Delete MIPS_DEFAULT_FPU from config/mips/*.h
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 5.0:
5
6* New native configurations
7
8Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
9x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
10
11FreeBSD versions before 2.2 are no longer supported.
12
9debab2f 13*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
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15* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
16
17Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
18programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
19displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
20greater level of detail.
21
22* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
23
24It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
25bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
26on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
27written.
28
29* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
30
31The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
32necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
33machines ``out of the box''.
34
35The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
36possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
37signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
38would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
39interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
40
41It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
42standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
43even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
44and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
45terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
46
47The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
48enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
49also works.
50
51DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
52GDB.
53
54It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
55directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
56times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
57breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
58
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59* New native configurations
60
61ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 62PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 63
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64* New targets
65
96baa820 66Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
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67x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
68PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
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69TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
70
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71* OBSOLETE configurations
72
73Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
74Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 75Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 76ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 77Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 78
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79Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
80but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
81these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
82be permanently REMOVED.
83
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84* Gould support removed
85
86Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
87
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88* New features for SVR4
89
90On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
91without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
92load symbols from the running process's executable file.
93
94* Many C++ enhancements
95
96C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
97in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
98
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99* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
100
101A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
102sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
103with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
104``|<program> <args>'' vis:
105
106 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
107 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
108
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109* MIPS 64 remote protocol
110
111A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
112expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
113instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
114
115The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
116added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
117
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118* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
119
120The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
121``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
122include ``set remote P-packet''.
123
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124* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
125
126The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
127accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
128``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
129
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130* ``apropos'' command added.
131
132The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
133documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
134try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
135
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136* New MI interface
137
138A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
139interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
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140process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
141"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
142enabled by configuring with:
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143
144 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
145
c906108c
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146*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
147
148* New native configurations
149
150HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
151HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
152M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
153
154* New targets
155
156Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
157Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
158Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
159
160* OBSOLETE configurations
161
162Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
163
164Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
165but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
166these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
167be permanently REMOVED.
168
169* ANSI/ISO C
170
171As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
172buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
173containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
174use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
175available. If this is not true, please report the affected
176configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
177information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
178already.
179
180* Readline 2.2
181
182GDB now uses readline 2.2.
183
184* set extension-language
185
186You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
187languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
188you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
189 set extension-language .c c++
190The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
191and their associated languages.
192
193* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
194
195When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
196you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
197PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
198
199 set processor NAME
200
201sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
202following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
203
204 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
205 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
206 403 IBM PowerPC 403
207 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
208 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
209 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
210 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
211 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
212 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
213 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
214 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
215
216At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
217special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
218registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
219only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
220
221* HP-UX support
222
223Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
224more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
225library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
226support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
227for xdb and dbx commands.
228
229* Catchpoints
230
231HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
232generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
233to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
234
235This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
236argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
237output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
238
239* Debugging across forks
240
241On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
242in the inferior.
243
244* TUI
245
246HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
247it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
248configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
249
250* GDB remote protocol additions
251
252A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
253Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
254fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
255allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
256
257For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
258full 64-bit address. The command
259
260 set remoteaddresssize 32
261
262can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
263the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
264will be discarded.
265
266In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
267command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
268
269 maint packet heythere
270
271sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
272disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
273time.
274
275The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
276target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
277downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
278
279* Tracing can collect general expressions
280
281You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
282further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
283doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
284
285* mask-address variable for Mips
286
287For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
288a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
289of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
290
291* Higher serial baud rates
292
293GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
294230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
295to achieve all of these rates.)
296
297* i960 simulator
298
299The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
300builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
301
302
303*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
304
305* New native configurations
306
307Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
308Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
309Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
310PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
311PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
312Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
313Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
314
315* New targets
316
317Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
318Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
319Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
320Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
321MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
322MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
323MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
324Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
325Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
326Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
327NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
328
329* New debugging protocols
330
331ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
332M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
333DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
334PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
335PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
336Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
337
338* DWARF 2
339
340All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
341format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
342information.
343
344* Java frontend
345
346GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
347only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
348
349* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
350
351For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
352loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
353locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
354
355* Live range splitting
356
357GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
358range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
359more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
360
361* Hurd support
362
363GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
364updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
365
366* ARM Thumb support
367
368GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
369instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
370instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
371accordingly.
372
373* MIPS16 support
374
375GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
376instruction set.
377
378* Overlay support
379
380GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
381linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
382will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
383control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
384additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
385in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
386
387* info symbol
388
389The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
390the symbol at the specified address.
391
392* Trace support
393
394The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
395asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
396extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
397includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
398file tracepoint.c for more details.
399
400* MIPS simulator
401
402Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
403by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
404of most MIPS variants.
405
406* Sparc simulator
407
408Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
409by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
410Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
411
412* set architecture
413
414For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
415basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
416architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
417the possible architectures.
418
419*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
420
421* New native configurations
422
423Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
424M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
425PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
426PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
427PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
428RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
429
430* New targets
431
432ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
433I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
434MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
435MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
436PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
437Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
438Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
439
440* PowerPC simulator
441
442The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
443contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
444PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
445basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
446performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
447
448* Solaris 2.5
449
450GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
451
452* Windows 95/NT native
453
454GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
455To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
456which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
457Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
458ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
459
460* dont-repeat command
461
462If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
463command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
464useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
465extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
466
467* Send break instead of ^C
468
469The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
470rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
471GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
472
473* Remote protocol timeout
474
475The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
476that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
477to read from the target. The default value is 2.
478
479* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
480
481By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
482loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
483stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
484when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
485in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
486
487Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
488/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
489automatically on hpux10.
490
491* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
492
493Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
494
495* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
496
497When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
498may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
499the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
500every character. The default value is 1050.
501
502* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
503
504If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
505a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
506replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
507details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
508remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
509to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
510
511* Speedups for remote debugging
512
513GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
514the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
515and more efficient S-record downloading.
516
517* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
518
519GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
520Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
521
522*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
523
524* Psymtabs for XCOFF
525
526The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
527can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
528
529* Remote targets use caching
530
531Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
532remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
533it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
534debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
535off' turns the the data cache off.
536
537* Remote targets may have threads
538
539The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
540in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
541gdb/remote.c for details.
542
543* NetROM support
544
545If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
546support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
547acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
548write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
549support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
550another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
551sequence is something like
552
553 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
554 load <prog>
555 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
556
557* Macintosh host
558
559GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
560may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
561it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
562available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
563device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
564directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
565scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
566mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
567
568* Autoconf
569
570GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
571but does simplify configuration and building.
572
573* hpux10
574
575GDB now supports hpux10.
576
577*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
578
579* New native configurations
580
581x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
582x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
583NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
584Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
585
586* New targets
587
588A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
589HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
590CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
591PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
592WDC 65816 w65-*-*
593
594* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
595
596GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
597possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
598filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
599the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
600if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
601
602* Arguments to user-defined commands
603
604User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
605Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
606trivial example:
607define adder
608 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
609
610To execute the command use:
611adder 1 2 3
612
613Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
614Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
615use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
616
617* New `if' and `while' commands
618
619This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
620commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
621expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
622execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
623terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
624`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
625if the expression is zero.
626
627* Fortran source language mode
628
629GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
630Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
631variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
632with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
633Fortran compilers.
634
635* Better HPUX support
636
637Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
638running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
639processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
640for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
641that behavior do the following before running the program:
642
643 adb -w a.out
644 __dld_flags?W 0x5
645 control-d
646
647This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
648To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
649
650 adb -w a.out
651 __dld_flags?W 0x4
652 control-d
653
654You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
655the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
656external linkage.
657
658GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
659HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
660
661* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
662
663You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
664commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
665current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
666"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
667associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
668configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
669
670* New DOS host serial code
671
672This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
673no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
674a PC's serial port.
675
676*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
677
678* New "complete" command
679
680This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
681were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
682
683* Trailing space optional in prompt
684
685"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
686allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
687
688* Breakpoint hit counts
689
690"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
691has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
692can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
693to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
694less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
695that breakpoint.
696
697* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
698
699"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
700an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
701arrays actually contain only short strings.
702
703* Shared library breakpoints
704
705In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
706breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
707
708* Hardware watchpoints
709
710There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
711targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
712
713Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
714
715* Annotations
716
717Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
718and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
719
720* Improved Irix 5 support
721
722GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
723
724* Improved HPPA support
725
726GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
727
728* New native configurations
729
730Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
731HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
732Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
733RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
734
735* New targets
736
737OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
738MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
739Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
740
741* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
742
743There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
744This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
745
746* Fixes
747
748As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
749and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
750
751*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
752
753* Irix 5 is now supported
754
755* HPPA support
756
757GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
758to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
759GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
760of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
761can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
762
763
764*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
765
766* User visible changes:
767
768* Remote Debugging
769
770The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
771target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
772debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
773integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
774debugging info for the mips target).
775
776* DEC Alpha native support
777
778GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
779debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
780work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
781Alpha-specific notes.
782
783* Preliminary thread implementation
784
785GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
786
787* LynxOS native and target support for 386
788
789This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
790to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
791for details).
792
793* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
794
795This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
796mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
797call methods, ...etc.
798
799*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
800
801 * User visible changes:
802
803Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
804supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
805other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
806somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
807
808Filename completion now works.
809
810When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
811arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
812addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
813
814All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
815vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
816should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
817your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
818to be on the far side of a thin network line.
819
820 * DEC alpha support
821
822This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
823cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
824
825
826*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
827
828 * Testsuite
829
830This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
831The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
832via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
833
834 * C++ demangling
835
836'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
837emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
838Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
839disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
840use gdb with AT&T cfront.
841
842 * Simulators
843
844GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
845So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
846Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
847
848 * New targets supported
849
850H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
851H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
852SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
853Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
854IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
855
856Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
857version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
858GO32 memory extender.
859
860 * New remote protocols
861
862MIPS remote debugging protocol.
863
864 * New source languages supported
865
866This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
867used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
868into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
869
870
871*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
872
873 * HP Precision Architecture supported
874
875GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
876version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
877University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
878compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
879format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
880(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
881
882Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
883
884 * Faster and better demangling
885
886We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
887demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
888character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
889only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
890This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
891increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
892symbol lookups.
893
894`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
895from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
896compiler does not actually implement.
897
898 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
899
900In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
901inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
902recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
903very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
904The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
905circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
906fix.
907
908The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
909release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
910
911 * Improved configure script
912
913The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
914you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
915host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
916done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
917
918We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
919version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
920`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
921The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
922only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
923We hope to make this the default in a future release.
924
925 * Documentation improvements
926
927There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
928produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
929before submitting changes.
930
931The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
932M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
933`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
934you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
935a future texinfo-X.Y release.
936
937*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
938We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
939been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
940or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
941`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
942around this problem.
943
944 * New features
945
946GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
947the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
948`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
949the target program.
950
951The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
952how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
953
954 * New native hosts supported
955
956HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
957386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
958
959 * New targets supported
960
961AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
962
963 * New file formats supported
964
965BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
966HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
967
968 * Major bug fixes
969
970Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
971
972We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
973printf_filtered("%s") problems.
974
975We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
976for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
977release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
978
979You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
980will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
981
982We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
983for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
984especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
985libraries.
986
987The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
988information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
989command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
990any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
991when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
992
993 * Internal improvements
994
995GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
996debugging of multiple languages in the future.
997
998GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
999Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1000symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1001contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1002shared code that handles any of them.
1003
1004 * New command line options
1005
1006We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1007
1008 * Mmalloc licensing
1009
1010The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1011General Public License.
1012
1013*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1014
1015 * Host/native/target split
1016
1017GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1018hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1019target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1020local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1021ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1022
1023The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1024GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1025is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1026code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1027any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1028built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1029handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1030
1031GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1032It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1033plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1034
1035 * New hosts supported
1036
1037HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1038386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1039386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1040
1041 * New targets supported
1042
1043Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
104468030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1045
1046 * New native hosts supported
1047
1048386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1049 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1050386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1051
1052 * New file formats supported
1053
1054BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1055supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1056format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1057
1058 * New commands
1059
1060`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1061`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1062These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1063
1064`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1065
1066You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1067scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1068prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1069executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1070
1071 * C++ improvements
1072
1073We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1074info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1075symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1076
1077Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1078
1079 * Major bug fixes
1080
1081The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1082fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1083by the compiler.
1084
1085We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1086support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1087
1088John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1089slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1090that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1091purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1092the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1093mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1094
1095Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1096about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1097completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1098we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1099
1100 * AMD 29k support
1101
1102A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1103specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1104calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1105usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1106in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1107
1108We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1109Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1110of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1111resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1112
1113 * Remote interfaces
1114
1115We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1116with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1117message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1118This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1119needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1120breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1121each instruction being stepped through.
1122
1123The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1124registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1125
1126There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1127find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1128Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1129processor with a serial port.
1130
1131 * Configuration
1132
1133Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1134`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1135supported, and what files each one uses.
1136
1137 * Library changes
1138
1139There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1140disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1141Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1142disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1143
1144The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1145Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1146can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1147grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1148
1149 * Documentation
1150
1151The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1152reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1153as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1154encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1155system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1156bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1157
1158And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1159
1160
1161*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1162
1163 * Better support for C++ function names
1164
1165GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1166names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1167(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1168single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1169Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1170
1171GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1172the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1173You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1174lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1175for the list of formats.
1176
1177 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1178
1179Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1180C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1181directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1182can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1183usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1184about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1185this problem.)
1186
1187 * New 'maintenance' command
1188
1189All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1190the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1191can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1192
1193 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1194 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1195 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1196 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1197 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1198 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1199
1200The following commands are new:
1201
1202 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1203 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1204 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1205
1206 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1207
1208We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1209(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1210be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1211read after argv processing.
1212
1213 * New hosts supported
1214
1215Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1216
1217Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1218
1219We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1220is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1221for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1222masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1223fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1224It costs extra.
1225
1226 * New targets supported
1227
1228Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1229
1230 * More smarts about finding #include files
1231
1232GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1233all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1234greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1235especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1236the one that contains your sources.
1237
1238We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1239breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1240try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1241
1242 * Interesting infernals change
1243
1244GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1245section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1246target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1247stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1248
1249 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1250
1251There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1252 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1253 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1254
1255See the ChangeLog for details.
1256
1257*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1258
1259 * New machines supported (host and target)
1260
1261IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1262
1263SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1264
1265 * New malloc package
1266
1267GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1268Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1269capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1270This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1271pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1272more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1273
1274 * info proc
1275
1276The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1277'help info proc' for details.
1278
1279 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1280
1281The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1282Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1283possible.
1284
1285 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1286
1287Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1288support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1289conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1290environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1291that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1292in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1293
1294 * Cross byte order fixes
1295
1296Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1297targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1298
1299 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1300
1301If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1302system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1303`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1304program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1305called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1306Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1307and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1308the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1309option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1310starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1311
1312You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1313the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1314information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1315slower, but makes future operations faster.
1316
1317The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1318build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1319A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1320use is:
1321
1322 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1323
1324The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1325It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1326shared across multiple host platforms.
1327
1328 * longjmp() handling
1329
1330GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1331siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1332all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1333platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1334
1335 * Solaris 2.0
1336
1337Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1338this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1339reading symbols.
1340
1341 * Bug fixes
1342
1343As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1344People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1345crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1346
1347*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1348
1349 * New machines supported (host and target)
1350
1351SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1352 (except core files)
1353BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1354Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1355
1356 * New machines supported (target)
1357
1358AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1359
1360 * C++ support
1361
1362GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1363The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1364per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1365
1366GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1367`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1368extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1369good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1370will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1371released.
1372
1373 * New features for SVR4
1374
1375GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1376shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1377only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1378
1379The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1380on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1381it prints the address mappings of the process.
1382
1383If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1384bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1385
1386 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1387
1388Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1389now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1390skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1391make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1392same code linked statically.
1393
1394 * New Getopt
1395
1396GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1397version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1398continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1399Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1400added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1401future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1402
1403 * Bugs fixed
1404
1405The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1406Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1407See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1408
1409
1410*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1411
1412 * New machines supported (host and target)
1413
1414Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1415NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1416Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1417
1418 * Almost SCO Unix support
1419
1420We had hoped to support:
1421SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1422(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1423that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1424about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1425
1426 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1427
1428GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1429debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1430is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1431send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1432reqired (if any).
1433
1434 * New Readline
1435
1436GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1437is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1438required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1439
1440 * Bugs fixed
1441
1442The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1443Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1444See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1445
1446 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1447
1448GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1449supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1450symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1451
1452Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1453mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1454debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1455mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1456version 2.
1457
1458Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1459really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1460line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1461variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1462situation somewhat.
1463
1464When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1465However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1466methods.
1467
1468We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1469DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1470encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1471
1472
1473*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1474
1475 * Improved configuration
1476
1477Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1478Porting BFD is simpler.
1479
1480 * Stepping improved
1481
1482The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1483of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1484in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1485function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1486
1487 * Bug fixing
1488
1489Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1490
1491 * New host supported (not target)
1492
1493Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1494
1495
1496*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1497
1498 * Multiple source language support
1499
1500GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1501It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1502and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1503language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1504You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1505`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1506
1507 * GDB and Modula-2
1508
1509GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1510currently under development at the State University of New York at
1511Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1512continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1513
1514Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1515debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1516symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1517
1518There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1519in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1520
1521 * set write on/off
1522
1523GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1524a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1525the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1526by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1527effect immediately.
1528
1529 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1530
1531When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1532shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1533The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1534examining core files.
1535
1536 * set listsize
1537
1538You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1539The default is 10.
1540
1541 * New machines supported (host and target)
1542
1543SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1544Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1545Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1546
1547 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1548
1549IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1550
1551 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1552
1553AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1554AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1555Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1556
1557 * New remote interfaces
1558
1559AMD 29000 Adapt
1560AMD 29000 Minimon
1561
1562
1563*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1564
1565 * New Facilities
1566
1567Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1568
1569Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1570target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1571is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1572remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1573remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1574also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1575using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1576stub on the target system.
1577
1578New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1579
1580GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1581library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1582object file types such as a.out and coff.
1583
1584There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1585refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1586
1587
1588 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1589
1590All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1591by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1592
1593For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1594``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1595Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1596
1597What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1598print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1599will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1600all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1601
1602confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1603 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1604 it is already running. Default is ON.
1605
1606editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1607 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1608 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1609 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1610 Default is ON.
1611
1612history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1613 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1614 or the value of the environment variable
1615 GDBHISTFILE.
1616
1617history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1618 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1619 HISTSIZE.
1620
1621history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1622 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1623 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1624
1625history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1626 history expansion will be performed on
1627 command line input. The default is OFF.
1628
1629radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1630 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1631 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1632
1633height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1634 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1635 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1636 variable TERM.
1637
1638width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1639 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1640 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1641 variable TERM.
1642
1643Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1644``set width'' instead.
1645
1646print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1647 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1648 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1649 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1650
1651print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1652 is OFF.
1653
1654print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1655 "raw" form if off.
1656
1657print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1658 like instructions.
1659
1660print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1661
1662
1663 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1664
1665The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1666new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1667are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1668window.
1669
1670
1671 * Support for Shared Libraries
1672
1673GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1674Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1675before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1676happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1677At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1678from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1679shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1680It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1681
1682sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1683 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1684 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1685
1686info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1687
1688
1689 * Watchpoints
1690
1691A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1692expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1693tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1694quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1695problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1696more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1697
1698watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1699
1700info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1701
1702delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1703disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1704enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1705
1706
1707 * C++ multiple inheritance
1708
1709When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1710for C++ programs.
1711
1712 * C++ exception handling
1713
1714Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1715ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1716the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1717handler's context).
1718
1719catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1720 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1721 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1722
1723info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1724 current stack frame.
1725
1726
1727 * Minor command changes
1728
1729The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1730command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1731is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1732
1733The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1734at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1735frames without printing.
1736
1737 * New directory command
1738
1739'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1740The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1741about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1742with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1743find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1744
1745 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1746
1747For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1748for more details.
1749
1750GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1751two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1752Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1753where the program that you are debugging will run.
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