ChangeLog:
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
CommitLineData
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.8
5
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6* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
7breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
8or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
9the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
10for tracepoint actions.
11
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12* "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
13in hex as well as in symbolic form."
14
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15* Process record and replay
16
17 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
18 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
19 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
20 execute commands.
21
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22* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
23step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
24set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
25reverse execution.
26
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27* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
28feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
292.6.28 or later.
30
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31* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
32target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
33char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
34literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
35U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
36`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
37system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
38the installation instructions for more information.
39
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40* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
41remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
42with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
43the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
44
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45* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
46now complete on file names.
47
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48* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
49completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
50For instance, consider:
51
52 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
53 # struct example variable;
54 (gdb) p variable.
55
56If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
57completions will be "f1" and "f2".
58
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59* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
60the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
61
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62* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
63operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
64macros.
65
47a3467a 66* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
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67the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
68implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
69
70* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
71registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
72can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
73and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 74
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75* New remote packets
76
77qSearch:memory:
78 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
79
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80QStartNoAckMode
81 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
82 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
83 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
84
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85vKill
86 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
87 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
88
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89qXfer:osdata:read
90 Obtains additional operating system information
91
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92qXfer:siginfo:read
93qXfer:siginfo:write
94 Read or write additional signal information.
95
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96* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
97
98 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
99 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
100 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
101
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102* The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
103source+assembly.
104
c055b101 105* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 106DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
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107
108* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
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109and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
110`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 111
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112* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
113with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
114
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115* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
116
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117* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
118
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119* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
120which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
121
1fddbabb 122* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 123list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 124
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125* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
126conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
127have also been fixed.
128
bfb8797a 129* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
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130From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
131are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 132
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133* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
134example, given:
135
136 template<typename T> class C { };
137 C<char const *> c;
138
139GDB will now correctly handle all of:
140
141 ptype C<char const *>
142 ptype C<char const*>
143 ptype C<const char *>
144 ptype C<const char*>
145
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146* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
147
148 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
149 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
150
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151 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
152 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
153 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
154
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155 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
156 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
157
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158 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
159 gdbserver.
160
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161 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
162 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
163
164 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
165 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
166 as appropriate.
167
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168* Python scripting
169
170 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
171 available is determined at configure time.
172
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173 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
174
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175* Ada tasking support
176
177 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
178 been introduced:
179
180 info tasks
181 Print the list of Ada tasks.
182 info task N
183 Print detailed information about task number N.
184 task
185 Print the task number of the current task.
186 task N
187 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
188
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189* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
190add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
191
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192* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
193
194 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
195 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
196 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
197 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
198 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
199 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
200 below.
201
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202* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
203"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
204information.
205
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206* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
207to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
208architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
209See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
210more information.
211
d7713ae0 212* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 213
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214find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
215 val1 [, val2, ...]
216 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
217
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218maint set python print-stack
219maint show python print-stack
220 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
221
222python [CODE]
223 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
224
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225macro define
226macro list
227macro undef
228 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
229 interactively.
230
231info os processes
232 Show operating system information about processes.
233
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234info inferiors
235 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
236
237inferior NUM
238 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
239
240detach inferior NUM
241 Detach from inferior number NUM.
242
243kill inferior NUM
244 Kill inferior number NUM.
245
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246* New options
247
248set sh calling-convention
249show sh calling-convention
250 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
251
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252set print symbol-loading
253show print symbol-loading
254 Control printing of symbol loading messages.
255
e0a3ce09 256set debug timestamp
75feb17d 257show debug timestamp
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258 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
259
260set disassemble-next-line
261show disassemble-next-line
262 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
263 the debuggee stops.
264
265set remote noack-packet
266show remote noack-packet
267 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
268 under "New remote packets."
269
270set remote query-attached-packet
271show remote query-attached-packet
272 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
273
274set remote read-siginfo-object
275show remote read-siginfo-object
276 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
277 packet.
278
279set remote write-siginfo-object
280show remote write-siginfo-object
281 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
282 packet.
283
284set displaced-stepping
285show displaced-stepping
286 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
287 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
288 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
289
290set debug displaced
291show debug displaced
292 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
293
294maint set internal-error
295maint show internal-error
296 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
297
298maint set internal-warning
299maint show internal-warning
300 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 301
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302set exec-wrapper
303show exec-wrapper
304unset exec-wrapper
305 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 306
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307set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
308show multiple-symbols
309 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
310 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
311 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
312
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313set breakpoint always-inserted
314show breakpoint always-inserted
315 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
316 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
317 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
318
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319set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
320show arm fallback-mode
321set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
322show arm force-mode
323 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
324 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
325 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
326 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
327
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328set disable-randomization
329show disable-randomization
330 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
331 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
332 multiple debugging sessions.
333
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334set non-stop
335show non-stop
336 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
337 a breakpoint.
338
b3eb342c 339set target-async
d7713ae0 340show target-async
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341 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
342 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
343 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
344 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
345
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346set target-wide-charset
347show target-wide-charset
348 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
349 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
350
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351set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
352show tcp auto-retry
353set tcp connect-timeout
354show tcp connect-timeout
355 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
356 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
357 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
358
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359set libthread-db-search-path
360show libthread-db-search-path
361 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
362 libthread_db.
363
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364set schedule-multiple (on|off)
365show schedule-multiple
366 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
367 the current process.
368
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369* Removed commands
370
371info forks
372 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
373 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
374 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
375 command.
376
377fork NUM
378 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
379 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
380 alias for the `fork' command.
381
382process PID
383 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
384 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
385 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
386
387delete fork NUM
388 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
389 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
390 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
391 fork' command.
392
393detach fork NUM
394 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
395 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
396 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
397 fork' command.
398
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399* New native configurations
400
401x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
402
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403x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
404
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405* New targets
406
c28c63d8 407Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 408x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 409x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
75a2d5e7 410
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411* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
412 (mingw32ce) debugging.
413
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414* Removed commands
415
416catch load
417catch unload
418 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
419
75feb17d 420*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 421
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422* New native configurations
423
424NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 425Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
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426
427* New targets
428
429NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 430Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 431
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432* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
433
434 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
435 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
436 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
437 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
438
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439* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
440(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
441
fe6fbf8b 442* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 443is resolved.
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444
445* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
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446including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
447and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 448
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449* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
450accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
451more than one contiguous range of addresses.
452
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453* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
454
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455* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
456registers on PowerPC targets.
457
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458* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
459targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
460
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461* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
462commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
463
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464* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
465extended-remote mode.
466
24a836bd 467* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
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468The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
469error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
470The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 471
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472* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
473building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
474target architectures.
475
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476* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
477Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
478now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
479stored in two consecutive float registers.
480
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481* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
482breakpoints now.
483
b93b6ca7 484* Improved support for debugging Ada
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485Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
486include:
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487 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
488 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
489 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
490 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
491 of an assignment
492 - Improved command completion in Ada
493 - Several bug fixes
494
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495* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
496process.
497
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498* New commands
499
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500set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
501show print frame-arguments
502 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
503 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
504
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505remote put
506remote get
507remote delete
508 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
509
510* New MI commands
511
512-target-file-put
513-target-file-get
514-target-file-delete
515 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
516
517* New remote packets
518
519vFile:open:
520vFile:close:
521vFile:pread:
522vFile:pwrite:
523vFile:unlink:
524 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 525
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526vAttach
527 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
528 mode.
529
530vRun
531 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
532
8d5f9c6f 533*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 534
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535* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
536bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
537Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
538
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539* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
540symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
541-Bsymbolic linker option.
542
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543* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
544recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
545is not supported.
546
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547* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
548frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
549
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550* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
55132-bit or 64-bit register values.
552
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553* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
554
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555* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
556target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
557a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
558
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559* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
560automatically displayed as character or string data.
561
562* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
563arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
564as strings.
e1f48ead 565
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566* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
567for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 568only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 569
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570* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
571iWMMXt coprocessor.
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573* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
574ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
575has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
576
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577* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
578
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579* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
580
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581* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
582layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
583segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
584
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585* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
586immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
587
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588* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
589"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
590packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
591where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
592Windows and SymbianOS).
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593
594* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
595(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
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596
597* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
598according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 599
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600* New commands
601
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602set remoteflow
603show remoteflow
604 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
605 when debugging using remote targets.
606
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607set mem inaccessible-by-default
608show mem inaccessible-by-default
609 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
610 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
611 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
612 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
613 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
614
615set breakpoint auto-hw
616show breakpoint auto-hw
617 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
618 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
619 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
620 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
621 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
622 including "next" and "finish".
623
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624catch exception
625catch exception unhandled
626 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
627
628catch assert
629 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
630
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631set sysroot
632show sysroot
633 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
634 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
635 an alias to "set sysroot".
636
83cc5c53
UW
637info spu
638 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
639 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
640 architecture.
641
bd372731
MK
642* New native configurations
643
644OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
645
23181151
DJ
646set tdesc filename
647unset tdesc filename
648show tdesc filename
649 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
650 not query the target for its built-in description.
651
c9bb8148
DJ
652* New targets
653
54fe9172 654OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 655MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 656Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 657
6dd09645
JB
658* New remote packets
659
660QPassSignals:
661 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
662 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
663
23181151
DJ
664qXfer:features:read:
665 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
666 features.
6dd09645 667
83cc5c53
UW
668qXfer:spu:read:
669qXfer:spu:write:
670 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
671 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
672
cfa9d6d9
DJ
673qXfer:libraries:read:
674 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
675 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
676 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
677 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
678
483367ee
DJ
679* Removed targets
680
681Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
682
d08950c4
UW
683alpha*-*-osf1*
684alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 685d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
686hppa*-*-hiux*
687i[34567]86-ncr-*
688i[34567]86-*-dgux*
689i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
690i[34567]86-*-netware*
691i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
692i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
693i[34567]86-*-sco*
694i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
695i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
696i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
697i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
698i[34567]86-*-unixware*
699i[34567]86-*-sysv*
700i[34567]86-*-isc*
701m68*-cisco*-*
702m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 703mips*-*-pe
483367ee 704rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 705sh*-*-pe
483367ee 706
7ce59000
DJ
707* Other removed features
708
709target abug
710target cpu32bug
711target est
712target rom68k
713
714 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
715
ea35711c
DJ
716target hms
717target e7000
718target sh3
719target sh3e
720
721 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
722 H8/300.
723
724target ocd
725
726 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
727 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
728 interfaces.
729
7ce59000
DJ
730DWARF 1 support
731
732 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
733 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
734
54d61198
DJ
735Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
736
737 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
738 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
739 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
740 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
741
ea35711c
DJ
742MIPS ".pdr" sections
743
744 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
745 in debugging information.
746
747Scheme support
748
749 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
750 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
751
1a69e1e4
DJ
752set mips stack-arg-size
753set mips saved-gpreg-size
754
755 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
756
6dd09645 757*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 758
ca3bf3bd
DJ
759* New targets
760
761Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 762Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 763
6aec2e11
DJ
764* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
765(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
766running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
767
768* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
769Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
770supported.
771
17218d91
DJ
772* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
773broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
774
9ebce043
DJ
775* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
776stub provides the required support.
777
7d3d3ece
DJ
778* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
779longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
780
4f8253f3
JB
781* New commands
782
783set substitute-path
784unset substitute-path
785show substitute-path
786 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
787 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
788 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
789 between compilation and debugging.
790
9fa66fd7
AS
791set trace-commands
792show trace-commands
793 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
794 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
795 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
796
1f5befc1
DJ
797* REMOVED features
798
799The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
800
2ec3381a
DJ
801Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
802an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
803
3d00d119
DJ
804The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
805
be2a5f71
DJ
806* New remote packets
807
808qSupported:
809 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
810 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
811 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
812 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
813 target.
814
0876f84a
DJ
815qXfer:auxv:read:
816 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
817 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
818
9ebce043
DJ
819qXfer:memory-map:read:
820 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
821 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
822
823vFlashErase:
824vFlashWrite:
825vFlashDone:
826 Erase and program a flash memory device.
827
0876f84a
DJ
828* Removed remote packets
829
830qPart:auxv:read:
831 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
832 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
833
e374b601 834*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 835
96309189
MS
836* New targets
837
838Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
839
840Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
841
53e5f3cf
AS
842* New commands
843
844init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
845 only if it doesn't already have a value.
846
ac264b3b
MS
847The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
848
849checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
850
851restart <n> Return the program state to a
852 previously saved state.
853
854info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
855
856delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
857
858set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
859 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
860
861info forks List forks of the user program that
862 are available to be debugged.
863
864fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
865 forks of the user program that are
866 available to be debugged.
867
868delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
869 that are available to be debugged (and
870 kill the forked process).
871
872detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
873 that are available to be debugged (and
874 allow the process to continue).
875
3950dc3f
NS
876* New architecture
877
878Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
879
0ea3f30e
DJ
880* Improved Windows host support
881
882GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
883native console support, and remote communications using either
884network sockets or serial ports.
885
f79daebb
GM
886* Improved Modula-2 language support
887
888GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
889basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
890pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
891printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
892written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
893GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
894
acab6ab2
MM
895* REMOVED features
896
897The ARM rdi-share module.
898
f4267320
DJ
899The Netware NLM debug server.
900
53e5f3cf 901*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 902
e0ecbda1
MK
903* New native configurations
904
02a677ac 905OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
906OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
907
d64a6579
KB
908* New targets
909
910Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
911
b33a6190
AS
912* New command line options
913
914--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
915--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
916 the child (debugged) program exited with.
917--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
918 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
919 specified multiple times and in conjunction
920 with the --command (-x) option.
921
11dced61
AC
922* Deprecated commands removed
923
924The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
925removed:
926
927 Command Replacement
928 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
929 othernames set arm disassembler
930 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
931 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
932 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
933 regs info registers
934
6fe85783
MK
935* New BSD user-level threads support
936
937It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
938library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
939configurations are:
940
941FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
942FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
943OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
944
945Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
946are not yet supported.
947
5260ca71
MS
948* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
949(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
950
e84ecc99
AC
951* REMOVED configurations and files
952
953VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 954Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 955National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 956
31e35378
JB
957* New "set print array-indexes" command
958
959After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
960when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
961behavior.
962
e85e5c83
MK
963* VAX floating point support
964
965GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
966
d91e9901
AS
967* User-defined command support
968
969In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
970to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
971section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
972
f2cb65ca
MC
973*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
974
f47b1503
AS
975* New command line option
976
977GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
978debugging.
979
f2cb65ca
MC
980* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
981
982GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
983information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
984by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
985proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
986to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 987
d08c0230
AC
988* Internationalization
989
990When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
991internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
992continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
993
117ea3cf
PH
994* Ada
995
996Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
997implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
998into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
999
d08c0230
AC
1000* New native configurations
1001
1002GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1003
1004* Remote 'p' packet
1005
1006GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1007packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1008
1009* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1010
1011GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1012The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1013features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1014i386 application).
1015
1016GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1017compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1018continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1019configurations:
1020
1021hppa-*-hpux
1022ia64-*-aix
1023mips-*-irix*
1024*-*-lynx
1025mips-*-linux-gnu
1026sds protocol
1027xdr protocol
1028powerpc bdm protocol
1029
1030Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1031made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1032
1033* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1034
1035Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1036been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1037configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1038permanently REMOVED.
1039
1040h8300-*-*
1041mcore-*-*
1042mn10300-*-*
1043ns32k-*-*
1044sh64-*-*
1045v850-*-*
1046
ebb7c577
AC
1047*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1048
1049* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1050
1051When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1052heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1053been fixed.
1054
1055* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1056
1057When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1058fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1059IRIX long double values).
1060
1061* VAX and "next"
1062
1063A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1064command. This problem has been fixed.
1065
860660cb 1066*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 1067
0dea2468
AC
1068* Fix for ``many threads''
1069
1070On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1071rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1072error message:
1073
1074 ptrace: No such process.
1075 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1076
1077This problem has been fixed.
1078
2c07db7a
AC
1079* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1080
1081Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1082GDB to dump core).
1083
c23968a2
JB
1084* New ``start'' command.
1085
1086This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1087
71009278
MK
1088* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1089
1090Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1091live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1092platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1093
1094FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1095FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1096NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1097NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1098NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1099OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1100OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1101OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1102OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1103
3c0b7db2
AC
1104* Signal trampoline code overhauled
1105
1106Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1107These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1108of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1109call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1110signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1111
73cc75f3
AC
1112Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1113features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1114include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 1115
7243600a
BF
1116* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1117
6f606e1c
MK
1118* New native configurations
1119
97dc871c 1120GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 1121OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
1122OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1123OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 1124OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1125NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 1126OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1127
a1b461bf
AC
1128* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1129
1130GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1131The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1132including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1133migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1134compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1135work, was also included.
1136
1137GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1138module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1139
1140h8300-*-*
1141mcore-*-*
1142mn10300-*-*
1143ns32k-*-*
1144sh64-*-*
1145v850-*-*
1146xstormy16-*-*
1147
1148Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1149made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1150
3c7012f5
AC
1151* REMOVED configurations and files
1152
1153Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1154Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1155Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1156Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1157Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1158AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1159Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1160decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1161riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1162sonymips mips-sony-*
1163sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1164
e5fe55f7
AC
1165*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1166
1167* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1168
1169The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1170GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1171command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1172program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1173with GDB".
1174
1175* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1176
1177Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1178libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1179cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1180GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1181shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1182the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1183are created.
1184
1185Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1186
1187* Fixed ISO-C build problems
1188
1189The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1190non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1191compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1192
1193* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1194
1195Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1196wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1197
1198* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1199
1200The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1201permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1202systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1203
1204* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1205
1206Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1207has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1208
1209* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1210
1211GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1212its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1213panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1214
1215* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1216
1217When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1218by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1219not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1220
faae5abe 1221*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 1222
9175c9a3
MC
1223* Removed --with-mmalloc
1224
1225Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1226conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1227
3cc87ec0
MK
1228* Changes in AMD64 configurations
1229
1230The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1231the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1232and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1233you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1234
f0424ef6
MK
1235* Revised SPARC target
1236
1237The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1238FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
1239support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1240from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1241(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 1242
59659be2
ILT
1243* New C++ demangler
1244
1245GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1246names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1247with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1248programs.
1249
9e08b29b
DJ
1250* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1251
1252GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1253arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1254encountered these.
1255
8dfe8985
DC
1256* C++ nested types and namespaces
1257
1258GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1259improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1260is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1261Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1262namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1263"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1264frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1265if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1266GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1267
cced5e27
MK
1268* New native configurations
1269
1270NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 1271OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 1272OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
1273OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1274OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 1275
b4b4b794
KI
1276* New debugging protocols
1277
1278M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1279
7989c619
AC
1280* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1281
1282The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1283and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1284tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1285
5994185b
AC
1286* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1287
1288Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1289been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1290configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1291permanently REMOVED.
1292
1293Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1294Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1295Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1296Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1297Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1298AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1299Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
1300decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1301riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1302sonymips mips-sony-*
1303sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 1304
0ddabb4c
AC
1305* REMOVED configurations and files
1306
1307SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1308SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
1309Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1310Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1311H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1312HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1313HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1314HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1315PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 1316386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
1317Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1318 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1319 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
1320SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1321SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
1322Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1323Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 1324
c7f1390e
DJ
1325*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1326
1fe43d45
AC
1327* Objective-C
1328
1329Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1330integrated into GDB.
1331
e6beb428
AC
1332* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1333
1334DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1335information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1336By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1337backtraces.
1338
1339The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1340have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1341DWARF 2 CFI support.
1342
1343* Hosted file I/O.
1344
1345GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1346file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1347remote protocol documentation for details.
1348
1349* All targets using the new architecture framework.
1350
1351All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1352architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1353to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1354ppc32 on ppc64).
1355
1356* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1357
1358GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1359per-thread variables.
1360
1361* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1362
1363GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1364GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1365
1366* Separate debug info.
1367
1368GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1369automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1370of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1371system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1372and optional debug files.
1373
1374* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1375
1376DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1377describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1378debugger.
1379
1380GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1381for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1382
1383* Java
1384
1385A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1386Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1387considered "useable".
1388
85f8f974
DJ
1389* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1390
1391The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1392commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1393kernel.
1394
0fac0b41
DJ
1395* GDB supports logging output to a file
1396
1397There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1398used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 1399
6ad8ae5c
DJ
1400* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1401
1402The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1403disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1404command.
1405
e286caf2 1406* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
1407
1408The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1409registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1410
d28f9cdf
DJ
1411* Profiling support
1412
1413A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1414be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1415session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1416"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1417data, for more informative profiling results.
1418
da0f9dcd
AC
1419* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1420
1421The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1422option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 1423"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
1424
1425Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1426removed.
1427
fb9b6b35
JJ
1428Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1429Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1430Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1431 in a subsequent -var-update.
1432
954a4db8
MK
1433* New native configurations.
1434
1435FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1436
6760f9e6
JB
1437* Multi-arched targets.
1438
b4263afa 1439HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 1440Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 1441
1b831c93
AC
1442* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1443
1444Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1445been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1446configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1447permanently REMOVED.
1448
8b0e5691 1449Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 1450Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 1451H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
1452HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1453HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1454HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 1455PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
1456Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1457 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1458 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
1459Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1460Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 1461
5835abe7
NC
1462* REMOVED configurations and files
1463
1464V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
1465Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1466IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1467i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1468i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1469i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1470HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1471 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1472 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1473Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1474Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1475Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1476OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1477I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 1478
a094c6fb
AC
1479* MIPS $fp behavior changed
1480
1481The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1482the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1483context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1484address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1485The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1486
299ffc64 1487*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 1488
46248966
AC
1489* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1490
1491When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1492`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1493in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1494library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1495shared libs like mad''.
1496
b9d14705 1497* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 1498
b9d14705
DJ
1499Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1500the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1501arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1502powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 1503
e0e9281e
JB
1504* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1505
1506GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1507and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1508they expand.
1509
dd73b9bb
AC
1510The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1511invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1512
1513The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1514macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1515
e0e9281e
JB
1516Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1517information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1518your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1519information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1520
2250ee0c
CV
1521* Multi-arched targets.
1522
6e3ba3b8
JT
1523DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1524DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 1525NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 1526National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
1527Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1528Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 1529
cd9bfe15 1530* New targets.
e33ce519 1531
456f8b9d
DB
1532Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1533
e33ce519 1534
da8ca43d
JT
1535* New native configurations
1536
1537Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 1538SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 1539MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 1540UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 1541
cd9bfe15
AC
1542* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1543
1544Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1545been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1546configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1547permanently REMOVED.
1548
92eb23c5 1549Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 1550OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 1551IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 1552Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 1553Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 1554Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
1555i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1556i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1557i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
1558HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1559 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1560 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 1561I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 1562
db034ac5
AC
1563* OBSOLETE languages
1564
1565CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1566
cd9bfe15
AC
1567* REMOVED configurations and files
1568
1569AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1570A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1571AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1572AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1573AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1574
1575testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1576
20f01a46
DH
1577* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1578
1579This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1580commands. The default is 1024.
1581
a5941fbf
MK
1582* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1583
1584Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1585
89743e04
MS
1586* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1587
1588These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1589to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1590from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 1591
9fb14e79
JB
1592* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1593
1594The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1595including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1596of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1597
2037aebb
AC
1598*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1599
1600* New targets.
1601
1602Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
1603
1604* Bug fixes
1605
1606gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1607mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1608Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1609
1610gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1611dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1612Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1613
1614Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1615Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1616By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1617
1618i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1619avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1620By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1621
37057839 1622*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 1623
1a703748
MS
1624* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1625
1626This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1627really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1628In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1629target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1630This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1631(notably embedded) targets.
1632
cefd4ef5
MS
1633* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1634
55241689
AC
1635This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1636process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1637GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1638hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 1639
352ed7b4
MS
1640* New command line option
1641
1642GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1643
1644* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1645
1646There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1647command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1648a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1649be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1650open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1651issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1652a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1653it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1654GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1655is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1656
fe419ffc
RE
1657* Changes in ARM configurations.
1658
1659Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1660configuration is fully multi-arch.
1661
eb7cedd9
MK
1662* New native configurations
1663
fe419ffc 1664ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 1665x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 1666AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 1667Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 1668
c9f63e6b
CV
1669* New targets
1670
1671Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1672
9b4ff276
AC
1673* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1674
1675Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1676been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1677configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1678permanently REMOVED.
1679
1680AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1681A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1682AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1683AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1684AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1685
b4ceaee6 1686testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 1687
e2caac18
AC
1688* REMOVED configurations and files
1689
1690TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 1691WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
1692PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1693PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1694PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 1695Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
1696Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1697 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 1698SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 1699Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
1700Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1701ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 1702Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 1703
c2a727fa
TT
1704* Changes to command line processing
1705
1706The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1707for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1708
467d8519
TT
1709* Changes to key bindings
1710
1711There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1712
7072a954
AC
1713*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1714
1715Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1716
1717Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1718corrupted.
1719
1720Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1721
1722Numerous documentation fixes.
1723
1724Numerous testsuite fixes.
1725
34f47bc4 1726*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
1727
1728* New native configurations
1729
1730Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1731x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 1732MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
1733MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1734ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 1735s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 1736
bf64bfd6
AC
1737* New targets
1738
def90278 1739Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 1740CRIS cris-axis
55241689 1741UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 1742
17e78a56 1743* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
1744
1745x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 1746Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
1747Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1748 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
1749TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1750WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 1751Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
1752PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1753PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1754PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 1755SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
1756Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1757ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 1758Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 1759
17e78a56
AC
1760stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1761kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1762
7fcca85b
AC
1763Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1764been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1765configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1766permanently REMOVED.
1767
a196c81c 1768* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
1769
1770Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1771Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1772Pyramid pyramid-*-*
1773ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1774Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 1775ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 1776
6d6b80e5 1777* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 1778
6d6b80e5 1779GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
1780sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1781present.
1782
bf64bfd6
AC
1783* Other news:
1784
e23194cb
EZ
1785* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1786
1787* The MI enabled by default.
1788
1789The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1790revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1791engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1792using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1793which is now deprecated.
1794
1795* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1796
1797GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1798main features are supported:
1799
1800 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1801
1802 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1803 extension;
1804
1805 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1806
1807 - a Pascal expression parser.
1808
1809However, some important features are not yet supported.
1810
1811 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1812
1813 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1814
1815 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1816 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1817
1818 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1819
1820 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1821
1822* Changes in completion.
1823
1824Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1825to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1826users expect at the shell prompt.
1827
1828Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1829`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1830program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1831files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1832be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1833considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1834name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1835
1836`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1837
1838* New platform-independent commands:
1839
1840It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1841hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1842documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1843
1844* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1845
d7275149
MK
1846Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1847revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1848many threads as your system allows you to have.
1849
e23194cb
EZ
1850Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1851
d7275149
MK
1852Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1853multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
1854
1855* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
1856
1857Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1858
e23194cb
EZ
1859GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1860debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1861supported.)
1862
1863* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1864
1865Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1866breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1867implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1868put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1869and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1870registers.
1871
1872The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1873debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1874watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1875
1876* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1877
1878New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1879the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1880
1881New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1882display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1883IDT.
1884
1885New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1886from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1887New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1888a given linear address.
1889
1890GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1891program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1892which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1893
1894DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1895
6c56c069
EZ
1896It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1897
e23194cb
EZ
1898* Changes in documentation.
1899
1900All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1901Documentation License.
1902
1903Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1904manual.
1905
1906TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1907
1908Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1909manual.
1910
1911The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1912documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1913hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1914
5d6640b1
AC
1915* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1916
1917The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1918``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1919contents of this file.
1920
1a1d8446
AC
1921* gdba.el deleted
1922
1923GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 1924
9debab2f 1925*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 1926
c63ce875
EZ
1927* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1928
1929Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1930programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1931displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1932greater level of detail.
1933
1934* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1935
1936It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1937bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1938on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1939written.
1940
1941* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1942
1943The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1944necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1945machines ``out of the box''.
1946
1947The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1948possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1949signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1950would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1951interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1952
1953It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1954standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1955even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1956and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1957terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1958
1959The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1960enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1961also works.
1962
1963DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1964GDB.
1965
1966It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1967directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1968times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1969breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1970
ed9a39eb
JM
1971* New native configurations
1972
1973ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 1974PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 1975
7a292a7a
SS
1976* New targets
1977
96baa820 1978Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
1979x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1980PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
1981TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1982
085dd6e6
JM
1983* OBSOLETE configurations
1984
1985Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1986Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 1987Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 1988ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 1989Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 1990
9debab2f
AC
1991Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1992but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1993these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1994be permanently REMOVED.
1995
5330533d
SS
1996* Gould support removed
1997
1998Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1999
bc9e5bbf
AC
2000* New features for SVR4
2001
2002On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2003without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2004load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2005
2006* Many C++ enhancements
2007
2008C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2009in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2010
adf40b2e
JM
2011* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2012
2013A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2014sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2015with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2016``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2017
2018 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2019 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2020
43e526b9
JM
2021* MIPS 64 remote protocol
2022
2023A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2024expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2025instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2026
2027The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2028added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2029
96baa820
JM
2030* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2031
2032The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2033``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2034include ``set remote P-packet''.
2035
11cf8741
JM
2036* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2037
2038The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2039accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2040``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2041
7876dd43
DB
2042* ``apropos'' command added.
2043
2044The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2045documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2046try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2047
bc9e5bbf
AC
2048* New MI interface
2049
2050A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2051interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
2052process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2053"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2054enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
2055
2056 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2057
c906108c
SS
2058*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2059
2060* New native configurations
2061
2062HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2063HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 2064M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
2065
2066* New targets
2067
2068Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2069Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2070Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2071
2072* OBSOLETE configurations
2073
2074Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2075
2076Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2077but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2078these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2079be permanently REMOVED.
2080
2081* ANSI/ISO C
2082
2083As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2084buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2085containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2086use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2087available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2088configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2089information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2090already.
2091
2092* Readline 2.2
2093
2094GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2095
2096* set extension-language
2097
2098You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2099languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2100you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2101 set extension-language .c c++
2102The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2103and their associated languages.
2104
2105* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2106
2107When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2108you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2109PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2110
2111 set processor NAME
2112
2113sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2114following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2115
2116 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2117 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2118 403 IBM PowerPC 403
2119 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2120 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2121 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2122 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2123 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2124 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2125 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2126 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2127
2128At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2129special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2130registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2131only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2132
2133* HP-UX support
2134
2135Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2136more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2137library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2138support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2139for xdb and dbx commands.
2140
2141* Catchpoints
2142
2143HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2144generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2145to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2146
2147This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2148argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2149output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2150
2151* Debugging across forks
2152
2153On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2154in the inferior.
2155
2156* TUI
2157
2158HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2159it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2160configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2161
2162* GDB remote protocol additions
2163
2164A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2165Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2166fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2167allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2168
2169For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2170full 64-bit address. The command
2171
2172 set remoteaddresssize 32
2173
2174can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2175the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2176will be discarded.
2177
2178In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2179command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2180
2181 maint packet heythere
2182
2183sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2184disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2185time.
2186
2187The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2188target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2189downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2190
2191* Tracing can collect general expressions
2192
2193You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2194further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2195doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2196
2197* mask-address variable for Mips
2198
2199For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2200a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2201of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2202
2203* Higher serial baud rates
2204
2205GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2206230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2207to achieve all of these rates.)
2208
2209* i960 simulator
2210
2211The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2212builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2213
2214
2215*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2216
2217* New native configurations
2218
2219Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2220Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2221Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2222PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2223PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2224Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2225Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2226
2227* New targets
2228
2229Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2230Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2231Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2232Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2233MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2234MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2235MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2236Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2237Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2238Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2239NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2240
2241* New debugging protocols
2242
2243ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2244M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2245DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2246PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2247PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2248Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2249
2250* DWARF 2
2251
2252All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2253format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2254information.
2255
2256* Java frontend
2257
2258GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2259only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2260
2261* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2262
2263For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2264loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2265locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2266
2267* Live range splitting
2268
2269GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2270range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2271more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2272
2273* Hurd support
2274
2275GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2276updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2277
2278* ARM Thumb support
2279
2280GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2281instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2282instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2283accordingly.
2284
2285* MIPS16 support
2286
2287GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2288instruction set.
2289
2290* Overlay support
2291
2292GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2293linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2294will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2295control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2296additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2297in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2298
2299* info symbol
2300
2301The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2302the symbol at the specified address.
2303
2304* Trace support
2305
2306The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2307asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2308extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2309includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2310file tracepoint.c for more details.
2311
2312* MIPS simulator
2313
2314Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2315by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2316of most MIPS variants.
2317
2318* Sparc simulator
2319
2320Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2321by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2322Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2323
2324* set architecture
2325
2326For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2327basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2328architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2329the possible architectures.
2330
2331*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2332
2333* New native configurations
2334
2335Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2336M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2337PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2338PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2339PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2340RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2341
2342* New targets
2343
2344ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2345I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2346MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2347MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2348PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2349Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
2350Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2351
2352* PowerPC simulator
2353
2354The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2355contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2356PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2357basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2358performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2359
2360* Solaris 2.5
2361
2362GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2363
2364* Windows 95/NT native
2365
2366GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2367To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2368which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2369Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2370ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2371
2372* dont-repeat command
2373
2374If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2375command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2376useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2377extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2378
2379* Send break instead of ^C
2380
2381The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2382rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2383GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2384
2385* Remote protocol timeout
2386
2387The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2388that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2389to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2390
2391* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2392
2393By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2394loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2395stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2396when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2397in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2398
2399Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2400/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2401automatically on hpux10.
2402
2403* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2404
2405Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2406
2407* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2408
2409When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2410may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2411the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2412every character. The default value is 1050.
2413
2414* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2415
2416If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2417a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2418replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2419details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2420remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2421to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2422
2423* Speedups for remote debugging
2424
2425GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2426the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2427and more efficient S-record downloading.
2428
2429* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2430
2431GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2432Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2433
2434*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2435
2436* Psymtabs for XCOFF
2437
2438The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2439can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2440
2441* Remote targets use caching
2442
2443Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2444remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2445it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2446debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2447off' turns the the data cache off.
2448
2449* Remote targets may have threads
2450
2451The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2452in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2453gdb/remote.c for details.
2454
2455* NetROM support
2456
2457If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2458support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2459acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2460write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2461support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2462another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2463sequence is something like
2464
2465 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2466 load <prog>
2467 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2468
2469* Macintosh host
2470
2471GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2472may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2473it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2474available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2475device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2476directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2477scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2478mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2479
2480* Autoconf
2481
2482GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2483but does simplify configuration and building.
2484
2485* hpux10
2486
2487GDB now supports hpux10.
2488
2489*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2490
2491* New native configurations
2492
2493x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2494x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2495NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2496Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2497
2498* New targets
2499
2500A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2501HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2502CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2503PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2504WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2505
2506* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2507
2508GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2509possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2510filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2511the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2512if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2513
2514* Arguments to user-defined commands
2515
2516User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2517Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2518trivial example:
2519define adder
2520 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2521
2522To execute the command use:
2523adder 1 2 3
2524
2525Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2526Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2527use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2528
2529* New `if' and `while' commands
2530
2531This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2532commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2533expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2534execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2535terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2536`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2537if the expression is zero.
2538
2539* Fortran source language mode
2540
2541GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2542Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2543variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2544with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2545Fortran compilers.
2546
2547* Better HPUX support
2548
2549Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2550running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2551processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2552for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2553that behavior do the following before running the program:
2554
2555 adb -w a.out
2556 __dld_flags?W 0x5
2557 control-d
2558
2559This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2560To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2561
2562 adb -w a.out
2563 __dld_flags?W 0x4
2564 control-d
2565
2566You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2567the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2568external linkage.
2569
2570GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2571HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2572
2573* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2574
2575You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2576commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2577current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2578"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2579associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2580configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2581
2582* New DOS host serial code
2583
2584This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2585no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2586a PC's serial port.
2587
2588*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2589
2590* New "complete" command
2591
2592This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2593were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2594
2595* Trailing space optional in prompt
2596
2597"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2598allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2599
2600* Breakpoint hit counts
2601
2602"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2603has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2604can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2605to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2606less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2607that breakpoint.
2608
2609* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2610
2611"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2612an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2613arrays actually contain only short strings.
2614
2615* Shared library breakpoints
2616
2617In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2618breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2619
2620* Hardware watchpoints
2621
2622There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2623targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2624
55241689 2625Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
2626
2627* Annotations
2628
2629Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2630and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2631
2632* Improved Irix 5 support
2633
2634GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2635
2636* Improved HPPA support
2637
2638GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2639
2640* New native configurations
2641
2642Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2643HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2644Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2645RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2646
2647* New targets
2648
2649OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2650MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2651Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
2652
2653* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2654
2655There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2656This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2657
2658* Fixes
2659
2660As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2661and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2662
2663*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2664
2665* Irix 5 is now supported
2666
2667* HPPA support
2668
2669GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2670to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2671GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2672of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2673can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2674
2675
2676*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2677
2678* User visible changes:
2679
2680* Remote Debugging
2681
2682The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2683target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2684debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2685integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2686debugging info for the mips target).
2687
2688* DEC Alpha native support
2689
2690GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2691debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2692work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2693Alpha-specific notes.
2694
2695* Preliminary thread implementation
2696
2697GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2698
2699* LynxOS native and target support for 386
2700
2701This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2702to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2703for details).
2704
2705* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2706
2707This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2708mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2709call methods, ...etc.
2710
2711*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2712
2713 * User visible changes:
2714
2715Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2716supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2717other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2718somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2719
2720Filename completion now works.
2721
2722When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2723arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2724addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2725
2726All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2727vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2728should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2729your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2730to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2731
2732 * DEC alpha support
2733
2734This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2735cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2736
2737
2738*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2739
2740 * Testsuite
2741
2742This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2743The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2744via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2745
2746 * C++ demangling
2747
2748'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2749emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2750Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2751disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2752use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2753
2754 * Simulators
2755
2756GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2757So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2758Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2759
2760 * New targets supported
2761
2762H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2763H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2764SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2765Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2766IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2767
2768Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2769version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2770GO32 memory extender.
2771
2772 * New remote protocols
2773
2774MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2775
2776 * New source languages supported
2777
2778This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2779used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2780into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2781
2782
2783*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2784
2785 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2786
2787GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2788version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2789University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2790compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2791format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2792(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2793
2794Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2795
2796 * Faster and better demangling
2797
2798We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2799demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2800character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2801only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2802This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2803increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2804symbol lookups.
2805
2806`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2807from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2808compiler does not actually implement.
2809
2810 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2811
2812In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2813inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2814recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2815very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2816The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2817circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2818fix.
2819
2820The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2821release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2822
2823 * Improved configure script
2824
2825The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2826you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2827host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2828done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2829
2830We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2831version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2832`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2833The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2834only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2835We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2836
2837 * Documentation improvements
2838
2839There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2840produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2841before submitting changes.
2842
2843The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2844M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2845`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2846you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2847a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2848
2849*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2850We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2851been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2852or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2853`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2854around this problem.
2855
2856 * New features
2857
2858GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2859the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2860`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2861the target program.
2862
2863The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2864how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2865
2866 * New native hosts supported
2867
2868HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2869386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2870
2871 * New targets supported
2872
2873AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2874
2875 * New file formats supported
2876
2877BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2878HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2879
2880 * Major bug fixes
2881
2882Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2883
2884We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2885printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2886
2887We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2888for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2889release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2890
2891You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2892will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2893
2894We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2895for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2896especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2897libraries.
2898
2899The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2900information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2901command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2902any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2903when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2904
2905 * Internal improvements
2906
2907GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2908debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2909
2910GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2911Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2912symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2913contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2914shared code that handles any of them.
2915
2916 * New command line options
2917
2918We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2919
2920 * Mmalloc licensing
2921
2922The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2923General Public License.
2924
2925*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2926
2927 * Host/native/target split
2928
2929GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2930hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2931target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2932local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2933ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2934
2935The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2936GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2937is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2938code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2939any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2940built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2941handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2942
2943GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2944It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2945plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2946
2947 * New hosts supported
2948
2949HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2950386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2951386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2952
2953 * New targets supported
2954
2955Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
295668030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2957
2958 * New native hosts supported
2959
2960386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2961 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2962386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2963
2964 * New file formats supported
2965
2966BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2967supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2968format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2969
2970 * New commands
2971
2972`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2973`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2974These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2975
2976`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2977
2978You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2979scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2980prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2981executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2982
2983 * C++ improvements
2984
2985We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2986info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2987symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2988
2989Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2990
2991 * Major bug fixes
2992
2993The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2994fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2995by the compiler.
2996
2997We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2998support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2999
3000John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3001slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3002that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3003purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3004the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3005mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3006
3007Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3008about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3009completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3010we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3011
3012 * AMD 29k support
3013
3014A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3015specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3016calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3017usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3018in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3019
3020We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3021Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3022of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3023resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3024
3025 * Remote interfaces
3026
3027We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3028with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3029message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3030This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3031needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3032breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3033each instruction being stepped through.
3034
3035The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3036registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3037
3038There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3039find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3040Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3041processor with a serial port.
3042
3043 * Configuration
3044
3045Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3046`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3047supported, and what files each one uses.
3048
3049 * Library changes
3050
3051There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3052disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3053Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3054disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3055
3056The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3057Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3058can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3059grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3060
3061 * Documentation
3062
3063The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3064reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3065as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3066encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3067system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3068bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3069
3070And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3071
3072
3073*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3074
3075 * Better support for C++ function names
3076
3077GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3078names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3079(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3080single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3081Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3082
3083GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3084the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3085You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3086lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3087for the list of formats.
3088
3089 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3090
3091Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3092C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3093directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3094can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3095usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3096about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3097this problem.)
3098
3099 * New 'maintenance' command
3100
3101All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3102the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3103can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3104
3105 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3106 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3107 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3108 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3109 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3110 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3111
3112The following commands are new:
3113
3114 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3115 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3116 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3117
3118 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3119
3120We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3121(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3122be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3123read after argv processing.
3124
3125 * New hosts supported
3126
3127Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3128
55241689 3129GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
3130
3131We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3132is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3133for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3134masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3135fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3136It costs extra.
3137
3138 * New targets supported
3139
3140Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3141
3142 * More smarts about finding #include files
3143
3144GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3145all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3146greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3147especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3148the one that contains your sources.
3149
3150We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3151breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3152try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3153
3154 * Interesting infernals change
3155
3156GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3157section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3158target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3159stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3160
3161 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3162
3163There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3164 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3165 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3166
3167See the ChangeLog for details.
3168
3169*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3170
3171 * New machines supported (host and target)
3172
3173IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3174
3175SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3176
3177 * New malloc package
3178
3179GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3180Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3181capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3182This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3183pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3184more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3185
3186 * info proc
3187
3188The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3189'help info proc' for details.
3190
3191 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3192
3193The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3194Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3195possible.
3196
3197 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3198
3199Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3200support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3201conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3202environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3203that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3204in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3205
3206 * Cross byte order fixes
3207
3208Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3209targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3210
3211 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3212
3213If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3214system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3215`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3216program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3217called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3218Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3219and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3220the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3221option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3222starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3223
3224You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3225the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3226information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3227slower, but makes future operations faster.
3228
3229The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3230build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3231A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3232use is:
3233
3234 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3235
3236The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3237It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3238shared across multiple host platforms.
3239
3240 * longjmp() handling
3241
3242GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3243siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3244all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3245platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3246
3247 * Solaris 2.0
3248
3249Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3250this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3251reading symbols.
3252
3253 * Bug fixes
3254
3255As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3256People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3257crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3258
3259*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3260
3261 * New machines supported (host and target)
3262
3263SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3264 (except core files)
3265BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3266Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3267
3268 * New machines supported (target)
3269
3270AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3271
3272 * C++ support
3273
3274GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3275The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3276per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3277
3278GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3279`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3280extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3281good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3282will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3283released.
3284
3285 * New features for SVR4
3286
3287GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3288shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3289only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3290
3291The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3292on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3293it prints the address mappings of the process.
3294
3295If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3296bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3297
3298 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3299
3300Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3301now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3302skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3303make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3304same code linked statically.
3305
3306 * New Getopt
3307
3308GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3309version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3310continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3311Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3312added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3313future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3314
3315 * Bugs fixed
3316
3317The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3318Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3319See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3320
3321
3322*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3323
3324 * New machines supported (host and target)
3325
3326Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3327NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3328Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3329
3330 * Almost SCO Unix support
3331
3332We had hoped to support:
3333SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3334(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3335that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3336about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3337
3338 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3339
3340GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3341debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3342is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3343send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3344reqired (if any).
3345
3346 * New Readline
3347
3348GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3349is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3350required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3351
3352 * Bugs fixed
3353
3354The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3355Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3356See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3357
3358 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3359
3360GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3361supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3362symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3363
3364Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3365mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3366debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3367mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3368version 2.
3369
3370Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3371really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3372line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3373variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3374situation somewhat.
3375
3376When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3377However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3378methods.
3379
3380We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3381DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3382encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3383
3384
3385*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3386
3387 * Improved configuration
3388
3389Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3390Porting BFD is simpler.
3391
3392 * Stepping improved
3393
3394The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3395of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3396in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3397function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3398
3399 * Bug fixing
3400
3401Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3402
3403 * New host supported (not target)
3404
3405Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3406
3407
3408*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3409
3410 * Multiple source language support
3411
3412GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3413It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3414and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3415language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3416You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3417`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3418
3419 * GDB and Modula-2
3420
3421GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3422currently under development at the State University of New York at
3423Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3424continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3425
3426Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3427debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3428symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3429
3430There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3431in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3432
3433 * set write on/off
3434
3435GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3436a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3437the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3438by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3439effect immediately.
3440
3441 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3442
3443When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3444shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3445The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3446examining core files.
3447
3448 * set listsize
3449
3450You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3451The default is 10.
3452
3453 * New machines supported (host and target)
3454
3455SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3456Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3457Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3458
3459 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3460
3461IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3462
3463 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3464
3465AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3466AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3467Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3468
3469 * New remote interfaces
3470
3471AMD 29000 Adapt
3472AMD 29000 Minimon
3473
3474
3475*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3476
3477 * New Facilities
3478
3479Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3480
3481Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3482target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3483is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3484remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3485remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3486also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3487using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3488stub on the target system.
3489
3490New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3491
3492GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3493library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3494object file types such as a.out and coff.
3495
3496There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3497refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3498
3499
3500 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3501
3502All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3503by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3504
3505For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3506``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3507Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3508
3509What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3510print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3511will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3512all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3513
3514confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3515 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3516 it is already running. Default is ON.
3517
3518editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3519 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3520 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3521 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3522 Default is ON.
3523
3524history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3525 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3526 or the value of the environment variable
3527 GDBHISTFILE.
3528
3529history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3530 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3531 HISTSIZE.
3532
3533history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3534 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3535 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3536
3537history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3538 history expansion will be performed on
3539 command line input. The default is OFF.
3540
3541radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3542 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3543 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3544
3545height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3546 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3547 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3548 variable TERM.
3549
3550width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3551 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3552 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3553 variable TERM.
3554
3555Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3556``set width'' instead.
3557
3558print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3559 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3560 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3561 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3562
3563print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3564 is OFF.
3565
3566print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3567 "raw" form if off.
3568
3569print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3570 like instructions.
3571
3572print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3573
3574
3575 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3576
3577The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3578new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3579are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3580window.
3581
3582
3583 * Support for Shared Libraries
3584
3585GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3586Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3587before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3588happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3589At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3590from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3591shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3592It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3593
3594sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3595 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3596 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3597
3598info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3599
3600
3601 * Watchpoints
3602
3603A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3604expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3605tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3606quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3607problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3608more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3609
3610watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3611
3612info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3613
3614delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3615disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3616enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3617
3618
3619 * C++ multiple inheritance
3620
3621When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3622for C++ programs.
3623
3624 * C++ exception handling
3625
3626Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3627ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3628the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3629handler's context).
3630
3631catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3632 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3633 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3634
3635info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3636 current stack frame.
3637
3638
3639 * Minor command changes
3640
3641The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3642command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3643is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3644
3645The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3646at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3647frames without printing.
3648
3649 * New directory command
3650
3651'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3652The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3653about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3654with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3655find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3656
3657 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3658
3659For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3660for more details.
3661
3662GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3663two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3664Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3665where the program that you are debugging will run.
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