* dwarf2-frame.c (execute_cfa_program): Move DWA_CFA_nop before
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
CommitLineData
c906108c
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
f2c06f52
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.0:
5
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6* Changes in AMD64 configurations
7
8The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
9the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
10and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
11you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
12
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13* Revised SPARC target
14
15The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
16FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
17support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped.
18
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19* New C++ demangler
20
21GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
22names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
23with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
24programs.
25
9e08b29b
DJ
26* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
27
28GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
29arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
30encountered these.
31
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32* New native configurations
33
34NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
35
b4b4b794
KI
36* New debugging protocols
37
38M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
39
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40* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
41
42The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
43and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
44tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
45
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AC
46* OBSOLETE configurations and files
47
48Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
49been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
50configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
51permanently REMOVED.
52
53Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
54Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
55Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
56Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
57Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
58AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
59Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
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60decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
61riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
62sonymips mips-sony-*
63sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 64
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65* REMOVED configurations and files
66
67SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
68SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
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AC
69Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
70Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
71H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
72HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
73HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
74HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
75PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
76Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
77 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
78 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
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79SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
80SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
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81Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
82Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 83
c7f1390e
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84*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
85
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86* Objective-C
87
88Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
89integrated into GDB.
90
e6beb428
AC
91* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
92
93DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
94information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
95By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
96backtraces.
97
98The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
99have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
100DWARF 2 CFI support.
101
102* Hosted file I/O.
103
104GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
105file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
106remote protocol documentation for details.
107
108* All targets using the new architecture framework.
109
110All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
111architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
112to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
113ppc32 on ppc64).
114
115* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
116
117GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
118per-thread variables.
119
120* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
121
122GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
123GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
124
125* Separate debug info.
126
127GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
128automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
129of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
130system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
131and optional debug files.
132
133* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
134
135DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
136describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
137debugger.
138
139GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
140for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
141
142* Java
143
144A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
145Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
146considered "useable".
147
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148* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
149
150The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
151commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
152kernel.
153
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154* GDB supports logging output to a file
155
156There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
157used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 158
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159* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
160
161The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
162disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
163command.
164
e286caf2 165* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
166
167The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
168registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
169
d28f9cdf
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170* Profiling support
171
172A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
173be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
174session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
175"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
176data, for more informative profiling results.
177
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178* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
179
180The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
181option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 182"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
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183
184Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
185removed.
186
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187Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
188Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
189Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
190 in a subsequent -var-update.
191
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192* New native configurations.
193
194FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
195
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196* Multi-arched targets.
197
b4263afa 198HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 199Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 200
1b831c93
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201* OBSOLETE configurations and files
202
203Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
204been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
205configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
206permanently REMOVED.
207
8b0e5691 208Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 209Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 210H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
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211HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
212HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
213HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 214PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
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215Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
216 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
217 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
218Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
219Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 220
5835abe7
NC
221* REMOVED configurations and files
222
223V850EA ISA
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224Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
225IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
226i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
227i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
228i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
229HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
230 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
231 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
232Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
233Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
234Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
235OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
236I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 237
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238* MIPS $fp behavior changed
239
240The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
241the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
242context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
243address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
244The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
245
299ffc64 246*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 247
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248* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
249
250When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
251`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
252in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
253library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
254shared libs like mad''.
255
b9d14705 256* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 257
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DJ
258Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
259the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
260arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
261powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 262
e0e9281e
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263* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
264
265GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
266and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
267they expand.
268
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AC
269The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
270invocations in expression, and shows the result.
271
272The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
273macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
274
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275Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
276information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
277your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
278information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
279
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280* Multi-arched targets.
281
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JT
282DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
283DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 284NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 285National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
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286Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
287Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 288
cd9bfe15 289* New targets.
e33ce519 290
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291Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
292
e33ce519 293
da8ca43d
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294* New native configurations
295
296Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 297SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 298MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 299UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 300
cd9bfe15
AC
301* OBSOLETE configurations and files
302
303Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
304been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
305configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
306permanently REMOVED.
307
92eb23c5 308Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 309OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 310IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 311Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 312Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 313Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
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314i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
315i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
316i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
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AC
317HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
318 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
319 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 320I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 321
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322* OBSOLETE languages
323
324CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
325
cd9bfe15
AC
326* REMOVED configurations and files
327
328AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
329A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
330AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
331AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
332AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
333
334testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
335
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DH
336* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
337
338This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
339commands. The default is 1024.
340
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341* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
342
343Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
344
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MS
345* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
346
347These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
348to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
349from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 350
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351* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
352
353The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
354including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
355of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
356
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AC
357*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
358
359* New targets.
360
361Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
362
363* Bug fixes
364
365gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
366mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
367Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
368
369gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
370dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
371Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
372
373Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
374Surprisingly enough, it works now.
375By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
376
377i386 hardware watchpoint support:
378avoid misses on second run for some targets.
379By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
380
37057839 381*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 382
1a703748
MS
383* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
384
385This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
386really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
387In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
388target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
389This can be a significant performance improvement on some
390(notably embedded) targets.
391
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392* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
393
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AC
394This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
395process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
396GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
397hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 398
352ed7b4
MS
399* New command line option
400
401GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
402
403* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
404
405There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
406command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
407a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
408be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
409open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
410issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
411a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
412it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
413GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
414is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
415
fe419ffc
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416* Changes in ARM configurations.
417
418Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
419configuration is fully multi-arch.
420
eb7cedd9
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421* New native configurations
422
fe419ffc 423ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 424x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 425AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 426Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 427
c9f63e6b
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428* New targets
429
430Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
431
9b4ff276
AC
432* OBSOLETE configurations and files
433
434Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
435been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
436configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
437permanently REMOVED.
438
439AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
440A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
441AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
442AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
443AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
444
b4ceaee6 445testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 446
e2caac18
AC
447* REMOVED configurations and files
448
449TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 450WDC 65816 w65-*-*
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451PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
452PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
453PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 454Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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455Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
456 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 457SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 458Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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AC
459Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
460ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 461Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 462
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463* Changes to command line processing
464
465The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
466for the inferior from gdb's command line.
467
467d8519
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468* Changes to key bindings
469
470There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
471
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AC
472*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
473
474Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
475
476Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
477corrupted.
478
479Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
480
481Numerous documentation fixes.
482
483Numerous testsuite fixes.
484
34f47bc4 485*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
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486
487* New native configurations
488
489Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
490x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 491MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
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492MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
493ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 494s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 495
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496* New targets
497
def90278 498Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 499CRIS cris-axis
55241689 500UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 501
17e78a56 502* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
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503
504x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 505Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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AC
506Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
507 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
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AC
508TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
509WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 510Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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AC
511PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
512PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
513PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 514SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
515Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
516ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 517Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 518
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AC
519stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
520kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
521
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522Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
523been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
524configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
525permanently REMOVED.
526
a196c81c 527* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
528
529Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
530Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
531Pyramid pyramid-*-*
532ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
533Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 534ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 535
6d6b80e5 536* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 537
6d6b80e5 538GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
539sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
540present.
541
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542* Other news:
543
e23194cb
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544* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
545
546* The MI enabled by default.
547
548The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
549revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
550engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
551using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
552which is now deprecated.
553
554* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
555
556GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
557main features are supported:
558
559 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
560
561 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
562 extension;
563
564 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
565
566 - a Pascal expression parser.
567
568However, some important features are not yet supported.
569
570 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
571
572 - there are some problems with boolean types;
573
574 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
575 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
576
577 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
578
579 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
580
581* Changes in completion.
582
583Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
584to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
585users expect at the shell prompt.
586
587Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
588`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
589program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
590files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
591be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
592considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
593name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
594
595`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
596
597* New platform-independent commands:
598
599It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
600hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
601documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
602
603* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
604
d7275149
MK
605Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
606revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
607many threads as your system allows you to have.
608
e23194cb
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609Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
610
d7275149
MK
611Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
612multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
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613
614* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
615
616Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
617
e23194cb
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618GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
619debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
620supported.)
621
622* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
623
624Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
625breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
626implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
627put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
628and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
629registers.
630
631The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
632debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
633watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
634
635* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
636
637New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
638the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
639
640New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
641display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
642IDT.
643
644New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
645from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
646New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
647a given linear address.
648
649GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
650program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
651which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
652
653DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
654
6c56c069
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655It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
656
e23194cb
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657* Changes in documentation.
658
659All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
660Documentation License.
661
662Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
663manual.
664
665TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
666
667Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
668manual.
669
670The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
671documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
672hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
673
5d6640b1
AC
674* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
675
676The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
677``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
678contents of this file.
679
1a1d8446
AC
680* gdba.el deleted
681
682GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 683
9debab2f 684*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 685
c63ce875
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686* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
687
688Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
689programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
690displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
691greater level of detail.
692
693* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
694
695It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
696bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
697on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
698written.
699
700* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
701
702The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
703necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
704machines ``out of the box''.
705
706The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
707possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
708signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
709would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
710interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
711
712It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
713standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
714even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
715and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
716terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
717
718The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
719enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
720also works.
721
722DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
723GDB.
724
725It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
726directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
727times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
728breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
729
ed9a39eb
JM
730* New native configurations
731
732ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 733PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 734
7a292a7a
SS
735* New targets
736
96baa820 737Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
738x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
739PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
740TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
741
085dd6e6
JM
742* OBSOLETE configurations
743
744Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
745Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 746Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 747ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 748Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 749
9debab2f
AC
750Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
751but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
752these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
753be permanently REMOVED.
754
5330533d
SS
755* Gould support removed
756
757Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
758
bc9e5bbf
AC
759* New features for SVR4
760
761On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
762without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
763load symbols from the running process's executable file.
764
765* Many C++ enhancements
766
767C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
768in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
769
adf40b2e
JM
770* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
771
772A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
773sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
774with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
775``|<program> <args>'' vis:
776
777 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
778 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
779
43e526b9
JM
780* MIPS 64 remote protocol
781
782A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
783expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
784instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
785
786The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
787added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
788
96baa820
JM
789* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
790
791The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
792``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
793include ``set remote P-packet''.
794
11cf8741
JM
795* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
796
797The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
798accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
799``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
800
7876dd43
DB
801* ``apropos'' command added.
802
803The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
804documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
805try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
806
bc9e5bbf
AC
807* New MI interface
808
809A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
810interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
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811process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
812"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
813enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
814
815 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
816
c906108c
SS
817*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
818
819* New native configurations
820
821HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
822HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 823M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
824
825* New targets
826
827Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
828Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
829Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
830
831* OBSOLETE configurations
832
833Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
834
835Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
836but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
837these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
838be permanently REMOVED.
839
840* ANSI/ISO C
841
842As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
843buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
844containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
845use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
846available. If this is not true, please report the affected
847configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
848information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
849already.
850
851* Readline 2.2
852
853GDB now uses readline 2.2.
854
855* set extension-language
856
857You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
858languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
859you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
860 set extension-language .c c++
861The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
862and their associated languages.
863
864* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
865
866When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
867you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
868PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
869
870 set processor NAME
871
872sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
873following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
874
875 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
876 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
877 403 IBM PowerPC 403
878 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
879 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
880 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
881 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
882 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
883 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
884 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
885 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
886
887At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
888special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
889registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
890only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
891
892* HP-UX support
893
894Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
895more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
896library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
897support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
898for xdb and dbx commands.
899
900* Catchpoints
901
902HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
903generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
904to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
905
906This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
907argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
908output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
909
910* Debugging across forks
911
912On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
913in the inferior.
914
915* TUI
916
917HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
918it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
919configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
920
921* GDB remote protocol additions
922
923A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
924Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
925fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
926allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
927
928For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
929full 64-bit address. The command
930
931 set remoteaddresssize 32
932
933can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
934the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
935will be discarded.
936
937In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
938command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
939
940 maint packet heythere
941
942sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
943disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
944time.
945
946The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
947target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
948downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
949
950* Tracing can collect general expressions
951
952You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
953further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
954doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
955
956* mask-address variable for Mips
957
958For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
959a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
960of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
961
962* Higher serial baud rates
963
964GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
965230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
966to achieve all of these rates.)
967
968* i960 simulator
969
970The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
971builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
972
973
974*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
975
976* New native configurations
977
978Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
979Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
980Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
981PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
982PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
983Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
984Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
985
986* New targets
987
988Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
989Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
990Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
991Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
992MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
993MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
994MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
995Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
996Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
997Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
998NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
999
1000* New debugging protocols
1001
1002ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1003M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1004DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1005PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1006PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1007Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1008
1009* DWARF 2
1010
1011All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1012format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1013information.
1014
1015* Java frontend
1016
1017GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1018only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1019
1020* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1021
1022For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1023loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1024locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1025
1026* Live range splitting
1027
1028GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1029range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1030more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1031
1032* Hurd support
1033
1034GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1035updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1036
1037* ARM Thumb support
1038
1039GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1040instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1041instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1042accordingly.
1043
1044* MIPS16 support
1045
1046GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1047instruction set.
1048
1049* Overlay support
1050
1051GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1052linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1053will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1054control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1055additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1056in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1057
1058* info symbol
1059
1060The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1061the symbol at the specified address.
1062
1063* Trace support
1064
1065The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1066asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1067extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1068includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1069file tracepoint.c for more details.
1070
1071* MIPS simulator
1072
1073Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1074by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1075of most MIPS variants.
1076
1077* Sparc simulator
1078
1079Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1080by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1081Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1082
1083* set architecture
1084
1085For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1086basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1087architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1088the possible architectures.
1089
1090*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1091
1092* New native configurations
1093
1094Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1095M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1096PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1097PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1098PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1099RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1100
1101* New targets
1102
1103ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1104I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1105MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1106MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1107PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1108Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
1109Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1110
1111* PowerPC simulator
1112
1113The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1114contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1115PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1116basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1117performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1118
1119* Solaris 2.5
1120
1121GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1122
1123* Windows 95/NT native
1124
1125GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1126To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1127which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1128Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1129ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1130
1131* dont-repeat command
1132
1133If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1134command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1135useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1136extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1137
1138* Send break instead of ^C
1139
1140The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1141rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1142GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1143
1144* Remote protocol timeout
1145
1146The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1147that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1148to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1149
1150* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1151
1152By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1153loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1154stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1155when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1156in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1157
1158Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1159/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1160automatically on hpux10.
1161
1162* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1163
1164Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1165
1166* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1167
1168When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1169may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1170the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1171every character. The default value is 1050.
1172
1173* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1174
1175If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1176a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1177replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1178details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1179remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1180to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1181
1182* Speedups for remote debugging
1183
1184GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1185the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1186and more efficient S-record downloading.
1187
1188* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1189
1190GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1191Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1192
1193*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1194
1195* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1196
1197The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1198can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1199
1200* Remote targets use caching
1201
1202Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1203remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1204it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1205debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1206off' turns the the data cache off.
1207
1208* Remote targets may have threads
1209
1210The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1211in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1212gdb/remote.c for details.
1213
1214* NetROM support
1215
1216If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1217support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1218acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1219write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1220support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1221another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1222sequence is something like
1223
1224 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1225 load <prog>
1226 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1227
1228* Macintosh host
1229
1230GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1231may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1232it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1233available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1234device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1235directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1236scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1237mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1238
1239* Autoconf
1240
1241GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1242but does simplify configuration and building.
1243
1244* hpux10
1245
1246GDB now supports hpux10.
1247
1248*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1249
1250* New native configurations
1251
1252x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1253x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1254NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1255Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1256
1257* New targets
1258
1259A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1260HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1261CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1262PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1263WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1264
1265* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1266
1267GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1268possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1269filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1270the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1271if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1272
1273* Arguments to user-defined commands
1274
1275User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1276Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1277trivial example:
1278define adder
1279 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1280
1281To execute the command use:
1282adder 1 2 3
1283
1284Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1285Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1286use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1287
1288* New `if' and `while' commands
1289
1290This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1291commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1292expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1293execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1294terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1295`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1296if the expression is zero.
1297
1298* Fortran source language mode
1299
1300GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1301Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1302variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1303with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1304Fortran compilers.
1305
1306* Better HPUX support
1307
1308Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1309running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1310processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1311for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1312that behavior do the following before running the program:
1313
1314 adb -w a.out
1315 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1316 control-d
1317
1318This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1319To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1320
1321 adb -w a.out
1322 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1323 control-d
1324
1325You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1326the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1327external linkage.
1328
1329GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1330HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1331
1332* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1333
1334You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1335commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1336current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1337"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1338associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1339configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1340
1341* New DOS host serial code
1342
1343This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1344no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1345a PC's serial port.
1346
1347*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1348
1349* New "complete" command
1350
1351This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1352were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1353
1354* Trailing space optional in prompt
1355
1356"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1357allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1358
1359* Breakpoint hit counts
1360
1361"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1362has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1363can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1364to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1365less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1366that breakpoint.
1367
1368* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1369
1370"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1371an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1372arrays actually contain only short strings.
1373
1374* Shared library breakpoints
1375
1376In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1377breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1378
1379* Hardware watchpoints
1380
1381There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1382targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1383
55241689 1384Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1385
1386* Annotations
1387
1388Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1389and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1390
1391* Improved Irix 5 support
1392
1393GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1394
1395* Improved HPPA support
1396
1397GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1398
1399* New native configurations
1400
1401Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1402HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1403Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1404RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1405
1406* New targets
1407
1408OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1409MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1410Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1411
1412* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1413
1414There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1415This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1416
1417* Fixes
1418
1419As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1420and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1421
1422*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1423
1424* Irix 5 is now supported
1425
1426* HPPA support
1427
1428GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1429to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1430GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1431of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1432can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1433
1434
1435*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1436
1437* User visible changes:
1438
1439* Remote Debugging
1440
1441The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1442target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1443debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1444integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1445debugging info for the mips target).
1446
1447* DEC Alpha native support
1448
1449GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1450debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1451work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1452Alpha-specific notes.
1453
1454* Preliminary thread implementation
1455
1456GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1457
1458* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1459
1460This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1461to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1462for details).
1463
1464* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1465
1466This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1467mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1468call methods, ...etc.
1469
1470*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1471
1472 * User visible changes:
1473
1474Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1475supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1476other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1477somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1478
1479Filename completion now works.
1480
1481When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1482arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1483addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1484
1485All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1486vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1487should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1488your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1489to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1490
1491 * DEC alpha support
1492
1493This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1494cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1495
1496
1497*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1498
1499 * Testsuite
1500
1501This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1502The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1503via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1504
1505 * C++ demangling
1506
1507'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1508emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1509Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1510disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1511use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1512
1513 * Simulators
1514
1515GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1516So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1517Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1518
1519 * New targets supported
1520
1521H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1522H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1523SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1524Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1525IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1526
1527Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1528version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1529GO32 memory extender.
1530
1531 * New remote protocols
1532
1533MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1534
1535 * New source languages supported
1536
1537This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1538used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1539into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1540
1541
1542*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1543
1544 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1545
1546GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1547version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1548University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1549compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1550format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1551(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1552
1553Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1554
1555 * Faster and better demangling
1556
1557We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1558demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1559character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1560only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1561This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1562increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1563symbol lookups.
1564
1565`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1566from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1567compiler does not actually implement.
1568
1569 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1570
1571In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1572inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1573recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1574very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1575The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1576circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1577fix.
1578
1579The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1580release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1581
1582 * Improved configure script
1583
1584The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1585you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1586host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1587done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1588
1589We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1590version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1591`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1592The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1593only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1594We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1595
1596 * Documentation improvements
1597
1598There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1599produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1600before submitting changes.
1601
1602The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1603M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1604`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1605you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1606a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1607
1608*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1609We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1610been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1611or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1612`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1613around this problem.
1614
1615 * New features
1616
1617GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1618the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1619`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1620the target program.
1621
1622The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1623how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1624
1625 * New native hosts supported
1626
1627HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1628386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1629
1630 * New targets supported
1631
1632AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1633
1634 * New file formats supported
1635
1636BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1637HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1638
1639 * Major bug fixes
1640
1641Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1642
1643We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1644printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1645
1646We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1647for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1648release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1649
1650You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1651will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1652
1653We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1654for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1655especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1656libraries.
1657
1658The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1659information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1660command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1661any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1662when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1663
1664 * Internal improvements
1665
1666GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1667debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1668
1669GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1670Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1671symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1672contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1673shared code that handles any of them.
1674
1675 * New command line options
1676
1677We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1678
1679 * Mmalloc licensing
1680
1681The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1682General Public License.
1683
1684*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1685
1686 * Host/native/target split
1687
1688GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1689hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1690target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1691local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1692ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1693
1694The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1695GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1696is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1697code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1698any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1699built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1700handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1701
1702GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1703It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1704plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1705
1706 * New hosts supported
1707
1708HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1709386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1710386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1711
1712 * New targets supported
1713
1714Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
171568030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1716
1717 * New native hosts supported
1718
1719386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1720 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1721386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1722
1723 * New file formats supported
1724
1725BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1726supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1727format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1728
1729 * New commands
1730
1731`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1732`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1733These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1734
1735`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1736
1737You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1738scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1739prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1740executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1741
1742 * C++ improvements
1743
1744We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1745info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1746symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1747
1748Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1749
1750 * Major bug fixes
1751
1752The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1753fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1754by the compiler.
1755
1756We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1757support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1758
1759John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1760slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1761that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1762purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1763the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1764mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1765
1766Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1767about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1768completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1769we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1770
1771 * AMD 29k support
1772
1773A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1774specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1775calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1776usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1777in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1778
1779We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1780Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1781of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1782resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1783
1784 * Remote interfaces
1785
1786We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1787with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1788message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1789This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1790needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1791breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1792each instruction being stepped through.
1793
1794The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1795registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1796
1797There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1798find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1799Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1800processor with a serial port.
1801
1802 * Configuration
1803
1804Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1805`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1806supported, and what files each one uses.
1807
1808 * Library changes
1809
1810There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1811disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1812Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1813disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1814
1815The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1816Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1817can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1818grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1819
1820 * Documentation
1821
1822The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1823reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1824as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1825encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1826system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1827bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1828
1829And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1830
1831
1832*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1833
1834 * Better support for C++ function names
1835
1836GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1837names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1838(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1839single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1840Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1841
1842GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1843the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1844You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1845lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1846for the list of formats.
1847
1848 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1849
1850Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1851C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1852directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1853can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1854usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1855about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1856this problem.)
1857
1858 * New 'maintenance' command
1859
1860All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1861the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1862can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1863
1864 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1865 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1866 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1867 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1868 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1869 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1870
1871The following commands are new:
1872
1873 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1874 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1875 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1876
1877 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1878
1879We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1880(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1881be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1882read after argv processing.
1883
1884 * New hosts supported
1885
1886Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1887
55241689 1888GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
1889
1890We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1891is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1892for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1893masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1894fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1895It costs extra.
1896
1897 * New targets supported
1898
1899Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1900
1901 * More smarts about finding #include files
1902
1903GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1904all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1905greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1906especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1907the one that contains your sources.
1908
1909We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1910breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1911try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1912
1913 * Interesting infernals change
1914
1915GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1916section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1917target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1918stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1919
1920 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1921
1922There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1923 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1924 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1925
1926See the ChangeLog for details.
1927
1928*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1929
1930 * New machines supported (host and target)
1931
1932IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1933
1934SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1935
1936 * New malloc package
1937
1938GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1939Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1940capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1941This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1942pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1943more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1944
1945 * info proc
1946
1947The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1948'help info proc' for details.
1949
1950 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1951
1952The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1953Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1954possible.
1955
1956 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1957
1958Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1959support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1960conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1961environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1962that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1963in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1964
1965 * Cross byte order fixes
1966
1967Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1968targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1969
1970 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1971
1972If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1973system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1974`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1975program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1976called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1977Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1978and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1979the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1980option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1981starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1982
1983You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1984the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1985information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1986slower, but makes future operations faster.
1987
1988The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1989build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1990A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1991use is:
1992
1993 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1994
1995The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1996It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1997shared across multiple host platforms.
1998
1999 * longjmp() handling
2000
2001GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2002siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2003all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2004platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2005
2006 * Solaris 2.0
2007
2008Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2009this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2010reading symbols.
2011
2012 * Bug fixes
2013
2014As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2015People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2016crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2017
2018*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2019
2020 * New machines supported (host and target)
2021
2022SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2023 (except core files)
2024BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2025Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2026
2027 * New machines supported (target)
2028
2029AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2030
2031 * C++ support
2032
2033GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2034The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2035per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2036
2037GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2038`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2039extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2040good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2041will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2042released.
2043
2044 * New features for SVR4
2045
2046GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2047shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2048only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2049
2050The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2051on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2052it prints the address mappings of the process.
2053
2054If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2055bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2056
2057 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2058
2059Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2060now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2061skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2062make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2063same code linked statically.
2064
2065 * New Getopt
2066
2067GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2068version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2069continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2070Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2071added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2072future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2073
2074 * Bugs fixed
2075
2076The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2077Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2078See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2079
2080
2081*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2082
2083 * New machines supported (host and target)
2084
2085Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2086NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2087Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2088
2089 * Almost SCO Unix support
2090
2091We had hoped to support:
2092SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2093(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2094that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2095about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2096
2097 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2098
2099GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2100debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2101is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2102send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2103reqired (if any).
2104
2105 * New Readline
2106
2107GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2108is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2109required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2110
2111 * Bugs fixed
2112
2113The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2114Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2115See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2116
2117 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2118
2119GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2120supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2121symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2122
2123Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2124mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2125debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2126mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2127version 2.
2128
2129Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2130really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2131line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2132variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2133situation somewhat.
2134
2135When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2136However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2137methods.
2138
2139We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2140DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2141encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2142
2143
2144*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2145
2146 * Improved configuration
2147
2148Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2149Porting BFD is simpler.
2150
2151 * Stepping improved
2152
2153The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2154of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2155in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2156function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2157
2158 * Bug fixing
2159
2160Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2161
2162 * New host supported (not target)
2163
2164Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2165
2166
2167*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2168
2169 * Multiple source language support
2170
2171GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2172It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2173and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2174language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2175You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2176`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2177
2178 * GDB and Modula-2
2179
2180GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2181currently under development at the State University of New York at
2182Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2183continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2184
2185Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2186debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2187symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2188
2189There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2190in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2191
2192 * set write on/off
2193
2194GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2195a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2196the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2197by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2198effect immediately.
2199
2200 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2201
2202When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2203shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2204The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2205examining core files.
2206
2207 * set listsize
2208
2209You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2210The default is 10.
2211
2212 * New machines supported (host and target)
2213
2214SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2215Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2216Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2217
2218 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2219
2220IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2221
2222 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2223
2224AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2225AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2226Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2227
2228 * New remote interfaces
2229
2230AMD 29000 Adapt
2231AMD 29000 Minimon
2232
2233
2234*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2235
2236 * New Facilities
2237
2238Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2239
2240Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2241target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2242is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2243remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2244remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2245also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2246using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2247stub on the target system.
2248
2249New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2250
2251GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2252library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2253object file types such as a.out and coff.
2254
2255There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2256refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2257
2258
2259 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2260
2261All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2262by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2263
2264For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2265``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2266Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2267
2268What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2269print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2270will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2271all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2272
2273confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2274 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2275 it is already running. Default is ON.
2276
2277editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2278 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2279 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2280 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2281 Default is ON.
2282
2283history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2284 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2285 or the value of the environment variable
2286 GDBHISTFILE.
2287
2288history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2289 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2290 HISTSIZE.
2291
2292history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2293 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2294 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2295
2296history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2297 history expansion will be performed on
2298 command line input. The default is OFF.
2299
2300radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2301 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2302 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2303
2304height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2305 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2306 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2307 variable TERM.
2308
2309width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2310 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2311 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2312 variable TERM.
2313
2314Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2315``set width'' instead.
2316
2317print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2318 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2319 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2320 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2321
2322print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2323 is OFF.
2324
2325print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2326 "raw" form if off.
2327
2328print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2329 like instructions.
2330
2331print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2332
2333
2334 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2335
2336The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2337new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2338are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2339window.
2340
2341
2342 * Support for Shared Libraries
2343
2344GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2345Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2346before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2347happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2348At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2349from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2350shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2351It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2352
2353sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2354 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2355 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2356
2357info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2358
2359
2360 * Watchpoints
2361
2362A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2363expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2364tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2365quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2366problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2367more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2368
2369watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2370
2371info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2372
2373delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2374disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2375enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2376
2377
2378 * C++ multiple inheritance
2379
2380When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2381for C++ programs.
2382
2383 * C++ exception handling
2384
2385Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2386ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2387the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2388handler's context).
2389
2390catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2391 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2392 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2393
2394info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2395 current stack frame.
2396
2397
2398 * Minor command changes
2399
2400The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2401command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2402is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2403
2404The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2405at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2406frames without printing.
2407
2408 * New directory command
2409
2410'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2411The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2412about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2413with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2414find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2415
2416 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2417
2418For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2419for more details.
2420
2421GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2422two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2423Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2424where the program that you are debugging will run.
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