From Andrew Chatham: add signedrel<>, rel32s and friends.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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c906108c
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.7
5
6*** Changes in GDB 6.6
6dd09645 7
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8* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
9bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
10Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
11
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12* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
13symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
14-Bsymbolic linker option.
15
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16* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
17recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
18is not supported.
19
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20* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
21frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
22
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23* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
2432-bit or 64-bit register values.
25
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26* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
27
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28* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
29target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
30a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
31
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32* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
33automatically displayed as character or string data.
34
35* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
36arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
37as strings.
e1f48ead 38
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39* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
40for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
f8b73d13 41only ARM and MIPS).
123dc839 42
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43* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
44iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 45
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46* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
47ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
48has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
49
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50* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
51
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52* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
53
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54* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
55layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
56segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
57
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58* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
59immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
60
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61* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
62"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
63packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
64where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
65Windows and SymbianOS).
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66
67* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
68(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
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69
70* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
71according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 72
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73* New commands
74
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75set remoteflow
76show remoteflow
77 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
78 when debugging using remote targets.
79
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80set mem inaccessible-by-default
81show mem inaccessible-by-default
82 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
83 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
84 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
85 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
86 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
87
88set breakpoint auto-hw
89show breakpoint auto-hw
90 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
91 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
92 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
93 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
94 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
95 including "next" and "finish".
96
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97catch exception
98catch exception unhandled
99 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
100
101catch assert
102 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
103
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104set sysroot
105show sysroot
106 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
107 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
108 an alias to "set sysroot".
109
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110info spu
111 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
112 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
113 architecture.
114
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115* New native configurations
116
117OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
118
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119set tdesc filename
120unset tdesc filename
121show tdesc filename
122 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
123 not query the target for its built-in description.
124
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125* New targets
126
54fe9172 127OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 128MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 129Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 130
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131* New remote packets
132
133QPassSignals:
134 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
135 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
136
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137qXfer:features:read:
138 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
139 features.
6dd09645 140
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141qXfer:spu:read:
142qXfer:spu:write:
143 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
144 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
145
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146qXfer:libraries:read:
147 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
148 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
149 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
150 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
151
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152* Removed targets
153
154Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
155
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156alpha*-*-osf1*
157alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 158d10v-*-*
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159hppa*-*-hiux*
160i[34567]86-ncr-*
161i[34567]86-*-dgux*
162i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
163i[34567]86-*-netware*
164i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
165i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
166i[34567]86-*-sco*
167i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
168i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
169i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
170i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
171i[34567]86-*-unixware*
172i[34567]86-*-sysv*
173i[34567]86-*-isc*
174m68*-cisco*-*
175m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 176mips*-*-pe
483367ee 177rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 178sh*-*-pe
483367ee 179
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180* Other removed features
181
182target abug
183target cpu32bug
184target est
185target rom68k
186
187 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
188
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189target hms
190target e7000
191target sh3
192target sh3e
193
194 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
195 H8/300.
196
197target ocd
198
199 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
200 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
201 interfaces.
202
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203DWARF 1 support
204
205 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
206 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
207
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208Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
209
210 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
211 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
212 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
213 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
214
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215MIPS ".pdr" sections
216
217 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
218 in debugging information.
219
220Scheme support
221
222 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
223 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
224
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225set mips stack-arg-size
226set mips saved-gpreg-size
227
228 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
229
6dd09645 230*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 231
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232* New targets
233
234Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 235Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 236
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237* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
238(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
239running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
240
241* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
242Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
243supported.
244
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245* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
246broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
247
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248* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
249stub provides the required support.
250
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251* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
252longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
253
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254* New commands
255
256set substitute-path
257unset substitute-path
258show substitute-path
259 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
260 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
261 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
262 between compilation and debugging.
263
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264set trace-commands
265show trace-commands
266 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
267 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
268 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
269
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270* REMOVED features
271
272The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
273
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274Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
275an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
276
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277The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
278
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279* New remote packets
280
281qSupported:
282 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
283 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
284 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
285 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
286 target.
287
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288qXfer:auxv:read:
289 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
290 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
291
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292qXfer:memory-map:read:
293 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
294 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
295
296vFlashErase:
297vFlashWrite:
298vFlashDone:
299 Erase and program a flash memory device.
300
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301* Removed remote packets
302
303qPart:auxv:read:
304 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
305 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
306
e374b601 307*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 308
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309* New targets
310
311Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
312
313Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
314
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315* New commands
316
317init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
318 only if it doesn't already have a value.
319
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320The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
321
322checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
323
324restart <n> Return the program state to a
325 previously saved state.
326
327info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
328
329delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
330
331set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
332 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
333
334info forks List forks of the user program that
335 are available to be debugged.
336
337fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
338 forks of the user program that are
339 available to be debugged.
340
341delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
342 that are available to be debugged (and
343 kill the forked process).
344
345detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
346 that are available to be debugged (and
347 allow the process to continue).
348
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349* New architecture
350
351Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
352
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353* Improved Windows host support
354
355GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
356native console support, and remote communications using either
357network sockets or serial ports.
358
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359* Improved Modula-2 language support
360
361GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
362basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
363pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
364printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
365written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
366GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
367
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368* REMOVED features
369
370The ARM rdi-share module.
371
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372The Netware NLM debug server.
373
53e5f3cf 374*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 375
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376* New native configurations
377
02a677ac 378OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
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379OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
380
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381* New targets
382
383Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
384
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385* New command line options
386
387--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
388--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
389 the child (debugged) program exited with.
390--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
391 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
392 specified multiple times and in conjunction
393 with the --command (-x) option.
394
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395* Deprecated commands removed
396
397The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
398removed:
399
400 Command Replacement
401 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
402 othernames set arm disassembler
403 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
404 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
405 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
406 regs info registers
407
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408* New BSD user-level threads support
409
410It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
411library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
412configurations are:
413
414FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
415FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
416OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
417
418Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
419are not yet supported.
420
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421* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
422(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
423
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424* REMOVED configurations and files
425
426VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 427Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 428National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 429
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430* New "set print array-indexes" command
431
432After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
433when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
434behavior.
435
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436* VAX floating point support
437
438GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
439
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440* User-defined command support
441
442In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
443to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
444section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
445
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446*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
447
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448* New command line option
449
450GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
451debugging.
452
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453* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
454
455GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
456information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
457by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
458proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
459to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 460
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461* Internationalization
462
463When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
464internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
465continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
466
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467* Ada
468
469Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
470implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
471into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
472
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473* New native configurations
474
475GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
476
477* Remote 'p' packet
478
479GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
480packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
481
482* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
483
484GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
485The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
486features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
487i386 application).
488
489GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
490compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
491continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
492configurations:
493
494hppa-*-hpux
495ia64-*-aix
496mips-*-irix*
497*-*-lynx
498mips-*-linux-gnu
499sds protocol
500xdr protocol
501powerpc bdm protocol
502
503Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
504made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
505
506* OBSOLETE configurations and files
507
508Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
509been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
510configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
511permanently REMOVED.
512
513h8300-*-*
514mcore-*-*
515mn10300-*-*
516ns32k-*-*
517sh64-*-*
518v850-*-*
519
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520*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
521
522* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
523
524When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
525heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
526been fixed.
527
528* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
529
530When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
531fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
532IRIX long double values).
533
534* VAX and "next"
535
536A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
537command. This problem has been fixed.
538
860660cb 539*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 540
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541* Fix for ``many threads''
542
543On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
544rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
545error message:
546
547 ptrace: No such process.
548 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
549
550This problem has been fixed.
551
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552* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
553
554Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
555GDB to dump core).
556
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557* New ``start'' command.
558
559This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
560
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561* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
562
563Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
564live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
565platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
566
567FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
568FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
569NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
570NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
571NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
572OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
573OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
574OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
575OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
576
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577* Signal trampoline code overhauled
578
579Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
580These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
581of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
582call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
583signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
584
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585Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
586features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
587include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 588
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589* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
590
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591* New native configurations
592
97dc871c 593GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 594OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
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595OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
596OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 597OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 598NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 599OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 600
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601* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
602
603GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
604The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
605including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
606migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
607compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
608work, was also included.
609
610GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
611module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
612
613h8300-*-*
614mcore-*-*
615mn10300-*-*
616ns32k-*-*
617sh64-*-*
618v850-*-*
619xstormy16-*-*
620
621Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
622made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
623
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624* REMOVED configurations and files
625
626Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
627Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
628Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
629Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
630Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
631AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
632Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
633decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
634riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
635sonymips mips-sony-*
636sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
637
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638*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
639
640* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
641
642The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
643GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
644command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
645program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
646with GDB".
647
648* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
649
650Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
651libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
652cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
653GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
654shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
655the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
656are created.
657
658Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
659
660* Fixed ISO-C build problems
661
662The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
663non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
664compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
665
666* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
667
668Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
669wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
670
671* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
672
673The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
674permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
675systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
676
677* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
678
679Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
680has been updated to use constant array sizes.
681
682* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
683
684GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
685its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
686panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
687
688* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
689
690When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
691by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
692not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
693
faae5abe 694*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 695
9175c9a3
MC
696* Removed --with-mmalloc
697
698Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
699conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
700
3cc87ec0
MK
701* Changes in AMD64 configurations
702
703The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
704the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
705and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
706you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
707
f0424ef6
MK
708* Revised SPARC target
709
710The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
711FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
712support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
713from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
714(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 715
59659be2
ILT
716* New C++ demangler
717
718GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
719names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
720with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
721programs.
722
9e08b29b
DJ
723* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
724
725GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
726arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
727encountered these.
728
8dfe8985
DC
729* C++ nested types and namespaces
730
731GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
732improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
733is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
734Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
735namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
736"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
737frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
738if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
739GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
740
cced5e27
MK
741* New native configurations
742
743NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 744OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 745OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
746OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
747OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 748
b4b4b794
KI
749* New debugging protocols
750
751M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
752
7989c619
AC
753* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
754
755The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
756and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
757tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
758
5994185b
AC
759* OBSOLETE configurations and files
760
761Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
762been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
763configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
764permanently REMOVED.
765
766Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
767Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
768Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
769Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
770Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
771AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
772Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
773decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
774riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
775sonymips mips-sony-*
776sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 777
0ddabb4c
AC
778* REMOVED configurations and files
779
780SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
781SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
782Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
783Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
784H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
785HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
786HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
787HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
788PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 789386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
790Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
791 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
792 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
793SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
794SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
795Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
796Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 797
c7f1390e
DJ
798*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
799
1fe43d45
AC
800* Objective-C
801
802Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
803integrated into GDB.
804
e6beb428
AC
805* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
806
807DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
808information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
809By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
810backtraces.
811
812The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
813have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
814DWARF 2 CFI support.
815
816* Hosted file I/O.
817
818GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
819file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
820remote protocol documentation for details.
821
822* All targets using the new architecture framework.
823
824All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
825architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
826to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
827ppc32 on ppc64).
828
829* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
830
831GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
832per-thread variables.
833
834* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
835
836GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
837GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
838
839* Separate debug info.
840
841GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
842automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
843of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
844system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
845and optional debug files.
846
847* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
848
849DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
850describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
851debugger.
852
853GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
854for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
855
856* Java
857
858A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
859Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
860considered "useable".
861
85f8f974
DJ
862* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
863
864The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
865commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
866kernel.
867
0fac0b41
DJ
868* GDB supports logging output to a file
869
870There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
871used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 872
6ad8ae5c
DJ
873* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
874
875The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
876disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
877command.
878
e286caf2 879* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
880
881The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
882registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
883
d28f9cdf
DJ
884* Profiling support
885
886A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
887be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
888session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
889"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
890data, for more informative profiling results.
891
da0f9dcd
AC
892* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
893
894The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
895option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 896"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
897
898Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
899removed.
900
fb9b6b35
JJ
901Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
902Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
903Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
904 in a subsequent -var-update.
905
954a4db8
MK
906* New native configurations.
907
908FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
909
6760f9e6
JB
910* Multi-arched targets.
911
b4263afa 912HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 913Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 914
1b831c93
AC
915* OBSOLETE configurations and files
916
917Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
918been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
919configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
920permanently REMOVED.
921
8b0e5691 922Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 923Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 924H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
925HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
926HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
927HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 928PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
929Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
930 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
931 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
932Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
933Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 934
5835abe7
NC
935* REMOVED configurations and files
936
937V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
938Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
939IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
940i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
941i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
942i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
943HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
944 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
945 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
946Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
947Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
948Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
949OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
950I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 951
a094c6fb
AC
952* MIPS $fp behavior changed
953
954The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
955the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
956context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
957address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
958The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
959
299ffc64 960*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 961
46248966
AC
962* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
963
964When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
965`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
966in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
967library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
968shared libs like mad''.
969
b9d14705 970* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 971
b9d14705
DJ
972Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
973the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
974arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
975powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 976
e0e9281e
JB
977* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
978
979GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
980and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
981they expand.
982
dd73b9bb
AC
983The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
984invocations in expression, and shows the result.
985
986The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
987macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
988
e0e9281e
JB
989Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
990information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
991your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
992information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
993
2250ee0c
CV
994* Multi-arched targets.
995
6e3ba3b8
JT
996DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
997DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 998NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 999National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
1000Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1001Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 1002
cd9bfe15 1003* New targets.
e33ce519 1004
456f8b9d
DB
1005Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1006
e33ce519 1007
da8ca43d
JT
1008* New native configurations
1009
1010Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 1011SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 1012MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 1013UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 1014
cd9bfe15
AC
1015* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1016
1017Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1018been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1019configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1020permanently REMOVED.
1021
92eb23c5 1022Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 1023OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 1024IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 1025Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 1026Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 1027Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
1028i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1029i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1030i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
1031HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1032 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1033 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 1034I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 1035
db034ac5
AC
1036* OBSOLETE languages
1037
1038CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1039
cd9bfe15
AC
1040* REMOVED configurations and files
1041
1042AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1043A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1044AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1045AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1046AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1047
1048testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1049
20f01a46
DH
1050* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1051
1052This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1053commands. The default is 1024.
1054
a5941fbf
MK
1055* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1056
1057Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1058
89743e04
MS
1059* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1060
1061These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1062to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1063from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 1064
9fb14e79
JB
1065* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1066
1067The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1068including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1069of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1070
2037aebb
AC
1071*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1072
1073* New targets.
1074
1075Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
1076
1077* Bug fixes
1078
1079gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1080mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1081Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1082
1083gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1084dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1085Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1086
1087Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1088Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1089By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1090
1091i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1092avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1093By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1094
37057839 1095*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 1096
1a703748
MS
1097* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1098
1099This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1100really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1101In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1102target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1103This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1104(notably embedded) targets.
1105
cefd4ef5
MS
1106* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1107
55241689
AC
1108This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1109process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1110GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1111hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 1112
352ed7b4
MS
1113* New command line option
1114
1115GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1116
1117* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1118
1119There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1120command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1121a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1122be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1123open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1124issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1125a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1126it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1127GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1128is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1129
fe419ffc
RE
1130* Changes in ARM configurations.
1131
1132Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1133configuration is fully multi-arch.
1134
eb7cedd9
MK
1135* New native configurations
1136
fe419ffc 1137ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 1138x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 1139AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 1140Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 1141
c9f63e6b
CV
1142* New targets
1143
1144Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1145
9b4ff276
AC
1146* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1147
1148Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1149been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1150configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1151permanently REMOVED.
1152
1153AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1154A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1155AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1156AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1157AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1158
b4ceaee6 1159testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 1160
e2caac18
AC
1161* REMOVED configurations and files
1162
1163TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 1164WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
1165PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1166PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1167PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 1168Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
1169Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1170 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 1171SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 1172Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
1173Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1174ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 1175Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 1176
c2a727fa
TT
1177* Changes to command line processing
1178
1179The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1180for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1181
467d8519
TT
1182* Changes to key bindings
1183
1184There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1185
7072a954
AC
1186*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1187
1188Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1189
1190Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1191corrupted.
1192
1193Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1194
1195Numerous documentation fixes.
1196
1197Numerous testsuite fixes.
1198
34f47bc4 1199*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
1200
1201* New native configurations
1202
1203Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1204x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 1205MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
1206MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1207ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 1208s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 1209
bf64bfd6
AC
1210* New targets
1211
def90278 1212Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 1213CRIS cris-axis
55241689 1214UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 1215
17e78a56 1216* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
1217
1218x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 1219Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
1220Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1221 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
1222TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1223WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 1224Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
1225PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1226PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1227PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 1228SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
1229Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1230ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 1231Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 1232
17e78a56
AC
1233stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1234kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1235
7fcca85b
AC
1236Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1237been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1238configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1239permanently REMOVED.
1240
a196c81c 1241* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
1242
1243Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1244Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1245Pyramid pyramid-*-*
1246ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1247Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 1248ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 1249
6d6b80e5 1250* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 1251
6d6b80e5 1252GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
1253sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1254present.
1255
bf64bfd6
AC
1256* Other news:
1257
e23194cb
EZ
1258* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1259
1260* The MI enabled by default.
1261
1262The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1263revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1264engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1265using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1266which is now deprecated.
1267
1268* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1269
1270GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1271main features are supported:
1272
1273 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1274
1275 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1276 extension;
1277
1278 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1279
1280 - a Pascal expression parser.
1281
1282However, some important features are not yet supported.
1283
1284 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1285
1286 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1287
1288 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1289 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1290
1291 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1292
1293 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1294
1295* Changes in completion.
1296
1297Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1298to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1299users expect at the shell prompt.
1300
1301Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1302`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1303program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1304files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1305be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1306considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1307name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1308
1309`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1310
1311* New platform-independent commands:
1312
1313It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1314hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1315documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1316
1317* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1318
d7275149
MK
1319Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1320revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1321many threads as your system allows you to have.
1322
e23194cb
EZ
1323Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1324
d7275149
MK
1325Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1326multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
1327
1328* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
1329
1330Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1331
e23194cb
EZ
1332GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1333debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1334supported.)
1335
1336* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1337
1338Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1339breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1340implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1341put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1342and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1343registers.
1344
1345The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1346debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1347watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1348
1349* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1350
1351New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1352the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1353
1354New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1355display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1356IDT.
1357
1358New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1359from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1360New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1361a given linear address.
1362
1363GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1364program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1365which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1366
1367DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1368
6c56c069
EZ
1369It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1370
e23194cb
EZ
1371* Changes in documentation.
1372
1373All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1374Documentation License.
1375
1376Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1377manual.
1378
1379TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1380
1381Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1382manual.
1383
1384The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1385documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1386hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1387
5d6640b1
AC
1388* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1389
1390The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1391``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1392contents of this file.
1393
1a1d8446
AC
1394* gdba.el deleted
1395
1396GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 1397
9debab2f 1398*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 1399
c63ce875
EZ
1400* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1401
1402Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1403programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1404displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1405greater level of detail.
1406
1407* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1408
1409It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1410bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1411on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1412written.
1413
1414* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1415
1416The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1417necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1418machines ``out of the box''.
1419
1420The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1421possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1422signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1423would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1424interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1425
1426It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1427standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1428even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1429and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1430terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1431
1432The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1433enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1434also works.
1435
1436DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1437GDB.
1438
1439It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1440directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1441times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1442breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1443
ed9a39eb
JM
1444* New native configurations
1445
1446ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 1447PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 1448
7a292a7a
SS
1449* New targets
1450
96baa820 1451Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
1452x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1453PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
1454TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1455
085dd6e6
JM
1456* OBSOLETE configurations
1457
1458Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1459Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 1460Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 1461ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 1462Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 1463
9debab2f
AC
1464Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1465but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1466these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1467be permanently REMOVED.
1468
5330533d
SS
1469* Gould support removed
1470
1471Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1472
bc9e5bbf
AC
1473* New features for SVR4
1474
1475On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1476without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1477load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1478
1479* Many C++ enhancements
1480
1481C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1482in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1483
adf40b2e
JM
1484* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1485
1486A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1487sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1488with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1489``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1490
1491 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1492 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1493
43e526b9
JM
1494* MIPS 64 remote protocol
1495
1496A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1497expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1498instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1499
1500The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1501added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1502
96baa820
JM
1503* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1504
1505The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1506``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1507include ``set remote P-packet''.
1508
11cf8741
JM
1509* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1510
1511The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1512accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1513``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1514
7876dd43
DB
1515* ``apropos'' command added.
1516
1517The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1518documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1519try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1520
bc9e5bbf
AC
1521* New MI interface
1522
1523A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1524interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
1525process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1526"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1527enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
1528
1529 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1530
c906108c
SS
1531*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1532
1533* New native configurations
1534
1535HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1536HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 1537M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
1538
1539* New targets
1540
1541Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1542Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1543Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1544
1545* OBSOLETE configurations
1546
1547Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1548
1549Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1550but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1551these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1552be permanently REMOVED.
1553
1554* ANSI/ISO C
1555
1556As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1557buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1558containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1559use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1560available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1561configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1562information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1563already.
1564
1565* Readline 2.2
1566
1567GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1568
1569* set extension-language
1570
1571You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1572languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1573you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1574 set extension-language .c c++
1575The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1576and their associated languages.
1577
1578* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1579
1580When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1581you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1582PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1583
1584 set processor NAME
1585
1586sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1587following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1588
1589 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1590 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1591 403 IBM PowerPC 403
1592 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1593 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1594 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1595 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1596 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1597 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1598 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1599 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1600
1601At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1602special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1603registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1604only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1605
1606* HP-UX support
1607
1608Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1609more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1610library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1611support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1612for xdb and dbx commands.
1613
1614* Catchpoints
1615
1616HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1617generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1618to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1619
1620This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1621argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1622output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1623
1624* Debugging across forks
1625
1626On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1627in the inferior.
1628
1629* TUI
1630
1631HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1632it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1633configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1634
1635* GDB remote protocol additions
1636
1637A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1638Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1639fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1640allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1641
1642For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1643full 64-bit address. The command
1644
1645 set remoteaddresssize 32
1646
1647can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1648the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1649will be discarded.
1650
1651In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1652command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1653
1654 maint packet heythere
1655
1656sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1657disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1658time.
1659
1660The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1661target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1662downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1663
1664* Tracing can collect general expressions
1665
1666You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1667further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1668doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1669
1670* mask-address variable for Mips
1671
1672For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1673a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1674of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1675
1676* Higher serial baud rates
1677
1678GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1679230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1680to achieve all of these rates.)
1681
1682* i960 simulator
1683
1684The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1685builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1686
1687
1688*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1689
1690* New native configurations
1691
1692Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1693Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1694Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1695PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1696PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1697Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1698Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1699
1700* New targets
1701
1702Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1703Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1704Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1705Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1706MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1707MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1708MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1709Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1710Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1711Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1712NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1713
1714* New debugging protocols
1715
1716ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1717M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1718DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1719PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1720PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1721Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1722
1723* DWARF 2
1724
1725All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1726format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1727information.
1728
1729* Java frontend
1730
1731GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1732only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1733
1734* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1735
1736For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1737loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1738locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1739
1740* Live range splitting
1741
1742GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1743range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1744more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1745
1746* Hurd support
1747
1748GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1749updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1750
1751* ARM Thumb support
1752
1753GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1754instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1755instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1756accordingly.
1757
1758* MIPS16 support
1759
1760GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1761instruction set.
1762
1763* Overlay support
1764
1765GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1766linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1767will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1768control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1769additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1770in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1771
1772* info symbol
1773
1774The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1775the symbol at the specified address.
1776
1777* Trace support
1778
1779The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1780asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1781extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1782includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1783file tracepoint.c for more details.
1784
1785* MIPS simulator
1786
1787Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1788by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1789of most MIPS variants.
1790
1791* Sparc simulator
1792
1793Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1794by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1795Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1796
1797* set architecture
1798
1799For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1800basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1801architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1802the possible architectures.
1803
1804*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1805
1806* New native configurations
1807
1808Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1809M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1810PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1811PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1812PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1813RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1814
1815* New targets
1816
1817ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1818I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1819MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1820MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1821PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1822Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
1823Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1824
1825* PowerPC simulator
1826
1827The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1828contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1829PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1830basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1831performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1832
1833* Solaris 2.5
1834
1835GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1836
1837* Windows 95/NT native
1838
1839GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1840To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1841which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1842Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1843ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1844
1845* dont-repeat command
1846
1847If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1848command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1849useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1850extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1851
1852* Send break instead of ^C
1853
1854The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1855rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1856GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1857
1858* Remote protocol timeout
1859
1860The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1861that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1862to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1863
1864* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1865
1866By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1867loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1868stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1869when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1870in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1871
1872Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1873/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1874automatically on hpux10.
1875
1876* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1877
1878Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1879
1880* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1881
1882When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1883may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1884the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1885every character. The default value is 1050.
1886
1887* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1888
1889If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1890a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1891replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1892details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1893remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1894to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1895
1896* Speedups for remote debugging
1897
1898GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1899the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1900and more efficient S-record downloading.
1901
1902* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1903
1904GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1905Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1906
1907*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1908
1909* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1910
1911The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1912can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1913
1914* Remote targets use caching
1915
1916Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1917remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1918it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1919debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1920off' turns the the data cache off.
1921
1922* Remote targets may have threads
1923
1924The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1925in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1926gdb/remote.c for details.
1927
1928* NetROM support
1929
1930If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1931support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1932acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1933write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1934support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1935another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1936sequence is something like
1937
1938 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1939 load <prog>
1940 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1941
1942* Macintosh host
1943
1944GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1945may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1946it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1947available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1948device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1949directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1950scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1951mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1952
1953* Autoconf
1954
1955GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1956but does simplify configuration and building.
1957
1958* hpux10
1959
1960GDB now supports hpux10.
1961
1962*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1963
1964* New native configurations
1965
1966x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1967x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1968NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1969Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1970
1971* New targets
1972
1973A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1974HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1975CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1976PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1977WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1978
1979* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1980
1981GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1982possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1983filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1984the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1985if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1986
1987* Arguments to user-defined commands
1988
1989User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1990Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1991trivial example:
1992define adder
1993 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1994
1995To execute the command use:
1996adder 1 2 3
1997
1998Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1999Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2000use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2001
2002* New `if' and `while' commands
2003
2004This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2005commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2006expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2007execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2008terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2009`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2010if the expression is zero.
2011
2012* Fortran source language mode
2013
2014GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2015Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2016variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2017with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2018Fortran compilers.
2019
2020* Better HPUX support
2021
2022Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2023running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2024processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2025for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2026that behavior do the following before running the program:
2027
2028 adb -w a.out
2029 __dld_flags?W 0x5
2030 control-d
2031
2032This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2033To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2034
2035 adb -w a.out
2036 __dld_flags?W 0x4
2037 control-d
2038
2039You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2040the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2041external linkage.
2042
2043GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2044HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2045
2046* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2047
2048You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2049commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2050current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2051"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2052associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2053configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2054
2055* New DOS host serial code
2056
2057This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2058no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2059a PC's serial port.
2060
2061*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2062
2063* New "complete" command
2064
2065This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2066were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2067
2068* Trailing space optional in prompt
2069
2070"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2071allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2072
2073* Breakpoint hit counts
2074
2075"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2076has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2077can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2078to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2079less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2080that breakpoint.
2081
2082* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2083
2084"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2085an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2086arrays actually contain only short strings.
2087
2088* Shared library breakpoints
2089
2090In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2091breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2092
2093* Hardware watchpoints
2094
2095There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2096targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2097
55241689 2098Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
2099
2100* Annotations
2101
2102Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2103and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2104
2105* Improved Irix 5 support
2106
2107GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2108
2109* Improved HPPA support
2110
2111GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2112
2113* New native configurations
2114
2115Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2116HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2117Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2118RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2119
2120* New targets
2121
2122OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2123MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2124Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
2125
2126* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2127
2128There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2129This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2130
2131* Fixes
2132
2133As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2134and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2135
2136*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2137
2138* Irix 5 is now supported
2139
2140* HPPA support
2141
2142GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2143to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2144GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2145of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2146can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2147
2148
2149*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2150
2151* User visible changes:
2152
2153* Remote Debugging
2154
2155The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2156target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2157debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2158integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2159debugging info for the mips target).
2160
2161* DEC Alpha native support
2162
2163GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2164debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2165work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2166Alpha-specific notes.
2167
2168* Preliminary thread implementation
2169
2170GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2171
2172* LynxOS native and target support for 386
2173
2174This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2175to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2176for details).
2177
2178* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2179
2180This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2181mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2182call methods, ...etc.
2183
2184*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2185
2186 * User visible changes:
2187
2188Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2189supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2190other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2191somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2192
2193Filename completion now works.
2194
2195When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2196arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2197addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2198
2199All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2200vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2201should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2202your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2203to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2204
2205 * DEC alpha support
2206
2207This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2208cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2209
2210
2211*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2212
2213 * Testsuite
2214
2215This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2216The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2217via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2218
2219 * C++ demangling
2220
2221'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2222emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2223Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2224disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2225use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2226
2227 * Simulators
2228
2229GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2230So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2231Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2232
2233 * New targets supported
2234
2235H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2236H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2237SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2238Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2239IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2240
2241Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2242version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2243GO32 memory extender.
2244
2245 * New remote protocols
2246
2247MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2248
2249 * New source languages supported
2250
2251This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2252used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2253into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2254
2255
2256*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2257
2258 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2259
2260GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2261version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2262University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2263compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2264format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2265(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2266
2267Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2268
2269 * Faster and better demangling
2270
2271We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2272demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2273character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2274only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2275This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2276increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2277symbol lookups.
2278
2279`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2280from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2281compiler does not actually implement.
2282
2283 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2284
2285In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2286inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2287recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2288very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2289The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2290circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2291fix.
2292
2293The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2294release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2295
2296 * Improved configure script
2297
2298The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2299you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2300host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2301done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2302
2303We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2304version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2305`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2306The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2307only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2308We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2309
2310 * Documentation improvements
2311
2312There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2313produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2314before submitting changes.
2315
2316The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2317M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2318`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2319you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2320a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2321
2322*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2323We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2324been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2325or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2326`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2327around this problem.
2328
2329 * New features
2330
2331GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2332the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2333`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2334the target program.
2335
2336The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2337how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2338
2339 * New native hosts supported
2340
2341HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2342386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2343
2344 * New targets supported
2345
2346AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2347
2348 * New file formats supported
2349
2350BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2351HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2352
2353 * Major bug fixes
2354
2355Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2356
2357We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2358printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2359
2360We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2361for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2362release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2363
2364You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2365will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2366
2367We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2368for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2369especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2370libraries.
2371
2372The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2373information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2374command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2375any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2376when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2377
2378 * Internal improvements
2379
2380GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2381debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2382
2383GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2384Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2385symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2386contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2387shared code that handles any of them.
2388
2389 * New command line options
2390
2391We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2392
2393 * Mmalloc licensing
2394
2395The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2396General Public License.
2397
2398*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2399
2400 * Host/native/target split
2401
2402GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2403hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2404target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2405local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2406ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2407
2408The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2409GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2410is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2411code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2412any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2413built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2414handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2415
2416GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2417It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2418plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2419
2420 * New hosts supported
2421
2422HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2423386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2424386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2425
2426 * New targets supported
2427
2428Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
242968030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2430
2431 * New native hosts supported
2432
2433386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2434 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2435386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2436
2437 * New file formats supported
2438
2439BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2440supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2441format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2442
2443 * New commands
2444
2445`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2446`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2447These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2448
2449`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2450
2451You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2452scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2453prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2454executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2455
2456 * C++ improvements
2457
2458We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2459info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2460symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2461
2462Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2463
2464 * Major bug fixes
2465
2466The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2467fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2468by the compiler.
2469
2470We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2471support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2472
2473John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2474slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2475that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2476purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2477the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2478mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2479
2480Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2481about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2482completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2483we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2484
2485 * AMD 29k support
2486
2487A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2488specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2489calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2490usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2491in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2492
2493We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2494Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2495of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2496resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2497
2498 * Remote interfaces
2499
2500We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2501with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2502message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2503This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2504needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2505breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2506each instruction being stepped through.
2507
2508The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2509registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2510
2511There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2512find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2513Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2514processor with a serial port.
2515
2516 * Configuration
2517
2518Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2519`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2520supported, and what files each one uses.
2521
2522 * Library changes
2523
2524There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2525disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2526Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2527disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2528
2529The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2530Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2531can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2532grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2533
2534 * Documentation
2535
2536The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2537reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2538as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2539encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2540system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2541bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2542
2543And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2544
2545
2546*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2547
2548 * Better support for C++ function names
2549
2550GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2551names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2552(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2553single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2554Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2555
2556GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2557the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2558You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2559lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2560for the list of formats.
2561
2562 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2563
2564Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2565C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2566directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2567can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2568usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2569about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2570this problem.)
2571
2572 * New 'maintenance' command
2573
2574All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2575the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2576can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2577
2578 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2579 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2580 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2581 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2582 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2583 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2584
2585The following commands are new:
2586
2587 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2588 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2589 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2590
2591 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2592
2593We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2594(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2595be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2596read after argv processing.
2597
2598 * New hosts supported
2599
2600Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2601
55241689 2602GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
2603
2604We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2605is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2606for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2607masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2608fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2609It costs extra.
2610
2611 * New targets supported
2612
2613Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2614
2615 * More smarts about finding #include files
2616
2617GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2618all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2619greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2620especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2621the one that contains your sources.
2622
2623We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2624breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2625try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2626
2627 * Interesting infernals change
2628
2629GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2630section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2631target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2632stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2633
2634 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2635
2636There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2637 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2638 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2639
2640See the ChangeLog for details.
2641
2642*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2643
2644 * New machines supported (host and target)
2645
2646IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2647
2648SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2649
2650 * New malloc package
2651
2652GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2653Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2654capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2655This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2656pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2657more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2658
2659 * info proc
2660
2661The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2662'help info proc' for details.
2663
2664 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2665
2666The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2667Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2668possible.
2669
2670 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2671
2672Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2673support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2674conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2675environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2676that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2677in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2678
2679 * Cross byte order fixes
2680
2681Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2682targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2683
2684 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2685
2686If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2687system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2688`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2689program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2690called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2691Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2692and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2693the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2694option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2695starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2696
2697You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2698the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2699information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2700slower, but makes future operations faster.
2701
2702The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2703build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2704A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2705use is:
2706
2707 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2708
2709The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2710It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2711shared across multiple host platforms.
2712
2713 * longjmp() handling
2714
2715GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2716siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2717all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2718platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2719
2720 * Solaris 2.0
2721
2722Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2723this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2724reading symbols.
2725
2726 * Bug fixes
2727
2728As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2729People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2730crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2731
2732*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2733
2734 * New machines supported (host and target)
2735
2736SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2737 (except core files)
2738BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2739Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2740
2741 * New machines supported (target)
2742
2743AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2744
2745 * C++ support
2746
2747GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2748The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2749per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2750
2751GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2752`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2753extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2754good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2755will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2756released.
2757
2758 * New features for SVR4
2759
2760GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2761shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2762only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2763
2764The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2765on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2766it prints the address mappings of the process.
2767
2768If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2769bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2770
2771 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2772
2773Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2774now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2775skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2776make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2777same code linked statically.
2778
2779 * New Getopt
2780
2781GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2782version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2783continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2784Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2785added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2786future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2787
2788 * Bugs fixed
2789
2790The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2791Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2792See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2793
2794
2795*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2796
2797 * New machines supported (host and target)
2798
2799Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2800NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2801Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2802
2803 * Almost SCO Unix support
2804
2805We had hoped to support:
2806SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2807(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2808that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2809about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2810
2811 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2812
2813GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2814debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2815is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2816send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2817reqired (if any).
2818
2819 * New Readline
2820
2821GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2822is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2823required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2824
2825 * Bugs fixed
2826
2827The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2828Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2829See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2830
2831 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2832
2833GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2834supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2835symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2836
2837Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2838mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2839debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2840mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2841version 2.
2842
2843Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2844really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2845line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2846variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2847situation somewhat.
2848
2849When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2850However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2851methods.
2852
2853We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2854DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2855encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2856
2857
2858*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2859
2860 * Improved configuration
2861
2862Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2863Porting BFD is simpler.
2864
2865 * Stepping improved
2866
2867The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2868of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2869in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2870function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2871
2872 * Bug fixing
2873
2874Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2875
2876 * New host supported (not target)
2877
2878Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2879
2880
2881*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2882
2883 * Multiple source language support
2884
2885GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2886It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2887and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2888language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2889You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2890`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2891
2892 * GDB and Modula-2
2893
2894GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2895currently under development at the State University of New York at
2896Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2897continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2898
2899Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2900debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2901symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2902
2903There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2904in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2905
2906 * set write on/off
2907
2908GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2909a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2910the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2911by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2912effect immediately.
2913
2914 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2915
2916When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2917shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2918The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2919examining core files.
2920
2921 * set listsize
2922
2923You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2924The default is 10.
2925
2926 * New machines supported (host and target)
2927
2928SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2929Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2930Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2931
2932 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2933
2934IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2935
2936 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2937
2938AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2939AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2940Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2941
2942 * New remote interfaces
2943
2944AMD 29000 Adapt
2945AMD 29000 Minimon
2946
2947
2948*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2949
2950 * New Facilities
2951
2952Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2953
2954Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2955target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2956is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2957remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2958remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2959also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2960using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2961stub on the target system.
2962
2963New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2964
2965GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2966library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2967object file types such as a.out and coff.
2968
2969There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2970refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2971
2972
2973 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2974
2975All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2976by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2977
2978For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2979``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2980Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2981
2982What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2983print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2984will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2985all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2986
2987confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2988 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2989 it is already running. Default is ON.
2990
2991editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2992 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2993 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2994 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2995 Default is ON.
2996
2997history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2998 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2999 or the value of the environment variable
3000 GDBHISTFILE.
3001
3002history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3003 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3004 HISTSIZE.
3005
3006history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3007 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3008 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3009
3010history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3011 history expansion will be performed on
3012 command line input. The default is OFF.
3013
3014radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3015 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3016 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3017
3018height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3019 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3020 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3021 variable TERM.
3022
3023width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3024 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3025 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3026 variable TERM.
3027
3028Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3029``set width'' instead.
3030
3031print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3032 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3033 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3034 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3035
3036print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3037 is OFF.
3038
3039print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3040 "raw" form if off.
3041
3042print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3043 like instructions.
3044
3045print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3046
3047
3048 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3049
3050The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3051new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3052are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3053window.
3054
3055
3056 * Support for Shared Libraries
3057
3058GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3059Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3060before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3061happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3062At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3063from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3064shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3065It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3066
3067sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3068 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3069 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3070
3071info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3072
3073
3074 * Watchpoints
3075
3076A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3077expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3078tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3079quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3080problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3081more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3082
3083watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3084
3085info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3086
3087delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3088disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3089enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3090
3091
3092 * C++ multiple inheritance
3093
3094When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3095for C++ programs.
3096
3097 * C++ exception handling
3098
3099Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3100ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3101the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3102handler's context).
3103
3104catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3105 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3106 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3107
3108info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3109 current stack frame.
3110
3111
3112 * Minor command changes
3113
3114The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3115command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3116is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3117
3118The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3119at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3120frames without printing.
3121
3122 * New directory command
3123
3124'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3125The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3126about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3127with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3128find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3129
3130 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3131
3132For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3133for more details.
3134
3135GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3136two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3137Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3138where the program that you are debugging will run.
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