2004-02-22 Andrew Cagney <cagney@redhat.com>
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.0:
5
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6* Removed --with-mmalloc
7
8Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
9conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
10
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11* Changes in AMD64 configurations
12
13The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
14the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
15and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
16you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
17
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18* Revised SPARC target
19
20The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
21FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
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22support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
23from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
24(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 25
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26* New C++ demangler
27
28GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
29names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
30with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
31programs.
32
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33* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
34
35GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
36arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
37encountered these.
38
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39* New native configurations
40
41NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
2031c21a 42OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
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43OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
44OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 45
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46* New debugging protocols
47
48M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
49
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50* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
51
52The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
53and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
54tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
55
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56* OBSOLETE configurations and files
57
58Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
59been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
60configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
61permanently REMOVED.
62
63Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
64Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
65Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
66Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
67Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
68AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
69Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
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70decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
71riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
72sonymips mips-sony-*
73sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 74
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75* REMOVED configurations and files
76
77SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
78SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
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79Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
80Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
81H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
82HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
83HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
84HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
85PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
86Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
87 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
88 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
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89SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
90SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
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91Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
92Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 93
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94*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
95
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96* Objective-C
97
98Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
99integrated into GDB.
100
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101* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
102
103DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
104information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
105By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
106backtraces.
107
108The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
109have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
110DWARF 2 CFI support.
111
112* Hosted file I/O.
113
114GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
115file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
116remote protocol documentation for details.
117
118* All targets using the new architecture framework.
119
120All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
121architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
122to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
123ppc32 on ppc64).
124
125* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
126
127GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
128per-thread variables.
129
130* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
131
132GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
133GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
134
135* Separate debug info.
136
137GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
138automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
139of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
140system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
141and optional debug files.
142
143* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
144
145DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
146describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
147debugger.
148
149GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
150for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
151
152* Java
153
154A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
155Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
156considered "useable".
157
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158* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
159
160The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
161commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
162kernel.
163
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164* GDB supports logging output to a file
165
166There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
167used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 168
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169* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
170
171The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
172disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
173command.
174
e286caf2 175* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
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176
177The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
178registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
179
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180* Profiling support
181
182A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
183be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
184session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
185"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
186data, for more informative profiling results.
187
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188* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
189
190The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
191option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 192"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
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193
194Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
195removed.
196
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197Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
198Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
199Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
200 in a subsequent -var-update.
201
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202* New native configurations.
203
204FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
205
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206* Multi-arched targets.
207
b4263afa 208HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 209Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 210
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211* OBSOLETE configurations and files
212
213Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
214been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
215configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
216permanently REMOVED.
217
8b0e5691 218Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 219Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 220H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
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221HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
222HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
223HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 224PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
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225Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
226 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
227 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
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228Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
229Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 230
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231* REMOVED configurations and files
232
233V850EA ISA
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234Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
235IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
236i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
237i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
238i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
239HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
240 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
241 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
242Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
243Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
244Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
245OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
246I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 247
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248* MIPS $fp behavior changed
249
250The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
251the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
252context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
253address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
254The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
255
299ffc64 256*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 257
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258* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
259
260When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
261`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
262in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
263library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
264shared libs like mad''.
265
b9d14705 266* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 267
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268Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
269the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
270arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
271powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 272
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273* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
274
275GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
276and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
277they expand.
278
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279The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
280invocations in expression, and shows the result.
281
282The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
283macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
284
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285Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
286information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
287your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
288information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
289
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290* Multi-arched targets.
291
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292DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
293DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 294NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 295National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
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296Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
297Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 298
cd9bfe15 299* New targets.
e33ce519 300
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301Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
302
e33ce519 303
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304* New native configurations
305
306Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 307SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 308MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 309UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 310
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311* OBSOLETE configurations and files
312
313Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
314been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
315configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
316permanently REMOVED.
317
92eb23c5 318Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 319OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 320IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 321Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 322Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 323Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
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324i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
325i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
326i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
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327HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
328 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
329 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 330I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 331
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332* OBSOLETE languages
333
334CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
335
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336* REMOVED configurations and files
337
338AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
339A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
340AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
341AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
342AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
343
344testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
345
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346* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
347
348This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
349commands. The default is 1024.
350
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351* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
352
353Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
354
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355* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
356
357These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
358to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
359from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 360
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361* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
362
363The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
364including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
365of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
366
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367*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
368
369* New targets.
370
371Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
372
373* Bug fixes
374
375gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
376mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
377Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
378
379gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
380dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
381Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
382
383Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
384Surprisingly enough, it works now.
385By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
386
387i386 hardware watchpoint support:
388avoid misses on second run for some targets.
389By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
390
37057839 391*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 392
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393* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
394
395This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
396really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
397In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
398target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
399This can be a significant performance improvement on some
400(notably embedded) targets.
401
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402* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
403
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404This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
405process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
406GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
407hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 408
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409* New command line option
410
411GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
412
413* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
414
415There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
416command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
417a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
418be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
419open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
420issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
421a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
422it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
423GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
424is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
425
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426* Changes in ARM configurations.
427
428Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
429configuration is fully multi-arch.
430
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431* New native configurations
432
fe419ffc 433ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 434x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 435AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 436Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 437
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438* New targets
439
440Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
441
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442* OBSOLETE configurations and files
443
444Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
445been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
446configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
447permanently REMOVED.
448
449AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
450A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
451AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
452AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
453AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
454
b4ceaee6 455testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 456
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457* REMOVED configurations and files
458
459TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 460WDC 65816 w65-*-*
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461PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
462PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
463PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 464Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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465Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
466 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 467SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 468Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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469Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
470ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 471Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 472
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473* Changes to command line processing
474
475The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
476for the inferior from gdb's command line.
477
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478* Changes to key bindings
479
480There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
481
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482*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
483
484Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
485
486Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
487corrupted.
488
489Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
490
491Numerous documentation fixes.
492
493Numerous testsuite fixes.
494
34f47bc4 495*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
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496
497* New native configurations
498
499Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
500x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 501MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
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502MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
503ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 504s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 505
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506* New targets
507
def90278 508Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 509CRIS cris-axis
55241689 510UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 511
17e78a56 512* OBSOLETE configurations and files
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513
514x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 515Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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516Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
517 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
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518TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
519WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 520Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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521PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
522PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
523PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 524SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
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525Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
526ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 527Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 528
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529stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
530kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
531
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532Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
533been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
534configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
535permanently REMOVED.
536
a196c81c 537* REMOVED configurations and files
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538
539Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
540Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
541Pyramid pyramid-*-*
542ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
543Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 544ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 545
6d6b80e5 546* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 547
6d6b80e5 548GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
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549sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
550present.
551
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552* Other news:
553
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554* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
555
556* The MI enabled by default.
557
558The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
559revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
560engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
561using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
562which is now deprecated.
563
564* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
565
566GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
567main features are supported:
568
569 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
570
571 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
572 extension;
573
574 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
575
576 - a Pascal expression parser.
577
578However, some important features are not yet supported.
579
580 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
581
582 - there are some problems with boolean types;
583
584 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
585 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
586
587 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
588
589 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
590
591* Changes in completion.
592
593Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
594to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
595users expect at the shell prompt.
596
597Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
598`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
599program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
600files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
601be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
602considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
603name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
604
605`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
606
607* New platform-independent commands:
608
609It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
610hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
611documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
612
613* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
614
d7275149
MK
615Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
616revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
617many threads as your system allows you to have.
618
e23194cb
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619Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
620
d7275149
MK
621Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
622multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
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623
624* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
625
626Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
627
e23194cb
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628GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
629debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
630supported.)
631
632* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
633
634Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
635breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
636implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
637put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
638and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
639registers.
640
641The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
642debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
643watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
644
645* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
646
647New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
648the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
649
650New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
651display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
652IDT.
653
654New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
655from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
656New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
657a given linear address.
658
659GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
660program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
661which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
662
663DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
664
6c56c069
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665It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
666
e23194cb
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667* Changes in documentation.
668
669All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
670Documentation License.
671
672Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
673manual.
674
675TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
676
677Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
678manual.
679
680The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
681documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
682hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
683
5d6640b1
AC
684* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
685
686The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
687``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
688contents of this file.
689
1a1d8446
AC
690* gdba.el deleted
691
692GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 693
9debab2f 694*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 695
c63ce875
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696* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
697
698Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
699programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
700displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
701greater level of detail.
702
703* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
704
705It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
706bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
707on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
708written.
709
710* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
711
712The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
713necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
714machines ``out of the box''.
715
716The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
717possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
718signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
719would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
720interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
721
722It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
723standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
724even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
725and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
726terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
727
728The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
729enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
730also works.
731
732DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
733GDB.
734
735It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
736directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
737times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
738breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
739
ed9a39eb
JM
740* New native configurations
741
742ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 743PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 744
7a292a7a
SS
745* New targets
746
96baa820 747Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
748x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
749PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
750TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
751
085dd6e6
JM
752* OBSOLETE configurations
753
754Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
755Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 756Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 757ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 758Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 759
9debab2f
AC
760Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
761but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
762these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
763be permanently REMOVED.
764
5330533d
SS
765* Gould support removed
766
767Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
768
bc9e5bbf
AC
769* New features for SVR4
770
771On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
772without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
773load symbols from the running process's executable file.
774
775* Many C++ enhancements
776
777C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
778in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
779
adf40b2e
JM
780* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
781
782A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
783sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
784with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
785``|<program> <args>'' vis:
786
787 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
788 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
789
43e526b9
JM
790* MIPS 64 remote protocol
791
792A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
793expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
794instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
795
796The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
797added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
798
96baa820
JM
799* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
800
801The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
802``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
803include ``set remote P-packet''.
804
11cf8741
JM
805* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
806
807The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
808accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
809``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
810
7876dd43
DB
811* ``apropos'' command added.
812
813The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
814documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
815try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
816
bc9e5bbf
AC
817* New MI interface
818
819A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
820interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
821process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
822"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
823enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
824
825 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
826
c906108c
SS
827*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
828
829* New native configurations
830
831HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
832HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 833M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
834
835* New targets
836
837Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
838Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
839Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
840
841* OBSOLETE configurations
842
843Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
844
845Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
846but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
847these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
848be permanently REMOVED.
849
850* ANSI/ISO C
851
852As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
853buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
854containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
855use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
856available. If this is not true, please report the affected
857configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
858information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
859already.
860
861* Readline 2.2
862
863GDB now uses readline 2.2.
864
865* set extension-language
866
867You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
868languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
869you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
870 set extension-language .c c++
871The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
872and their associated languages.
873
874* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
875
876When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
877you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
878PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
879
880 set processor NAME
881
882sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
883following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
884
885 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
886 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
887 403 IBM PowerPC 403
888 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
889 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
890 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
891 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
892 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
893 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
894 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
895 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
896
897At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
898special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
899registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
900only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
901
902* HP-UX support
903
904Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
905more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
906library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
907support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
908for xdb and dbx commands.
909
910* Catchpoints
911
912HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
913generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
914to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
915
916This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
917argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
918output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
919
920* Debugging across forks
921
922On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
923in the inferior.
924
925* TUI
926
927HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
928it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
929configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
930
931* GDB remote protocol additions
932
933A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
934Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
935fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
936allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
937
938For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
939full 64-bit address. The command
940
941 set remoteaddresssize 32
942
943can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
944the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
945will be discarded.
946
947In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
948command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
949
950 maint packet heythere
951
952sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
953disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
954time.
955
956The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
957target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
958downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
959
960* Tracing can collect general expressions
961
962You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
963further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
964doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
965
966* mask-address variable for Mips
967
968For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
969a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
970of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
971
972* Higher serial baud rates
973
974GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
975230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
976to achieve all of these rates.)
977
978* i960 simulator
979
980The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
981builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
982
983
984*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
985
986* New native configurations
987
988Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
989Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
990Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
991PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
992PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
993Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
994Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
995
996* New targets
997
998Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
999Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1000Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1001Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1002MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1003MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1004MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1005Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1006Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1007Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1008NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1009
1010* New debugging protocols
1011
1012ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1013M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1014DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1015PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1016PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1017Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1018
1019* DWARF 2
1020
1021All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1022format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1023information.
1024
1025* Java frontend
1026
1027GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1028only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1029
1030* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1031
1032For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1033loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1034locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1035
1036* Live range splitting
1037
1038GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1039range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1040more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1041
1042* Hurd support
1043
1044GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1045updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1046
1047* ARM Thumb support
1048
1049GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1050instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1051instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1052accordingly.
1053
1054* MIPS16 support
1055
1056GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1057instruction set.
1058
1059* Overlay support
1060
1061GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1062linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1063will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1064control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1065additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1066in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1067
1068* info symbol
1069
1070The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1071the symbol at the specified address.
1072
1073* Trace support
1074
1075The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1076asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1077extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1078includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1079file tracepoint.c for more details.
1080
1081* MIPS simulator
1082
1083Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1084by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1085of most MIPS variants.
1086
1087* Sparc simulator
1088
1089Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1090by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1091Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1092
1093* set architecture
1094
1095For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1096basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1097architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1098the possible architectures.
1099
1100*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1101
1102* New native configurations
1103
1104Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1105M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1106PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1107PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1108PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1109RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1110
1111* New targets
1112
1113ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1114I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1115MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1116MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1117PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1118Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
1119Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1120
1121* PowerPC simulator
1122
1123The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1124contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1125PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1126basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1127performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1128
1129* Solaris 2.5
1130
1131GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1132
1133* Windows 95/NT native
1134
1135GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1136To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1137which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1138Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1139ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1140
1141* dont-repeat command
1142
1143If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1144command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1145useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1146extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1147
1148* Send break instead of ^C
1149
1150The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1151rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1152GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1153
1154* Remote protocol timeout
1155
1156The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1157that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1158to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1159
1160* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1161
1162By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1163loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1164stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1165when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1166in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1167
1168Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1169/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1170automatically on hpux10.
1171
1172* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1173
1174Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1175
1176* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1177
1178When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1179may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1180the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1181every character. The default value is 1050.
1182
1183* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1184
1185If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1186a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1187replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1188details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1189remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1190to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1191
1192* Speedups for remote debugging
1193
1194GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1195the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1196and more efficient S-record downloading.
1197
1198* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1199
1200GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1201Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1202
1203*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1204
1205* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1206
1207The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1208can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1209
1210* Remote targets use caching
1211
1212Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1213remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1214it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1215debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1216off' turns the the data cache off.
1217
1218* Remote targets may have threads
1219
1220The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1221in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1222gdb/remote.c for details.
1223
1224* NetROM support
1225
1226If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1227support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1228acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1229write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1230support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1231another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1232sequence is something like
1233
1234 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1235 load <prog>
1236 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1237
1238* Macintosh host
1239
1240GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1241may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1242it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1243available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1244device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1245directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1246scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1247mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1248
1249* Autoconf
1250
1251GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1252but does simplify configuration and building.
1253
1254* hpux10
1255
1256GDB now supports hpux10.
1257
1258*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1259
1260* New native configurations
1261
1262x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1263x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1264NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1265Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1266
1267* New targets
1268
1269A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1270HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1271CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1272PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1273WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1274
1275* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1276
1277GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1278possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1279filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1280the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1281if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1282
1283* Arguments to user-defined commands
1284
1285User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1286Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1287trivial example:
1288define adder
1289 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1290
1291To execute the command use:
1292adder 1 2 3
1293
1294Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1295Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1296use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1297
1298* New `if' and `while' commands
1299
1300This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1301commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1302expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1303execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1304terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1305`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1306if the expression is zero.
1307
1308* Fortran source language mode
1309
1310GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1311Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1312variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1313with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1314Fortran compilers.
1315
1316* Better HPUX support
1317
1318Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1319running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1320processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1321for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1322that behavior do the following before running the program:
1323
1324 adb -w a.out
1325 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1326 control-d
1327
1328This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1329To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1330
1331 adb -w a.out
1332 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1333 control-d
1334
1335You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1336the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1337external linkage.
1338
1339GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1340HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1341
1342* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1343
1344You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1345commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1346current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1347"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1348associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1349configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1350
1351* New DOS host serial code
1352
1353This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1354no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1355a PC's serial port.
1356
1357*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1358
1359* New "complete" command
1360
1361This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1362were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1363
1364* Trailing space optional in prompt
1365
1366"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1367allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1368
1369* Breakpoint hit counts
1370
1371"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1372has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1373can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1374to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1375less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1376that breakpoint.
1377
1378* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1379
1380"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1381an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1382arrays actually contain only short strings.
1383
1384* Shared library breakpoints
1385
1386In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1387breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1388
1389* Hardware watchpoints
1390
1391There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1392targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1393
55241689 1394Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1395
1396* Annotations
1397
1398Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1399and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1400
1401* Improved Irix 5 support
1402
1403GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1404
1405* Improved HPPA support
1406
1407GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1408
1409* New native configurations
1410
1411Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1412HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1413Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1414RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1415
1416* New targets
1417
1418OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1419MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1420Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1421
1422* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1423
1424There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1425This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1426
1427* Fixes
1428
1429As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1430and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1431
1432*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1433
1434* Irix 5 is now supported
1435
1436* HPPA support
1437
1438GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1439to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1440GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1441of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1442can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1443
1444
1445*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1446
1447* User visible changes:
1448
1449* Remote Debugging
1450
1451The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1452target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1453debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1454integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1455debugging info for the mips target).
1456
1457* DEC Alpha native support
1458
1459GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1460debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1461work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1462Alpha-specific notes.
1463
1464* Preliminary thread implementation
1465
1466GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1467
1468* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1469
1470This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1471to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1472for details).
1473
1474* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1475
1476This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1477mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1478call methods, ...etc.
1479
1480*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1481
1482 * User visible changes:
1483
1484Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1485supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1486other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1487somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1488
1489Filename completion now works.
1490
1491When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1492arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1493addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1494
1495All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1496vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1497should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1498your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1499to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1500
1501 * DEC alpha support
1502
1503This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1504cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1505
1506
1507*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1508
1509 * Testsuite
1510
1511This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1512The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1513via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1514
1515 * C++ demangling
1516
1517'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1518emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1519Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1520disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1521use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1522
1523 * Simulators
1524
1525GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1526So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1527Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1528
1529 * New targets supported
1530
1531H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1532H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1533SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1534Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1535IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1536
1537Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1538version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1539GO32 memory extender.
1540
1541 * New remote protocols
1542
1543MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1544
1545 * New source languages supported
1546
1547This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1548used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1549into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1550
1551
1552*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1553
1554 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1555
1556GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1557version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1558University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1559compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1560format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1561(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1562
1563Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1564
1565 * Faster and better demangling
1566
1567We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1568demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1569character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1570only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1571This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1572increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1573symbol lookups.
1574
1575`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1576from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1577compiler does not actually implement.
1578
1579 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1580
1581In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1582inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1583recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1584very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1585The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1586circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1587fix.
1588
1589The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1590release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1591
1592 * Improved configure script
1593
1594The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1595you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1596host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1597done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1598
1599We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1600version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1601`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1602The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1603only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1604We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1605
1606 * Documentation improvements
1607
1608There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1609produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1610before submitting changes.
1611
1612The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1613M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1614`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1615you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1616a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1617
1618*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1619We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1620been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1621or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1622`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1623around this problem.
1624
1625 * New features
1626
1627GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1628the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1629`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1630the target program.
1631
1632The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1633how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1634
1635 * New native hosts supported
1636
1637HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1638386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1639
1640 * New targets supported
1641
1642AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1643
1644 * New file formats supported
1645
1646BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1647HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1648
1649 * Major bug fixes
1650
1651Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1652
1653We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1654printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1655
1656We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1657for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1658release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1659
1660You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1661will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1662
1663We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1664for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1665especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1666libraries.
1667
1668The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1669information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1670command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1671any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1672when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1673
1674 * Internal improvements
1675
1676GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1677debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1678
1679GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1680Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1681symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1682contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1683shared code that handles any of them.
1684
1685 * New command line options
1686
1687We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1688
1689 * Mmalloc licensing
1690
1691The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1692General Public License.
1693
1694*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1695
1696 * Host/native/target split
1697
1698GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1699hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1700target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1701local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1702ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1703
1704The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1705GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1706is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1707code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1708any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1709built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1710handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1711
1712GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1713It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1714plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1715
1716 * New hosts supported
1717
1718HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1719386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1720386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1721
1722 * New targets supported
1723
1724Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
172568030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1726
1727 * New native hosts supported
1728
1729386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1730 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1731386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1732
1733 * New file formats supported
1734
1735BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1736supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1737format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1738
1739 * New commands
1740
1741`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1742`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1743These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1744
1745`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1746
1747You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1748scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1749prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1750executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1751
1752 * C++ improvements
1753
1754We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1755info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1756symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1757
1758Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1759
1760 * Major bug fixes
1761
1762The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1763fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1764by the compiler.
1765
1766We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1767support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1768
1769John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1770slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1771that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1772purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1773the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1774mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1775
1776Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1777about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1778completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1779we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1780
1781 * AMD 29k support
1782
1783A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1784specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1785calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1786usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1787in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1788
1789We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1790Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1791of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1792resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1793
1794 * Remote interfaces
1795
1796We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1797with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1798message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1799This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1800needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1801breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1802each instruction being stepped through.
1803
1804The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1805registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1806
1807There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1808find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1809Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1810processor with a serial port.
1811
1812 * Configuration
1813
1814Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1815`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1816supported, and what files each one uses.
1817
1818 * Library changes
1819
1820There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1821disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1822Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1823disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1824
1825The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1826Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1827can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1828grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1829
1830 * Documentation
1831
1832The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1833reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1834as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1835encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1836system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1837bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1838
1839And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1840
1841
1842*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1843
1844 * Better support for C++ function names
1845
1846GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1847names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1848(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1849single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1850Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1851
1852GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1853the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1854You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1855lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1856for the list of formats.
1857
1858 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1859
1860Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1861C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1862directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1863can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1864usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1865about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1866this problem.)
1867
1868 * New 'maintenance' command
1869
1870All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1871the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1872can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1873
1874 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1875 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1876 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1877 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1878 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1879 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1880
1881The following commands are new:
1882
1883 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1884 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1885 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1886
1887 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1888
1889We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1890(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1891be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1892read after argv processing.
1893
1894 * New hosts supported
1895
1896Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1897
55241689 1898GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
1899
1900We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1901is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1902for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1903masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1904fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1905It costs extra.
1906
1907 * New targets supported
1908
1909Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1910
1911 * More smarts about finding #include files
1912
1913GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1914all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1915greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1916especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1917the one that contains your sources.
1918
1919We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1920breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1921try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1922
1923 * Interesting infernals change
1924
1925GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1926section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1927target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1928stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1929
1930 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1931
1932There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1933 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1934 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1935
1936See the ChangeLog for details.
1937
1938*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1939
1940 * New machines supported (host and target)
1941
1942IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1943
1944SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1945
1946 * New malloc package
1947
1948GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1949Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1950capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1951This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1952pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1953more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1954
1955 * info proc
1956
1957The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1958'help info proc' for details.
1959
1960 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1961
1962The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1963Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1964possible.
1965
1966 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1967
1968Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1969support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1970conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1971environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1972that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1973in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1974
1975 * Cross byte order fixes
1976
1977Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1978targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1979
1980 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1981
1982If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1983system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1984`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1985program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1986called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1987Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1988and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1989the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1990option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1991starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1992
1993You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1994the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1995information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1996slower, but makes future operations faster.
1997
1998The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1999build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2000A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2001use is:
2002
2003 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2004
2005The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2006It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2007shared across multiple host platforms.
2008
2009 * longjmp() handling
2010
2011GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2012siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2013all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2014platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2015
2016 * Solaris 2.0
2017
2018Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2019this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2020reading symbols.
2021
2022 * Bug fixes
2023
2024As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2025People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2026crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2027
2028*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2029
2030 * New machines supported (host and target)
2031
2032SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2033 (except core files)
2034BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2035Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2036
2037 * New machines supported (target)
2038
2039AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2040
2041 * C++ support
2042
2043GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2044The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2045per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2046
2047GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2048`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2049extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2050good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2051will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2052released.
2053
2054 * New features for SVR4
2055
2056GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2057shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2058only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2059
2060The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2061on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2062it prints the address mappings of the process.
2063
2064If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2065bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2066
2067 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2068
2069Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2070now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2071skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2072make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2073same code linked statically.
2074
2075 * New Getopt
2076
2077GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2078version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2079continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2080Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2081added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2082future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2083
2084 * Bugs fixed
2085
2086The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2087Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2088See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2089
2090
2091*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2092
2093 * New machines supported (host and target)
2094
2095Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2096NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2097Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2098
2099 * Almost SCO Unix support
2100
2101We had hoped to support:
2102SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2103(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2104that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2105about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2106
2107 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2108
2109GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2110debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2111is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2112send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2113reqired (if any).
2114
2115 * New Readline
2116
2117GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2118is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2119required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2120
2121 * Bugs fixed
2122
2123The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2124Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2125See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2126
2127 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2128
2129GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2130supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2131symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2132
2133Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2134mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2135debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2136mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2137version 2.
2138
2139Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2140really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2141line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2142variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2143situation somewhat.
2144
2145When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2146However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2147methods.
2148
2149We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2150DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2151encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2152
2153
2154*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2155
2156 * Improved configuration
2157
2158Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2159Porting BFD is simpler.
2160
2161 * Stepping improved
2162
2163The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2164of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2165in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2166function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2167
2168 * Bug fixing
2169
2170Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2171
2172 * New host supported (not target)
2173
2174Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2175
2176
2177*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2178
2179 * Multiple source language support
2180
2181GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2182It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2183and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2184language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2185You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2186`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2187
2188 * GDB and Modula-2
2189
2190GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2191currently under development at the State University of New York at
2192Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2193continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2194
2195Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2196debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2197symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2198
2199There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2200in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2201
2202 * set write on/off
2203
2204GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2205a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2206the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2207by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2208effect immediately.
2209
2210 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2211
2212When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2213shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2214The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2215examining core files.
2216
2217 * set listsize
2218
2219You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2220The default is 10.
2221
2222 * New machines supported (host and target)
2223
2224SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2225Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2226Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2227
2228 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2229
2230IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2231
2232 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2233
2234AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2235AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2236Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2237
2238 * New remote interfaces
2239
2240AMD 29000 Adapt
2241AMD 29000 Minimon
2242
2243
2244*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2245
2246 * New Facilities
2247
2248Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2249
2250Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2251target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2252is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2253remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2254remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2255also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2256using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2257stub on the target system.
2258
2259New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2260
2261GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2262library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2263object file types such as a.out and coff.
2264
2265There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2266refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2267
2268
2269 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2270
2271All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2272by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2273
2274For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2275``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2276Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2277
2278What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2279print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2280will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2281all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2282
2283confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2284 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2285 it is already running. Default is ON.
2286
2287editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2288 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2289 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2290 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2291 Default is ON.
2292
2293history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2294 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2295 or the value of the environment variable
2296 GDBHISTFILE.
2297
2298history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2299 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2300 HISTSIZE.
2301
2302history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2303 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2304 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2305
2306history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2307 history expansion will be performed on
2308 command line input. The default is OFF.
2309
2310radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2311 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2312 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2313
2314height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2315 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2316 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2317 variable TERM.
2318
2319width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2320 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2321 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2322 variable TERM.
2323
2324Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2325``set width'' instead.
2326
2327print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2328 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2329 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2330 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2331
2332print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2333 is OFF.
2334
2335print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2336 "raw" form if off.
2337
2338print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2339 like instructions.
2340
2341print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2342
2343
2344 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2345
2346The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2347new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2348are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2349window.
2350
2351
2352 * Support for Shared Libraries
2353
2354GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2355Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2356before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2357happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2358At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2359from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2360shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2361It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2362
2363sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2364 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2365 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2366
2367info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2368
2369
2370 * Watchpoints
2371
2372A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2373expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2374tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2375quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2376problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2377more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2378
2379watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2380
2381info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2382
2383delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2384disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2385enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2386
2387
2388 * C++ multiple inheritance
2389
2390When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2391for C++ programs.
2392
2393 * C++ exception handling
2394
2395Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2396ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2397the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2398handler's context).
2399
2400catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2401 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2402 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2403
2404info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2405 current stack frame.
2406
2407
2408 * Minor command changes
2409
2410The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2411command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2412is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2413
2414The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2415at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2416frames without printing.
2417
2418 * New directory command
2419
2420'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2421The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2422about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2423with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2424find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2425
2426 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2427
2428For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2429for more details.
2430
2431GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2432two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2433Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2434where the program that you are debugging will run.
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