nuke chill stuff from Makefile
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed since GDB-3.5?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes in GDB-???:
5
6 * User visible changes:
7
5b336d29 8Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
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9supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
10other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
11somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
5b336d29 12
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13Filename completion now works.
14
15When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
16arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
be9af13c 17addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
a32ebcfd 18
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19All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
20vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
21should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
22your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
23to be on the far side of a thin network line.
24
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25 * DEC alpha support
26
27This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
28cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
29
30
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31*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
32
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33 * Testsuite
34
35This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
36The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
37via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
38
39 * C++ demangling
40
45364c8a 41'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
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42emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
43Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
44disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
45use gdb with AT&T cfront.
45364c8a 46
c787ca55 47 * Simulators
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48
49GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
50So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
51Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
52
53 * New targets supported
54
55H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
56H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
57SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
58Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
8b946797 59IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
8ae56378 60
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61Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
62version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
0a4a0f09 63GO32 memory extender.
cb46c402 64
0a4a0f09 65 * New remote protocols
cb46c402 66
0a4a0f09 67MIPS remote debugging protocol.
cb46c402 68
0a4a0f09 69 * New source languages supported
cb46c402 70
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71This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
72used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
73into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
cb46c402 74
cb46c402 75
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76*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
77
3421ec35 78 * HP Precision Architecture supported
c5cc95b1 79
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80GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
81version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
82University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
83compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6d0380ee 84format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3421ec35 85(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
c5cc95b1 86
3421ec35 87Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
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88
89 * Faster and better demangling
90
91We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
92demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
93character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
94only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
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95This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
96increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
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97symbol lookups.
98
99`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
100from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
101compiler does not actually implement.
102
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103 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
104
105In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
106inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
107recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
108very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
109The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
110circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
111fix.
112
113The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
114release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
115
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116 * Improved configure script
117
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118The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
119you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
120host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
121done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
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122
123We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
124version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
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125`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
126The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
127only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
128We hope to make this the default in a future release.
129
130 * Documentation improvements
131
132There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
133produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
134before submitting changes.
135
136The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
137M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
138`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
139you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
140a future texinfo-X.Y release.
141
142*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
143We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
144been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
145or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
146`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
147around this problem.
c5cc95b1 148
3421ec35 149 * New features
c5cc95b1 150
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151GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
152the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
153`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
154the target program.
c5cc95b1 155
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156The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
157how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
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158
159 * New native hosts supported
160
161HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
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162386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
163
164 * New targets supported
165
166AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
167
168 * New file formats supported
169
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170BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
171HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
172
173 * Major bug fixes
174
175Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
176
177We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
178printf_filtered("%s") problems.
179
180We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
181for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
182release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
183
184You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
185will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
186
187We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
188for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
189especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
190libraries.
c5cc95b1 191
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192The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
193information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
194command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
195any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
196when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
197
198 * Internal improvements
199
200GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
201debugging of multiple languages in the future.
202
203GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
204Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
205symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
206contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
207shared code that handles any of them.
208
209 * New command line options
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210
211We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
212
3421ec35 213 * Mmalloc licensing
c5cc95b1 214
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215The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
216General Public License.
c5cc95b1 217
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218*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
219
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220 * Host/native/target split
221
222GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
223hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
224target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
225local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
226ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
227
228The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
229GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
230is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
231code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
232any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
233built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
234handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
235
236GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
237It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
238plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
239
240 * New hosts supported
241
242HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
243386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
244386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
245
246 * New targets supported
76ba9b5b 247
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248Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
24968030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5f5be54c 250
c00d8242 251 * New native hosts supported
5f5be54c 252
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253386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
254 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
255386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5f5be54c 256
c00d8242 257 * New file formats supported
5f5be54c 258
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259BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
260supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
261format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5f5be54c 262
c00d8242 263 * New commands
5f5be54c 264
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265`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
266`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
267These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
5f5be54c 268
c00d8242 269`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
5f5be54c 270
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271You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
272scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
273prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
274executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
275
276 * C++ improvements
277
278We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
279info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
280symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
281
282Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
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283
284 * Major bug fixes
285
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286The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
287fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
288by the compiler.
5f5be54c 289
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290We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
291support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
292
293John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
294slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
295that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
296purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
297the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
298mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
299
300Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
301about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
302completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
303we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
304
305 * AMD 29k support
5f5be54c 306
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307A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
308specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
309calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
310usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
311in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
312
313We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
314Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
315of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
316resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
317
318 * Remote interfaces
319
320We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
321with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
322message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
323This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
324needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
325breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
326each instruction being stepped through.
327
328The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
329registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
330
331There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
332find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
333Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
334processor with a serial port.
335
336 * Configuration
337
338Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
339`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
340supported, and what files each one uses.
341
342 * Library changes
343
344There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
345disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
346Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
347disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
348
349The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
350Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
351can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
352grants all the rights from the General Public License.
353
354 * Documentation
355
356The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
357reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
358as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
359encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
360system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
361bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
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362
363And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
76ba9b5b 364
c00d8242 365
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366*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
367
368 * Better support for C++ function names
369
370GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
371names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
372(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
373single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
374Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
375
376GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
377the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
378You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
379lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
380for the list of formats.
381
382 * G++ symbol mangling problem
383
384Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
385C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
386directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
387can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
388usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
389about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
390this problem.)
391
392 * New 'maintenance' command
393
394All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
395the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
396can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
397
398 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
399 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
400 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
401 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
402 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
403 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
404
405The following commands are new:
406
407 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
408 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
409 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
410
411 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
412
413We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
414(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
415be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
416read after argv processing.
417
418 * New hosts supported
419
420Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
421
422Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
423
424We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
425is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
426for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
427masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
428fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
429It costs extra.
430
431 * New targets supported
432
433Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
434
435 * More smarts about finding #include files
436
437GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
438all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
439greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
440especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
441the one that contains your sources.
442
443We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
444breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
445try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
446
447 * Interesting infernals change
448
449GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
450section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
451target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
452stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
453
454 * Bug fixes (of course!)
455
456There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
457 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
458 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
459
460See the ChangeLog for details.
461
462*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
463
464 * New machines supported (host and target)
465
466IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
467
468SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
469
470 * New malloc package
471
472GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
473Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
474capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
475This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
476pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
477more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
478
479 * info proc
480
481The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
482'help info proc' for details.
483
484 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
485
486The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
487Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
488possible.
489
490 * File name changes for MS-DOS
491
492Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
493support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
494conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
495environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
496that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
497in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
498
499 * Cross byte order fixes
500
501Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
502targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
503
504 * New -mapped and -readnow options
505
506If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
507system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
508`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
509program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
510called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
511Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
512and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
513the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
514option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
515starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
516
517You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
518the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
519information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
520slower, but makes future operations faster.
521
522The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
523build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
524A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
525use is:
526
527 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
528
529The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
530It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
531shared across multiple host platforms.
532
533 * longjmp() handling
534
535GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
536siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
537all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
538platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
539
540 * Solaris 2.0
541
542Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
543this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
544reading symbols.
545
546 * Bug fixes
547
548As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
549People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
550crashes and trashed symbol tables.
551
552*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
553
554 * New machines supported (host and target)
555
556SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
557 (except core files)
558BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
559Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
560
561 * New machines supported (target)
562
563AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
564
565 * C++ support
566
567GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
568The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
569per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
570
571GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
572`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
573extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
574good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
575will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
576released.
577
578 * New features for SVR4
579
580GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
581shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
582only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
583
584The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
585on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
586it prints the address mappings of the process.
587
588If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
589bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
590
591 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
592
593Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
594now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
595skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
596make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
597same code linked statically.
598
599 * New Getopt
600
601GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
602version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
603continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
604Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
605added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
606future by other options that begin with the same letter.
607
608 * Bugs fixed
609
610The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
611Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
612See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
613
614
615*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
616
617 * New machines supported (host and target)
618
619Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
620NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
621Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
622
623 * Almost SCO Unix support
624
625We had hoped to support:
626SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
627(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
628that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
629about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
630
631 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
632
633GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
634debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
635is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
636send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
637reqired (if any).
638
639 * New Readline
640
641GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
642is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
643required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
644
645 * Bugs fixed
646
647The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
648Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
649See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
650
651 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
652
653GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
654supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
655symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
656
657Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
658mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
659debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
660mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
661version 2.
662
663Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
664really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
665line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
666variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
667situation somewhat.
668
669When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
670However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
671methods.
672
673We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
674DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
675encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
676
677
678*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
679
680 * Improved configuration
681
682Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
683Porting BFD is simpler.
684
685 * Stepping improved
686
687The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
688of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
689in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
690function that has debugging information is called within the line.
691
692 * Bug fixing
693
694Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
695
696 * New host supported (not target)
697
698Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
699
700
701*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
702
703 * Multiple source language support
704
705GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
706It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
707and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
708language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
709You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
710`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
711
712 * GDB and Modula-2
713
714GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
715currently under development at the State University of New York at
716Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
717continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
718
719Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
720debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
721symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
722
723There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
724in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
725
726 * set write on/off
727
728GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
729a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
730the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
731by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
732effect immediately.
733
734 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
735
736When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
737shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
738The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
739examining core files.
740
741 * set listsize
742
743You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
744The default is 10.
745
746 * New machines supported (host and target)
747
748SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
749Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
750Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
751
752 * New hosts supported (not targets)
753
754IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
755
756 * New targets supported (not hosts)
757
758AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
759AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
760Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
761
762 * New remote interfaces
763
764AMD 29000 Adapt
765AMD 29000 Minimon
766
767
768*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
769
770 * New Facilities
771
772Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
773
774Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
775target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
776is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
777remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
778remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
779also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
780using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
781stub on the target system.
782
783New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
784
785GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
786library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
787object file types such as a.out and coff.
788
789There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
790refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
791
792
793 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
794
795All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
796by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
797
798For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
799``Show prompt'' produces the response:
800Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
801
802What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
803print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
804will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
805all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
806
807confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
808 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
809 it is already running. Default is ON.
810
811editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
812 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
813 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
814 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
815 Default is ON.
816
817history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
818 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
819 or the value of the environment variable
820 GDBHISTFILE.
821
822history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
823 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
824 HISTSIZE.
825
826history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
827 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
828 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
829
830history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
831 history expansion will be performed on
832 command line input. The default is OFF.
833
834radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
835 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
836 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
837
838height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
839 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
840 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
841 variable TERM.
842
843width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
844 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
845 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
846 variable TERM.
847
848Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
849``set width'' instead.
850
851print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
852 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
853 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
854 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
855
856print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
857 is OFF.
858
859print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
860 "raw" form if off.
861
862print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
863 like instructions.
864
865print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
866
867
868 * Support for Epoch Environment.
869
870The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
871new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
872are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
873window.
874
875
876 * Support for Shared Libraries
877
878GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
879Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
880before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
881happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
882At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
883from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
884shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
885It can be abbreviated ``share''.
886
887sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
888 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
889 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
890
891info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
892
893
894 * Watchpoints
895
896A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
897expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
898tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
899quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
900problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
901more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
902
903watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
904
905info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
906
907delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
908disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
909enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
910
911
912 * C++ multiple inheritance
913
914When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
915for C++ programs.
916
917 * C++ exception handling
918
919Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
920ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
921the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
922handler's context).
923
924catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
925 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
926 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
927
928info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
929 current stack frame.
930
931
932 * Minor command changes
933
934The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
935command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
936is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
937
938The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
939at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
940frames without printing.
941
942 * New directory command
943
944'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
945The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
946about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
947with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
948find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
949
950 * Configuring GDB for compilation
951
952For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
953for more details.
954
955GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
956two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
957Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
958where the program that you are debugging will run.
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