non-stop
364 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
365 a breakpoint.
366
b3eb342c 367set target-async
d7713ae0 368show target-async
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369 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
370 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
371 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
372 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
373
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374set target-wide-charset
375show target-wide-charset
376 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
377 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
378
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379set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
380show tcp auto-retry
381set tcp connect-timeout
382show tcp connect-timeout
383 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
384 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
385 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
386
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387set libthread-db-search-path
388show libthread-db-search-path
389 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
390 libthread_db.
391
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392set schedule-multiple (on|off)
393show schedule-multiple
394 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
395 the current process.
396
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397set stack-cache
398show stack-cache
399 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
400 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
401 affecting correctness.
402
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403set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
404show interactive-mode
405 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
406 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
407 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
408 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
409 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
410
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411* Removed commands
412
413info forks
414 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
415 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
416 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
417 command.
418
419fork NUM
420 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
421 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
422 alias for the `fork' command.
423
424process PID
425 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
426 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
427 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
428
429delete fork NUM
430 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
431 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
432 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
433 fork' command.
434
435detach fork NUM
436 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
437 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
438 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
439 fork' command.
440
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441* New native configurations
442
443x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
444
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445x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
446
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447* New targets
448
c28c63d8 449Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 450x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 451x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 452S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 453
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454* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
455 (mingw32ce) debugging.
456
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457* Removed commands
458
459catch load
460catch unload
461 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
462
75feb17d 463*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 464
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465* New native configurations
466
467NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 468Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
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469
470* New targets
471
472NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 473Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 474
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475* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
476
477 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
478 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
479 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
480 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
481
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482* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
483(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
484
fe6fbf8b 485* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 486is resolved.
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487
488* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
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489including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
490and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 491
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492* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
493accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
494more than one contiguous range of addresses.
495
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496* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
497
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498* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
499registers on PowerPC targets.
500
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501* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
502targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
503
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504* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
505commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
506
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507* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
508extended-remote mode.
509
24a836bd 510* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
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511The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
512error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
513The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 514
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515* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
516building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
517target architectures.
518
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519* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
520Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
521now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
522stored in two consecutive float registers.
523
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524* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
525breakpoints now.
526
b93b6ca7 527* Improved support for debugging Ada
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528Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
529include:
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530 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
531 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
532 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
533 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
534 of an assignment
535 - Improved command completion in Ada
536 - Several bug fixes
537
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538* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
539process.
540
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541* New commands
542
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543set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
544show print frame-arguments
545 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
546 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
547
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548remote put
549remote get
550remote delete
551 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
552
553* New MI commands
554
555-target-file-put
556-target-file-get
557-target-file-delete
558 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
559
560* New remote packets
561
562vFile:open:
563vFile:close:
564vFile:pread:
565vFile:pwrite:
566vFile:unlink:
567 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 568
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569vAttach
570 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
571 mode.
572
573vRun
574 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
575
8d5f9c6f 576*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 577
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578* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
579bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
580Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
581
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582* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
583symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
584-Bsymbolic linker option.
585
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586* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
587recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
588is not supported.
589
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590* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
591frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
592
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593* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
59432-bit or 64-bit register values.
595
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596* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
597
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598* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
599target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
600a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
601
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602* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
603automatically displayed as character or string data.
604
605* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
606arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
607as strings.
e1f48ead 608
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609* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
610for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 611only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 612
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613* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
614iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 615
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616* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
617ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
618has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
619
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620* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
621
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622* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
623
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624* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
625layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
626segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
627
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628* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
629immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
630
cfa9d6d9
DJ
631* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
632"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
633packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
634where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
635Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
636
637* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
638(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
639
640* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
641according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 642
c9bb8148
DJ
643* New commands
644
23776285
MR
645set remoteflow
646show remoteflow
647 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
648 when debugging using remote targets.
649
c9bb8148
DJ
650set mem inaccessible-by-default
651show mem inaccessible-by-default
652 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
653 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
654 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
655 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
656 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
657
658set breakpoint auto-hw
659show breakpoint auto-hw
660 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
661 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
662 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
663 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
664 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
665 including "next" and "finish".
666
0e420bd8
JB
667catch exception
668catch exception unhandled
669 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
670
671catch assert
672 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
673
f822c95b
DJ
674set sysroot
675show sysroot
676 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
677 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
678 an alias to "set sysroot".
679
83cc5c53
UW
680info spu
681 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
682 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
683 architecture.
684
bd372731
MK
685* New native configurations
686
687OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
688
23181151
DJ
689set tdesc filename
690unset tdesc filename
691show tdesc filename
692 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
693 not query the target for its built-in description.
694
c9bb8148
DJ
695* New targets
696
54fe9172 697OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 698MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 699Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 700
6dd09645
JB
701* New remote packets
702
703QPassSignals:
704 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
705 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
706
23181151
DJ
707qXfer:features:read:
708 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
709 features.
6dd09645 710
83cc5c53
UW
711qXfer:spu:read:
712qXfer:spu:write:
713 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
714 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
715
cfa9d6d9
DJ
716qXfer:libraries:read:
717 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
718 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
719 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
720 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
721
483367ee
DJ
722* Removed targets
723
724Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
725
d08950c4
UW
726alpha*-*-osf1*
727alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 728d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
729hppa*-*-hiux*
730i[34567]86-ncr-*
731i[34567]86-*-dgux*
732i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
733i[34567]86-*-netware*
734i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
735i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
736i[34567]86-*-sco*
737i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
738i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
739i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
740i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
741i[34567]86-*-unixware*
742i[34567]86-*-sysv*
743i[34567]86-*-isc*
744m68*-cisco*-*
745m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 746mips*-*-pe
483367ee 747rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 748sh*-*-pe
483367ee 749
7ce59000
DJ
750* Other removed features
751
752target abug
753target cpu32bug
754target est
755target rom68k
756
757 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
758
ea35711c
DJ
759target hms
760target e7000
761target sh3
762target sh3e
763
764 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
765 H8/300.
766
767target ocd
768
769 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
770 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
771 interfaces.
772
7ce59000
DJ
773DWARF 1 support
774
775 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
776 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
777
54d61198
DJ
778Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
779
780 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
781 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
782 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
783 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
784
ea35711c
DJ
785MIPS ".pdr" sections
786
787 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
788 in debugging information.
789
790Scheme support
791
792 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
793 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
794
1a69e1e4
DJ
795set mips stack-arg-size
796set mips saved-gpreg-size
797
798 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
799
6dd09645 800*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 801
ca3bf3bd
DJ
802* New targets
803
804Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 805Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 806
6aec2e11
DJ
807* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
808(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
809running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
810
811* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
812Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
813supported.
814
17218d91
DJ
815* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
816broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
817
9ebce043
DJ
818* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
819stub provides the required support.
820
7d3d3ece
DJ
821* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
822longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
823
4f8253f3
JB
824* New commands
825
826set substitute-path
827unset substitute-path
828show substitute-path
829 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
830 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
831 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
832 between compilation and debugging.
833
9fa66fd7
AS
834set trace-commands
835show trace-commands
836 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
837 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
838 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
839
1f5befc1
DJ
840* REMOVED features
841
842The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
843
2ec3381a
DJ
844Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
845an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
846
3d00d119
DJ
847The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
848
be2a5f71
DJ
849* New remote packets
850
851qSupported:
852 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
853 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
854 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
855 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
856 target.
857
0876f84a
DJ
858qXfer:auxv:read:
859 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
860 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
861
9ebce043
DJ
862qXfer:memory-map:read:
863 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
864 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
865
866vFlashErase:
867vFlashWrite:
868vFlashDone:
869 Erase and program a flash memory device.
870
0876f84a
DJ
871* Removed remote packets
872
873qPart:auxv:read:
874 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
875 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
876
e374b601 877*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 878
96309189
MS
879* New targets
880
881Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
882
883Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
884
53e5f3cf
AS
885* New commands
886
887init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
888 only if it doesn't already have a value.
889
ac264b3b
MS
890The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
891
892checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
893
894restart <n> Return the program state to a
895 previously saved state.
896
897info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
898
899delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
900
901set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
902 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
903
904info forks List forks of the user program that
905 are available to be debugged.
906
907fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
908 forks of the user program that are
909 available to be debugged.
910
911delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
912 that are available to be debugged (and
913 kill the forked process).
914
915detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
916 that are available to be debugged (and
917 allow the process to continue).
918
3950dc3f
NS
919* New architecture
920
921Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
922
0ea3f30e
DJ
923* Improved Windows host support
924
925GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
926native console support, and remote communications using either
927network sockets or serial ports.
928
f79daebb
GM
929* Improved Modula-2 language support
930
931GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
932basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
933pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
934printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
935written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
936GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
937
acab6ab2
MM
938* REMOVED features
939
940The ARM rdi-share module.
941
f4267320
DJ
942The Netware NLM debug server.
943
53e5f3cf 944*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 945
e0ecbda1
MK
946* New native configurations
947
02a677ac 948OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
949OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
950
d64a6579
KB
951* New targets
952
953Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
954
b33a6190
AS
955* New command line options
956
957--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
958--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
959 the child (debugged) program exited with.
960--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
961 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
962 specified multiple times and in conjunction
963 with the --command (-x) option.
964
11dced61
AC
965* Deprecated commands removed
966
967The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
968removed:
969
970 Command Replacement
971 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
972 othernames set arm disassembler
973 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
974 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
975 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
976 regs info registers
977
6fe85783
MK
978* New BSD user-level threads support
979
980It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
981library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
982configurations are:
983
984FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
985FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
986OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
987
988Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
989are not yet supported.
990
5260ca71
MS
991* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
992(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
993
e84ecc99
AC
994* REMOVED configurations and files
995
996VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 997Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 998National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 999
31e35378
JB
1000* New "set print array-indexes" command
1001
1002After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1003when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1004behavior.
1005
e85e5c83
MK
1006* VAX floating point support
1007
1008GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1009
d91e9901
AS
1010* User-defined command support
1011
1012In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1013to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1014section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1015
f2cb65ca
MC
1016*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1017
f47b1503
AS
1018* New command line option
1019
1020GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1021debugging.
1022
f2cb65ca
MC
1023* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1024
1025GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1026information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1027by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1028proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1029to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 1030
d08c0230
AC
1031* Internationalization
1032
1033When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1034internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1035continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1036
117ea3cf
PH
1037* Ada
1038
1039Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1040implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1041into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1042
d08c0230
AC
1043* New native configurations
1044
1045GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1046
1047* Remote 'p' packet
1048
1049GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1050packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1051
1052* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1053
1054GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1055The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1056features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1057i386 application).
1058
1059GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1060compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1061continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1062configurations:
1063
1064hppa-*-hpux
1065ia64-*-aix
1066mips-*-irix*
1067*-*-lynx
1068mips-*-linux-gnu
1069sds protocol
1070xdr protocol
1071powerpc bdm protocol
1072
1073Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1074made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1075
1076* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1077
1078Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1079been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1080configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1081permanently REMOVED.
1082
1083h8300-*-*
1084mcore-*-*
1085mn10300-*-*
1086ns32k-*-*
1087sh64-*-*
1088v850-*-*
1089
ebb7c577
AC
1090*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1091
1092* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1093
1094When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1095heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1096been fixed.
1097
1098* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1099
1100When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1101fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1102IRIX long double values).
1103
1104* VAX and "next"
1105
1106A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1107command. This problem has been fixed.
1108
860660cb 1109*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 1110
0dea2468
AC
1111* Fix for ``many threads''
1112
1113On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1114rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1115error message:
1116
1117 ptrace: No such process.
1118 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1119
1120This problem has been fixed.
1121
2c07db7a
AC
1122* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1123
1124Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1125GDB to dump core).
1126
c23968a2
JB
1127* New ``start'' command.
1128
1129This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1130
71009278
MK
1131* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1132
1133Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1134live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1135platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1136
1137FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1138FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1139NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1140NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1141NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1142OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1143OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1144OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1145OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1146
3c0b7db2
AC
1147* Signal trampoline code overhauled
1148
1149Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1150These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1151of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1152call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1153signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1154
73cc75f3
AC
1155Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1156features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1157include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 1158
7243600a
BF
1159* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1160
6f606e1c
MK
1161* New native configurations
1162
97dc871c 1163GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 1164OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
1165OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1166OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 1167OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1168NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 1169OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1170
a1b461bf
AC
1171* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1172
1173GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1174The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1175including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1176migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1177compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1178work, was also included.
1179
1180GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1181module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1182
1183h8300-*-*
1184mcore-*-*
1185mn10300-*-*
1186ns32k-*-*
1187sh64-*-*
1188v850-*-*
1189xstormy16-*-*
1190
1191Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1192made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1193
3c7012f5
AC
1194* REMOVED configurations and files
1195
1196Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1197Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1198Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1199Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1200Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1201AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1202Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1203decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1204riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1205sonymips mips-sony-*
1206sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1207
e5fe55f7
AC
1208*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1209
1210* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1211
1212The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1213GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1214command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1215program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1216with GDB".
1217
1218* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1219
1220Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1221libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1222cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1223GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1224shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1225the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1226are created.
1227
1228Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1229
1230* Fixed ISO-C build problems
1231
1232The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1233non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1234compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1235
1236* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1237
1238Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1239wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1240
1241* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1242
1243The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1244permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1245systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1246
1247* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1248
1249Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1250has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1251
1252* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1253
1254GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1255its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1256panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1257
1258* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1259
1260When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1261by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1262not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1263
faae5abe 1264*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 1265
9175c9a3
MC
1266* Removed --with-mmalloc
1267
1268Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1269conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1270
3cc87ec0
MK
1271* Changes in AMD64 configurations
1272
1273The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1274the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1275and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1276you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1277
f0424ef6
MK
1278* Revised SPARC target
1279
1280The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1281FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
1282support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1283from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1284(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 1285
59659be2
ILT
1286* New C++ demangler
1287
1288GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1289names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1290with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1291programs.
1292
9e08b29b
DJ
1293* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1294
1295GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1296arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1297encountered these.
1298
8dfe8985
DC
1299* C++ nested types and namespaces
1300
1301GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1302improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1303is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1304Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1305namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1306"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1307frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1308if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1309GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1310
cced5e27
MK
1311* New native configurations
1312
1313NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 1314OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 1315OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
1316OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1317OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 1318
b4b4b794
KI
1319* New debugging protocols
1320
1321M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1322
7989c619
AC
1323* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1324
1325The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1326and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1327tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1328
5994185b
AC
1329* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1330
1331Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1332been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1333configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1334permanently REMOVED.
1335
1336Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1337Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1338Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1339Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1340Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1341AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1342Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
1343decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1344riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1345sonymips mips-sony-*
1346sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 1347
0ddabb4c
AC
1348* REMOVED configurations and files
1349
1350SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1351SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
1352Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1353Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1354H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1355HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1356HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1357HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1358PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 1359386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
1360Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1361 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1362 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
1363SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1364SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
1365Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1366Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 1367
c7f1390e
DJ
1368*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1369
1fe43d45
AC
1370* Objective-C
1371
1372Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1373integrated into GDB.
1374
e6beb428
AC
1375* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1376
1377DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1378information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1379By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1380backtraces.
1381
1382The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1383have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1384DWARF 2 CFI support.
1385
1386* Hosted file I/O.
1387
1388GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1389file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1390remote protocol documentation for details.
1391
1392* All targets using the new architecture framework.
1393
1394All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1395architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1396to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1397ppc32 on ppc64).
1398
1399* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1400
1401GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1402per-thread variables.
1403
1404* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1405
1406GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1407GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1408
1409* Separate debug info.
1410
1411GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1412automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1413of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1414system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1415and optional debug files.
1416
1417* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1418
1419DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1420describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1421debugger.
1422
1423GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1424for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1425
1426* Java
1427
1428A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1429Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1430considered "useable".
1431
85f8f974
DJ
1432* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1433
1434The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1435commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1436kernel.
1437
0fac0b41
DJ
1438* GDB supports logging output to a file
1439
1440There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1441used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 1442
6ad8ae5c
DJ
1443* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1444
1445The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1446disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1447command.
1448
e286caf2 1449* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
1450
1451The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1452registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1453
d28f9cdf
DJ
1454* Profiling support
1455
1456A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1457be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1458session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1459"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1460data, for more informative profiling results.
1461
da0f9dcd
AC
1462* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1463
1464The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1465option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 1466"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
1467
1468Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1469removed.
1470
fb9b6b35
JJ
1471Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1472Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1473Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1474 in a subsequent -var-update.
1475
954a4db8
MK
1476* New native configurations.
1477
1478FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1479
6760f9e6
JB
1480* Multi-arched targets.
1481
b4263afa 1482HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 1483Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 1484
1b831c93
AC
1485* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1486
1487Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1488been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1489configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1490permanently REMOVED.
1491
8b0e5691 1492Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 1493Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 1494H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
1495HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1496HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1497HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 1498PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
1499Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1500 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1501 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
1502Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1503Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 1504
5835abe7
NC
1505* REMOVED configurations and files
1506
1507V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
1508Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1509IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1510i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1511i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1512i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1513HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1514 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1515 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1516Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1517Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1518Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1519OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1520I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 1521
a094c6fb
AC
1522* MIPS $fp behavior changed
1523
1524The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1525the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1526context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1527address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1528The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1529
299ffc64 1530*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 1531
46248966
AC
1532* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1533
1534When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1535`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1536in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1537library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1538shared libs like mad''.
1539
b9d14705 1540* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 1541
b9d14705
DJ
1542Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1543the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1544arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1545powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 1546
e0e9281e
JB
1547* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1548
1549GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1550and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1551they expand.
1552
dd73b9bb
AC
1553The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1554invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1555
1556The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1557macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1558
e0e9281e
JB
1559Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1560information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1561your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1562information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1563
2250ee0c
CV
1564* Multi-arched targets.
1565
6e3ba3b8
JT
1566DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1567DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 1568NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 1569National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
1570Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1571Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 1572
cd9bfe15 1573* New targets.
e33ce519 1574
456f8b9d
DB
1575Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1576
e33ce519 1577
da8ca43d
JT
1578* New native configurations
1579
1580Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 1581SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 1582MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 1583UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 1584
cd9bfe15
AC
1585* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1586
1587Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1588been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1589configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1590permanently REMOVED.
1591
92eb23c5 1592Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 1593OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 1594IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 1595Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 1596Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 1597Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
1598i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1599i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1600i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
1601HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1602 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1603 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 1604I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 1605
db034ac5
AC
1606* OBSOLETE languages
1607
1608CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1609
cd9bfe15
AC
1610* REMOVED configurations and files
1611
1612AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1613A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1614AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1615AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1616AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1617
1618testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1619
20f01a46
DH
1620* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1621
1622This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1623commands. The default is 1024.
1624
a5941fbf
MK
1625* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1626
1627Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1628
89743e04
MS
1629* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1630
1631These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1632to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1633from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 1634
9fb14e79
JB
1635* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1636
1637The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1638including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1639of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1640
2037aebb
AC
1641*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1642
1643* New targets.
1644
1645Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
1646
1647* Bug fixes
1648
1649gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1650mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1651Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1652
1653gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1654dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1655Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1656
1657Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1658Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1659By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1660
1661i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1662avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1663By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1664
37057839 1665*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 1666
1a703748
MS
1667* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1668
1669This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1670really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1671In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1672target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1673This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1674(notably embedded) targets.
1675
cefd4ef5
MS
1676* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1677
55241689
AC
1678This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1679process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1680GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1681hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 1682
352ed7b4
MS
1683* New command line option
1684
1685GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1686
1687* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1688
1689There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1690command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1691a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1692be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1693open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1694issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1695a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1696it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1697GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1698is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1699
fe419ffc
RE
1700* Changes in ARM configurations.
1701
1702Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1703configuration is fully multi-arch.
1704
eb7cedd9
MK
1705* New native configurations
1706
fe419ffc 1707ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 1708x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 1709AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 1710Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 1711
c9f63e6b
CV
1712* New targets
1713
1714Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1715
9b4ff276
AC
1716* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1717
1718Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1719been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1720configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1721permanently REMOVED.
1722
1723AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1724A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1725AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1726AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1727AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1728
b4ceaee6 1729testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 1730
e2caac18
AC
1731* REMOVED configurations and files
1732
1733TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 1734WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
1735PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1736PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1737PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 1738Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
1739Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1740 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 1741SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 1742Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
1743Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1744ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 1745Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 1746
c2a727fa
TT
1747* Changes to command line processing
1748
1749The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1750for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1751
467d8519
TT
1752* Changes to key bindings
1753
1754There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1755
7072a954
AC
1756*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1757
1758Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1759
1760Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1761corrupted.
1762
1763Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1764
1765Numerous documentation fixes.
1766
1767Numerous testsuite fixes.
1768
34f47bc4 1769*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
1770
1771* New native configurations
1772
1773Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1774x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 1775MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
1776MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1777ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 1778s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 1779
bf64bfd6
AC
1780* New targets
1781
def90278 1782Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 1783CRIS cris-axis
55241689 1784UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 1785
17e78a56 1786* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
1787
1788x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 1789Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
1790Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1791 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
1792TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1793WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 1794Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
1795PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1796PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1797PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 1798SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
1799Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1800ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 1801Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 1802
17e78a56
AC
1803stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1804kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1805
7fcca85b
AC
1806Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1807been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1808configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1809permanently REMOVED.
1810
a196c81c 1811* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
1812
1813Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1814Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1815Pyramid pyramid-*-*
1816ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1817Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 1818ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 1819
6d6b80e5 1820* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 1821
6d6b80e5 1822GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
1823sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1824present.
1825
bf64bfd6
AC
1826* Other news:
1827
e23194cb
EZ
1828* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1829
1830* The MI enabled by default.
1831
1832The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1833revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1834engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1835using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1836which is now deprecated.
1837
1838* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1839
1840GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1841main features are supported:
1842
1843 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1844
1845 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1846 extension;
1847
1848 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1849
1850 - a Pascal expression parser.
1851
1852However, some important features are not yet supported.
1853
1854 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1855
1856 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1857
1858 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1859 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1860
1861 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1862
1863 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1864
1865* Changes in completion.
1866
1867Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1868to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1869users expect at the shell prompt.
1870
1871Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1872`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1873program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1874files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1875be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1876considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1877name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1878
1879`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1880
1881* New platform-independent commands:
1882
1883It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1884hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1885documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1886
1887* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1888
d7275149
MK
1889Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1890revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1891many threads as your system allows you to have.
1892
e23194cb
EZ
1893Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1894
d7275149
MK
1895Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1896multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
1897
1898* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
1899
1900Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1901
e23194cb
EZ
1902GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1903debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1904supported.)
1905
1906* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1907
1908Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1909breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1910implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1911put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1912and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1913registers.
1914
1915The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1916debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1917watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1918
1919* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1920
1921New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1922the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1923
1924New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1925display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1926IDT.
1927
1928New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1929from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1930New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1931a given linear address.
1932
1933GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1934program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1935which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1936
1937DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1938
6c56c069
EZ
1939It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1940
e23194cb
EZ
1941* Changes in documentation.
1942
1943All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1944Documentation License.
1945
1946Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1947manual.
1948
1949TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1950
1951Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1952manual.
1953
1954The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1955documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1956hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1957
5d6640b1
AC
1958* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1959
1960The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1961``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1962contents of this file.
1963
1a1d8446
AC
1964* gdba.el deleted
1965
1966GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 1967
9debab2f 1968*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 1969
c63ce875
EZ
1970* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1971
1972Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1973programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1974displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1975greater level of detail.
1976
1977* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1978
1979It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1980bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1981on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1982written.
1983
1984* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1985
1986The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1987necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1988machines ``out of the box''.
1989
1990The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1991possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1992signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1993would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1994interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1995
1996It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1997standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1998even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1999and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2000terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2001
2002The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2003enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2004also works.
2005
2006DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2007GDB.
2008
2009It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2010directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2011times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2012breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2013
ed9a39eb
JM
2014* New native configurations
2015
2016ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 2017PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 2018
7a292a7a
SS
2019* New targets
2020
96baa820 2021Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
2022x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2023PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
2024TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2025
085dd6e6
JM
2026* OBSOLETE configurations
2027
2028Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2029Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 2030Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 2031ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 2032Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 2033
9debab2f
AC
2034Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2035but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2036these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2037be permanently REMOVED.
2038
5330533d
SS
2039* Gould support removed
2040
2041Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2042
bc9e5bbf
AC
2043* New features for SVR4
2044
2045On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2046without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2047load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2048
2049* Many C++ enhancements
2050
2051C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2052in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2053
adf40b2e
JM
2054* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2055
2056A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2057sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2058with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2059``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2060
2061 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2062 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2063
43e526b9
JM
2064* MIPS 64 remote protocol
2065
2066A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2067expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2068instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2069
2070The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2071added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2072
96baa820
JM
2073* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2074
2075The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2076``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2077include ``set remote P-packet''.
2078
11cf8741
JM
2079* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2080
2081The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2082accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2083``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2084
7876dd43
DB
2085* ``apropos'' command added.
2086
2087The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2088documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2089try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2090
bc9e5bbf
AC
2091* New MI interface
2092
2093A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2094interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
2095process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2096"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2097enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
2098
2099 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2100
c906108c
SS
2101*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2102
2103* New native configurations
2104
2105HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2106HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 2107M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
2108
2109* New targets
2110
2111Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2112Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2113Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2114
2115* OBSOLETE configurations
2116
2117Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2118
2119Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2120but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2121these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2122be permanently REMOVED.
2123
2124* ANSI/ISO C
2125
2126As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2127buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2128containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2129use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2130available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2131configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2132information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2133already.
2134
2135* Readline 2.2
2136
2137GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2138
2139* set extension-language
2140
2141You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2142languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2143you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2144 set extension-language .c c++
2145The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2146and their associated languages.
2147
2148* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2149
2150When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2151you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2152PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2153
2154 set processor NAME
2155
2156sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2157following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2158
2159 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2160 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2161 403 IBM PowerPC 403
2162 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2163 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2164 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2165 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2166 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2167 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2168 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2169 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2170
2171At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2172special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2173registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2174only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2175
2176* HP-UX support
2177
2178Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2179more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2180library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2181support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2182for xdb and dbx commands.
2183
2184* Catchpoints
2185
2186HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2187generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2188to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2189
2190This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2191argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2192output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2193
2194* Debugging across forks
2195
2196On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2197in the inferior.
2198
2199* TUI
2200
2201HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2202it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2203configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2204
2205* GDB remote protocol additions
2206
2207A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2208Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2209fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2210allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2211
2212For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2213full 64-bit address. The command
2214
2215 set remoteaddresssize 32
2216
2217can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2218the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2219will be discarded.
2220
2221In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2222command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2223
2224 maint packet heythere
2225
2226sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2227disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2228time.
2229
2230The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2231target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2232downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2233
2234* Tracing can collect general expressions
2235
2236You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2237further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2238doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2239
2240* mask-address variable for Mips
2241
2242For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2243a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2244of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2245
2246* Higher serial baud rates
2247
2248GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2249230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2250to achieve all of these rates.)
2251
2252* i960 simulator
2253
2254The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2255builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2256
2257
2258*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2259
2260* New native configurations
2261
2262Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2263Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2264Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2265PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2266PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2267Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2268Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2269
2270* New targets
2271
2272Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2273Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2274Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2275Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2276MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2277MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2278MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2279Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2280Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2281Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2282NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2283
2284* New debugging protocols
2285
2286ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2287M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2288DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2289PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2290PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2291Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2292
2293* DWARF 2
2294
2295All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2296format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2297information.
2298
2299* Java frontend
2300
2301GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2302only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2303
2304* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2305
2306For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2307loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2308locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2309
2310* Live range splitting
2311
2312GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2313range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2314more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2315
2316* Hurd support
2317
2318GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2319updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2320
2321* ARM Thumb support
2322
2323GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2324instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2325instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2326accordingly.
2327
2328* MIPS16 support
2329
2330GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2331instruction set.
2332
2333* Overlay support
2334
2335GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2336linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2337will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2338control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2339additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2340in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2341
2342* info symbol
2343
2344The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2345the symbol at the specified address.
2346
2347* Trace support
2348
2349The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2350asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2351extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2352includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2353file tracepoint.c for more details.
2354
2355* MIPS simulator
2356
2357Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2358by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2359of most MIPS variants.
2360
2361* Sparc simulator
2362
2363Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2364by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2365Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2366
2367* set architecture
2368
2369For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2370basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2371architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2372the possible architectures.
2373
2374*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2375
2376* New native configurations
2377
2378Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2379M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2380PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2381PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2382PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2383RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2384
2385* New targets
2386
2387ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2388I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2389MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2390MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2391PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2392Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
2393Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2394
2395* PowerPC simulator
2396
2397The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2398contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2399PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2400basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2401performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2402
2403* Solaris 2.5
2404
2405GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2406
2407* Windows 95/NT native
2408
2409GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2410To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2411which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2412Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2413ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2414
2415* dont-repeat command
2416
2417If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2418command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2419useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2420extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2421
2422* Send break instead of ^C
2423
2424The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2425rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2426GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2427
2428* Remote protocol timeout
2429
2430The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2431that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2432to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2433
2434* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2435
2436By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2437loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2438stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2439when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2440in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2441
2442Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2443/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2444automatically on hpux10.
2445
2446* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2447
2448Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2449
2450* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2451
2452When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2453may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2454the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2455every character. The default value is 1050.
2456
2457* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2458
2459If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2460a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2461replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2462details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2463remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2464to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2465
2466* Speedups for remote debugging
2467
2468GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2469the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2470and more efficient S-record downloading.
2471
2472* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2473
2474GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2475Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2476
2477*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2478
2479* Psymtabs for XCOFF
2480
2481The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2482can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2483
2484* Remote targets use caching
2485
2486Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2487remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2488it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2489debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2490off' turns the the data cache off.
2491
2492* Remote targets may have threads
2493
2494The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2495in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2496gdb/remote.c for details.
2497
2498* NetROM support
2499
2500If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2501support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2502acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2503write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2504support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2505another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2506sequence is something like
2507
2508 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2509 load <prog>
2510 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2511
2512* Macintosh host
2513
2514GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2515may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2516it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2517available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2518device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2519directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2520scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2521mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2522
2523* Autoconf
2524
2525GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2526but does simplify configuration and building.
2527
2528* hpux10
2529
2530GDB now supports hpux10.
2531
2532*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2533
2534* New native configurations
2535
2536x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2537x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2538NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2539Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2540
2541* New targets
2542
2543A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2544HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2545CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2546PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2547WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2548
2549* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2550
2551GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2552possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2553filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2554the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2555if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2556
2557* Arguments to user-defined commands
2558
2559User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2560Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2561trivial example:
2562define adder
2563 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2564
2565To execute the command use:
2566adder 1 2 3
2567
2568Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2569Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2570use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2571
2572* New `if' and `while' commands
2573
2574This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2575commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2576expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2577execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2578terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2579`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2580if the expression is zero.
2581
2582* Fortran source language mode
2583
2584GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2585Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2586variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2587with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2588Fortran compilers.
2589
2590* Better HPUX support
2591
2592Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2593running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2594processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2595for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2596that behavior do the following before running the program:
2597
2598 adb -w a.out
2599 __dld_flags?W 0x5
2600 control-d
2601
2602This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2603To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2604
2605 adb -w a.out
2606 __dld_flags?W 0x4
2607 control-d
2608
2609You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2610the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2611external linkage.
2612
2613GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2614HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2615
2616* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2617
2618You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2619commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2620current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2621"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2622associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2623configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2624
2625* New DOS host serial code
2626
2627This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2628no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2629a PC's serial port.
2630
2631*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2632
2633* New "complete" command
2634
2635This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2636were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2637
2638* Trailing space optional in prompt
2639
2640"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2641allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2642
2643* Breakpoint hit counts
2644
2645"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2646has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2647can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2648to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2649less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2650that breakpoint.
2651
2652* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2653
2654"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2655an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2656arrays actually contain only short strings.
2657
2658* Shared library breakpoints
2659
2660In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2661breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2662
2663* Hardware watchpoints
2664
2665There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2666targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2667
55241689 2668Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
2669
2670* Annotations
2671
2672Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2673and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2674
2675* Improved Irix 5 support
2676
2677GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2678
2679* Improved HPPA support
2680
2681GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2682
2683* New native configurations
2684
2685Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2686HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2687Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2688RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2689
2690* New targets
2691
2692OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2693MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2694Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
2695
2696* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2697
2698There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2699This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2700
2701* Fixes
2702
2703As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2704and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2705
2706*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2707
2708* Irix 5 is now supported
2709
2710* HPPA support
2711
2712GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2713to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2714GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2715of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2716can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2717
2718
2719*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2720
2721* User visible changes:
2722
2723* Remote Debugging
2724
2725The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2726target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2727debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2728integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2729debugging info for the mips target).
2730
2731* DEC Alpha native support
2732
2733GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2734debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2735work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2736Alpha-specific notes.
2737
2738* Preliminary thread implementation
2739
2740GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2741
2742* LynxOS native and target support for 386
2743
2744This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2745to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2746for details).
2747
2748* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2749
2750This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2751mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2752call methods, ...etc.
2753
2754*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2755
2756 * User visible changes:
2757
2758Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2759supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2760other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2761somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2762
2763Filename completion now works.
2764
2765When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2766arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2767addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2768
2769All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2770vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2771should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2772your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2773to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2774
2775 * DEC alpha support
2776
2777This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2778cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2779
2780
2781*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2782
2783 * Testsuite
2784
2785This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2786The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2787via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2788
2789 * C++ demangling
2790
2791'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2792emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2793Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2794disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2795use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2796
2797 * Simulators
2798
2799GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2800So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2801Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2802
2803 * New targets supported
2804
2805H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2806H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2807SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2808Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2809IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2810
2811Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2812version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2813GO32 memory extender.
2814
2815 * New remote protocols
2816
2817MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2818
2819 * New source languages supported
2820
2821This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2822used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2823into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2824
2825
2826*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2827
2828 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2829
2830GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2831version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2832University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2833compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2834format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2835(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2836
2837Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2838
2839 * Faster and better demangling
2840
2841We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2842demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2843character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2844only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2845This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2846increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2847symbol lookups.
2848
2849`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2850from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2851compiler does not actually implement.
2852
2853 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2854
2855In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2856inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2857recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2858very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2859The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2860circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2861fix.
2862
2863The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2864release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2865
2866 * Improved configure script
2867
2868The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2869you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2870host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2871done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2872
2873We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2874version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2875`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2876The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2877only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2878We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2879
2880 * Documentation improvements
2881
2882There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2883produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2884before submitting changes.
2885
2886The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2887M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2888`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2889you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2890a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2891
2892*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2893We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2894been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2895or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2896`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2897around this problem.
2898
2899 * New features
2900
2901GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2902the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2903`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2904the target program.
2905
2906The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2907how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2908
2909 * New native hosts supported
2910
2911HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2912386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2913
2914 * New targets supported
2915
2916AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2917
2918 * New file formats supported
2919
2920BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2921HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2922
2923 * Major bug fixes
2924
2925Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2926
2927We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2928printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2929
2930We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2931for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2932release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2933
2934You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2935will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2936
2937We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2938for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2939especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2940libraries.
2941
2942The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2943information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2944command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2945any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2946when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2947
2948 * Internal improvements
2949
2950GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2951debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2952
2953GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2954Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2955symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2956contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2957shared code that handles any of them.
2958
2959 * New command line options
2960
2961We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2962
2963 * Mmalloc licensing
2964
2965The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2966General Public License.
2967
2968*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2969
2970 * Host/native/target split
2971
2972GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2973hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2974target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2975local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2976ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2977
2978The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2979GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2980is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2981code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2982any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2983built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2984handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2985
2986GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2987It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2988plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2989
2990 * New hosts supported
2991
2992HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2993386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2994386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2995
2996 * New targets supported
2997
2998Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
299968030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3000
3001 * New native hosts supported
3002
3003386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3004 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3005386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3006
3007 * New file formats supported
3008
3009BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3010supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3011format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3012
3013 * New commands
3014
3015`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3016`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3017These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3018
3019`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3020
3021You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3022scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3023prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3024executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3025
3026 * C++ improvements
3027
3028We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3029info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3030symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3031
3032Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3033
3034 * Major bug fixes
3035
3036The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3037fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3038by the compiler.
3039
3040We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3041support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3042
3043John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3044slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3045that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3046purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3047the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3048mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3049
3050Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3051about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3052completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3053we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3054
3055 * AMD 29k support
3056
3057A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3058specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3059calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3060usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3061in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3062
3063We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3064Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3065of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3066resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3067
3068 * Remote interfaces
3069
3070We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3071with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3072message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3073This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3074needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3075breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3076each instruction being stepped through.
3077
3078The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3079registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3080
3081There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3082find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3083Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3084processor with a serial port.
3085
3086 * Configuration
3087
3088Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3089`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3090supported, and what files each one uses.
3091
3092 * Library changes
3093
3094There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3095disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3096Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3097disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3098
3099The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3100Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3101can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3102grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3103
3104 * Documentation
3105
3106The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3107reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3108as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3109encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3110system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3111bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3112
3113And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3114
3115
3116*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3117
3118 * Better support for C++ function names
3119
3120GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3121names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3122(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3123single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3124Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3125
3126GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3127the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3128You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3129lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3130for the list of formats.
3131
3132 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3133
3134Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3135C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3136directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3137can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3138usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3139about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3140this problem.)
3141
3142 * New 'maintenance' command
3143
3144All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3145the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3146can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3147
3148 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3149 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3150 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3151 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3152 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3153 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3154
3155The following commands are new:
3156
3157 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3158 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3159 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3160
3161 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3162
3163We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3164(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3165be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3166read after argv processing.
3167
3168 * New hosts supported
3169
3170Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3171
55241689 3172GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
3173
3174We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3175is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3176for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3177masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3178fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3179It costs extra.
3180
3181 * New targets supported
3182
3183Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3184
3185 * More smarts about finding #include files
3186
3187GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3188all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3189greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3190especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3191the one that contains your sources.
3192
3193We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3194breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3195try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3196
3197 * Interesting infernals change
3198
3199GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3200section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3201target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3202stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3203
3204 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3205
3206There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3207 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3208 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3209
3210See the ChangeLog for details.
3211
3212*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3213
3214 * New machines supported (host and target)
3215
3216IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3217
3218SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3219
3220 * New malloc package
3221
3222GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3223Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3224capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3225This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3226pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3227more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3228
3229 * info proc
3230
3231The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3232'help info proc' for details.
3233
3234 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3235
3236The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3237Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3238possible.
3239
3240 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3241
3242Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3243support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3244conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3245environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3246that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3247in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3248
3249 * Cross byte order fixes
3250
3251Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3252targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3253
3254 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3255
3256If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3257system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3258`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3259program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3260called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3261Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3262and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3263the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3264option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3265starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3266
3267You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3268the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3269information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3270slower, but makes future operations faster.
3271
3272The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3273build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3274A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3275use is:
3276
3277 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3278
3279The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3280It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3281shared across multiple host platforms.
3282
3283 * longjmp() handling
3284
3285GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3286siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3287all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3288platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3289
3290 * Solaris 2.0
3291
3292Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3293this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3294reading symbols.
3295
3296 * Bug fixes
3297
3298As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3299People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3300crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3301
3302*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3303
3304 * New machines supported (host and target)
3305
3306SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3307 (except core files)
3308BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3309Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3310
3311 * New machines supported (target)
3312
3313AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3314
3315 * C++ support
3316
3317GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3318The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3319per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3320
3321GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3322`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3323extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3324good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3325will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3326released.
3327
3328 * New features for SVR4
3329
3330GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3331shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3332only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3333
3334The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3335on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3336it prints the address mappings of the process.
3337
3338If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3339bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3340
3341 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3342
3343Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3344now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3345skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3346make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3347same code linked statically.
3348
3349 * New Getopt
3350
3351GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3352version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3353continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3354Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3355added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3356future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3357
3358 * Bugs fixed
3359
3360The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3361Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3362See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3363
3364
3365*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3366
3367 * New machines supported (host and target)
3368
3369Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3370NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3371Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3372
3373 * Almost SCO Unix support
3374
3375We had hoped to support:
3376SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3377(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3378that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3379about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3380
3381 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3382
3383GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3384debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3385is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3386send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3387reqired (if any).
3388
3389 * New Readline
3390
3391GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3392is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3393required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3394
3395 * Bugs fixed
3396
3397The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3398Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3399See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3400
3401 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3402
3403GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3404supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3405symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3406
3407Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3408mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3409debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3410mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3411version 2.
3412
3413Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3414really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3415line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3416variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3417situation somewhat.
3418
3419When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3420However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3421methods.
3422
3423We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3424DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3425encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3426
3427
3428*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3429
3430 * Improved configuration
3431
3432Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3433Porting BFD is simpler.
3434
3435 * Stepping improved
3436
3437The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3438of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3439in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3440function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3441
3442 * Bug fixing
3443
3444Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3445
3446 * New host supported (not target)
3447
3448Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3449
3450
3451*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3452
3453 * Multiple source language support
3454
3455GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3456It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3457and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3458language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3459You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3460`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3461
3462 * GDB and Modula-2
3463
3464GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3465currently under development at the State University of New York at
3466Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3467continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3468
3469Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3470debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3471symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3472
3473There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3474in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3475
3476 * set write on/off
3477
3478GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3479a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3480the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3481by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3482effect immediately.
3483
3484 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3485
3486When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3487shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3488The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3489examining core files.
3490
3491 * set listsize
3492
3493You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3494The default is 10.
3495
3496 * New machines supported (host and target)
3497
3498SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3499Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3500Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3501
3502 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3503
3504IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3505
3506 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3507
3508AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3509AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3510Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3511
3512 * New remote interfaces
3513
3514AMD 29000 Adapt
3515AMD 29000 Minimon
3516
3517
3518*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3519
3520 * New Facilities
3521
3522Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3523
3524Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3525target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3526is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3527remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3528remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3529also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3530using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3531stub on the target system.
3532
3533New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3534
3535GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3536library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3537object file types such as a.out and coff.
3538
3539There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3540refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3541
3542
3543 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3544
3545All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3546by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3547
3548For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3549``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3550Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3551
3552What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3553print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3554will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3555all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3556
3557confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3558 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3559 it is already running. Default is ON.
3560
3561editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3562 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3563 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3564 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3565 Default is ON.
3566
3567history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3568 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3569 or the value of the environment variable
3570 GDBHISTFILE.
3571
3572history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3573 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3574 HISTSIZE.
3575
3576history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3577 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3578 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3579
3580history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3581 history expansion will be performed on
3582 command line input. The default is OFF.
3583
3584radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3585 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3586 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3587
3588height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3589 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3590 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3591 variable TERM.
3592
3593width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3594 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3595 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3596 variable TERM.
3597
3598Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3599``set width'' instead.
3600
3601print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3602 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3603 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3604 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3605
3606print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3607 is OFF.
3608
3609print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3610 "raw" form if off.
3611
3612print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3613 like instructions.
3614
3615print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3616
3617
3618 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3619
3620The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3621new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3622are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3623window.
3624
3625
3626 * Support for Shared Libraries
3627
3628GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3629Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3630before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3631happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3632At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3633from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3634shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3635It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3636
3637sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3638 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3639 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3640
3641info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3642
3643
3644 * Watchpoints
3645
3646A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3647expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3648tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3649quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3650problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3651more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3652
3653watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3654
3655info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3656
3657delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3658disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3659enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3660
3661
3662 * C++ multiple inheritance
3663
3664When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3665for C++ programs.
3666
3667 * C++ exception handling
3668
3669Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3670ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3671the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3672handler's context).
3673
3674catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3675 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3676 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3677
3678info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3679 current stack frame.
3680
3681
3682 * Minor command changes
3683
3684The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3685command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3686is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3687
3688The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3689at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3690frames without printing.
3691
3692 * New directory command
3693
3694'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3695The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3696about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3697with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3698find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3699
3700 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3701
3702For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3703for more details.
3704
3705GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3706two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3707Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3708where the program that you are debugging will run.
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