AIX 4.3 changes
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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c906108c
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB-4.18:
5
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6* New features
7
8On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
9without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
10load symbols from the running process's executable file.
11
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12C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
13in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
14
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15* New native configurations
16
17ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
18
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19* New targets
20
96baa820 21Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
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22x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
23PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
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24TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
25
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26* OBSOLETE configurations
27
28Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
29Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 30Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 31ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 32Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 33
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34* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
35
36A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
37sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
38with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
39``|<program> <args>'' vis:
40
41 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
42 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
43
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44* MIPS 64 remote protocol
45
46A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
47expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
48instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
49
50The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
51added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
52
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53* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
54
55The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
56``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
57include ``set remote P-packet''.
58
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59* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
60
61The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
62accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
63``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
64
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65* ``apropos'' command added.
66
67The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
68documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
69try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
70
c906108c
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71*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
72
73* New native configurations
74
75HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
76HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
77M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
78
79* New targets
80
81Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
82Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
83Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
84
85* OBSOLETE configurations
86
87Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
88
89Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
90but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
91these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
92be permanently REMOVED.
93
94* ANSI/ISO C
95
96As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
97buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
98containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
99use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
100available. If this is not true, please report the affected
101configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
102information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
103already.
104
105* Readline 2.2
106
107GDB now uses readline 2.2.
108
109* set extension-language
110
111You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
112languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
113you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
114 set extension-language .c c++
115The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
116and their associated languages.
117
118* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
119
120When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
121you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
122PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
123
124 set processor NAME
125
126sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
127following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
128
129 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
130 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
131 403 IBM PowerPC 403
132 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
133 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
134 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
135 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
136 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
137 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
138 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
139 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
140
141At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
142special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
143registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
144only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
145
146* HP-UX support
147
148Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
149more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
150library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
151support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
152for xdb and dbx commands.
153
154* Catchpoints
155
156HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
157generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
158to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
159
160This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
161argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
162output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
163
164* Debugging across forks
165
166On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
167in the inferior.
168
169* TUI
170
171HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
172it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
173configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
174
175* GDB remote protocol additions
176
177A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
178Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
179fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
180allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
181
182For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
183full 64-bit address. The command
184
185 set remoteaddresssize 32
186
187can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
188the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
189will be discarded.
190
191In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
192command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
193
194 maint packet heythere
195
196sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
197disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
198time.
199
200The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
201target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
202downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
203
204* Tracing can collect general expressions
205
206You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
207further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
208doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
209
210* mask-address variable for Mips
211
212For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
213a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
214of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
215
216* Higher serial baud rates
217
218GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
219230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
220to achieve all of these rates.)
221
222* i960 simulator
223
224The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
225builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
226
227
228*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
229
230* New native configurations
231
232Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
233Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
234Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
235PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
236PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
237Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
238Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
239
240* New targets
241
242Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
243Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
244Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
245Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
246MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
247MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
248MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
249Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
250Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
251Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
252NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
253
254* New debugging protocols
255
256ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
257M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
258DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
259PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
260PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
261Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
262
263* DWARF 2
264
265All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
266format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
267information.
268
269* Java frontend
270
271GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
272only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
273
274* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
275
276For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
277loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
278locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
279
280* Live range splitting
281
282GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
283range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
284more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
285
286* Hurd support
287
288GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
289updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
290
291* ARM Thumb support
292
293GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
294instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
295instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
296accordingly.
297
298* MIPS16 support
299
300GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
301instruction set.
302
303* Overlay support
304
305GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
306linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
307will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
308control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
309additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
310in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
311
312* info symbol
313
314The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
315the symbol at the specified address.
316
317* Trace support
318
319The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
320asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
321extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
322includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
323file tracepoint.c for more details.
324
325* MIPS simulator
326
327Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
328by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
329of most MIPS variants.
330
331* Sparc simulator
332
333Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
334by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
335Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
336
337* set architecture
338
339For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
340basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
341architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
342the possible architectures.
343
344*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
345
346* New native configurations
347
348Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
349M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
350PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
351PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
352PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
353RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
354
355* New targets
356
357ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
358I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
359MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
360MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
361PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
362Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
363Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
364
365* PowerPC simulator
366
367The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
368contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
369PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
370basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
371performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
372
373* Solaris 2.5
374
375GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
376
377* Windows 95/NT native
378
379GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
380To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
381which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
382Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
383ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
384
385* dont-repeat command
386
387If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
388command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
389useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
390extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
391
392* Send break instead of ^C
393
394The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
395rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
396GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
397
398* Remote protocol timeout
399
400The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
401that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
402to read from the target. The default value is 2.
403
404* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
405
406By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
407loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
408stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
409when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
410in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
411
412Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
413/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
414automatically on hpux10.
415
416* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
417
418Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
419
420* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
421
422When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
423may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
424the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
425every character. The default value is 1050.
426
427* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
428
429If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
430a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
431replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
432details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
433remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
434to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
435
436* Speedups for remote debugging
437
438GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
439the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
440and more efficient S-record downloading.
441
442* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
443
444GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
445Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
446
447*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
448
449* Psymtabs for XCOFF
450
451The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
452can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
453
454* Remote targets use caching
455
456Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
457remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
458it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
459debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
460off' turns the the data cache off.
461
462* Remote targets may have threads
463
464The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
465in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
466gdb/remote.c for details.
467
468* NetROM support
469
470If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
471support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
472acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
473write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
474support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
475another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
476sequence is something like
477
478 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
479 load <prog>
480 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
481
482* Macintosh host
483
484GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
485may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
486it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
487available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
488device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
489directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
490scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
491mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
492
493* Autoconf
494
495GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
496but does simplify configuration and building.
497
498* hpux10
499
500GDB now supports hpux10.
501
502*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
503
504* New native configurations
505
506x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
507x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
508NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
509Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
510
511* New targets
512
513A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
514HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
515CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
516PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
517WDC 65816 w65-*-*
518
519* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
520
521GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
522possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
523filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
524the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
525if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
526
527* Arguments to user-defined commands
528
529User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
530Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
531trivial example:
532define adder
533 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
534
535To execute the command use:
536adder 1 2 3
537
538Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
539Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
540use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
541
542* New `if' and `while' commands
543
544This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
545commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
546expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
547execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
548terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
549`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
550if the expression is zero.
551
552* Fortran source language mode
553
554GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
555Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
556variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
557with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
558Fortran compilers.
559
560* Better HPUX support
561
562Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
563running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
564processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
565for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
566that behavior do the following before running the program:
567
568 adb -w a.out
569 __dld_flags?W 0x5
570 control-d
571
572This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
573To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
574
575 adb -w a.out
576 __dld_flags?W 0x4
577 control-d
578
579You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
580the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
581external linkage.
582
583GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
584HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
585
586* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
587
588You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
589commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
590current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
591"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
592associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
593configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
594
595* New DOS host serial code
596
597This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
598no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
599a PC's serial port.
600
601*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
602
603* New "complete" command
604
605This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
606were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
607
608* Trailing space optional in prompt
609
610"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
611allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
612
613* Breakpoint hit counts
614
615"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
616has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
617can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
618to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
619less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
620that breakpoint.
621
622* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
623
624"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
625an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
626arrays actually contain only short strings.
627
628* Shared library breakpoints
629
630In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
631breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
632
633* Hardware watchpoints
634
635There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
636targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
637
638Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
639
640* Annotations
641
642Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
643and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
644
645* Improved Irix 5 support
646
647GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
648
649* Improved HPPA support
650
651GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
652
653* New native configurations
654
655Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
656HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
657Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
658RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
659
660* New targets
661
662OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
663MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
664Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
665
666* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
667
668There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
669This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
670
671* Fixes
672
673As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
674and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
675
676*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
677
678* Irix 5 is now supported
679
680* HPPA support
681
682GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
683to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
684GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
685of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
686can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
687
688
689*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
690
691* User visible changes:
692
693* Remote Debugging
694
695The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
696target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
697debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
698integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
699debugging info for the mips target).
700
701* DEC Alpha native support
702
703GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
704debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
705work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
706Alpha-specific notes.
707
708* Preliminary thread implementation
709
710GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
711
712* LynxOS native and target support for 386
713
714This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
715to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
716for details).
717
718* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
719
720This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
721mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
722call methods, ...etc.
723
724*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
725
726 * User visible changes:
727
728Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
729supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
730other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
731somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
732
733Filename completion now works.
734
735When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
736arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
737addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
738
739All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
740vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
741should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
742your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
743to be on the far side of a thin network line.
744
745 * DEC alpha support
746
747This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
748cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
749
750
751*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
752
753 * Testsuite
754
755This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
756The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
757via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
758
759 * C++ demangling
760
761'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
762emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
763Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
764disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
765use gdb with AT&T cfront.
766
767 * Simulators
768
769GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
770So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
771Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
772
773 * New targets supported
774
775H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
776H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
777SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
778Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
779IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
780
781Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
782version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
783GO32 memory extender.
784
785 * New remote protocols
786
787MIPS remote debugging protocol.
788
789 * New source languages supported
790
791This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
792used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
793into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
794
795
796*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
797
798 * HP Precision Architecture supported
799
800GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
801version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
802University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
803compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
804format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
805(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
806
807Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
808
809 * Faster and better demangling
810
811We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
812demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
813character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
814only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
815This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
816increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
817symbol lookups.
818
819`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
820from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
821compiler does not actually implement.
822
823 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
824
825In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
826inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
827recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
828very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
829The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
830circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
831fix.
832
833The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
834release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
835
836 * Improved configure script
837
838The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
839you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
840host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
841done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
842
843We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
844version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
845`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
846The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
847only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
848We hope to make this the default in a future release.
849
850 * Documentation improvements
851
852There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
853produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
854before submitting changes.
855
856The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
857M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
858`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
859you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
860a future texinfo-X.Y release.
861
862*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
863We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
864been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
865or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
866`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
867around this problem.
868
869 * New features
870
871GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
872the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
873`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
874the target program.
875
876The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
877how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
878
879 * New native hosts supported
880
881HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
882386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
883
884 * New targets supported
885
886AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
887
888 * New file formats supported
889
890BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
891HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
892
893 * Major bug fixes
894
895Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
896
897We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
898printf_filtered("%s") problems.
899
900We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
901for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
902release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
903
904You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
905will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
906
907We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
908for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
909especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
910libraries.
911
912The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
913information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
914command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
915any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
916when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
917
918 * Internal improvements
919
920GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
921debugging of multiple languages in the future.
922
923GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
924Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
925symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
926contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
927shared code that handles any of them.
928
929 * New command line options
930
931We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
932
933 * Mmalloc licensing
934
935The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
936General Public License.
937
938*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
939
940 * Host/native/target split
941
942GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
943hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
944target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
945local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
946ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
947
948The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
949GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
950is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
951code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
952any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
953built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
954handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
955
956GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
957It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
958plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
959
960 * New hosts supported
961
962HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
963386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
964386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
965
966 * New targets supported
967
968Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
96968030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
970
971 * New native hosts supported
972
973386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
974 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
975386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
976
977 * New file formats supported
978
979BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
980supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
981format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
982
983 * New commands
984
985`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
986`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
987These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
988
989`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
990
991You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
992scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
993prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
994executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
995
996 * C++ improvements
997
998We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
999info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1000symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1001
1002Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1003
1004 * Major bug fixes
1005
1006The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1007fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1008by the compiler.
1009
1010We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1011support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1012
1013John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1014slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1015that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1016purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1017the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1018mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1019
1020Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1021about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1022completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1023we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1024
1025 * AMD 29k support
1026
1027A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1028specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1029calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1030usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1031in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1032
1033We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1034Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1035of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1036resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1037
1038 * Remote interfaces
1039
1040We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1041with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1042message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1043This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1044needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1045breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1046each instruction being stepped through.
1047
1048The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1049registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1050
1051There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1052find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1053Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1054processor with a serial port.
1055
1056 * Configuration
1057
1058Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1059`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1060supported, and what files each one uses.
1061
1062 * Library changes
1063
1064There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1065disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1066Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1067disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1068
1069The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1070Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1071can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1072grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1073
1074 * Documentation
1075
1076The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1077reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1078as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1079encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1080system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1081bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1082
1083And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1084
1085
1086*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1087
1088 * Better support for C++ function names
1089
1090GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1091names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1092(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1093single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1094Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1095
1096GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1097the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1098You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1099lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1100for the list of formats.
1101
1102 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1103
1104Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1105C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1106directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1107can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1108usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1109about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1110this problem.)
1111
1112 * New 'maintenance' command
1113
1114All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1115the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1116can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1117
1118 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1119 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1120 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1121 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1122 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1123 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1124
1125The following commands are new:
1126
1127 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1128 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1129 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1130
1131 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1132
1133We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1134(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1135be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1136read after argv processing.
1137
1138 * New hosts supported
1139
1140Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1141
1142Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1143
1144We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1145is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1146for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1147masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1148fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1149It costs extra.
1150
1151 * New targets supported
1152
1153Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1154
1155 * More smarts about finding #include files
1156
1157GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1158all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1159greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1160especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1161the one that contains your sources.
1162
1163We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1164breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1165try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1166
1167 * Interesting infernals change
1168
1169GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1170section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1171target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1172stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1173
1174 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1175
1176There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1177 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1178 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1179
1180See the ChangeLog for details.
1181
1182*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1183
1184 * New machines supported (host and target)
1185
1186IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1187
1188SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1189
1190 * New malloc package
1191
1192GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1193Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1194capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1195This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1196pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1197more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1198
1199 * info proc
1200
1201The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1202'help info proc' for details.
1203
1204 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1205
1206The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1207Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1208possible.
1209
1210 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1211
1212Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1213support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1214conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1215environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1216that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1217in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1218
1219 * Cross byte order fixes
1220
1221Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1222targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1223
1224 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1225
1226If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1227system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1228`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1229program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1230called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1231Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1232and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1233the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1234option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1235starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1236
1237You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1238the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1239information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1240slower, but makes future operations faster.
1241
1242The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1243build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1244A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1245use is:
1246
1247 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1248
1249The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1250It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1251shared across multiple host platforms.
1252
1253 * longjmp() handling
1254
1255GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1256siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1257all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1258platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1259
1260 * Solaris 2.0
1261
1262Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1263this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1264reading symbols.
1265
1266 * Bug fixes
1267
1268As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1269People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1270crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1271
1272*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1273
1274 * New machines supported (host and target)
1275
1276SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1277 (except core files)
1278BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1279Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1280
1281 * New machines supported (target)
1282
1283AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1284
1285 * C++ support
1286
1287GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1288The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1289per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1290
1291GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1292`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1293extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1294good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1295will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1296released.
1297
1298 * New features for SVR4
1299
1300GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1301shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1302only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1303
1304The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1305on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1306it prints the address mappings of the process.
1307
1308If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1309bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1310
1311 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1312
1313Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1314now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1315skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1316make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1317same code linked statically.
1318
1319 * New Getopt
1320
1321GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1322version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1323continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1324Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1325added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1326future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1327
1328 * Bugs fixed
1329
1330The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1331Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1332See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1333
1334
1335*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1336
1337 * New machines supported (host and target)
1338
1339Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1340NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1341Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1342
1343 * Almost SCO Unix support
1344
1345We had hoped to support:
1346SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1347(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1348that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1349about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1350
1351 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1352
1353GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1354debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1355is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1356send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1357reqired (if any).
1358
1359 * New Readline
1360
1361GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1362is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1363required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1364
1365 * Bugs fixed
1366
1367The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1368Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1369See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1370
1371 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1372
1373GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1374supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1375symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1376
1377Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1378mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1379debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1380mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1381version 2.
1382
1383Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1384really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1385line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1386variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1387situation somewhat.
1388
1389When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1390However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1391methods.
1392
1393We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1394DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1395encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1396
1397
1398*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1399
1400 * Improved configuration
1401
1402Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1403Porting BFD is simpler.
1404
1405 * Stepping improved
1406
1407The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1408of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1409in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1410function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1411
1412 * Bug fixing
1413
1414Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1415
1416 * New host supported (not target)
1417
1418Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1419
1420
1421*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1422
1423 * Multiple source language support
1424
1425GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1426It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1427and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1428language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1429You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1430`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1431
1432 * GDB and Modula-2
1433
1434GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1435currently under development at the State University of New York at
1436Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1437continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1438
1439Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1440debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1441symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1442
1443There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1444in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1445
1446 * set write on/off
1447
1448GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1449a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1450the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1451by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1452effect immediately.
1453
1454 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1455
1456When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1457shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1458The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1459examining core files.
1460
1461 * set listsize
1462
1463You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1464The default is 10.
1465
1466 * New machines supported (host and target)
1467
1468SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1469Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1470Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1471
1472 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1473
1474IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1475
1476 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1477
1478AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1479AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1480Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1481
1482 * New remote interfaces
1483
1484AMD 29000 Adapt
1485AMD 29000 Minimon
1486
1487
1488*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1489
1490 * New Facilities
1491
1492Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1493
1494Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1495target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1496is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1497remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1498remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1499also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1500using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1501stub on the target system.
1502
1503New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1504
1505GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1506library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1507object file types such as a.out and coff.
1508
1509There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1510refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1511
1512
1513 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1514
1515All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1516by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1517
1518For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1519``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1520Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1521
1522What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1523print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1524will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1525all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1526
1527confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1528 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1529 it is already running. Default is ON.
1530
1531editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1532 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1533 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1534 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1535 Default is ON.
1536
1537history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1538 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1539 or the value of the environment variable
1540 GDBHISTFILE.
1541
1542history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1543 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1544 HISTSIZE.
1545
1546history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1547 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1548 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1549
1550history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1551 history expansion will be performed on
1552 command line input. The default is OFF.
1553
1554radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1555 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1556 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1557
1558height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1559 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1560 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1561 variable TERM.
1562
1563width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1564 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1565 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1566 variable TERM.
1567
1568Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1569``set width'' instead.
1570
1571print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1572 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1573 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1574 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1575
1576print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1577 is OFF.
1578
1579print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1580 "raw" form if off.
1581
1582print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1583 like instructions.
1584
1585print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1586
1587
1588 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1589
1590The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1591new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1592are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1593window.
1594
1595
1596 * Support for Shared Libraries
1597
1598GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1599Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1600before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1601happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1602At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1603from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1604shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1605It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1606
1607sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1608 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1609 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1610
1611info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1612
1613
1614 * Watchpoints
1615
1616A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1617expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1618tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1619quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1620problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1621more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1622
1623watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1624
1625info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1626
1627delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1628disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1629enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1630
1631
1632 * C++ multiple inheritance
1633
1634When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1635for C++ programs.
1636
1637 * C++ exception handling
1638
1639Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1640ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1641the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1642handler's context).
1643
1644catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1645 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1646 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1647
1648info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1649 current stack frame.
1650
1651
1652 * Minor command changes
1653
1654The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1655command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1656is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1657
1658The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1659at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1660frames without printing.
1661
1662 * New directory command
1663
1664'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1665The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1666about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1667with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1668find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1669
1670 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1671
1672For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1673for more details.
1674
1675GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1676two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1677Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1678where the program that you are debugging will run.
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