* c-valprint.c (c_val_print): Handle TYPE_CODE_BOOLEAN.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed since GDB-3.5?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes in GDB-???:
5
6 * User visible changes:
7
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8Filename completion now works.
9
10When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
11arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
12addresses in symbolic form.
13
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14All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
15vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
16should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
17your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
18to be on the far side of a thin network line.
19
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20*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
21
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22 * Testsuite
23
24This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
25The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
26via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
27
28 * C++ demangling
29
45364c8a 30'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
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31emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
32Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
33disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
34use gdb with AT&T cfront.
45364c8a 35
c787ca55 36 * Simulators
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37
38GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
39So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
40Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
41
42 * New targets supported
43
44H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
45H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
46SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
47Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
8b946797 48IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
8ae56378 49
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50Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
51version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
0a4a0f09 52GO32 memory extender.
cb46c402 53
0a4a0f09 54 * New remote protocols
cb46c402 55
0a4a0f09 56MIPS remote debugging protocol.
cb46c402 57
0a4a0f09 58 * New source languages supported
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60This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
61used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
62into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
cb46c402 63
cb46c402 64
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65*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
66
3421ec35 67 * HP Precision Architecture supported
c5cc95b1 68
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69GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
70version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
71University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
72compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6d0380ee 73format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3421ec35 74(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
c5cc95b1 75
3421ec35 76Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
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77
78 * Faster and better demangling
79
80We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
81demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
82character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
83only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
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84This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
85increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
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86symbol lookups.
87
88`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
89from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
90compiler does not actually implement.
91
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92 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
93
94In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
95inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
96recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
97very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
98The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
99circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
100fix.
101
102The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
103release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
104
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105 * Improved configure script
106
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107The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
108you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
109host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
110done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
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111
112We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
113version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
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114`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
115The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
116only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
117We hope to make this the default in a future release.
118
119 * Documentation improvements
120
121There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
122produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
123before submitting changes.
124
125The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
126M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
127`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
128you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
129a future texinfo-X.Y release.
130
131*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
132We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
133been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
134or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
135`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
136around this problem.
c5cc95b1 137
3421ec35 138 * New features
c5cc95b1 139
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140GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
141the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
142`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
143the target program.
c5cc95b1 144
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145The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
146how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
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147
148 * New native hosts supported
149
150HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
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151386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
152
153 * New targets supported
154
155AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
156
157 * New file formats supported
158
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159BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
160HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
161
162 * Major bug fixes
163
164Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
165
166We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
167printf_filtered("%s") problems.
168
169We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
170for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
171release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
172
173You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
174will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
175
176We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
177for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
178especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
179libraries.
c5cc95b1 180
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181The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
182information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
183command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
184any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
185when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
186
187 * Internal improvements
188
189GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
190debugging of multiple languages in the future.
191
192GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
193Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
194symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
195contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
196shared code that handles any of them.
197
198 * New command line options
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199
200We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
201
3421ec35 202 * Mmalloc licensing
c5cc95b1 203
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204The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
205General Public License.
c5cc95b1 206
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207*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
208
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209 * Host/native/target split
210
211GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
212hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
213target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
214local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
215ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
216
217The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
218GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
219is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
220code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
221any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
222built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
223handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
224
225GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
226It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
227plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
228
229 * New hosts supported
230
231HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
232386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
233386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
234
235 * New targets supported
76ba9b5b 236
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237Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
23868030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5f5be54c 239
c00d8242 240 * New native hosts supported
5f5be54c 241
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242386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
243 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
244386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5f5be54c 245
c00d8242 246 * New file formats supported
5f5be54c 247
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248BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
249supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
250format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5f5be54c 251
c00d8242 252 * New commands
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254`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
255`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
256These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
5f5be54c 257
c00d8242 258`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
5f5be54c 259
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260You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
261scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
262prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
263executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
264
265 * C++ improvements
266
267We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
268info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
269symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
270
271Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
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272
273 * Major bug fixes
274
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275The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
276fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
277by the compiler.
5f5be54c 278
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279We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
280support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
281
282John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
283slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
284that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
285purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
286the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
287mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
288
289Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
290about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
291completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
292we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
293
294 * AMD 29k support
5f5be54c 295
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296A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
297specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
298calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
299usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
300in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
301
302We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
303Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
304of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
305resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
306
307 * Remote interfaces
308
309We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
310with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
311message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
312This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
313needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
314breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
315each instruction being stepped through.
316
317The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
318registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
319
320There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
321find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
322Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
323processor with a serial port.
324
325 * Configuration
326
327Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
328`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
329supported, and what files each one uses.
330
331 * Library changes
332
333There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
334disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
335Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
336disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
337
338The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
339Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
340can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
341grants all the rights from the General Public License.
342
343 * Documentation
344
345The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
346reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
347as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
348encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
349system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
350bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
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351
352And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
76ba9b5b 353
c00d8242 354
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355*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
356
357 * Better support for C++ function names
358
359GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
360names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
361(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
362single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
363Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
364
365GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
366the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
367You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
368lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
369for the list of formats.
370
371 * G++ symbol mangling problem
372
373Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
374C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
375directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
376can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
377usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
378about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
379this problem.)
380
381 * New 'maintenance' command
382
383All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
384the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
385can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
386
387 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
388 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
389 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
390 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
391 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
392 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
393
394The following commands are new:
395
396 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
397 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
398 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
399
400 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
401
402We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
403(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
404be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
405read after argv processing.
406
407 * New hosts supported
408
409Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
410
411Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
412
413We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
414is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
415for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
416masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
417fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
418It costs extra.
419
420 * New targets supported
421
422Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
423
424 * More smarts about finding #include files
425
426GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
427all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
428greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
429especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
430the one that contains your sources.
431
432We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
433breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
434try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
435
436 * Interesting infernals change
437
438GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
439section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
440target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
441stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
442
443 * Bug fixes (of course!)
444
445There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
446 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
447 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
448
449See the ChangeLog for details.
450
451*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
452
453 * New machines supported (host and target)
454
455IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
456
457SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
458
459 * New malloc package
460
461GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
462Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
463capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
464This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
465pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
466more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
467
468 * info proc
469
470The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
471'help info proc' for details.
472
473 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
474
475The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
476Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
477possible.
478
479 * File name changes for MS-DOS
480
481Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
482support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
483conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
484environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
485that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
486in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
487
488 * Cross byte order fixes
489
490Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
491targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
492
493 * New -mapped and -readnow options
494
495If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
496system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
497`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
498program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
499called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
500Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
501and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
502the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
503option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
504starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
505
506You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
507the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
508information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
509slower, but makes future operations faster.
510
511The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
512build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
513A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
514use is:
515
516 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
517
518The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
519It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
520shared across multiple host platforms.
521
522 * longjmp() handling
523
524GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
525siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
526all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
527platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
528
529 * Solaris 2.0
530
531Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
532this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
533reading symbols.
534
535 * Bug fixes
536
537As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
538People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
539crashes and trashed symbol tables.
540
541*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
542
543 * New machines supported (host and target)
544
545SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
546 (except core files)
547BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
548Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
549
550 * New machines supported (target)
551
552AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
553
554 * C++ support
555
556GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
557The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
558per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
559
560GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
561`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
562extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
563good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
564will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
565released.
566
567 * New features for SVR4
568
569GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
570shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
571only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
572
573The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
574on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
575it prints the address mappings of the process.
576
577If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
578bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
579
580 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
581
582Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
583now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
584skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
585make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
586same code linked statically.
587
588 * New Getopt
589
590GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
591version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
592continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
593Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
594added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
595future by other options that begin with the same letter.
596
597 * Bugs fixed
598
599The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
600Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
601See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
602
603
604*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
605
606 * New machines supported (host and target)
607
608Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
609NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
610Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
611
612 * Almost SCO Unix support
613
614We had hoped to support:
615SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
616(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
617that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
618about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
619
620 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
621
622GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
623debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
624is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
625send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
626reqired (if any).
627
628 * New Readline
629
630GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
631is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
632required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
633
634 * Bugs fixed
635
636The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
637Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
638See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
639
640 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
641
642GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
643supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
644symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
645
646Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
647mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
648debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
649mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
650version 2.
651
652Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
653really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
654line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
655variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
656situation somewhat.
657
658When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
659However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
660methods.
661
662We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
663DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
664encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
665
666
667*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
668
669 * Improved configuration
670
671Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
672Porting BFD is simpler.
673
674 * Stepping improved
675
676The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
677of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
678in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
679function that has debugging information is called within the line.
680
681 * Bug fixing
682
683Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
684
685 * New host supported (not target)
686
687Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
688
689
690*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
691
692 * Multiple source language support
693
694GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
695It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
696and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
697language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
698You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
699`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
700
701 * GDB and Modula-2
702
703GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
704currently under development at the State University of New York at
705Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
706continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
707
708Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
709debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
710symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
711
712There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
713in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
714
715 * set write on/off
716
717GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
718a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
719the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
720by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
721effect immediately.
722
723 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
724
725When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
726shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
727The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
728examining core files.
729
730 * set listsize
731
732You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
733The default is 10.
734
735 * New machines supported (host and target)
736
737SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
738Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
739Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
740
741 * New hosts supported (not targets)
742
743IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
744
745 * New targets supported (not hosts)
746
747AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
748AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
749Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
750
751 * New remote interfaces
752
753AMD 29000 Adapt
754AMD 29000 Minimon
755
756
757*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
758
759 * New Facilities
760
761Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
762
763Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
764target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
765is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
766remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
767remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
768also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
769using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
770stub on the target system.
771
772New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
773
774GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
775library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
776object file types such as a.out and coff.
777
778There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
779refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
780
781
782 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
783
784All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
785by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
786
787For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
788``Show prompt'' produces the response:
789Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
790
791What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
792print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
793will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
794all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
795
796confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
797 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
798 it is already running. Default is ON.
799
800editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
801 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
802 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
803 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
804 Default is ON.
805
806history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
807 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
808 or the value of the environment variable
809 GDBHISTFILE.
810
811history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
812 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
813 HISTSIZE.
814
815history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
816 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
817 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
818
819history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
820 history expansion will be performed on
821 command line input. The default is OFF.
822
823radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
824 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
825 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
826
827height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
828 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
829 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
830 variable TERM.
831
832width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
833 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
834 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
835 variable TERM.
836
837Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
838``set width'' instead.
839
840print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
841 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
842 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
843 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
844
845print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
846 is OFF.
847
848print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
849 "raw" form if off.
850
851print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
852 like instructions.
853
854print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
855
856
857 * Support for Epoch Environment.
858
859The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
860new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
861are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
862window.
863
864
865 * Support for Shared Libraries
866
867GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
868Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
869before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
870happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
871At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
872from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
873shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
874It can be abbreviated ``share''.
875
876sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
877 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
878 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
879
880info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
881
882
883 * Watchpoints
884
885A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
886expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
887tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
888quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
889problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
890more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
891
892watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
893
894info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
895
896delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
897disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
898enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
899
900
901 * C++ multiple inheritance
902
903When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
904for C++ programs.
905
906 * C++ exception handling
907
908Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
909ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
910the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
911handler's context).
912
913catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
914 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
915 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
916
917info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
918 current stack frame.
919
920
921 * Minor command changes
922
923The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
924command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
925is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
926
927The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
928at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
929frames without printing.
930
931 * New directory command
932
933'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
934The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
935about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
936with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
937find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
938
939 * Configuring GDB for compilation
940
941For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
942for more details.
943
944GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
945two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
946Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
947where the program that you are debugging will run.
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