Set page_size to 1 instead of 0 in the case file alignment value is zero.
[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
f2c06f52
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.0:
5
9e08b29b
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6* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
7
8GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
9arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
10encountered these.
11
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12* New native configurations
13
14NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
15
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16* New debugging protocols
17
18M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
19
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20* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
21
22The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
23and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
24tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
25
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26* OBSOLETE configurations and files
27
28Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
29been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
30configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
31permanently REMOVED.
32
33Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
34Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
35Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
36Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
37Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
38AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
39Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
40
0ddabb4c
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41* REMOVED configurations and files
42
43SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
44SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
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45Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
46Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
47H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
48HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
49HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
50HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
51PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
52Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
53 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
54 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
55Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
56Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 57
c7f1390e
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58*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
59
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60* Objective-C
61
62Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
63integrated into GDB.
64
e6beb428
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65* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
66
67DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
68information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
69By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
70backtraces.
71
72The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
73have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
74DWARF 2 CFI support.
75
76* Hosted file I/O.
77
78GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
79file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
80remote protocol documentation for details.
81
82* All targets using the new architecture framework.
83
84All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
85architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
86to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
87ppc32 on ppc64).
88
89* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
90
91GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
92per-thread variables.
93
94* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
95
96GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
97GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
98
99* Separate debug info.
100
101GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
102automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
103of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
104system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
105and optional debug files.
106
107* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
108
109DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
110describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
111debugger.
112
113GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
114for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
115
116* Java
117
118A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
119Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
120considered "useable".
121
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122* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
123
124The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
125commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
126kernel.
127
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128* GDB supports logging output to a file
129
130There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
131used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 132
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133* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
134
135The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
136disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
137command.
138
e286caf2 139* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
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140
141The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
142registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
143
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144* Profiling support
145
146A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
147be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
148session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
149"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
150data, for more informative profiling results.
151
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152* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
153
154The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
155option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 156"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
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157
158Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
159removed.
160
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161Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
162Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
163Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
164 in a subsequent -var-update.
165
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166* New native configurations.
167
168FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
169
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170* Multi-arched targets.
171
b4263afa 172HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 173Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 174
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175* OBSOLETE configurations and files
176
177Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
178been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
179configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
180permanently REMOVED.
181
8b0e5691 182Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 183Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 184H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
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185HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
186HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
187HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 188PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
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189Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
190 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
191 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
192Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
193Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 194
5835abe7
NC
195* REMOVED configurations and files
196
197V850EA ISA
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198Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
199IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
200i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
201i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
202i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
203HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
204 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
205 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
206Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
207Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
208Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
209OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
210I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 211
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212* MIPS $fp behavior changed
213
214The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
215the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
216context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
217address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
218The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
219
299ffc64 220*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 221
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222* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
223
224When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
225`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
226in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
227library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
228shared libs like mad''.
229
b9d14705 230* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 231
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232Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
233the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
234arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
235powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 236
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237* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
238
239GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
240and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
241they expand.
242
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243The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
244invocations in expression, and shows the result.
245
246The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
247macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
248
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249Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
250information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
251your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
252information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
253
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254* Multi-arched targets.
255
6e3ba3b8
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256DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
257DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 258NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 259National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
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260Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
261Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 262
cd9bfe15 263* New targets.
e33ce519 264
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265Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
266
e33ce519 267
da8ca43d
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268* New native configurations
269
270Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 271SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 272MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 273UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 274
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275* OBSOLETE configurations and files
276
277Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
278been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
279configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
280permanently REMOVED.
281
92eb23c5 282Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 283OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 284IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 285Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 286Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 287Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
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288i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
289i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
290i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
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291HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
292 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
293 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 294I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 295
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296* OBSOLETE languages
297
298CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
299
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300* REMOVED configurations and files
301
302AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
303A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
304AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
305AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
306AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
307
308testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
309
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DH
310* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
311
312This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
313commands. The default is 1024.
314
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315* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
316
317Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
318
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MS
319* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
320
321These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
322to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
323from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 324
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325* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
326
327The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
328including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
329of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
330
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AC
331*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
332
333* New targets.
334
335Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
336
337* Bug fixes
338
339gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
340mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
341Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
342
343gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
344dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
345Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
346
347Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
348Surprisingly enough, it works now.
349By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
350
351i386 hardware watchpoint support:
352avoid misses on second run for some targets.
353By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
354
37057839 355*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 356
1a703748
MS
357* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
358
359This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
360really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
361In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
362target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
363This can be a significant performance improvement on some
364(notably embedded) targets.
365
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366* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
367
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368This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
369process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
370GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
371hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 372
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373* New command line option
374
375GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
376
377* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
378
379There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
380command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
381a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
382be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
383open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
384issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
385a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
386it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
387GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
388is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
389
fe419ffc
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390* Changes in ARM configurations.
391
392Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
393configuration is fully multi-arch.
394
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395* New native configurations
396
fe419ffc 397ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 398x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 399AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 400Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 401
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402* New targets
403
404Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
405
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406* OBSOLETE configurations and files
407
408Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
409been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
410configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
411permanently REMOVED.
412
413AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
414A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
415AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
416AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
417AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
418
b4ceaee6 419testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 420
e2caac18
AC
421* REMOVED configurations and files
422
423TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 424WDC 65816 w65-*-*
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425PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
426PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
427PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 428Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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AC
429Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
430 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 431SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 432Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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433Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
434ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 435Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 436
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437* Changes to command line processing
438
439The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
440for the inferior from gdb's command line.
441
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442* Changes to key bindings
443
444There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
445
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AC
446*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
447
448Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
449
450Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
451corrupted.
452
453Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
454
455Numerous documentation fixes.
456
457Numerous testsuite fixes.
458
34f47bc4 459*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
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460
461* New native configurations
462
463Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
464x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 465MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
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466MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
467ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 468s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 469
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470* New targets
471
def90278 472Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 473CRIS cris-axis
55241689 474UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 475
17e78a56 476* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
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477
478x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 479Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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480Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
481 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
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482TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
483WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 484Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
485PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
486PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
487PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 488SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
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489Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
490ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 491Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 492
17e78a56
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493stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
494kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
495
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496Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
497been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
498configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
499permanently REMOVED.
500
a196c81c 501* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
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502
503Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
504Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
505Pyramid pyramid-*-*
506ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
507Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 508ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 509
6d6b80e5 510* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 511
6d6b80e5 512GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
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513sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
514present.
515
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516* Other news:
517
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518* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
519
520* The MI enabled by default.
521
522The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
523revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
524engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
525using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
526which is now deprecated.
527
528* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
529
530GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
531main features are supported:
532
533 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
534
535 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
536 extension;
537
538 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
539
540 - a Pascal expression parser.
541
542However, some important features are not yet supported.
543
544 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
545
546 - there are some problems with boolean types;
547
548 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
549 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
550
551 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
552
553 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
554
555* Changes in completion.
556
557Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
558to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
559users expect at the shell prompt.
560
561Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
562`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
563program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
564files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
565be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
566considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
567name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
568
569`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
570
571* New platform-independent commands:
572
573It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
574hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
575documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
576
577* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
578
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MK
579Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
580revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
581many threads as your system allows you to have.
582
e23194cb
EZ
583Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
584
d7275149
MK
585Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
586multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
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587
588* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
589
590Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
591
e23194cb
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592GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
593debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
594supported.)
595
596* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
597
598Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
599breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
600implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
601put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
602and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
603registers.
604
605The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
606debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
607watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
608
609* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
610
611New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
612the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
613
614New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
615display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
616IDT.
617
618New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
619from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
620New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
621a given linear address.
622
623GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
624program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
625which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
626
627DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
628
6c56c069
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629It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
630
e23194cb
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631* Changes in documentation.
632
633All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
634Documentation License.
635
636Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
637manual.
638
639TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
640
641Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
642manual.
643
644The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
645documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
646hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
647
5d6640b1
AC
648* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
649
650The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
651``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
652contents of this file.
653
1a1d8446
AC
654* gdba.el deleted
655
656GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 657
9debab2f 658*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 659
c63ce875
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660* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
661
662Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
663programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
664displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
665greater level of detail.
666
667* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
668
669It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
670bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
671on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
672written.
673
674* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
675
676The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
677necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
678machines ``out of the box''.
679
680The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
681possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
682signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
683would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
684interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
685
686It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
687standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
688even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
689and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
690terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
691
692The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
693enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
694also works.
695
696DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
697GDB.
698
699It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
700directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
701times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
702breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
703
ed9a39eb
JM
704* New native configurations
705
706ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 707PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 708
7a292a7a
SS
709* New targets
710
96baa820 711Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
712x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
713PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
714TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
715
085dd6e6
JM
716* OBSOLETE configurations
717
718Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
719Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 720Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 721ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 722Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 723
9debab2f
AC
724Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
725but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
726these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
727be permanently REMOVED.
728
5330533d
SS
729* Gould support removed
730
731Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
732
bc9e5bbf
AC
733* New features for SVR4
734
735On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
736without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
737load symbols from the running process's executable file.
738
739* Many C++ enhancements
740
741C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
742in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
743
adf40b2e
JM
744* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
745
746A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
747sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
748with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
749``|<program> <args>'' vis:
750
751 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
752 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
753
43e526b9
JM
754* MIPS 64 remote protocol
755
756A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
757expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
758instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
759
760The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
761added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
762
96baa820
JM
763* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
764
765The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
766``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
767include ``set remote P-packet''.
768
11cf8741
JM
769* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
770
771The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
772accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
773``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
774
7876dd43
DB
775* ``apropos'' command added.
776
777The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
778documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
779try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
780
bc9e5bbf
AC
781* New MI interface
782
783A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
784interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
785process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
786"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
787enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
788
789 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
790
c906108c
SS
791*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
792
793* New native configurations
794
795HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
796HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 797M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
798
799* New targets
800
801Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
802Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
803Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
804
805* OBSOLETE configurations
806
807Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
808
809Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
810but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
811these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
812be permanently REMOVED.
813
814* ANSI/ISO C
815
816As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
817buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
818containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
819use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
820available. If this is not true, please report the affected
821configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
822information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
823already.
824
825* Readline 2.2
826
827GDB now uses readline 2.2.
828
829* set extension-language
830
831You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
832languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
833you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
834 set extension-language .c c++
835The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
836and their associated languages.
837
838* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
839
840When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
841you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
842PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
843
844 set processor NAME
845
846sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
847following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
848
849 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
850 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
851 403 IBM PowerPC 403
852 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
853 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
854 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
855 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
856 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
857 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
858 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
859 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
860
861At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
862special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
863registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
864only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
865
866* HP-UX support
867
868Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
869more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
870library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
871support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
872for xdb and dbx commands.
873
874* Catchpoints
875
876HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
877generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
878to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
879
880This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
881argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
882output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
883
884* Debugging across forks
885
886On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
887in the inferior.
888
889* TUI
890
891HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
892it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
893configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
894
895* GDB remote protocol additions
896
897A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
898Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
899fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
900allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
901
902For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
903full 64-bit address. The command
904
905 set remoteaddresssize 32
906
907can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
908the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
909will be discarded.
910
911In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
912command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
913
914 maint packet heythere
915
916sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
917disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
918time.
919
920The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
921target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
922downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
923
924* Tracing can collect general expressions
925
926You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
927further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
928doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
929
930* mask-address variable for Mips
931
932For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
933a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
934of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
935
936* Higher serial baud rates
937
938GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
939230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
940to achieve all of these rates.)
941
942* i960 simulator
943
944The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
945builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
946
947
948*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
949
950* New native configurations
951
952Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
953Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
954Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
955PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
956PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
957Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
958Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
959
960* New targets
961
962Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
963Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
964Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
965Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
966MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
967MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
968MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
969Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
970Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
971Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
972NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
973
974* New debugging protocols
975
976ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
977M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
978DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
979PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
980PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
981Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
982
983* DWARF 2
984
985All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
986format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
987information.
988
989* Java frontend
990
991GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
992only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
993
994* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
995
996For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
997loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
998locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
999
1000* Live range splitting
1001
1002GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1003range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1004more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1005
1006* Hurd support
1007
1008GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1009updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1010
1011* ARM Thumb support
1012
1013GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1014instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1015instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1016accordingly.
1017
1018* MIPS16 support
1019
1020GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1021instruction set.
1022
1023* Overlay support
1024
1025GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1026linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1027will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1028control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1029additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1030in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1031
1032* info symbol
1033
1034The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1035the symbol at the specified address.
1036
1037* Trace support
1038
1039The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1040asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1041extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1042includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1043file tracepoint.c for more details.
1044
1045* MIPS simulator
1046
1047Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1048by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1049of most MIPS variants.
1050
1051* Sparc simulator
1052
1053Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1054by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1055Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1056
1057* set architecture
1058
1059For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1060basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1061architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1062the possible architectures.
1063
1064*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1065
1066* New native configurations
1067
1068Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1069M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1070PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1071PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1072PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1073RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1074
1075* New targets
1076
1077ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1078I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1079MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1080MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1081PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1082Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
1083Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1084
1085* PowerPC simulator
1086
1087The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1088contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1089PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1090basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1091performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1092
1093* Solaris 2.5
1094
1095GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1096
1097* Windows 95/NT native
1098
1099GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1100To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1101which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1102Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1103ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1104
1105* dont-repeat command
1106
1107If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1108command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1109useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1110extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1111
1112* Send break instead of ^C
1113
1114The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1115rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1116GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1117
1118* Remote protocol timeout
1119
1120The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1121that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1122to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1123
1124* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1125
1126By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1127loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1128stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1129when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1130in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1131
1132Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1133/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1134automatically on hpux10.
1135
1136* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1137
1138Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1139
1140* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1141
1142When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1143may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1144the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1145every character. The default value is 1050.
1146
1147* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1148
1149If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1150a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1151replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1152details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1153remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1154to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1155
1156* Speedups for remote debugging
1157
1158GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1159the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1160and more efficient S-record downloading.
1161
1162* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1163
1164GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1165Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1166
1167*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1168
1169* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1170
1171The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1172can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1173
1174* Remote targets use caching
1175
1176Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1177remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1178it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1179debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1180off' turns the the data cache off.
1181
1182* Remote targets may have threads
1183
1184The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1185in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1186gdb/remote.c for details.
1187
1188* NetROM support
1189
1190If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1191support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1192acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1193write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1194support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1195another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1196sequence is something like
1197
1198 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1199 load <prog>
1200 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1201
1202* Macintosh host
1203
1204GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1205may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1206it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1207available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1208device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1209directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1210scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1211mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1212
1213* Autoconf
1214
1215GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1216but does simplify configuration and building.
1217
1218* hpux10
1219
1220GDB now supports hpux10.
1221
1222*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1223
1224* New native configurations
1225
1226x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1227x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1228NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1229Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1230
1231* New targets
1232
1233A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1234HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1235CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1236PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1237WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1238
1239* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1240
1241GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1242possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1243filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1244the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1245if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1246
1247* Arguments to user-defined commands
1248
1249User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1250Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1251trivial example:
1252define adder
1253 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1254
1255To execute the command use:
1256adder 1 2 3
1257
1258Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1259Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1260use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1261
1262* New `if' and `while' commands
1263
1264This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1265commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1266expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1267execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1268terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1269`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1270if the expression is zero.
1271
1272* Fortran source language mode
1273
1274GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1275Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1276variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1277with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1278Fortran compilers.
1279
1280* Better HPUX support
1281
1282Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1283running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1284processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1285for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1286that behavior do the following before running the program:
1287
1288 adb -w a.out
1289 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1290 control-d
1291
1292This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1293To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1294
1295 adb -w a.out
1296 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1297 control-d
1298
1299You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1300the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1301external linkage.
1302
1303GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1304HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1305
1306* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1307
1308You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1309commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1310current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1311"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1312associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1313configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1314
1315* New DOS host serial code
1316
1317This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1318no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1319a PC's serial port.
1320
1321*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1322
1323* New "complete" command
1324
1325This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1326were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1327
1328* Trailing space optional in prompt
1329
1330"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1331allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1332
1333* Breakpoint hit counts
1334
1335"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1336has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1337can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1338to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1339less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1340that breakpoint.
1341
1342* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1343
1344"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1345an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1346arrays actually contain only short strings.
1347
1348* Shared library breakpoints
1349
1350In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1351breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1352
1353* Hardware watchpoints
1354
1355There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1356targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1357
55241689 1358Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1359
1360* Annotations
1361
1362Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1363and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1364
1365* Improved Irix 5 support
1366
1367GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1368
1369* Improved HPPA support
1370
1371GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1372
1373* New native configurations
1374
1375Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1376HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1377Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1378RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1379
1380* New targets
1381
1382OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1383MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1384Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1385
1386* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1387
1388There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1389This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1390
1391* Fixes
1392
1393As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1394and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1395
1396*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1397
1398* Irix 5 is now supported
1399
1400* HPPA support
1401
1402GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1403to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1404GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1405of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1406can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1407
1408
1409*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1410
1411* User visible changes:
1412
1413* Remote Debugging
1414
1415The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1416target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1417debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1418integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1419debugging info for the mips target).
1420
1421* DEC Alpha native support
1422
1423GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1424debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1425work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1426Alpha-specific notes.
1427
1428* Preliminary thread implementation
1429
1430GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1431
1432* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1433
1434This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1435to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1436for details).
1437
1438* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1439
1440This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1441mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1442call methods, ...etc.
1443
1444*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1445
1446 * User visible changes:
1447
1448Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1449supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1450other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1451somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1452
1453Filename completion now works.
1454
1455When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1456arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1457addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1458
1459All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1460vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1461should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1462your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1463to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1464
1465 * DEC alpha support
1466
1467This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1468cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1469
1470
1471*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1472
1473 * Testsuite
1474
1475This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1476The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1477via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1478
1479 * C++ demangling
1480
1481'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1482emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1483Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1484disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1485use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1486
1487 * Simulators
1488
1489GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1490So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1491Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1492
1493 * New targets supported
1494
1495H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1496H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1497SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1498Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1499IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1500
1501Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1502version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1503GO32 memory extender.
1504
1505 * New remote protocols
1506
1507MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1508
1509 * New source languages supported
1510
1511This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1512used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1513into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1514
1515
1516*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1517
1518 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1519
1520GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1521version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1522University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1523compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1524format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1525(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1526
1527Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1528
1529 * Faster and better demangling
1530
1531We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1532demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1533character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1534only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1535This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1536increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1537symbol lookups.
1538
1539`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1540from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1541compiler does not actually implement.
1542
1543 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1544
1545In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1546inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1547recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1548very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1549The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1550circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1551fix.
1552
1553The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1554release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1555
1556 * Improved configure script
1557
1558The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1559you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1560host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1561done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1562
1563We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1564version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1565`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1566The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1567only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1568We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1569
1570 * Documentation improvements
1571
1572There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1573produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1574before submitting changes.
1575
1576The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1577M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1578`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1579you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1580a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1581
1582*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1583We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1584been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1585or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1586`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1587around this problem.
1588
1589 * New features
1590
1591GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1592the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1593`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1594the target program.
1595
1596The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1597how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1598
1599 * New native hosts supported
1600
1601HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1602386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1603
1604 * New targets supported
1605
1606AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1607
1608 * New file formats supported
1609
1610BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1611HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1612
1613 * Major bug fixes
1614
1615Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1616
1617We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1618printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1619
1620We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1621for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1622release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1623
1624You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1625will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1626
1627We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1628for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1629especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1630libraries.
1631
1632The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1633information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1634command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1635any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1636when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1637
1638 * Internal improvements
1639
1640GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1641debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1642
1643GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1644Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1645symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1646contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1647shared code that handles any of them.
1648
1649 * New command line options
1650
1651We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1652
1653 * Mmalloc licensing
1654
1655The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1656General Public License.
1657
1658*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1659
1660 * Host/native/target split
1661
1662GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1663hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1664target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1665local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1666ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1667
1668The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1669GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1670is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1671code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1672any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1673built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1674handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1675
1676GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1677It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1678plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1679
1680 * New hosts supported
1681
1682HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1683386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1684386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1685
1686 * New targets supported
1687
1688Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
168968030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1690
1691 * New native hosts supported
1692
1693386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1694 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1695386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1696
1697 * New file formats supported
1698
1699BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1700supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1701format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1702
1703 * New commands
1704
1705`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1706`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1707These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1708
1709`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1710
1711You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1712scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1713prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1714executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1715
1716 * C++ improvements
1717
1718We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1719info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1720symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1721
1722Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1723
1724 * Major bug fixes
1725
1726The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1727fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1728by the compiler.
1729
1730We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1731support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1732
1733John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1734slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1735that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1736purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1737the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1738mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1739
1740Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1741about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1742completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1743we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1744
1745 * AMD 29k support
1746
1747A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1748specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1749calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1750usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1751in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1752
1753We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1754Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1755of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1756resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1757
1758 * Remote interfaces
1759
1760We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1761with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1762message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1763This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1764needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1765breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1766each instruction being stepped through.
1767
1768The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1769registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1770
1771There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1772find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1773Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1774processor with a serial port.
1775
1776 * Configuration
1777
1778Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1779`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1780supported, and what files each one uses.
1781
1782 * Library changes
1783
1784There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1785disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1786Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1787disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1788
1789The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1790Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1791can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1792grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1793
1794 * Documentation
1795
1796The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1797reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1798as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1799encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1800system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1801bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1802
1803And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1804
1805
1806*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1807
1808 * Better support for C++ function names
1809
1810GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1811names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1812(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1813single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1814Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1815
1816GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1817the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1818You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1819lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1820for the list of formats.
1821
1822 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1823
1824Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1825C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1826directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1827can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1828usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1829about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1830this problem.)
1831
1832 * New 'maintenance' command
1833
1834All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1835the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1836can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1837
1838 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1839 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1840 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1841 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1842 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1843 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1844
1845The following commands are new:
1846
1847 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1848 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1849 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1850
1851 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1852
1853We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1854(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1855be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1856read after argv processing.
1857
1858 * New hosts supported
1859
1860Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1861
55241689 1862GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
1863
1864We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1865is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1866for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1867masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1868fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1869It costs extra.
1870
1871 * New targets supported
1872
1873Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1874
1875 * More smarts about finding #include files
1876
1877GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1878all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1879greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1880especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1881the one that contains your sources.
1882
1883We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1884breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1885try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1886
1887 * Interesting infernals change
1888
1889GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1890section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1891target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1892stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1893
1894 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1895
1896There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1897 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1898 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1899
1900See the ChangeLog for details.
1901
1902*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1903
1904 * New machines supported (host and target)
1905
1906IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1907
1908SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1909
1910 * New malloc package
1911
1912GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1913Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1914capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1915This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1916pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1917more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1918
1919 * info proc
1920
1921The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1922'help info proc' for details.
1923
1924 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1925
1926The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1927Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1928possible.
1929
1930 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1931
1932Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1933support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1934conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1935environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1936that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1937in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1938
1939 * Cross byte order fixes
1940
1941Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1942targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1943
1944 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1945
1946If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1947system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1948`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1949program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1950called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1951Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1952and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1953the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1954option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1955starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1956
1957You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1958the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1959information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1960slower, but makes future operations faster.
1961
1962The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1963build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1964A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1965use is:
1966
1967 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1968
1969The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1970It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1971shared across multiple host platforms.
1972
1973 * longjmp() handling
1974
1975GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1976siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1977all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1978platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1979
1980 * Solaris 2.0
1981
1982Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1983this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1984reading symbols.
1985
1986 * Bug fixes
1987
1988As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1989People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1990crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1991
1992*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1993
1994 * New machines supported (host and target)
1995
1996SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1997 (except core files)
1998BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1999Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2000
2001 * New machines supported (target)
2002
2003AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2004
2005 * C++ support
2006
2007GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2008The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2009per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2010
2011GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2012`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2013extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2014good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2015will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2016released.
2017
2018 * New features for SVR4
2019
2020GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2021shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2022only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2023
2024The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2025on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2026it prints the address mappings of the process.
2027
2028If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2029bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2030
2031 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2032
2033Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2034now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2035skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2036make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2037same code linked statically.
2038
2039 * New Getopt
2040
2041GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2042version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2043continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2044Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2045added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2046future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2047
2048 * Bugs fixed
2049
2050The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2051Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2052See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2053
2054
2055*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2056
2057 * New machines supported (host and target)
2058
2059Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2060NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2061Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2062
2063 * Almost SCO Unix support
2064
2065We had hoped to support:
2066SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2067(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2068that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2069about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2070
2071 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2072
2073GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2074debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2075is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2076send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2077reqired (if any).
2078
2079 * New Readline
2080
2081GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2082is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2083required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2084
2085 * Bugs fixed
2086
2087The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2088Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2089See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2090
2091 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2092
2093GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2094supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2095symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2096
2097Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2098mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2099debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2100mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2101version 2.
2102
2103Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2104really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2105line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2106variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2107situation somewhat.
2108
2109When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2110However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2111methods.
2112
2113We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2114DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2115encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2116
2117
2118*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2119
2120 * Improved configuration
2121
2122Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2123Porting BFD is simpler.
2124
2125 * Stepping improved
2126
2127The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2128of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2129in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2130function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2131
2132 * Bug fixing
2133
2134Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2135
2136 * New host supported (not target)
2137
2138Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2139
2140
2141*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2142
2143 * Multiple source language support
2144
2145GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2146It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2147and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2148language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2149You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2150`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2151
2152 * GDB and Modula-2
2153
2154GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2155currently under development at the State University of New York at
2156Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2157continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2158
2159Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2160debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2161symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2162
2163There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2164in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2165
2166 * set write on/off
2167
2168GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2169a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2170the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2171by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2172effect immediately.
2173
2174 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2175
2176When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2177shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2178The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2179examining core files.
2180
2181 * set listsize
2182
2183You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2184The default is 10.
2185
2186 * New machines supported (host and target)
2187
2188SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2189Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2190Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2191
2192 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2193
2194IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2195
2196 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2197
2198AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2199AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2200Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2201
2202 * New remote interfaces
2203
2204AMD 29000 Adapt
2205AMD 29000 Minimon
2206
2207
2208*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2209
2210 * New Facilities
2211
2212Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2213
2214Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2215target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2216is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2217remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2218remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2219also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2220using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2221stub on the target system.
2222
2223New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2224
2225GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2226library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2227object file types such as a.out and coff.
2228
2229There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2230refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2231
2232
2233 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2234
2235All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2236by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2237
2238For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2239``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2240Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2241
2242What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2243print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2244will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2245all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2246
2247confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2248 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2249 it is already running. Default is ON.
2250
2251editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2252 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2253 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2254 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2255 Default is ON.
2256
2257history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2258 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2259 or the value of the environment variable
2260 GDBHISTFILE.
2261
2262history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2263 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2264 HISTSIZE.
2265
2266history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2267 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2268 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2269
2270history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2271 history expansion will be performed on
2272 command line input. The default is OFF.
2273
2274radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2275 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2276 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2277
2278height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2279 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2280 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2281 variable TERM.
2282
2283width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2284 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2285 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2286 variable TERM.
2287
2288Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2289``set width'' instead.
2290
2291print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2292 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2293 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2294 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2295
2296print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2297 is OFF.
2298
2299print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2300 "raw" form if off.
2301
2302print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2303 like instructions.
2304
2305print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2306
2307
2308 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2309
2310The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2311new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2312are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2313window.
2314
2315
2316 * Support for Shared Libraries
2317
2318GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2319Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2320before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2321happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2322At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2323from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2324shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2325It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2326
2327sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2328 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2329 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2330
2331info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2332
2333
2334 * Watchpoints
2335
2336A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2337expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2338tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2339quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2340problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2341more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2342
2343watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2344
2345info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2346
2347delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2348disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2349enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2350
2351
2352 * C++ multiple inheritance
2353
2354When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2355for C++ programs.
2356
2357 * C++ exception handling
2358
2359Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2360ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2361the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2362handler's context).
2363
2364catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2365 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2366 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2367
2368info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2369 current stack frame.
2370
2371
2372 * Minor command changes
2373
2374The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2375command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2376is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2377
2378The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2379at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2380frames without printing.
2381
2382 * New directory command
2383
2384'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2385The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2386about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2387with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2388find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2389
2390 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2391
2392For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2393for more details.
2394
2395GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2396two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2397Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2398where the program that you are debugging will run.
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