2010-06-28 Rafael Espindola <espindola@google.com>
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
CommitLineData
c906108c
SS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
bfbf3774
JB
4*** Changes since GDB 7.1
5
4656f5c6
SW
6* C++ Improvements:
7
8 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
9
10 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
11 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
12 For example:
13 namespace A
14 {
15 class B { };
16 void foo (B) { }
17 }
18 ...
19 A::B b
20 foo(b)
21 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
22 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
23 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
24
25 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
26
27 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
28 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
29 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
30 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
31 entry.
32 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
33 mentioned flavors of operators.
34
711e434b
PM
35* Windows Thread Information Block access.
36
37 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
38 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
39 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
40 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
41 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
42 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
43
44* New remote packets
45
46qGetTIBAddr
47
48 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
49
dde08ee1
PA
50qRelocInsn
51
52 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
53 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
54 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
55 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
56 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
57 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
58
3f7b2faa
DE
59* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
60 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
61 a directory.
62
d337e9f0
PA
63* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
64
fa593d66
PA
65 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints).
66 The feature is currently supported by the i386-linux and
67 amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support in gdbserver"
6a271cae
PA
68 section in the manual for more information. GDBserver JIT
69 compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent expression bytecode
70 into native code whenever possible for low overhead dynamic
71 tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints, an expression
72 that examines program state is evaluated when the tracepoint is
73 reached, in order to determine whether to capture trace data. If
74 the condition is simple and false, processing the tracepoint
75 finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
d337e9f0 76
c24d0242
PM
77 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
78
c8d5aac9
L
79* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
80 it understands register description.
81
7c953934
TT
82* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
83
8685c86f
L
84* X86 general purpose registers
85
86 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
87 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
88 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
89 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
90 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
91
95a42b64 92* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
86b17b60
PA
93 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
94 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
95 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
96 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
97 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 98
8bd10a10
CM
99* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
100 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
101 in the specified file.
102
ab38a727
PA
103* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
104 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
105 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
106 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
107 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
108 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
109 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
110 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
111 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
112 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
113
6149aea9
PA
114* New commands
115
f1421989
HZ
116eval template, expressions...
117 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
118 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
119
ab38a727
PA
120set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
121show target-file-system-kind
122 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
123 names.
124
6149aea9
PA
125save breakpoints <filename>
126 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
127 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
128 definitions, use the `source' command.
129
130`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
131is now deprecated.
132
f3e9a817
PM
133* Python scripting
134
9279c692
JB
135** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
136 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
137 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
138 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
139 GDB using Python' in the manual.
140
adc36818 141** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
d7b32ed3
PM
142 tables, program spaces, and frame's code blocks. Additionally, GDB
143 Parameters can now be created from the API, and manipulated via
144 set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 145
fa33c3cd 146** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
147 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
148
149** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
150
151** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 152
967cf477
DE
153** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
154
8a1ea21f
DE
155** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
156 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
157 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
158
a7bdde9e
VP
159* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
160there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
161tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
162regular breakpoints.
163
05071a4d
PA
164* New targets
165
166ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
167
6aecb9c2
JB
168* D language support.
169 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
170 language.
171
bfbf3774 172*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 173
4eef138c
TT
174* C++ Improvements
175
176 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
177
178 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
179 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
180 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
181 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
182 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
183
4eef138c
TT
184 ** Bug Fixes
185
186 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
187 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
188 qualified name.
189
190 ** Cast Operators
191
192 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
193 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
194
2d1c1221
ME
195* New targets
196
197Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 198Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
199
200* New Simulators
201
202Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 203Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 204
6c95b8df
PA
205* Multi-program debugging.
206
207 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
208 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
209 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
210 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
211 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
212 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
213 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
214 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
215
d5551862
SS
216* New tracing features
217
218 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
219
220 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
221
222 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
223 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
224 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
225 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
226 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
227 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
228 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
229 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
230 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
231 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 232
d5551862 233 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
234
235 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
236 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
237 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
238 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
239 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
240 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
241 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
242 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
243 the regular trace command.
244
d5551862
SS
245 ** Disconnected tracing
246
247 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
248 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
249 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
250 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
251 connection is lost unexpectedly.
252
00bf0b85
SS
253 ** Trace files
254
255 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
256 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
257 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
258 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
259 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
260 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
261 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
262
263 ** Circular trace buffer
264
265 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
266 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
267 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
268 not be available for all target agents.
269
21a0512e
PP
270* Changed commands
271
272disassemble
273 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
274 the arguments to be comma-separated.
275
0fe7935b
DJ
276info variables
277 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
278 which only declare a variable are not shown.
279
fb2e7cb4
JB
280source
281 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
282 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
283 support.
284
285 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
286 "set script-extension" (see below).
287
6c95b8df
PA
288* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
289
399cd161
MS
290record save [<FILENAME>]
291 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
292 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
293
294record restore <FILENAME>
295 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
296 earlier time, for replay debugging.
297
6c95b8df
PA
298add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
299 Add a new inferior.
300
301clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
302 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
303 inferior has loaded.
304
305remove-inferior ID
306 Remove an inferior.
307
308maint info program-spaces
309 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
310
9a7071a8
JB
311set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
312show remote interrupt-sequence
313 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
314 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
315 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
316 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
317 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
318
319set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
320show remote interrupt-on-connect
321 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
322 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
323 Linux kernel.
324
325set remotebreak [on | off]
326show remotebreak
327Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
328
f61e138d
SS
329tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
330 Create or modify a trace state variable.
331
332info tvariables
333 List trace state variables and their values.
334
335delete tvariable $NAME ...
336 Delete one or more trace state variables.
337
6da95a67
SS
338teval EXPR, ...
339 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
340 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
341
7a697b8d
SS
342ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
343 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
344
b0f02ee9
JK
345* New expression syntax
346
347 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
348 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
349
6c95b8df
PA
350* New options
351
352set follow-exec-mode new|same
353show follow-exec-mode
354 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
355 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
356 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
357
236f1d4d
SS
358set default-collect EXPR, ...
359show default-collect
360 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
361 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
362 such as registers or a critical global variable.
363
d5551862
SS
364set disconnected-tracing
365show disconnected-tracing
366 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
367 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
368 upon disconnection.
369
4daf5ac0
SS
370set circular-trace-buffer
371show circular-trace-buffer
372 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
373 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
374 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
375 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
376
fb2e7cb4
JB
377set script-extension off|soft|strict
378show script-extension
379 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
380 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
381 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
382 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
383 evaluation failed.
384 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
385
2b71fc8e
JB
386set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
387show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
388 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
389 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
390 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
391 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
392 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
393 is on.
394
de2e5182
TT
395* Python API Improvements
396
397 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
398 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
399 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
400
401 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
402 `is_base_class' attribute.
403
404 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
405
406 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
407 evaluate an expression.
408
f61e138d
SS
409* New remote packets
410
411QTDV
412 Define a trace state variable.
413
414qTV
415 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
416
d5551862
SS
417QTDisconnected
418 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
419
4daf5ac0
SS
420QTBuffer:circular
421 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
422
d5551862
SS
423qTfP, qTsP
424 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
425
2d483d34
MS
426* Bug fixes
427
428Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
429
6e0e5977
JB
430Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
431much more reliable. In particular:
432 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
433 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
434 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
435 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
436 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
437 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
438 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
439 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
440 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
441 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
442 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
443 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
444 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
445 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
446 non-threaded programs.
447
93c26624
JK
448PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
449This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
450libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
451executable program.
452
abc7453d 453*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 454
4efc6507
DE
455* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
456dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
457them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
458for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
459"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
460
782b2b07
SS
461* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
462breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
463or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
464the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
465for tracepoint actions.
466
e6158f16 467* "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
7280022e 468in hex as well as in symbolic form.
e6158f16 469
e7a8dbfb
HZ
470* Process record and replay
471
472 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
473 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
474 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
475 execute commands.
476
64644d9b
MS
477* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
478step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
479set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
480reverse execution.
481
b9412953
DD
482* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
483feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
4842.6.28 or later.
485
6c7a06a3
TT
486* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
487target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
488char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
489literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
490U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
491`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
492system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
493the installation instructions for more information.
494
f1838a98
UW
495* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
496remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
497with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
498the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
499
55333a84
DE
500* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
501and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
502
7f6a6314
PM
503* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
504now complete on file names.
505
65d12d83
TT
506* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
507completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
508For instance, consider:
509
510 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
511 # struct example variable;
512 (gdb) p variable.
513
514If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
515completions will be "f1" and "f2".
516
edb3359d
DJ
517* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
518the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
519
2fae03e8
TT
520* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
521operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
522macros.
523
47a3467a 524* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
525the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
526implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
527
528* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
529registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
530can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
531and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 532
08388c79
DE
533* New remote packets
534
535qSearch:memory:
536 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
537
a6f3e723
SL
538QStartNoAckMode
539 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
540 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
541 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
542
d7713ae0
EZ
543vKill
544 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
545 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
546
07e059b5
VP
547qXfer:osdata:read
548 Obtains additional operating system information
549
47a3467a
PA
550qXfer:siginfo:read
551qXfer:siginfo:write
552 Read or write additional signal information.
553
060871df
PA
554* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
555
556 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
557 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
558 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
559
d14508fe
DE
560* The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
561source+assembly.
562
c055b101 563* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 564DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
565
566* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
567and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
568`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 569
31fffb02
CS
570* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
571with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
572
88d8a8e0
JB
573* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
574
7f99b190
JB
575* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
576
ccd213ac
DJ
577* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
578which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
579
1fddbabb 580* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 581list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 582
a0ef4274
DJ
583* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
584conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
585have also been fixed.
586
bfb8797a 587* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
588From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
589are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 590
71c25dea
TT
591* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
592example, given:
593
594 template<typename T> class C { };
595 C<char const *> c;
596
597GDB will now correctly handle all of:
598
599 ptype C<char const *>
600 ptype C<char const*>
601 ptype C<const char *>
602 ptype C<const char*>
603
ccd213ac
DJ
604* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
605
606 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
607 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
608
7ae0e2a2
UW
609 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
610 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
611 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
612
a6f3e723
SL
613 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
614 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
615
da8bd9a3
DJ
616 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
617 gdbserver.
618
d70e31dd
DE
619 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
620 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
621
622 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
623 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
624 as appropriate.
625
d57a3c85
TJB
626* Python scripting
627
628 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
629 available is determined at configure time.
630
d8906c6f
TJB
631 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
632
aadc346a
JB
633* Ada tasking support
634
635 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
636 been introduced:
637
638 info tasks
639 Print the list of Ada tasks.
640 info task N
641 Print detailed information about task number N.
642 task
643 Print the task number of the current task.
644 task N
645 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
646
adb483fe
DJ
647* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
648add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
649
2277426b
PA
650* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
651
652 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
653 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
654 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
655 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
656 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
657 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
658 below.
659
08d16641
PA
660* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
661"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
662information.
663
e35359c5
UW
664* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
665to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
666architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
667See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
668more information.
669
85e747d2
UW
670* Multi-architecture debugging.
671
672 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
673 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
674 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
675 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
676 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
677
678* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
679use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
680Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
681powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
682--enable-targets configure option.
683
11ade57a
PA
684* Non-stop mode debugging.
685
686 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
687 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
688 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
689 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
690 section in the user manual for more information.
691
692 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
693 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
694 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
695 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
696 extensions on linux targets.
697
d7713ae0 698* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 699
a96d9b2e
SDJ
700catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
701 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
702 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
703 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
704 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
705 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
706 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
707 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
708 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
709
08388c79
DE
710find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
711 val1 [, val2, ...]
712 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
713
d57a3c85
TJB
714maint set python print-stack
715maint show python print-stack
716 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
717
718python [CODE]
719 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
720
d7713ae0
EZ
721macro define
722macro list
723macro undef
724 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
725 interactively.
726
727info os processes
728 Show operating system information about processes.
729
2277426b
PA
730info inferiors
731 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
732
733inferior NUM
734 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
735
736detach inferior NUM
737 Detach from inferior number NUM.
738
739kill inferior NUM
740 Kill inferior number NUM.
741
d7713ae0
EZ
742* New options
743
3285f3fe
UW
744set spu stop-on-load
745show spu stop-on-load
746 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
747
ff1a52c6
UW
748set spu auto-flush-cache
749show spu auto-flush-cache
750 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
751 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
752
d7713ae0
EZ
753set sh calling-convention
754show sh calling-convention
755 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
756
e0a3ce09 757set debug timestamp
75feb17d 758show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
759 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
760
761set disassemble-next-line
762show disassemble-next-line
763 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
764 the debuggee stops.
765
766set remote noack-packet
767show remote noack-packet
768 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
769 under "New remote packets."
770
771set remote query-attached-packet
772show remote query-attached-packet
773 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
774
775set remote read-siginfo-object
776show remote read-siginfo-object
777 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
778 packet.
779
780set remote write-siginfo-object
781show remote write-siginfo-object
782 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
783 packet.
784
40ab02ce
MS
785set remote reverse-continue
786show remote reverse-continue
787 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
788
789set remote reverse-step
790show remote reverse-step
791 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
792
d7713ae0
EZ
793set displaced-stepping
794show displaced-stepping
795 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
796 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
797 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
798
799set debug displaced
800show debug displaced
801 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
802
803maint set internal-error
804maint show internal-error
805 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
806
807maint set internal-warning
808maint show internal-warning
809 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 810
ccd213ac
DJ
811set exec-wrapper
812show exec-wrapper
813unset exec-wrapper
814 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 815
aad4b048
JB
816set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
817show multiple-symbols
818 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
819 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
820 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
821
74960c60
VP
822set breakpoint always-inserted
823show breakpoint always-inserted
824 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
825 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
826 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
827
0428b8f5
DJ
828set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
829show arm fallback-mode
830set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
831show arm force-mode
832 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
833 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
834 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
835 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
836
10568435
JK
837set disable-randomization
838show disable-randomization
839 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
840 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
841 multiple debugging sessions.
842
d7713ae0
EZ
843set non-stop
844show non-stop
845 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
846 a breakpoint.
847
b3eb342c 848set target-async
d7713ae0 849show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
850 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
851 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
852 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
853 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
854
6c7a06a3
TT
855set target-wide-charset
856show target-wide-charset
857 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
858 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
859
84603566
SL
860set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
861show tcp auto-retry
862set tcp connect-timeout
863show tcp connect-timeout
864 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
865 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
866 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
867
17a37d48
PP
868set libthread-db-search-path
869show libthread-db-search-path
870 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
871 libthread_db.
872
d4db2f36
PA
873set schedule-multiple (on|off)
874show schedule-multiple
875 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
876 the current process.
877
4e5d721f
DE
878set stack-cache
879show stack-cache
880 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
881 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
882 affecting correctness.
883
910c5da8
JB
884set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
885show interactive-mode
886 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
887 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
888 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
889 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
890 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
891
2277426b
PA
892* Removed commands
893
894info forks
895 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
896 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
897 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
898 command.
899
900fork NUM
901 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
902 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
903 alias for the `fork' command.
904
905process PID
906 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
907 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
908 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
909
910delete fork NUM
911 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
912 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
913 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
914 fork' command.
915
916detach fork NUM
917 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
918 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
919 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
920 fork' command.
921
a80b95ba
TG
922* New native configurations
923
924x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
925
b8bfd3ed
JB
926x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
927
75a2d5e7
TT
928* New targets
929
c28c63d8 930Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 931x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 932x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 933S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 934
6de3146c
PA
935* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
936 (mingw32ce) debugging.
937
d5cbbe6e
JB
938* Removed commands
939
940catch load
941catch unload
942 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
943
75feb17d 944*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 945
af5ca30d
NH
946* New native configurations
947
948NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 949Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
950
951* New targets
952
953NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 954Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 955
7a404eba
PA
956* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
957
958 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
959 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
960 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
961 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
962
430ebac9
PA
963* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
964(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
965
fe6fbf8b 966* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 967is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
968
969* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
970including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
971and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 972
10665d76
JB
973* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
974accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
975more than one contiguous range of addresses.
976
7cc46491
DJ
977* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
978
d71340b8
DJ
979* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
980registers on PowerPC targets.
981
523c4513
DJ
982* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
983targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
984
a6b151f1
DJ
985* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
986commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
987
2d717e4f
DJ
988* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
989extended-remote mode.
990
24a836bd 991* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
992The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
993error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
994The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 995
d0c678e6
UW
996* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
997building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
998target architectures.
999
d64a946d
TJB
1000* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1001Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1002now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1003stored in two consecutive float registers.
1004
ee163bf5
VP
1005* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1006breakpoints now.
1007
b93b6ca7 1008* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
1009Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1010include:
b93b6ca7
JB
1011 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1012 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1013 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1014 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1015 of an assignment
1016 - Improved command completion in Ada
1017 - Several bug fixes
1018
d001be7a
DJ
1019* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1020process.
1021
a6b151f1
DJ
1022* New commands
1023
6d53d0af
JB
1024set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1025show print frame-arguments
1026 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1027 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1028
a6b151f1
DJ
1029remote put
1030remote get
1031remote delete
1032 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1033
1034* New MI commands
1035
1036-target-file-put
1037-target-file-get
1038-target-file-delete
1039 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1040
1041* New remote packets
1042
1043vFile:open:
1044vFile:close:
1045vFile:pread:
1046vFile:pwrite:
1047vFile:unlink:
1048 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 1049
2d717e4f
DJ
1050vAttach
1051 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1052 mode.
1053
1054vRun
1055 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1056
8d5f9c6f 1057*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 1058
19d378fc
MS
1059* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1060bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1061Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1062
3a40aaa0
UW
1063* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1064symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1065-Bsymbolic linker option.
1066
a6ec25f2
BW
1067* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1068recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1069is not supported.
1070
6dd09645
JB
1071* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1072frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1073
c9bb8148
DJ
1074* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
107532-bit or 64-bit register values.
1076
0d5de010
DJ
1077* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1078
23181151
DJ
1079* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1080target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1081a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1082
ea37ba09
DJ
1083* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1084automatically displayed as character or string data.
1085
1086* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1087arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1088as strings.
e1f48ead 1089
123dc839
DJ
1090* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1091for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 1092only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 1093
05a4558a
DJ
1094* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1095iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 1096
7c963485
PA
1097* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1098ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1099has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1100
b18be20d
DJ
1101* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1102
0ca420ce
UW
1103* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1104
31d99776
DJ
1105* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1106layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1107segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1108
a4642986
MR
1109* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1110immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1111
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1112* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1113"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1114packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1115where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1116Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
1117
1118* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1119(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
1120
1121* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1122according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 1123
c9bb8148
DJ
1124* New commands
1125
23776285
MR
1126set remoteflow
1127show remoteflow
1128 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1129 when debugging using remote targets.
1130
c9bb8148
DJ
1131set mem inaccessible-by-default
1132show mem inaccessible-by-default
1133 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1134 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1135 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1136 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1137 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1138
1139set breakpoint auto-hw
1140show breakpoint auto-hw
1141 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1142 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1143 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1144 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1145 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1146 including "next" and "finish".
1147
0e420bd8
JB
1148catch exception
1149catch exception unhandled
1150 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1151
1152catch assert
1153 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1154
f822c95b
DJ
1155set sysroot
1156show sysroot
1157 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1158 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1159 an alias to "set sysroot".
1160
83cc5c53
UW
1161info spu
1162 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1163 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1164 architecture.
1165
bd372731
MK
1166* New native configurations
1167
1168OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1169
23181151
DJ
1170set tdesc filename
1171unset tdesc filename
1172show tdesc filename
1173 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1174 not query the target for its built-in description.
1175
c9bb8148
DJ
1176* New targets
1177
54fe9172 1178OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 1179MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 1180Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 1181
6dd09645
JB
1182* New remote packets
1183
1184QPassSignals:
1185 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1186 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1187
23181151
DJ
1188qXfer:features:read:
1189 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1190 features.
6dd09645 1191
83cc5c53
UW
1192qXfer:spu:read:
1193qXfer:spu:write:
1194 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1195 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1196
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1197qXfer:libraries:read:
1198 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1199 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1200 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1201 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1202
483367ee
DJ
1203* Removed targets
1204
1205Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1206
d08950c4
UW
1207alpha*-*-osf1*
1208alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 1209d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
1210hppa*-*-hiux*
1211i[34567]86-ncr-*
1212i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1213i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1214i[34567]86-*-netware*
1215i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1216i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1217i[34567]86-*-sco*
1218i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1219i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1220i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1221i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1222i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1223i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1224i[34567]86-*-isc*
1225m68*-cisco*-*
1226m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 1227mips*-*-pe
483367ee 1228rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 1229sh*-*-pe
483367ee 1230
7ce59000
DJ
1231* Other removed features
1232
1233target abug
1234target cpu32bug
1235target est
1236target rom68k
1237
1238 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1239
ea35711c
DJ
1240target hms
1241target e7000
1242target sh3
1243target sh3e
1244
1245 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1246 H8/300.
1247
1248target ocd
1249
1250 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1251 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1252 interfaces.
1253
7ce59000
DJ
1254DWARF 1 support
1255
1256 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1257 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1258
54d61198
DJ
1259Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1260
1261 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1262 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1263 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1264 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1265
ea35711c
DJ
1266MIPS ".pdr" sections
1267
1268 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1269 in debugging information.
1270
1271Scheme support
1272
1273 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1274 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1275
1a69e1e4
DJ
1276set mips stack-arg-size
1277set mips saved-gpreg-size
1278
1279 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1280
6dd09645 1281*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 1282
ca3bf3bd
DJ
1283* New targets
1284
1285Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 1286Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 1287
6aec2e11
DJ
1288* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1289(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1290running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1291
1292* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1293Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1294supported.
1295
17218d91
DJ
1296* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1297broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1298
9ebce043
DJ
1299* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1300stub provides the required support.
1301
7d3d3ece
DJ
1302* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1303longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1304
4f8253f3
JB
1305* New commands
1306
1307set substitute-path
1308unset substitute-path
1309show substitute-path
1310 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1311 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1312 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1313 between compilation and debugging.
1314
9fa66fd7
AS
1315set trace-commands
1316show trace-commands
1317 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1318 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1319 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1320
1f5befc1
DJ
1321* REMOVED features
1322
1323The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1324
2ec3381a
DJ
1325Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1326an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1327
3d00d119
DJ
1328The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1329
be2a5f71
DJ
1330* New remote packets
1331
1332qSupported:
1333 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1334 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1335 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1336 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1337 target.
1338
0876f84a
DJ
1339qXfer:auxv:read:
1340 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1341 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1342
9ebce043
DJ
1343qXfer:memory-map:read:
1344 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1345 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1346
1347vFlashErase:
1348vFlashWrite:
1349vFlashDone:
1350 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1351
0876f84a
DJ
1352* Removed remote packets
1353
1354qPart:auxv:read:
1355 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1356 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1357
e374b601 1358*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 1359
96309189
MS
1360* New targets
1361
1362Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1363
1364Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1365
53e5f3cf
AS
1366* New commands
1367
1368init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1369 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1370
ac264b3b
MS
1371The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1372
1373checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1374
1375restart <n> Return the program state to a
1376 previously saved state.
1377
1378info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1379
1380delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1381
1382set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1383 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1384
1385info forks List forks of the user program that
1386 are available to be debugged.
1387
1388fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1389 forks of the user program that are
1390 available to be debugged.
1391
1392delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1393 that are available to be debugged (and
1394 kill the forked process).
1395
1396detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1397 that are available to be debugged (and
1398 allow the process to continue).
1399
3950dc3f
NS
1400* New architecture
1401
1402Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1403
0ea3f30e
DJ
1404* Improved Windows host support
1405
1406GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1407native console support, and remote communications using either
1408network sockets or serial ports.
1409
f79daebb
GM
1410* Improved Modula-2 language support
1411
1412GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1413basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1414pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1415printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1416written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1417GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1418
acab6ab2
MM
1419* REMOVED features
1420
1421The ARM rdi-share module.
1422
f4267320
DJ
1423The Netware NLM debug server.
1424
53e5f3cf 1425*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 1426
e0ecbda1
MK
1427* New native configurations
1428
02a677ac 1429OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
1430OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1431
d64a6579
KB
1432* New targets
1433
1434Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1435
b33a6190
AS
1436* New command line options
1437
1438--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1439--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1440 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1441--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1442 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1443 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1444 with the --command (-x) option.
1445
11dced61
AC
1446* Deprecated commands removed
1447
1448The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1449removed:
1450
1451 Command Replacement
1452 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1453 othernames set arm disassembler
1454 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1455 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1456 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1457 regs info registers
1458
6fe85783
MK
1459* New BSD user-level threads support
1460
1461It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1462library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1463configurations are:
1464
1465FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1466FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1467OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1468
1469Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1470are not yet supported.
1471
5260ca71
MS
1472* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1473(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1474
e84ecc99
AC
1475* REMOVED configurations and files
1476
1477VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 1478Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 1479National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 1480
31e35378
JB
1481* New "set print array-indexes" command
1482
1483After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1484when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1485behavior.
1486
e85e5c83
MK
1487* VAX floating point support
1488
1489GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1490
d91e9901
AS
1491* User-defined command support
1492
1493In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1494to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1495section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1496
f2cb65ca
MC
1497*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1498
f47b1503
AS
1499* New command line option
1500
1501GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1502debugging.
1503
f2cb65ca
MC
1504* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1505
1506GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1507information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1508by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1509proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1510to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 1511
d08c0230
AC
1512* Internationalization
1513
1514When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1515internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1516continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1517
117ea3cf
PH
1518* Ada
1519
1520Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1521implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1522into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1523
d08c0230
AC
1524* New native configurations
1525
1526GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1527
1528* Remote 'p' packet
1529
1530GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1531packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1532
1533* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1534
1535GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1536The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1537features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1538i386 application).
1539
1540GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1541compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1542continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1543configurations:
1544
1545hppa-*-hpux
1546ia64-*-aix
1547mips-*-irix*
1548*-*-lynx
1549mips-*-linux-gnu
1550sds protocol
1551xdr protocol
1552powerpc bdm protocol
1553
1554Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1555made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1556
1557* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1558
1559Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1560been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1561configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1562permanently REMOVED.
1563
1564h8300-*-*
1565mcore-*-*
1566mn10300-*-*
1567ns32k-*-*
1568sh64-*-*
1569v850-*-*
1570
ebb7c577
AC
1571*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1572
1573* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1574
1575When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1576heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1577been fixed.
1578
1579* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1580
1581When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1582fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1583IRIX long double values).
1584
1585* VAX and "next"
1586
1587A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1588command. This problem has been fixed.
1589
860660cb 1590*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 1591
0dea2468
AC
1592* Fix for ``many threads''
1593
1594On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1595rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1596error message:
1597
1598 ptrace: No such process.
1599 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1600
1601This problem has been fixed.
1602
2c07db7a
AC
1603* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1604
1605Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1606GDB to dump core).
1607
c23968a2
JB
1608* New ``start'' command.
1609
1610This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1611
71009278
MK
1612* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1613
1614Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1615live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1616platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1617
1618FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1619FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1620NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1621NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1622NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1623OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1624OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1625OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1626OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1627
3c0b7db2
AC
1628* Signal trampoline code overhauled
1629
1630Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1631These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1632of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1633call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1634signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1635
73cc75f3
AC
1636Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1637features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1638include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 1639
7243600a
BF
1640* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1641
6f606e1c
MK
1642* New native configurations
1643
97dc871c 1644GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 1645OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
1646OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1647OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 1648OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1649NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 1650OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1651
a1b461bf
AC
1652* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1653
1654GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1655The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1656including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1657migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1658compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1659work, was also included.
1660
1661GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1662module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1663
1664h8300-*-*
1665mcore-*-*
1666mn10300-*-*
1667ns32k-*-*
1668sh64-*-*
1669v850-*-*
1670xstormy16-*-*
1671
1672Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1673made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1674
3c7012f5
AC
1675* REMOVED configurations and files
1676
1677Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1678Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1679Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1680Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1681Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1682AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1683Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1684decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1685riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1686sonymips mips-sony-*
1687sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1688
e5fe55f7
AC
1689*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1690
1691* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1692
1693The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1694GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1695command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1696program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1697with GDB".
1698
1699* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1700
1701Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1702libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1703cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1704GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1705shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1706the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1707are created.
1708
1709Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1710
1711* Fixed ISO-C build problems
1712
1713The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1714non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1715compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1716
1717* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1718
1719Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1720wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1721
1722* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1723
1724The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1725permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1726systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1727
1728* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1729
1730Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1731has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1732
1733* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1734
1735GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1736its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1737panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1738
1739* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1740
1741When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1742by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1743not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1744
faae5abe 1745*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 1746
9175c9a3
MC
1747* Removed --with-mmalloc
1748
1749Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1750conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1751
3cc87ec0
MK
1752* Changes in AMD64 configurations
1753
1754The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1755the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1756and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1757you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1758
f0424ef6
MK
1759* Revised SPARC target
1760
1761The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1762FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
1763support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1764from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1765(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 1766
59659be2
ILT
1767* New C++ demangler
1768
1769GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1770names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1771with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1772programs.
1773
9e08b29b
DJ
1774* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1775
1776GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1777arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1778encountered these.
1779
8dfe8985
DC
1780* C++ nested types and namespaces
1781
1782GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1783improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1784is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1785Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1786namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1787"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1788frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1789if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1790GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1791
cced5e27
MK
1792* New native configurations
1793
1794NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 1795OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 1796OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
1797OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1798OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 1799
b4b4b794
KI
1800* New debugging protocols
1801
1802M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1803
7989c619
AC
1804* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1805
1806The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1807and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1808tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1809
5994185b
AC
1810* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1811
1812Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1813been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1814configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1815permanently REMOVED.
1816
1817Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1818Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1819Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1820Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1821Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1822AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1823Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
1824decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1825riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1826sonymips mips-sony-*
1827sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 1828
0ddabb4c
AC
1829* REMOVED configurations and files
1830
1831SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1832SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
1833Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1834Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1835H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1836HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1837HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1838HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1839PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 1840386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
1841Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1842 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1843 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
1844SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1845SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
1846Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1847Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 1848
c7f1390e
DJ
1849*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1850
1fe43d45
AC
1851* Objective-C
1852
1853Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1854integrated into GDB.
1855
e6beb428
AC
1856* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1857
1858DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1859information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1860By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1861backtraces.
1862
1863The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1864have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1865DWARF 2 CFI support.
1866
1867* Hosted file I/O.
1868
1869GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1870file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1871remote protocol documentation for details.
1872
1873* All targets using the new architecture framework.
1874
1875All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1876architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1877to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1878ppc32 on ppc64).
1879
1880* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1881
1882GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1883per-thread variables.
1884
1885* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1886
1887GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1888GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1889
1890* Separate debug info.
1891
1892GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1893automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1894of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1895system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1896and optional debug files.
1897
1898* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1899
1900DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1901describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1902debugger.
1903
1904GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1905for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1906
1907* Java
1908
1909A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1910Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1911considered "useable".
1912
85f8f974
DJ
1913* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1914
1915The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1916commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1917kernel.
1918
0fac0b41
DJ
1919* GDB supports logging output to a file
1920
1921There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1922used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 1923
6ad8ae5c
DJ
1924* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1925
1926The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1927disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1928command.
1929
e286caf2 1930* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
1931
1932The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1933registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1934
d28f9cdf
DJ
1935* Profiling support
1936
1937A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1938be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1939session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1940"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1941data, for more informative profiling results.
1942
da0f9dcd
AC
1943* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1944
1945The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1946option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 1947"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
1948
1949Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1950removed.
1951
fb9b6b35
JJ
1952Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1953Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1954Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1955 in a subsequent -var-update.
1956
954a4db8
MK
1957* New native configurations.
1958
1959FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1960
6760f9e6
JB
1961* Multi-arched targets.
1962
b4263afa 1963HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 1964Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 1965
1b831c93
AC
1966* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1967
1968Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1969been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1970configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1971permanently REMOVED.
1972
8b0e5691 1973Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 1974Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 1975H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
1976HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1977HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1978HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 1979PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
1980Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1981 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1982 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
1983Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1984Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 1985
5835abe7
NC
1986* REMOVED configurations and files
1987
1988V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
1989Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1990IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1991i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1992i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1993i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1994HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1995 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1996 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1997Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1998Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1999Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2000OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2001I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 2002
a094c6fb
AC
2003* MIPS $fp behavior changed
2004
2005The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2006the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2007context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2008address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2009The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2010
299ffc64 2011*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 2012
46248966
AC
2013* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2014
2015When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2016`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2017in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2018library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2019shared libs like mad''.
2020
b9d14705 2021* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 2022
b9d14705
DJ
2023Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2024the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2025arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2026powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 2027
e0e9281e
JB
2028* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2029
2030GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2031and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2032they expand.
2033
dd73b9bb
AC
2034The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2035invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2036
2037The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2038macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2039
e0e9281e
JB
2040Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2041information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2042your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2043information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2044
2250ee0c
CV
2045* Multi-arched targets.
2046
6e3ba3b8
JT
2047DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2048DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 2049NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 2050National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
2051Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2052Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 2053
cd9bfe15 2054* New targets.
e33ce519 2055
456f8b9d
DB
2056Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2057
e33ce519 2058
da8ca43d
JT
2059* New native configurations
2060
2061Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 2062SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 2063MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 2064UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 2065
cd9bfe15
AC
2066* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2067
2068Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2069been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2070configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2071permanently REMOVED.
2072
92eb23c5 2073Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 2074OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 2075IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 2076Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 2077Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 2078Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
2079i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2080i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2081i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
2082HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2083 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2084 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 2085I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 2086
db034ac5
AC
2087* OBSOLETE languages
2088
2089CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2090
cd9bfe15
AC
2091* REMOVED configurations and files
2092
2093AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2094A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2095AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2096AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2097AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2098
2099testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2100
20f01a46
DH
2101* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2102
2103This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2104commands. The default is 1024.
2105
a5941fbf
MK
2106* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2107
2108Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2109
89743e04
MS
2110* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2111
2112These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2113to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2114from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 2115
9fb14e79
JB
2116* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2117
2118The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2119including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2120of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2121
2037aebb
AC
2122*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2123
2124* New targets.
2125
2126Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
2127
2128* Bug fixes
2129
2130gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2131mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2132Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2133
2134gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2135dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2136Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2137
2138Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2139Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2140By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2141
2142i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2143avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2144By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2145
37057839 2146*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 2147
1a703748
MS
2148* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2149
2150This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2151really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2152In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2153target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2154This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2155(notably embedded) targets.
2156
cefd4ef5
MS
2157* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2158
55241689
AC
2159This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2160process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2161GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2162hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 2163
352ed7b4
MS
2164* New command line option
2165
2166GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2167
2168* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2169
2170There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2171command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2172a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2173be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2174open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2175issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2176a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2177it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2178GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2179is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2180
fe419ffc
RE
2181* Changes in ARM configurations.
2182
2183Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2184configuration is fully multi-arch.
2185
eb7cedd9
MK
2186* New native configurations
2187
fe419ffc 2188ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 2189x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 2190AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 2191Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 2192
c9f63e6b
CV
2193* New targets
2194
2195Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2196
9b4ff276
AC
2197* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2198
2199Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2200been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2201configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2202permanently REMOVED.
2203
2204AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2205A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2206AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2207AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2208AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2209
b4ceaee6 2210testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 2211
e2caac18
AC
2212* REMOVED configurations and files
2213
2214TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 2215WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
2216PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2217PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2218PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 2219Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
2220Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2221 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 2222SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 2223Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
2224Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2225ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 2226Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 2227
c2a727fa
TT
2228* Changes to command line processing
2229
2230The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2231for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2232
467d8519
TT
2233* Changes to key bindings
2234
2235There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2236
7072a954
AC
2237*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2238
2239Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2240
2241Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2242corrupted.
2243
2244Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2245
2246Numerous documentation fixes.
2247
2248Numerous testsuite fixes.
2249
34f47bc4 2250*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
2251
2252* New native configurations
2253
2254Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2255x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 2256MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
2257MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2258ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 2259s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 2260
bf64bfd6
AC
2261* New targets
2262
def90278 2263Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 2264CRIS cris-axis
55241689 2265UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 2266
17e78a56 2267* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
2268
2269x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 2270Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
2271Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2272 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
2273TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2274WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 2275Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
2276PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2277PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2278PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 2279SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
2280Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2281ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 2282Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 2283
17e78a56
AC
2284stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2285kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2286
7fcca85b
AC
2287Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2288been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2289configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2290permanently REMOVED.
2291
a196c81c 2292* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
2293
2294Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2295Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2296Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2297ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2298Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 2299ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 2300
6d6b80e5 2301* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 2302
6d6b80e5 2303GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
2304sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2305present.
2306
bf64bfd6
AC
2307* Other news:
2308
e23194cb
EZ
2309* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2310
2311* The MI enabled by default.
2312
2313The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2314revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2315engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2316using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2317which is now deprecated.
2318
2319* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2320
2321GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2322main features are supported:
2323
2324 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2325
2326 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2327 extension;
2328
2329 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2330
2331 - a Pascal expression parser.
2332
2333However, some important features are not yet supported.
2334
2335 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2336
2337 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2338
2339 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2340 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2341
2342 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2343
2344 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2345
2346* Changes in completion.
2347
2348Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2349to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2350users expect at the shell prompt.
2351
2352Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2353`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2354program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2355files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2356be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2357considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2358name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2359
2360`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2361
2362* New platform-independent commands:
2363
2364It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2365hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2366documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2367
2368* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2369
d7275149
MK
2370Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2371revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2372many threads as your system allows you to have.
2373
e23194cb
EZ
2374Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2375
d7275149
MK
2376Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2377multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
2378
2379* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
2380
2381Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2382
e23194cb
EZ
2383GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2384debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2385supported.)
2386
2387* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2388
2389Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2390breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2391implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2392put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2393and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2394registers.
2395
2396The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2397debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2398watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2399
2400* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2401
2402New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2403the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2404
2405New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2406display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2407IDT.
2408
2409New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2410from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2411New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2412a given linear address.
2413
2414GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2415program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2416which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2417
2418DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2419
6c56c069
EZ
2420It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2421
e23194cb
EZ
2422* Changes in documentation.
2423
2424All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2425Documentation License.
2426
2427Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2428manual.
2429
2430TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2431
2432Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2433manual.
2434
2435The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2436documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2437hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2438
5d6640b1
AC
2439* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2440
2441The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2442``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2443contents of this file.
2444
1a1d8446
AC
2445* gdba.el deleted
2446
2447GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 2448
9debab2f 2449*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 2450
c63ce875
EZ
2451* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2452
2453Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2454programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2455displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2456greater level of detail.
2457
2458* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2459
2460It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2461bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2462on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2463written.
2464
2465* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2466
2467The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2468necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2469machines ``out of the box''.
2470
2471The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2472possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2473signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2474would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2475interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2476
2477It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2478standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2479even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2480and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2481terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2482
2483The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2484enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2485also works.
2486
2487DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2488GDB.
2489
2490It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2491directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2492times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2493breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2494
ed9a39eb
JM
2495* New native configurations
2496
2497ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 2498PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 2499
7a292a7a
SS
2500* New targets
2501
96baa820 2502Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
2503x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2504PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
2505TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2506
085dd6e6
JM
2507* OBSOLETE configurations
2508
2509Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2510Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 2511Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 2512ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 2513Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 2514
9debab2f
AC
2515Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2516but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2517these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2518be permanently REMOVED.
2519
5330533d
SS
2520* Gould support removed
2521
2522Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2523
bc9e5bbf
AC
2524* New features for SVR4
2525
2526On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2527without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2528load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2529
2530* Many C++ enhancements
2531
2532C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2533in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2534
adf40b2e
JM
2535* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2536
2537A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2538sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2539with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2540``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2541
2542 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2543 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2544
43e526b9
JM
2545* MIPS 64 remote protocol
2546
2547A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2548expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2549instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2550
2551The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2552added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2553
96baa820
JM
2554* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2555
2556The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2557``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2558include ``set remote P-packet''.
2559
11cf8741
JM
2560* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2561
2562The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2563accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2564``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2565
7876dd43
DB
2566* ``apropos'' command added.
2567
2568The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2569documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2570try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2571
bc9e5bbf
AC
2572* New MI interface
2573
2574A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2575interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
2576process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2577"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2578enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
2579
2580 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2581
c906108c
SS
2582*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2583
2584* New native configurations
2585
2586HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2587HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 2588M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
2589
2590* New targets
2591
2592Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2593Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2594Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2595
2596* OBSOLETE configurations
2597
2598Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2599
2600Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2601but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2602these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2603be permanently REMOVED.
2604
2605* ANSI/ISO C
2606
2607As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2608buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2609containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2610use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2611available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2612configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2613information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2614already.
2615
2616* Readline 2.2
2617
2618GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2619
2620* set extension-language
2621
2622You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2623languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2624you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2625 set extension-language .c c++
2626The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2627and their associated languages.
2628
2629* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2630
2631When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2632you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2633PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2634
2635 set processor NAME
2636
2637sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2638following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2639
2640 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2641 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2642 403 IBM PowerPC 403
2643 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2644 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2645 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2646 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2647 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2648 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2649 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2650 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2651
2652At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2653special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2654registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2655only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2656
2657* HP-UX support
2658
2659Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2660more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2661library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2662support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2663for xdb and dbx commands.
2664
2665* Catchpoints
2666
2667HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2668generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2669to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2670
2671This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2672argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2673output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2674
2675* Debugging across forks
2676
2677On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2678in the inferior.
2679
2680* TUI
2681
2682HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2683it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2684configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2685
2686* GDB remote protocol additions
2687
2688A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2689Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2690fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2691allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2692
2693For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2694full 64-bit address. The command
2695
2696 set remoteaddresssize 32
2697
2698can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2699the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2700will be discarded.
2701
2702In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2703command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2704
2705 maint packet heythere
2706
2707sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2708disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2709time.
2710
2711The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2712target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2713downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2714
2715* Tracing can collect general expressions
2716
2717You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2718further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2719doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2720
2721* mask-address variable for Mips
2722
2723For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2724a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2725of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2726
2727* Higher serial baud rates
2728
2729GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2730230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2731to achieve all of these rates.)
2732
2733* i960 simulator
2734
2735The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2736builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2737
2738
2739*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2740
2741* New native configurations
2742
2743Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2744Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2745Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2746PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2747PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2748Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2749Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2750
2751* New targets
2752
2753Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2754Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2755Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2756Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2757MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2758MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2759MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2760Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2761Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2762Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2763NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2764
2765* New debugging protocols
2766
2767ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2768M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2769DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2770PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2771PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2772Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2773
2774* DWARF 2
2775
2776All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2777format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2778information.
2779
2780* Java frontend
2781
2782GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2783only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2784
2785* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2786
2787For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2788loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2789locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2790
2791* Live range splitting
2792
2793GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2794range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2795more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2796
2797* Hurd support
2798
2799GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2800updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2801
2802* ARM Thumb support
2803
2804GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2805instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2806instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2807accordingly.
2808
2809* MIPS16 support
2810
2811GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2812instruction set.
2813
2814* Overlay support
2815
2816GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2817linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2818will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2819control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2820additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2821in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2822
2823* info symbol
2824
2825The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2826the symbol at the specified address.
2827
2828* Trace support
2829
2830The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2831asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2832extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2833includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2834file tracepoint.c for more details.
2835
2836* MIPS simulator
2837
2838Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2839by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2840of most MIPS variants.
2841
2842* Sparc simulator
2843
2844Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2845by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2846Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2847
2848* set architecture
2849
2850For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2851basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2852architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2853the possible architectures.
2854
2855*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2856
2857* New native configurations
2858
2859Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2860M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2861PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2862PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2863PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2864RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2865
2866* New targets
2867
2868ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2869I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2870MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2871MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2872PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2873Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
2874Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2875
2876* PowerPC simulator
2877
2878The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2879contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2880PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2881basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2882performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2883
2884* Solaris 2.5
2885
2886GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2887
2888* Windows 95/NT native
2889
2890GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2891To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2892which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2893Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2894ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2895
2896* dont-repeat command
2897
2898If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2899command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2900useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2901extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2902
2903* Send break instead of ^C
2904
2905The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2906rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2907GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2908
2909* Remote protocol timeout
2910
2911The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2912that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2913to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2914
2915* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2916
2917By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2918loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2919stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2920when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2921in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2922
2923Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2924/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2925automatically on hpux10.
2926
2927* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2928
2929Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2930
2931* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2932
2933When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2934may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2935the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2936every character. The default value is 1050.
2937
2938* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2939
2940If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2941a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2942replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2943details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2944remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2945to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2946
2947* Speedups for remote debugging
2948
2949GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2950the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2951and more efficient S-record downloading.
2952
2953* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2954
2955GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2956Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2957
2958*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2959
2960* Psymtabs for XCOFF
2961
2962The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2963can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2964
2965* Remote targets use caching
2966
2967Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2968remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2969it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2970debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2971off' turns the the data cache off.
2972
2973* Remote targets may have threads
2974
2975The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2976in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2977gdb/remote.c for details.
2978
2979* NetROM support
2980
2981If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2982support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2983acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2984write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2985support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2986another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2987sequence is something like
2988
2989 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2990 load <prog>
2991 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2992
2993* Macintosh host
2994
2995GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2996may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2997it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2998available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2999device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3000directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3001scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3002mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3003
3004* Autoconf
3005
3006GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3007but does simplify configuration and building.
3008
3009* hpux10
3010
3011GDB now supports hpux10.
3012
3013*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3014
3015* New native configurations
3016
3017x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3018x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3019NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3020Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3021
3022* New targets
3023
3024A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3025HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3026CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3027PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3028WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3029
3030* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3031
3032GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3033possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3034filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3035the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3036if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3037
3038* Arguments to user-defined commands
3039
3040User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3041Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3042trivial example:
3043define adder
3044 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3045
3046To execute the command use:
3047adder 1 2 3
3048
3049Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3050Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3051use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3052
3053* New `if' and `while' commands
3054
3055This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3056commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3057expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3058execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3059terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3060`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3061if the expression is zero.
3062
3063* Fortran source language mode
3064
3065GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3066Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3067variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3068with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3069Fortran compilers.
3070
3071* Better HPUX support
3072
3073Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3074running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3075processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3076for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3077that behavior do the following before running the program:
3078
3079 adb -w a.out
3080 __dld_flags?W 0x5
3081 control-d
3082
3083This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3084To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3085
3086 adb -w a.out
3087 __dld_flags?W 0x4
3088 control-d
3089
3090You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3091the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3092external linkage.
3093
3094GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3095HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3096
3097* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3098
3099You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3100commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3101current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3102"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3103associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3104configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3105
3106* New DOS host serial code
3107
3108This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3109no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3110a PC's serial port.
3111
3112*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3113
3114* New "complete" command
3115
3116This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3117were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3118
3119* Trailing space optional in prompt
3120
3121"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3122allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3123
3124* Breakpoint hit counts
3125
3126"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3127has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3128can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3129to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3130less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3131that breakpoint.
3132
3133* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3134
3135"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3136an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3137arrays actually contain only short strings.
3138
3139* Shared library breakpoints
3140
3141In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3142breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3143
3144* Hardware watchpoints
3145
3146There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3147targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3148
55241689 3149Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
3150
3151* Annotations
3152
3153Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3154and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3155
3156* Improved Irix 5 support
3157
3158GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3159
3160* Improved HPPA support
3161
3162GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3163
3164* New native configurations
3165
3166Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3167HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3168Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3169RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3170
3171* New targets
3172
3173OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3174MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3175Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3176
3177* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3178
3179There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3180This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3181
3182* Fixes
3183
3184As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3185and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3186
3187*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3188
3189* Irix 5 is now supported
3190
3191* HPPA support
3192
3193GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3194to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3195GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3196of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3197can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3198
3199
3200*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3201
3202* User visible changes:
3203
3204* Remote Debugging
3205
3206The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3207target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3208debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3209integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3210debugging info for the mips target).
3211
3212* DEC Alpha native support
3213
3214GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3215debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3216work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3217Alpha-specific notes.
3218
3219* Preliminary thread implementation
3220
3221GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3222
3223* LynxOS native and target support for 386
3224
3225This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3226to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3227for details).
3228
3229* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3230
3231This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3232mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3233call methods, ...etc.
3234
3235*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3236
3237 * User visible changes:
3238
3239Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3240supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3241other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3242somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3243
3244Filename completion now works.
3245
3246When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3247arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3248addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3249
3250All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3251vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3252should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3253your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3254to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3255
3256 * DEC alpha support
3257
3258This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3259cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3260
3261
3262*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3263
3264 * Testsuite
3265
3266This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3267The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3268via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3269
3270 * C++ demangling
3271
3272'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3273emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3274Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3275disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3276use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3277
3278 * Simulators
3279
3280GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3281So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3282Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3283
3284 * New targets supported
3285
3286H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3287H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3288SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3289Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3290IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3291
3292Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3293version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3294GO32 memory extender.
3295
3296 * New remote protocols
3297
3298MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3299
3300 * New source languages supported
3301
3302This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3303used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3304into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3305
3306
3307*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3308
3309 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3310
3311GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3312version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3313University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3314compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3315format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3316(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3317
3318Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3319
3320 * Faster and better demangling
3321
3322We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3323demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3324character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3325only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3326This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3327increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3328symbol lookups.
3329
3330`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3331from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3332compiler does not actually implement.
3333
3334 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3335
3336In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3337inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3338recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3339very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3340The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3341circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3342fix.
3343
3344The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3345release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3346
3347 * Improved configure script
3348
3349The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3350you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3351host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3352done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3353
3354We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3355version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3356`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3357The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3358only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3359We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3360
3361 * Documentation improvements
3362
3363There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3364produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3365before submitting changes.
3366
3367The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3368M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3369`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3370you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3371a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3372
3373*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3374We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3375been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3376or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3377`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3378around this problem.
3379
3380 * New features
3381
3382GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3383the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3384`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3385the target program.
3386
3387The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3388how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3389
3390 * New native hosts supported
3391
3392HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3393386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3394
3395 * New targets supported
3396
3397AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3398
3399 * New file formats supported
3400
3401BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3402HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3403
3404 * Major bug fixes
3405
3406Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3407
3408We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3409printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3410
3411We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3412for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3413release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3414
3415You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3416will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3417
3418We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3419for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3420especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3421libraries.
3422
3423The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3424information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3425command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3426any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3427when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3428
3429 * Internal improvements
3430
3431GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3432debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3433
3434GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3435Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3436symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3437contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3438shared code that handles any of them.
3439
3440 * New command line options
3441
3442We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3443
3444 * Mmalloc licensing
3445
3446The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3447General Public License.
3448
3449*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3450
3451 * Host/native/target split
3452
3453GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3454hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3455target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3456local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3457ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3458
3459The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3460GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3461is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3462code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3463any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3464built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3465handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3466
3467GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3468It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3469plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3470
3471 * New hosts supported
3472
3473HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3474386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3475386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3476
3477 * New targets supported
3478
3479Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
348068030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3481
3482 * New native hosts supported
3483
3484386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3485 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3486386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3487
3488 * New file formats supported
3489
3490BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3491supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3492format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3493
3494 * New commands
3495
3496`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3497`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3498These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3499
3500`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3501
3502You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3503scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3504prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3505executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3506
3507 * C++ improvements
3508
3509We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3510info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3511symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3512
3513Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3514
3515 * Major bug fixes
3516
3517The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3518fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3519by the compiler.
3520
3521We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3522support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3523
3524John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3525slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3526that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3527purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3528the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3529mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3530
3531Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3532about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3533completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3534we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3535
3536 * AMD 29k support
3537
3538A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3539specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3540calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3541usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3542in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3543
3544We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3545Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3546of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3547resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3548
3549 * Remote interfaces
3550
3551We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3552with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3553message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3554This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3555needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3556breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3557each instruction being stepped through.
3558
3559The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3560registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3561
3562There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3563find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3564Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3565processor with a serial port.
3566
3567 * Configuration
3568
3569Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3570`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3571supported, and what files each one uses.
3572
3573 * Library changes
3574
3575There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3576disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3577Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3578disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3579
3580The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3581Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3582can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3583grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3584
3585 * Documentation
3586
3587The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3588reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3589as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3590encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3591system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3592bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3593
3594And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3595
3596
3597*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3598
3599 * Better support for C++ function names
3600
3601GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3602names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3603(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3604single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3605Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3606
3607GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3608the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3609You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3610lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3611for the list of formats.
3612
3613 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3614
3615Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3616C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3617directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3618can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3619usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3620about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3621this problem.)
3622
3623 * New 'maintenance' command
3624
3625All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3626the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3627can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3628
3629 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3630 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3631 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3632 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3633 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3634 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3635
3636The following commands are new:
3637
3638 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3639 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3640 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3641
3642 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3643
3644We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3645(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3646be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3647read after argv processing.
3648
3649 * New hosts supported
3650
3651Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3652
55241689 3653GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
3654
3655We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3656is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3657for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3658masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3659fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3660It costs extra.
3661
3662 * New targets supported
3663
3664Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3665
3666 * More smarts about finding #include files
3667
3668GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3669all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3670greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3671especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3672the one that contains your sources.
3673
3674We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3675breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3676try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3677
3678 * Interesting infernals change
3679
3680GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3681section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3682target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3683stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3684
3685 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3686
3687There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3688 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3689 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3690
3691See the ChangeLog for details.
3692
3693*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3694
3695 * New machines supported (host and target)
3696
3697IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3698
3699SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3700
3701 * New malloc package
3702
3703GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3704Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3705capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3706This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3707pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3708more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3709
3710 * info proc
3711
3712The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3713'help info proc' for details.
3714
3715 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3716
3717The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3718Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3719possible.
3720
3721 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3722
3723Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3724support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3725conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3726environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3727that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3728in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3729
3730 * Cross byte order fixes
3731
3732Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3733targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3734
3735 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3736
3737If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3738system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3739`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3740program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3741called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3742Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3743and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3744the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3745option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3746starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3747
3748You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3749the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3750information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3751slower, but makes future operations faster.
3752
3753The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3754build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3755A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3756use is:
3757
3758 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3759
3760The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3761It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3762shared across multiple host platforms.
3763
3764 * longjmp() handling
3765
3766GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3767siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3768all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3769platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3770
3771 * Solaris 2.0
3772
3773Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3774this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3775reading symbols.
3776
3777 * Bug fixes
3778
3779As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3780People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3781crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3782
3783*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3784
3785 * New machines supported (host and target)
3786
3787SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3788 (except core files)
3789BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3790Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3791
3792 * New machines supported (target)
3793
3794AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3795
3796 * C++ support
3797
3798GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3799The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3800per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3801
3802GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3803`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3804extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3805good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3806will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3807released.
3808
3809 * New features for SVR4
3810
3811GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3812shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3813only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3814
3815The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3816on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3817it prints the address mappings of the process.
3818
3819If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3820bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3821
3822 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3823
3824Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3825now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3826skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3827make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3828same code linked statically.
3829
3830 * New Getopt
3831
3832GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3833version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3834continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3835Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3836added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3837future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3838
3839 * Bugs fixed
3840
3841The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3842Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3843See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3844
3845
3846*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3847
3848 * New machines supported (host and target)
3849
3850Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3851NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3852Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3853
3854 * Almost SCO Unix support
3855
3856We had hoped to support:
3857SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3858(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3859that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3860about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3861
3862 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3863
3864GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3865debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3866is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3867send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3868reqired (if any).
3869
3870 * New Readline
3871
3872GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3873is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3874required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3875
3876 * Bugs fixed
3877
3878The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3879Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3880See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3881
3882 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3883
3884GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3885supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3886symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3887
3888Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3889mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3890debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3891mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3892version 2.
3893
3894Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3895really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3896line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3897variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3898situation somewhat.
3899
3900When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3901However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3902methods.
3903
3904We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3905DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3906encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3907
3908
3909*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3910
3911 * Improved configuration
3912
3913Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3914Porting BFD is simpler.
3915
3916 * Stepping improved
3917
3918The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3919of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3920in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3921function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3922
3923 * Bug fixing
3924
3925Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3926
3927 * New host supported (not target)
3928
3929Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3930
3931
3932*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3933
3934 * Multiple source language support
3935
3936GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3937It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3938and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3939language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3940You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3941`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3942
3943 * GDB and Modula-2
3944
3945GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3946currently under development at the State University of New York at
3947Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3948continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3949
3950Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3951debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3952symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3953
3954There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3955in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3956
3957 * set write on/off
3958
3959GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3960a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3961the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3962by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3963effect immediately.
3964
3965 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3966
3967When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3968shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3969The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3970examining core files.
3971
3972 * set listsize
3973
3974You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3975The default is 10.
3976
3977 * New machines supported (host and target)
3978
3979SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3980Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3981Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3982
3983 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3984
3985IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3986
3987 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3988
3989AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3990AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3991Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3992
3993 * New remote interfaces
3994
3995AMD 29000 Adapt
3996AMD 29000 Minimon
3997
3998
3999*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4000
4001 * New Facilities
4002
4003Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4004
4005Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4006target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4007is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4008remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4009remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4010also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4011using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4012stub on the target system.
4013
4014New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4015
4016GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4017library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4018object file types such as a.out and coff.
4019
4020There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4021refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4022
4023
4024 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4025
4026All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4027by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4028
4029For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4030``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4031Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4032
4033What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4034print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4035will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4036all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4037
4038confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4039 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4040 it is already running. Default is ON.
4041
4042editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4043 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4044 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4045 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4046 Default is ON.
4047
4048history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4049 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4050 or the value of the environment variable
4051 GDBHISTFILE.
4052
4053history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4054 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4055 HISTSIZE.
4056
4057history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4058 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4059 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4060
4061history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4062 history expansion will be performed on
4063 command line input. The default is OFF.
4064
4065radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4066 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4067 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4068
4069height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4070 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4071 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4072 variable TERM.
4073
4074width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4075 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4076 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4077 variable TERM.
4078
4079Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4080``set width'' instead.
4081
4082print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4083 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4084 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4085 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4086
4087print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4088 is OFF.
4089
4090print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4091 "raw" form if off.
4092
4093print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4094 like instructions.
4095
4096print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4097
4098
4099 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4100
4101The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4102new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4103are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4104window.
4105
4106
4107 * Support for Shared Libraries
4108
4109GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4110Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4111before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4112happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4113At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4114from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4115shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4116It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4117
4118sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4119 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4120 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4121
4122info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4123
4124
4125 * Watchpoints
4126
4127A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4128expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4129tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4130quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4131problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4132more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4133
4134watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4135
4136info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4137
4138delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4139disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4140enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4141
4142
4143 * C++ multiple inheritance
4144
4145When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4146for C++ programs.
4147
4148 * C++ exception handling
4149
4150Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4151ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4152the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4153handler's context).
4154
4155catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4156 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4157 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4158
4159info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4160 current stack frame.
4161
4162
4163 * Minor command changes
4164
4165The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4166command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4167is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4168
4169The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4170at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4171frames without printing.
4172
4173 * New directory command
4174
4175'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4176The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4177about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4178with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4179find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4180
4181 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4182
4183For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4184for more details.
4185
4186GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4187two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4188Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4189where the program that you are debugging will run.
This page took 0.838842 seconds and 4 git commands to generate.