1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB-4.18:
8 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
9 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
10 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
14 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
15 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
16 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
17 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
19 * OBSOLETE configurations
21 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
26 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
28 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
29 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
30 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
31 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
33 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
34 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
36 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
38 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
39 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
40 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
42 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
43 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
45 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
47 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
48 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
49 include ``set remote P-packet''.
51 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
53 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
54 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
55 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
57 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
59 * New native configurations
61 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
62 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
63 M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
67 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
68 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
69 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
71 * OBSOLETE configurations
73 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
75 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
76 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
77 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
78 be permanently REMOVED.
82 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
83 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
84 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
85 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
86 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
87 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
88 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
93 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
95 * set extension-language
97 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
98 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
99 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
100 set extension-language .c c++
101 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
102 and their associated languages.
104 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
106 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
107 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
108 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
112 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
113 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
115 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
116 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
118 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
119 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
120 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
121 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
122 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
123 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
124 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
125 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
127 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
128 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
129 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
130 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
134 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
135 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
136 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
137 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
138 for xdb and dbx commands.
142 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
143 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
144 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
146 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
147 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
148 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
150 * Debugging across forks
152 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
157 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
158 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
159 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
161 * GDB remote protocol additions
163 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
164 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
165 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
166 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
168 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
169 full 64-bit address. The command
171 set remoteaddresssize 32
173 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
174 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
177 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
178 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
180 maint packet heythere
182 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
183 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
186 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
187 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
188 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
190 * Tracing can collect general expressions
192 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
193 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
194 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
196 * mask-address variable for Mips
198 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
199 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
200 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
202 * Higher serial baud rates
204 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
205 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
206 to achieve all of these rates.)
210 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
211 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
214 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
216 * New native configurations
218 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
219 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
220 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
221 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
222 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
223 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
224 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
228 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
229 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
230 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
231 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
232 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
233 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
234 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
235 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
236 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
237 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
238 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
240 * New debugging protocols
242 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
243 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
244 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
245 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
246 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
247 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
251 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
252 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
257 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
258 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
260 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
262 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
263 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
264 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
266 * Live range splitting
268 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
269 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
270 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
274 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
275 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
279 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
280 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
281 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
286 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
291 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
292 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
293 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
294 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
295 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
296 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
300 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
301 the symbol at the specified address.
305 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
306 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
307 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
308 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
309 file tracepoint.c for more details.
313 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
314 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
315 of most MIPS variants.
319 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
320 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
321 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
325 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
326 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
327 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
328 the possible architectures.
330 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
332 * New native configurations
334 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
335 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
336 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
337 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
338 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
339 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
343 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
344 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
345 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
346 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
347 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
349 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
353 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
354 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
355 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
356 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
357 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
361 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
363 * Windows 95/NT native
365 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
366 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
367 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
368 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
369 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
371 * dont-repeat command
373 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
374 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
375 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
376 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
378 * Send break instead of ^C
380 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
381 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
382 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
384 * Remote protocol timeout
386 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
387 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
388 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
390 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
392 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
393 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
394 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
395 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
396 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
398 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
399 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
400 automatically on hpux10.
402 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
404 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
406 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
408 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
409 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
410 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
411 every character. The default value is 1050.
413 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
415 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
416 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
417 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
418 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
419 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
420 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
422 * Speedups for remote debugging
424 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
425 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
426 and more efficient S-record downloading.
428 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
430 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
431 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
433 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
437 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
438 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
440 * Remote targets use caching
442 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
443 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
444 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
445 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
446 off' turns the the data cache off.
448 * Remote targets may have threads
450 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
451 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
452 gdb/remote.c for details.
456 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
457 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
458 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
459 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
460 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
461 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
462 sequence is something like
464 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
466 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
470 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
471 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
472 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
473 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
474 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
475 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
476 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
477 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
481 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
482 but does simplify configuration and building.
486 GDB now supports hpux10.
488 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
490 * New native configurations
492 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
493 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
494 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
495 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
499 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
500 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
501 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
502 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
505 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
507 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
508 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
509 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
510 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
511 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
513 * Arguments to user-defined commands
515 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
516 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
519 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
521 To execute the command use:
524 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
525 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
526 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
528 * New `if' and `while' commands
530 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
531 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
532 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
533 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
534 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
535 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
536 if the expression is zero.
538 * Fortran source language mode
540 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
541 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
542 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
543 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
546 * Better HPUX support
548 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
549 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
550 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
551 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
552 that behavior do the following before running the program:
558 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
559 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
565 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
566 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
569 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
570 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
572 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
574 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
575 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
576 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
577 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
578 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
579 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
581 * New DOS host serial code
583 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
584 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
587 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
589 * New "complete" command
591 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
592 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
594 * Trailing space optional in prompt
596 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
597 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
599 * Breakpoint hit counts
601 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
602 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
603 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
604 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
605 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
608 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
610 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
611 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
612 arrays actually contain only short strings.
614 * Shared library breakpoints
616 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
617 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
619 * Hardware watchpoints
621 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
622 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
624 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
628 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
629 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
631 * Improved Irix 5 support
633 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
635 * Improved HPPA support
637 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
639 * New native configurations
641 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
642 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
643 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
644 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
648 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
649 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
652 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
654 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
655 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
659 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
660 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
662 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
664 * Irix 5 is now supported
668 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
669 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
670 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
671 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
672 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
675 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
677 * User visible changes:
681 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
682 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
683 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
684 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
685 debugging info for the mips target).
687 * DEC Alpha native support
689 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
690 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
691 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
692 Alpha-specific notes.
694 * Preliminary thread implementation
696 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
698 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
700 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
701 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
704 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
706 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
707 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
708 call methods, ...etc.
710 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
712 * User visible changes:
714 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
715 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
716 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
717 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
719 Filename completion now works.
721 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
722 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
723 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
725 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
726 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
727 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
728 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
729 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
733 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
734 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
737 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
741 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
742 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
743 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
747 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
748 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
749 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
750 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
751 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
755 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
756 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
757 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
759 * New targets supported
761 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
762 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
763 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
764 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
765 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
767 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
768 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
769 GO32 memory extender.
771 * New remote protocols
773 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
775 * New source languages supported
777 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
778 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
779 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
782 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
784 * HP Precision Architecture supported
786 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
787 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
788 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
789 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
790 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
791 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
793 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
795 * Faster and better demangling
797 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
798 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
799 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
800 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
801 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
802 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
805 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
806 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
807 compiler does not actually implement.
809 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
811 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
812 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
813 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
814 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
815 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
816 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
819 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
820 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
822 * Improved configure script
824 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
825 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
826 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
827 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
829 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
830 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
831 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
832 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
833 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
834 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
836 * Documentation improvements
838 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
839 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
840 before submitting changes.
842 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
843 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
844 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
845 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
846 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
848 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
849 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
850 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
851 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
852 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
857 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
858 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
859 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
862 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
863 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
865 * New native hosts supported
867 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
868 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
870 * New targets supported
872 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
874 * New file formats supported
876 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
877 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
881 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
883 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
884 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
886 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
887 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
888 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
890 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
891 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
893 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
894 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
895 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
898 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
899 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
900 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
901 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
902 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
904 * Internal improvements
906 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
907 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
909 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
910 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
911 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
912 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
913 shared code that handles any of them.
915 * New command line options
917 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
921 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
922 General Public License.
924 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
926 * Host/native/target split
928 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
929 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
930 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
931 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
932 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
934 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
935 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
936 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
937 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
938 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
939 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
940 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
942 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
943 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
944 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
946 * New hosts supported
948 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
949 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
950 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
952 * New targets supported
954 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
955 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
957 * New native hosts supported
959 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
960 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
961 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
963 * New file formats supported
965 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
966 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
967 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
971 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
972 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
973 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
975 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
977 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
978 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
979 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
980 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
984 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
985 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
986 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
988 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
992 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
993 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
996 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
997 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
999 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1000 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1001 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1002 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1003 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1004 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1006 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1007 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1008 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1009 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1013 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1014 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1015 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1016 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1017 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1019 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1020 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1021 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1022 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1026 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1027 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1028 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1029 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1030 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1031 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1032 each instruction being stepped through.
1034 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1035 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1037 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1038 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1039 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1040 processor with a serial port.
1044 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1045 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1046 supported, and what files each one uses.
1050 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1051 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1052 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1053 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1055 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1056 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1057 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1058 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1062 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1063 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1064 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1065 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1066 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1067 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1069 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1072 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1074 * Better support for C++ function names
1076 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1077 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1078 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1079 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1080 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1082 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1083 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1084 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1085 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1086 for the list of formats.
1088 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1090 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1091 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1092 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1093 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1094 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1095 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1098 * New 'maintenance' command
1100 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1101 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1102 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1104 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1105 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1106 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1107 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1108 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1109 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1111 The following commands are new:
1113 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1114 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1115 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1117 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1119 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1120 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1121 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1122 read after argv processing.
1124 * New hosts supported
1126 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1128 Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1130 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1131 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1132 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1133 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1134 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1137 * New targets supported
1139 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1141 * More smarts about finding #include files
1143 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1144 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1145 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1146 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1147 the one that contains your sources.
1149 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1150 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1151 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1153 * Interesting infernals change
1155 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1156 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1157 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1158 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1160 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1162 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1163 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1164 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1166 See the ChangeLog for details.
1168 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1170 * New machines supported (host and target)
1172 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1174 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1176 * New malloc package
1178 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1179 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1180 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1181 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1182 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1183 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1187 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1188 'help info proc' for details.
1190 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1192 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1193 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1196 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1198 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1199 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1200 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1201 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1202 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1203 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1205 * Cross byte order fixes
1207 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1208 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1210 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1212 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1213 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1214 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1215 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1216 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1217 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1218 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1219 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1220 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1221 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1223 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1224 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1225 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1226 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1228 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1229 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1230 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1233 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1235 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1236 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1237 shared across multiple host platforms.
1239 * longjmp() handling
1241 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1242 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1243 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1244 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1248 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1249 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1254 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1255 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1256 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1258 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1260 * New machines supported (host and target)
1262 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1264 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1265 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1267 * New machines supported (target)
1269 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1273 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1274 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1275 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1277 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1278 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1279 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1280 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1281 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1284 * New features for SVR4
1286 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1287 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1288 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1290 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1291 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1292 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1294 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1295 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1297 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1299 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1300 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1301 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1302 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1303 same code linked statically.
1307 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1308 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1309 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1310 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1311 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1312 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1316 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1317 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1318 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1321 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1323 * New machines supported (host and target)
1325 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1326 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1327 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1329 * Almost SCO Unix support
1331 We had hoped to support:
1332 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1333 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1334 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1335 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1337 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1339 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1340 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1341 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1342 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1347 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1348 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1349 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1353 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1354 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1355 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1357 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1359 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1360 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1361 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1363 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1364 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1365 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1366 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1369 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1370 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1371 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1372 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1375 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1376 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1379 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1380 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1381 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1384 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1386 * Improved configuration
1388 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1389 Porting BFD is simpler.
1393 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1394 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1395 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1396 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1400 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1402 * New host supported (not target)
1404 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1407 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1409 * Multiple source language support
1411 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1412 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1413 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1414 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1415 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1416 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1420 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1421 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1422 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1423 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1425 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1426 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1427 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1429 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1430 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1434 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1435 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1436 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1437 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1440 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1442 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1443 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1444 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1445 examining core files.
1449 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1452 * New machines supported (host and target)
1454 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1455 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1456 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1458 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1460 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1462 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1464 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1465 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1466 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1468 * New remote interfaces
1474 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1478 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1480 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1481 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1482 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1483 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1484 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1485 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1486 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1487 stub on the target system.
1489 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1491 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1492 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1493 object file types such as a.out and coff.
1495 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1496 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1499 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1501 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1502 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1504 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1505 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1506 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1508 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1509 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1510 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1511 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1513 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1514 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1515 it is already running. Default is ON.
1517 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1518 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1519 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1520 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1523 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1524 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1525 or the value of the environment variable
1528 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1529 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1532 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1533 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1534 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1536 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1537 history expansion will be performed on
1538 command line input. The default is OFF.
1540 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1541 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1542 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1544 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1545 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1546 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1549 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1550 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1551 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1554 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1555 ``set width'' instead.
1557 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1558 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1559 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1560 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1562 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1565 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1568 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1571 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1574 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1576 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1577 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1578 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1582 * Support for Shared Libraries
1584 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1585 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1586 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1587 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1588 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1589 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1590 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1591 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1593 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1594 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1595 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1597 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1602 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1603 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1604 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1605 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1606 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1607 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1609 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1611 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1613 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1614 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1615 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1618 * C++ multiple inheritance
1620 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1623 * C++ exception handling
1625 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1626 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1627 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1630 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1631 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1632 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1634 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1635 current stack frame.
1638 * Minor command changes
1640 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1641 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1642 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1644 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1645 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1646 frames without printing.
1648 * New directory command
1650 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1651 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1652 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1653 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1654 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1656 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1658 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1661 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1662 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1663 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1664 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob