* sparc-tdep.c: Fix typo in comment.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.1:
5
6*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 7
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8* Removed --with-mmalloc
9
10Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
11conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
12
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13* Changes in AMD64 configurations
14
15The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
16the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
17and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
18you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
19
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20* Revised SPARC target
21
22The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
23FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
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24support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
25from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
26(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 27
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28* New C++ demangler
29
30GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
31names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
32with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
33programs.
34
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35* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
36
37GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
38arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
39encountered these.
40
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41* New native configurations
42
43NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
2031c21a 44OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
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45OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
46OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 47
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48* New debugging protocols
49
50M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
51
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52* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
53
54The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
55and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
56tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
57
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58* OBSOLETE configurations and files
59
60Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
61been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
62configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
63permanently REMOVED.
64
65Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
66Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
67Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
68Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
69Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
70AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
71Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
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72decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
73riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
74sonymips mips-sony-*
75sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 76
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77* REMOVED configurations and files
78
79SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
80SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
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81Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
82Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
83H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
84HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
85HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
86HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
87PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 88386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
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89Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
90 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
91 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
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92SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
93SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
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94Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
95Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 96
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97*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
98
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99* Objective-C
100
101Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
102integrated into GDB.
103
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104* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
105
106DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
107information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
108By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
109backtraces.
110
111The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
112have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
113DWARF 2 CFI support.
114
115* Hosted file I/O.
116
117GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
118file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
119remote protocol documentation for details.
120
121* All targets using the new architecture framework.
122
123All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
124architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
125to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
126ppc32 on ppc64).
127
128* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
129
130GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
131per-thread variables.
132
133* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
134
135GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
136GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
137
138* Separate debug info.
139
140GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
141automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
142of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
143system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
144and optional debug files.
145
146* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
147
148DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
149describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
150debugger.
151
152GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
153for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
154
155* Java
156
157A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
158Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
159considered "useable".
160
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161* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
162
163The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
164commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
165kernel.
166
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167* GDB supports logging output to a file
168
169There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
170used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 171
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172* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
173
174The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
175disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
176command.
177
e286caf2 178* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
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179
180The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
181registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
182
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183* Profiling support
184
185A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
186be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
187session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
188"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
189data, for more informative profiling results.
190
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191* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
192
193The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
194option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 195"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
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196
197Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
198removed.
199
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200Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
201Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
202Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
203 in a subsequent -var-update.
204
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205* New native configurations.
206
207FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
208
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209* Multi-arched targets.
210
b4263afa 211HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 212Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 213
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214* OBSOLETE configurations and files
215
216Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
217been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
218configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
219permanently REMOVED.
220
8b0e5691 221Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 222Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 223H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
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224HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
225HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
226HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 227PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
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228Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
229 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
230 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
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231Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
232Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 233
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234* REMOVED configurations and files
235
236V850EA ISA
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237Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
238IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
239i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
240i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
241i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
242HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
243 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
244 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
245Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
246Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
247Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
248OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
249I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 250
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251* MIPS $fp behavior changed
252
253The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
254the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
255context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
256address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
257The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
258
299ffc64 259*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 260
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261* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
262
263When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
264`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
265in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
266library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
267shared libs like mad''.
268
b9d14705 269* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 270
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271Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
272the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
273arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
274powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 275
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276* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
277
278GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
279and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
280they expand.
281
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282The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
283invocations in expression, and shows the result.
284
285The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
286macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
287
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288Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
289information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
290your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
291information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
292
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293* Multi-arched targets.
294
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295DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
296DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 297NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 298National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
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299Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
300Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 301
cd9bfe15 302* New targets.
e33ce519 303
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304Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
305
e33ce519 306
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307* New native configurations
308
309Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 310SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 311MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 312UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 313
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314* OBSOLETE configurations and files
315
316Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
317been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
318configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
319permanently REMOVED.
320
92eb23c5 321Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 322OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 323IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 324Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 325Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 326Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
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327i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
328i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
329i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
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330HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
331 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
332 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 333I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 334
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335* OBSOLETE languages
336
337CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
338
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339* REMOVED configurations and files
340
341AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
342A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
343AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
344AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
345AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
346
347testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
348
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349* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
350
351This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
352commands. The default is 1024.
353
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354* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
355
356Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
357
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358* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
359
360These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
361to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
362from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 363
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364* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
365
366The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
367including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
368of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
369
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370*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
371
372* New targets.
373
374Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
375
376* Bug fixes
377
378gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
379mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
380Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
381
382gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
383dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
384Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
385
386Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
387Surprisingly enough, it works now.
388By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
389
390i386 hardware watchpoint support:
391avoid misses on second run for some targets.
392By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
393
37057839 394*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 395
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396* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
397
398This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
399really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
400In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
401target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
402This can be a significant performance improvement on some
403(notably embedded) targets.
404
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405* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
406
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407This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
408process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
409GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
410hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 411
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412* New command line option
413
414GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
415
416* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
417
418There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
419command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
420a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
421be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
422open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
423issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
424a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
425it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
426GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
427is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
428
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429* Changes in ARM configurations.
430
431Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
432configuration is fully multi-arch.
433
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434* New native configurations
435
fe419ffc 436ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 437x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 438AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 439Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 440
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441* New targets
442
443Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
444
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445* OBSOLETE configurations and files
446
447Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
448been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
449configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
450permanently REMOVED.
451
452AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
453A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
454AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
455AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
456AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
457
b4ceaee6 458testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 459
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460* REMOVED configurations and files
461
462TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 463WDC 65816 w65-*-*
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464PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
465PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
466PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 467Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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468Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
469 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 470SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 471Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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472Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
473ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 474Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 475
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476* Changes to command line processing
477
478The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
479for the inferior from gdb's command line.
480
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481* Changes to key bindings
482
483There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
484
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485*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
486
487Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
488
489Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
490corrupted.
491
492Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
493
494Numerous documentation fixes.
495
496Numerous testsuite fixes.
497
34f47bc4 498*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
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499
500* New native configurations
501
502Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
503x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 504MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
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505MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
506ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 507s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 508
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509* New targets
510
def90278 511Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 512CRIS cris-axis
55241689 513UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 514
17e78a56 515* OBSOLETE configurations and files
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516
517x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 518Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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519Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
520 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
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521TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
522WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 523Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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524PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
525PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
526PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 527SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
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528Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
529ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 530Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 531
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532stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
533kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
534
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535Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
536been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
537configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
538permanently REMOVED.
539
a196c81c 540* REMOVED configurations and files
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541
542Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
543Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
544Pyramid pyramid-*-*
545ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
546Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 547ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 548
6d6b80e5 549* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 550
6d6b80e5 551GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
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552sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
553present.
554
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555* Other news:
556
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557* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
558
559* The MI enabled by default.
560
561The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
562revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
563engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
564using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
565which is now deprecated.
566
567* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
568
569GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
570main features are supported:
571
572 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
573
574 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
575 extension;
576
577 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
578
579 - a Pascal expression parser.
580
581However, some important features are not yet supported.
582
583 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
584
585 - there are some problems with boolean types;
586
587 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
588 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
589
590 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
591
592 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
593
594* Changes in completion.
595
596Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
597to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
598users expect at the shell prompt.
599
600Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
601`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
602program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
603files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
604be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
605considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
606name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
607
608`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
609
610* New platform-independent commands:
611
612It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
613hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
614documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
615
616* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
617
d7275149
MK
618Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
619revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
620many threads as your system allows you to have.
621
e23194cb
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622Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
623
d7275149
MK
624Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
625multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
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626
627* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
628
629Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
630
e23194cb
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631GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
632debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
633supported.)
634
635* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
636
637Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
638breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
639implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
640put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
641and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
642registers.
643
644The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
645debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
646watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
647
648* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
649
650New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
651the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
652
653New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
654display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
655IDT.
656
657New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
658from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
659New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
660a given linear address.
661
662GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
663program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
664which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
665
666DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
667
6c56c069
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668It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
669
e23194cb
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670* Changes in documentation.
671
672All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
673Documentation License.
674
675Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
676manual.
677
678TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
679
680Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
681manual.
682
683The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
684documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
685hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
686
5d6640b1
AC
687* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
688
689The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
690``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
691contents of this file.
692
1a1d8446
AC
693* gdba.el deleted
694
695GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 696
9debab2f 697*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 698
c63ce875
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699* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
700
701Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
702programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
703displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
704greater level of detail.
705
706* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
707
708It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
709bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
710on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
711written.
712
713* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
714
715The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
716necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
717machines ``out of the box''.
718
719The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
720possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
721signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
722would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
723interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
724
725It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
726standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
727even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
728and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
729terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
730
731The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
732enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
733also works.
734
735DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
736GDB.
737
738It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
739directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
740times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
741breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
742
ed9a39eb
JM
743* New native configurations
744
745ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 746PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 747
7a292a7a
SS
748* New targets
749
96baa820 750Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
751x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
752PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
753TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
754
085dd6e6
JM
755* OBSOLETE configurations
756
757Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
758Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 759Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 760ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 761Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 762
9debab2f
AC
763Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
764but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
765these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
766be permanently REMOVED.
767
5330533d
SS
768* Gould support removed
769
770Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
771
bc9e5bbf
AC
772* New features for SVR4
773
774On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
775without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
776load symbols from the running process's executable file.
777
778* Many C++ enhancements
779
780C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
781in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
782
adf40b2e
JM
783* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
784
785A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
786sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
787with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
788``|<program> <args>'' vis:
789
790 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
791 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
792
43e526b9
JM
793* MIPS 64 remote protocol
794
795A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
796expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
797instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
798
799The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
800added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
801
96baa820
JM
802* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
803
804The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
805``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
806include ``set remote P-packet''.
807
11cf8741
JM
808* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
809
810The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
811accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
812``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
813
7876dd43
DB
814* ``apropos'' command added.
815
816The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
817documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
818try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
819
bc9e5bbf
AC
820* New MI interface
821
822A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
823interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
824process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
825"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
826enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
827
828 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
829
c906108c
SS
830*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
831
832* New native configurations
833
834HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
835HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 836M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
837
838* New targets
839
840Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
841Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
842Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
843
844* OBSOLETE configurations
845
846Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
847
848Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
849but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
850these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
851be permanently REMOVED.
852
853* ANSI/ISO C
854
855As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
856buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
857containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
858use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
859available. If this is not true, please report the affected
860configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
861information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
862already.
863
864* Readline 2.2
865
866GDB now uses readline 2.2.
867
868* set extension-language
869
870You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
871languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
872you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
873 set extension-language .c c++
874The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
875and their associated languages.
876
877* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
878
879When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
880you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
881PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
882
883 set processor NAME
884
885sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
886following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
887
888 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
889 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
890 403 IBM PowerPC 403
891 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
892 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
893 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
894 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
895 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
896 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
897 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
898 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
899
900At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
901special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
902registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
903only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
904
905* HP-UX support
906
907Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
908more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
909library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
910support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
911for xdb and dbx commands.
912
913* Catchpoints
914
915HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
916generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
917to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
918
919This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
920argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
921output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
922
923* Debugging across forks
924
925On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
926in the inferior.
927
928* TUI
929
930HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
931it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
932configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
933
934* GDB remote protocol additions
935
936A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
937Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
938fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
939allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
940
941For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
942full 64-bit address. The command
943
944 set remoteaddresssize 32
945
946can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
947the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
948will be discarded.
949
950In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
951command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
952
953 maint packet heythere
954
955sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
956disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
957time.
958
959The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
960target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
961downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
962
963* Tracing can collect general expressions
964
965You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
966further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
967doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
968
969* mask-address variable for Mips
970
971For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
972a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
973of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
974
975* Higher serial baud rates
976
977GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
978230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
979to achieve all of these rates.)
980
981* i960 simulator
982
983The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
984builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
985
986
987*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
988
989* New native configurations
990
991Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
992Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
993Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
994PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
995PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
996Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
997Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
998
999* New targets
1000
1001Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1002Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1003Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1004Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1005MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1006MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1007MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1008Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1009Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1010Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1011NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1012
1013* New debugging protocols
1014
1015ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1016M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1017DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1018PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1019PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1020Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1021
1022* DWARF 2
1023
1024All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1025format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1026information.
1027
1028* Java frontend
1029
1030GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1031only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1032
1033* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1034
1035For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1036loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1037locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1038
1039* Live range splitting
1040
1041GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1042range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1043more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1044
1045* Hurd support
1046
1047GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1048updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1049
1050* ARM Thumb support
1051
1052GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1053instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1054instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1055accordingly.
1056
1057* MIPS16 support
1058
1059GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1060instruction set.
1061
1062* Overlay support
1063
1064GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1065linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1066will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1067control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1068additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1069in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1070
1071* info symbol
1072
1073The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1074the symbol at the specified address.
1075
1076* Trace support
1077
1078The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1079asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1080extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1081includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1082file tracepoint.c for more details.
1083
1084* MIPS simulator
1085
1086Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1087by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1088of most MIPS variants.
1089
1090* Sparc simulator
1091
1092Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1093by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1094Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1095
1096* set architecture
1097
1098For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1099basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1100architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1101the possible architectures.
1102
1103*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1104
1105* New native configurations
1106
1107Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1108M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1109PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1110PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1111PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1112RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1113
1114* New targets
1115
1116ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1117I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1118MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1119MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1120PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1121Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
1122Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1123
1124* PowerPC simulator
1125
1126The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1127contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1128PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1129basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1130performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1131
1132* Solaris 2.5
1133
1134GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1135
1136* Windows 95/NT native
1137
1138GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1139To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1140which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1141Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1142ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1143
1144* dont-repeat command
1145
1146If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1147command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1148useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1149extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1150
1151* Send break instead of ^C
1152
1153The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1154rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1155GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1156
1157* Remote protocol timeout
1158
1159The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1160that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1161to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1162
1163* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1164
1165By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1166loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1167stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1168when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1169in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1170
1171Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1172/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1173automatically on hpux10.
1174
1175* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1176
1177Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1178
1179* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1180
1181When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1182may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1183the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1184every character. The default value is 1050.
1185
1186* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1187
1188If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1189a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1190replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1191details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1192remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1193to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1194
1195* Speedups for remote debugging
1196
1197GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1198the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1199and more efficient S-record downloading.
1200
1201* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1202
1203GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1204Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1205
1206*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1207
1208* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1209
1210The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1211can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1212
1213* Remote targets use caching
1214
1215Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1216remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1217it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1218debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1219off' turns the the data cache off.
1220
1221* Remote targets may have threads
1222
1223The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1224in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1225gdb/remote.c for details.
1226
1227* NetROM support
1228
1229If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1230support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1231acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1232write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1233support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1234another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1235sequence is something like
1236
1237 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1238 load <prog>
1239 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1240
1241* Macintosh host
1242
1243GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1244may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1245it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1246available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1247device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1248directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1249scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1250mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1251
1252* Autoconf
1253
1254GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1255but does simplify configuration and building.
1256
1257* hpux10
1258
1259GDB now supports hpux10.
1260
1261*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1262
1263* New native configurations
1264
1265x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1266x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1267NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1268Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1269
1270* New targets
1271
1272A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1273HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1274CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1275PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1276WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1277
1278* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1279
1280GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1281possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1282filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1283the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1284if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1285
1286* Arguments to user-defined commands
1287
1288User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1289Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1290trivial example:
1291define adder
1292 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1293
1294To execute the command use:
1295adder 1 2 3
1296
1297Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1298Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1299use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1300
1301* New `if' and `while' commands
1302
1303This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1304commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1305expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1306execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1307terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1308`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1309if the expression is zero.
1310
1311* Fortran source language mode
1312
1313GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1314Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1315variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1316with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1317Fortran compilers.
1318
1319* Better HPUX support
1320
1321Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1322running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1323processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1324for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1325that behavior do the following before running the program:
1326
1327 adb -w a.out
1328 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1329 control-d
1330
1331This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1332To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1333
1334 adb -w a.out
1335 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1336 control-d
1337
1338You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1339the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1340external linkage.
1341
1342GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1343HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1344
1345* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1346
1347You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1348commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1349current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1350"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1351associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1352configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1353
1354* New DOS host serial code
1355
1356This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1357no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1358a PC's serial port.
1359
1360*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1361
1362* New "complete" command
1363
1364This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1365were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1366
1367* Trailing space optional in prompt
1368
1369"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1370allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1371
1372* Breakpoint hit counts
1373
1374"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1375has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1376can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1377to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1378less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1379that breakpoint.
1380
1381* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1382
1383"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1384an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1385arrays actually contain only short strings.
1386
1387* Shared library breakpoints
1388
1389In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1390breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1391
1392* Hardware watchpoints
1393
1394There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1395targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1396
55241689 1397Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1398
1399* Annotations
1400
1401Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1402and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1403
1404* Improved Irix 5 support
1405
1406GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1407
1408* Improved HPPA support
1409
1410GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1411
1412* New native configurations
1413
1414Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1415HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1416Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1417RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1418
1419* New targets
1420
1421OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1422MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1423Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1424
1425* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1426
1427There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1428This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1429
1430* Fixes
1431
1432As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1433and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1434
1435*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1436
1437* Irix 5 is now supported
1438
1439* HPPA support
1440
1441GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1442to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1443GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1444of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1445can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1446
1447
1448*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1449
1450* User visible changes:
1451
1452* Remote Debugging
1453
1454The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1455target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1456debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1457integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1458debugging info for the mips target).
1459
1460* DEC Alpha native support
1461
1462GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1463debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1464work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1465Alpha-specific notes.
1466
1467* Preliminary thread implementation
1468
1469GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1470
1471* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1472
1473This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1474to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1475for details).
1476
1477* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1478
1479This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1480mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1481call methods, ...etc.
1482
1483*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1484
1485 * User visible changes:
1486
1487Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1488supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1489other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1490somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1491
1492Filename completion now works.
1493
1494When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1495arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1496addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1497
1498All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1499vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1500should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1501your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1502to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1503
1504 * DEC alpha support
1505
1506This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1507cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1508
1509
1510*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1511
1512 * Testsuite
1513
1514This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1515The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1516via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1517
1518 * C++ demangling
1519
1520'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1521emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1522Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1523disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1524use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1525
1526 * Simulators
1527
1528GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1529So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1530Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1531
1532 * New targets supported
1533
1534H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1535H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1536SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1537Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1538IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1539
1540Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1541version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1542GO32 memory extender.
1543
1544 * New remote protocols
1545
1546MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1547
1548 * New source languages supported
1549
1550This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1551used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1552into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1553
1554
1555*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1556
1557 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1558
1559GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1560version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1561University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1562compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1563format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1564(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1565
1566Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1567
1568 * Faster and better demangling
1569
1570We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1571demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1572character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1573only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1574This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1575increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1576symbol lookups.
1577
1578`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1579from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1580compiler does not actually implement.
1581
1582 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1583
1584In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1585inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1586recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1587very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1588The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1589circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1590fix.
1591
1592The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1593release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1594
1595 * Improved configure script
1596
1597The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1598you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1599host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1600done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1601
1602We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1603version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1604`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1605The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1606only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1607We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1608
1609 * Documentation improvements
1610
1611There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1612produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1613before submitting changes.
1614
1615The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1616M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1617`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1618you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1619a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1620
1621*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1622We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1623been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1624or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1625`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1626around this problem.
1627
1628 * New features
1629
1630GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1631the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1632`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1633the target program.
1634
1635The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1636how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1637
1638 * New native hosts supported
1639
1640HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1641386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1642
1643 * New targets supported
1644
1645AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1646
1647 * New file formats supported
1648
1649BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1650HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1651
1652 * Major bug fixes
1653
1654Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1655
1656We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1657printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1658
1659We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1660for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1661release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1662
1663You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1664will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1665
1666We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1667for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1668especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1669libraries.
1670
1671The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1672information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1673command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1674any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1675when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1676
1677 * Internal improvements
1678
1679GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1680debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1681
1682GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1683Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1684symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1685contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1686shared code that handles any of them.
1687
1688 * New command line options
1689
1690We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1691
1692 * Mmalloc licensing
1693
1694The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1695General Public License.
1696
1697*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1698
1699 * Host/native/target split
1700
1701GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1702hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1703target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1704local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1705ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1706
1707The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1708GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1709is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1710code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1711any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1712built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1713handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1714
1715GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1716It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1717plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1718
1719 * New hosts supported
1720
1721HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1722386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1723386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1724
1725 * New targets supported
1726
1727Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
172868030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1729
1730 * New native hosts supported
1731
1732386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1733 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1734386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1735
1736 * New file formats supported
1737
1738BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1739supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1740format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1741
1742 * New commands
1743
1744`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1745`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1746These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1747
1748`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1749
1750You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1751scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1752prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1753executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1754
1755 * C++ improvements
1756
1757We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1758info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1759symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1760
1761Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1762
1763 * Major bug fixes
1764
1765The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1766fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1767by the compiler.
1768
1769We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1770support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1771
1772John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1773slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1774that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1775purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1776the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1777mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1778
1779Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1780about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1781completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1782we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1783
1784 * AMD 29k support
1785
1786A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1787specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1788calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1789usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1790in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1791
1792We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1793Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1794of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1795resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1796
1797 * Remote interfaces
1798
1799We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1800with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1801message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1802This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1803needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1804breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1805each instruction being stepped through.
1806
1807The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1808registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1809
1810There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1811find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1812Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1813processor with a serial port.
1814
1815 * Configuration
1816
1817Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1818`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1819supported, and what files each one uses.
1820
1821 * Library changes
1822
1823There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1824disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1825Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1826disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1827
1828The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1829Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1830can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1831grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1832
1833 * Documentation
1834
1835The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1836reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1837as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1838encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1839system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1840bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1841
1842And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1843
1844
1845*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1846
1847 * Better support for C++ function names
1848
1849GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1850names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1851(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1852single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1853Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1854
1855GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1856the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1857You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1858lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1859for the list of formats.
1860
1861 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1862
1863Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1864C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1865directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1866can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1867usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1868about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1869this problem.)
1870
1871 * New 'maintenance' command
1872
1873All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1874the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1875can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1876
1877 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1878 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1879 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1880 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1881 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1882 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1883
1884The following commands are new:
1885
1886 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1887 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1888 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1889
1890 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1891
1892We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1893(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1894be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1895read after argv processing.
1896
1897 * New hosts supported
1898
1899Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1900
55241689 1901GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
1902
1903We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1904is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1905for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1906masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1907fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1908It costs extra.
1909
1910 * New targets supported
1911
1912Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1913
1914 * More smarts about finding #include files
1915
1916GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1917all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1918greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1919especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1920the one that contains your sources.
1921
1922We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1923breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1924try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1925
1926 * Interesting infernals change
1927
1928GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1929section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1930target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1931stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1932
1933 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1934
1935There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1936 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1937 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1938
1939See the ChangeLog for details.
1940
1941*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1942
1943 * New machines supported (host and target)
1944
1945IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1946
1947SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1948
1949 * New malloc package
1950
1951GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1952Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1953capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1954This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1955pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1956more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1957
1958 * info proc
1959
1960The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1961'help info proc' for details.
1962
1963 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1964
1965The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1966Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1967possible.
1968
1969 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1970
1971Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1972support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1973conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1974environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1975that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1976in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1977
1978 * Cross byte order fixes
1979
1980Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1981targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1982
1983 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1984
1985If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1986system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1987`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1988program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1989called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1990Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1991and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1992the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1993option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1994starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1995
1996You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1997the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1998information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1999slower, but makes future operations faster.
2000
2001The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2002build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2003A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2004use is:
2005
2006 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2007
2008The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2009It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2010shared across multiple host platforms.
2011
2012 * longjmp() handling
2013
2014GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2015siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2016all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2017platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2018
2019 * Solaris 2.0
2020
2021Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2022this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2023reading symbols.
2024
2025 * Bug fixes
2026
2027As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2028People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2029crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2030
2031*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2032
2033 * New machines supported (host and target)
2034
2035SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2036 (except core files)
2037BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2038Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2039
2040 * New machines supported (target)
2041
2042AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2043
2044 * C++ support
2045
2046GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2047The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2048per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2049
2050GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2051`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2052extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2053good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2054will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2055released.
2056
2057 * New features for SVR4
2058
2059GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2060shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2061only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2062
2063The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2064on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2065it prints the address mappings of the process.
2066
2067If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2068bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2069
2070 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2071
2072Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2073now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2074skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2075make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2076same code linked statically.
2077
2078 * New Getopt
2079
2080GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2081version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2082continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2083Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2084added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2085future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2086
2087 * Bugs fixed
2088
2089The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2090Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2091See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2092
2093
2094*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2095
2096 * New machines supported (host and target)
2097
2098Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2099NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2100Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2101
2102 * Almost SCO Unix support
2103
2104We had hoped to support:
2105SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2106(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2107that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2108about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2109
2110 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2111
2112GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2113debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2114is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2115send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2116reqired (if any).
2117
2118 * New Readline
2119
2120GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2121is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2122required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2123
2124 * Bugs fixed
2125
2126The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2127Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2128See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2129
2130 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2131
2132GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2133supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2134symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2135
2136Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2137mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2138debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2139mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2140version 2.
2141
2142Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2143really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2144line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2145variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2146situation somewhat.
2147
2148When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2149However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2150methods.
2151
2152We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2153DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2154encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2155
2156
2157*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2158
2159 * Improved configuration
2160
2161Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2162Porting BFD is simpler.
2163
2164 * Stepping improved
2165
2166The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2167of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2168in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2169function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2170
2171 * Bug fixing
2172
2173Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2174
2175 * New host supported (not target)
2176
2177Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2178
2179
2180*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2181
2182 * Multiple source language support
2183
2184GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2185It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2186and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2187language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2188You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2189`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2190
2191 * GDB and Modula-2
2192
2193GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2194currently under development at the State University of New York at
2195Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2196continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2197
2198Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2199debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2200symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2201
2202There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2203in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2204
2205 * set write on/off
2206
2207GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2208a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2209the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2210by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2211effect immediately.
2212
2213 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2214
2215When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2216shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2217The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2218examining core files.
2219
2220 * set listsize
2221
2222You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2223The default is 10.
2224
2225 * New machines supported (host and target)
2226
2227SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2228Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2229Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2230
2231 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2232
2233IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2234
2235 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2236
2237AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2238AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2239Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2240
2241 * New remote interfaces
2242
2243AMD 29000 Adapt
2244AMD 29000 Minimon
2245
2246
2247*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2248
2249 * New Facilities
2250
2251Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2252
2253Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2254target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2255is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2256remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2257remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2258also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2259using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2260stub on the target system.
2261
2262New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2263
2264GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2265library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2266object file types such as a.out and coff.
2267
2268There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2269refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2270
2271
2272 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2273
2274All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2275by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2276
2277For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2278``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2279Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2280
2281What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2282print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2283will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2284all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2285
2286confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2287 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2288 it is already running. Default is ON.
2289
2290editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2291 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2292 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2293 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2294 Default is ON.
2295
2296history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2297 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2298 or the value of the environment variable
2299 GDBHISTFILE.
2300
2301history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2302 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2303 HISTSIZE.
2304
2305history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2306 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2307 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2308
2309history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2310 history expansion will be performed on
2311 command line input. The default is OFF.
2312
2313radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2314 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2315 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2316
2317height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2318 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2319 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2320 variable TERM.
2321
2322width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2323 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2324 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2325 variable TERM.
2326
2327Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2328``set width'' instead.
2329
2330print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2331 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2332 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2333 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2334
2335print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2336 is OFF.
2337
2338print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2339 "raw" form if off.
2340
2341print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2342 like instructions.
2343
2344print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2345
2346
2347 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2348
2349The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2350new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2351are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2352window.
2353
2354
2355 * Support for Shared Libraries
2356
2357GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2358Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2359before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2360happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2361At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2362from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2363shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2364It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2365
2366sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2367 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2368 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2369
2370info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2371
2372
2373 * Watchpoints
2374
2375A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2376expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2377tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2378quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2379problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2380more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2381
2382watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2383
2384info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2385
2386delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2387disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2388enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2389
2390
2391 * C++ multiple inheritance
2392
2393When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2394for C++ programs.
2395
2396 * C++ exception handling
2397
2398Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2399ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2400the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2401handler's context).
2402
2403catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2404 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2405 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2406
2407info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2408 current stack frame.
2409
2410
2411 * Minor command changes
2412
2413The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2414command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2415is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2416
2417The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2418at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2419frames without printing.
2420
2421 * New directory command
2422
2423'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2424The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2425about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2426with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2427find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2428
2429 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2430
2431For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2432for more details.
2433
2434GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2435two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2436Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2437where the program that you are debugging will run.
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