Commit | Line | Data |
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95618211 SS |
1 | What has changed in GDB? |
2 | (Organized release by release) | |
3 | ||
bf4e0fe7 FF |
4 | *** Changes since GDB-4.15: |
5 | ||
2ad5709f FF |
6 | * Memory use reductions and statistics collection |
7 | ||
8 | We have begun to implement changes that reduce gdb's memory requirements | |
9 | and to report statistics about memory usage. Try the "maint print statistics" | |
10 | command, for example. | |
11 | ||
bf4e0fe7 FF |
12 | * New native configurations |
13 | ||
972821a3 | 14 | Windows 95, Windows NT i[345]86-*-win32 |
bf4e0fe7 | 15 | |
972821a3 | 16 | * New targets |
bf4e0fe7 FF |
17 | |
18 | ARM via RDP protocol arm-*-* | |
3ae51936 MM |
19 | PowerPC via PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi* |
20 | PowerPC simulator powerpc{,le}-*-eabi if building with GCC | |
bf4e0fe7 | 21 | |
b3fd4c06 SS |
22 | * Send break instead of ^C |
23 | ||
24 | The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break | |
25 | rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default, | |
26 | GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1. | |
27 | ||
87273c71 JL |
28 | * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX only at the moment). |
29 | ||
30 | By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are | |
31 | loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command | |
32 | "set stop-on-solib-events 1" you can arrange for GDB to stop the | |
33 | inferior when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to | |
34 | set breakpoints in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by | |
35 | the inferior. | |
36 | ||
37 | Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link | |
38 | /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work automatically | |
39 | on hpux10. | |
40 | ||
e8f1ad9a FF |
41 | * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions |
42 | ||
43 | If you set "remotelogfile" gdb will use that filename to make a | |
44 | "recording" of a remote debug session which can be replayed back to | |
45 | gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for details. This is | |
46 | useful when you have a problem with gdb while doing remote debugging. | |
47 | By making a recording of the session and sending it to the gdb | |
48 | maintainers, it is possible to recreate your problem without access to | |
49 | the remote hardware you are using. | |
50 | ||
0764fb04 FF |
51 | *** Changes in GDB-4.15: |
52 | ||
bf4e0fe7 FF |
53 | * Psymtabs for XCOFF |
54 | ||
55 | The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This | |
56 | can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables. | |
57 | ||
0764fb04 FF |
58 | * Remote targets use caching |
59 | ||
60 | Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the | |
bf4e0fe7 FF |
61 | remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because |
62 | it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to | |
63 | debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache | |
64 | off' turns the the data cache off. | |
0764fb04 | 65 | |
bf4e0fe7 | 66 | * Remote targets may have threads |
24e60978 | 67 | |
bf4e0fe7 FF |
68 | The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads |
69 | in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See | |
70 | gdb/remote.c for details. | |
24e60978 | 71 | |
bf4e0fe7 | 72 | * NetROM support |
24e60978 | 73 | |
bf4e0fe7 FF |
74 | If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include |
75 | support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM | |
76 | acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can | |
77 | write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of | |
78 | support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use | |
79 | another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual | |
80 | sequence is something like | |
81 | ||
82 | target nrom <netrom-hostname> | |
83 | load <prog> | |
84 | target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235 | |
85 | ||
86 | * Macintosh host | |
87 | ||
88 | GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It | |
89 | may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and | |
90 | it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are | |
91 | available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the | |
92 | device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main | |
93 | directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration | |
94 | scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the | |
95 | mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested. | |
96 | ||
97 | * Autoconf | |
98 | ||
99 | GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible, | |
100 | but does simplify configuration and building. | |
101 | ||
102 | * hpux10 | |
103 | ||
cd857a2d | 104 | GDB now supports hpux10. |
24e60978 | 105 | |
95618211 SS |
106 | *** Changes in GDB-4.14: |
107 | ||
108 | * New native configurations | |
109 | ||
110 | x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd | |
111 | x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd | |
112 | NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd | |
113 | Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd | |
114 | ||
115 | * New targets | |
116 | ||
117 | A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks | |
118 | HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro* | |
119 | CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est* | |
120 | PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf | |
121 | WDC 65816 w65-*-* | |
3ddcdc59 | 122 | |
2592eef8 PS |
123 | * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs |
124 | ||
125 | GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it | |
126 | possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc | |
127 | filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines | |
128 | the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems | |
129 | if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started. | |
130 | ||
95618211 SS |
131 | * Arguments to user-defined commands |
132 | ||
133 | User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace. | |
134 | Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A | |
135 | trivial example: | |
0f8cdd9b JL |
136 | define adder |
137 | print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2 | |
138 | ||
139 | To execute the command use: | |
140 | adder 1 2 3 | |
141 | ||
142 | Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments. | |
143 | Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables, | |
144 | use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls. | |
145 | ||
95618211 SS |
146 | * New `if' and `while' commands |
147 | ||
148 | This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined | |
149 | commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the | |
150 | expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to | |
151 | execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being | |
152 | terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an | |
153 | `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only | |
154 | if the expression is zero. | |
155 | ||
156 | * Fortran source language mode | |
157 | ||
158 | GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize | |
159 | Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but | |
160 | variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work | |
161 | with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other | |
162 | Fortran compilers. | |
163 | ||
164 | * Better HPUX support | |
165 | ||
166 | Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs | |
167 | running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked | |
168 | processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so | |
169 | for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change | |
170 | that behavior do the following before running the program: | |
171 | ||
172 | adb -w a.out | |
173 | __dld_flags?W 0x5 | |
174 | control-d | |
175 | ||
176 | This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write. | |
177 | To revert to the normal behavior, do this: | |
178 | ||
179 | adb -w a.out | |
180 | __dld_flags?W 0x4 | |
181 | control-d | |
182 | ||
183 | You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after | |
184 | the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have | |
185 | external linkage. | |
186 | ||
187 | GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on | |
188 | HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support). | |
189 | ||
190 | * Target byte order now dynamically selectable | |
191 | ||
192 | You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the | |
193 | commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the | |
194 | current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command | |
195 | "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order | |
196 | associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS | |
197 | configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order. | |
7de5c5e2 | 198 | |
95618211 | 199 | * New DOS host serial code |
e3581971 | 200 | |
95618211 SS |
201 | This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you |
202 | no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to | |
203 | a PC's serial port. | |
2848f793 | 204 | |
72e35288 JK |
205 | *** Changes in GDB-4.13: |
206 | ||
7de5c5e2 FF |
207 | * New "complete" command |
208 | ||
209 | This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it | |
210 | were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs. | |
72e35288 | 211 | |
7de5c5e2 FF |
212 | * Trailing space optional in prompt |
213 | ||
214 | "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This | |
72e35288 JK |
215 | allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not. |
216 | ||
7de5c5e2 FF |
217 | * Breakpoint hit counts |
218 | ||
219 | "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint | |
220 | has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you | |
221 | can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info | |
222 | to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one | |
223 | less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of | |
224 | that breakpoint. | |
225 | ||
226 | * Ability to stop printing at NULL character | |
227 | ||
228 | "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of | |
229 | an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large | |
230 | arrays actually contain only short strings. | |
231 | ||
232 | * Shared library breakpoints | |
233 | ||
234 | In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set | |
235 | breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run. | |
236 | ||
237 | * Hardware watchpoints | |
238 | ||
239 | There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite | |
240 | targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note. | |
241 | ||
242 | Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux. | |
243 | ||
244 | * Annotations | |
245 | ||
246 | Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces, | |
247 | and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these. | |
248 | ||
249 | * Improved Irix 5 support | |
250 | ||
251 | GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2. | |
252 | ||
253 | * Improved HPPA support | |
254 | ||
255 | GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS. | |
256 | ||
257 | * New native configurations | |
258 | ||
259 | Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4 | |
260 | HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf* | |
261 | Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4* | |
262 | RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos* | |
263 | ||
264 | * New targets | |
265 | ||
266 | OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k | |
267 | MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf} | |
268 | Sparc64 sparc64-*-* | |
269 | ||
270 | * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support | |
271 | ||
272 | There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE. | |
273 | This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH. | |
274 | ||
275 | * Fixes | |
276 | ||
277 | As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic | |
278 | and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail. | |
279 | ||
4901e77d FF |
280 | *** Changes in GDB-4.12: |
281 | ||
282 | * Irix 5 is now supported | |
283 | ||
284 | * HPPA support | |
285 | ||
286 | GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable | |
287 | to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and | |
288 | GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release | |
289 | of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12 | |
290 | can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist. | |
291 | ||
292 | ||
617b4ae8 FF |
293 | *** Changes in GDB-4.11: |
294 | ||
295 | * User visible changes: | |
296 | ||
297 | * Remote Debugging | |
803f7af5 | 298 | |
41a6194d | 299 | The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote |
803f7af5 JK |
300 | target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's |
301 | debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an | |
302 | integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more | |
303 | debugging info for the mips target). | |
41a6194d | 304 | |
617b4ae8 FF |
305 | * DEC Alpha native support |
306 | ||
307 | GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable | |
308 | debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should | |
309 | work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few | |
310 | Alpha-specific notes. | |
311 | ||
312 | * Preliminary thread implementation | |
313 | ||
314 | GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS. | |
315 | ||
316 | * LynxOS native and target support for 386 | |
317 | ||
318 | This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured | |
319 | to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README | |
320 | for details). | |
321 | ||
322 | * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling. | |
323 | ||
324 | This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name | |
325 | mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table, | |
326 | call methods, ...etc. | |
327 | ||
41a6194d | 328 | *** Changes in GDB-4.10: |
21cc14d8 RP |
329 | |
330 | * User visible changes: | |
331 | ||
5b336d29 | 332 | Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now |
be9af13c JK |
333 | supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some |
334 | other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it | |
335 | somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download. | |
5b336d29 | 336 | |
a32ebcfd JK |
337 | Filename completion now works. |
338 | ||
339 | When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the | |
340 | arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints | |
be9af13c | 341 | addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex). |
a32ebcfd | 342 | |
21cc14d8 RP |
343 | All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called |
344 | vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb | |
345 | should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if | |
346 | your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens | |
347 | to be on the far side of a thin network line. | |
348 | ||
ebb962cd FF |
349 | * DEC alpha support |
350 | ||
351 | This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for | |
352 | cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet. | |
353 | ||
354 | ||
cb46c402 JG |
355 | *** Changes in GDB-4.9: |
356 | ||
c787ca55 FF |
357 | * Testsuite |
358 | ||
359 | This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite. | |
360 | The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available | |
361 | via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software. | |
362 | ||
363 | * C++ demangling | |
364 | ||
45364c8a | 365 | 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to |
0a4a0f09 FF |
366 | emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated |
367 | Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite | |
368 | disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to | |
369 | use gdb with AT&T cfront. | |
45364c8a | 370 | |
c787ca55 | 371 | * Simulators |
8ae56378 SC |
372 | |
373 | GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library. | |
374 | So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the | |
375 | Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H. | |
376 | ||
377 | * New targets supported | |
378 | ||
379 | H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms | |
380 | H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms | |
381 | SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh | |
382 | Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim | |
8b946797 | 383 | IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff |
8ae56378 | 384 | |
cb46c402 JG |
385 | Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom |
386 | version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the | |
0a4a0f09 | 387 | GO32 memory extender. |
cb46c402 | 388 | |
0a4a0f09 | 389 | * New remote protocols |
cb46c402 | 390 | |
0a4a0f09 | 391 | MIPS remote debugging protocol. |
cb46c402 | 392 | |
0a4a0f09 | 393 | * New source languages supported |
cb46c402 | 394 | |
0a4a0f09 FF |
395 | This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language |
396 | used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated | |
397 | into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available. | |
cb46c402 | 398 | |
cb46c402 | 399 | |
c5cc95b1 SG |
400 | *** Changes in GDB-4.8: |
401 | ||
3421ec35 | 402 | * HP Precision Architecture supported |
c5cc95b1 | 403 | |
3421ec35 JG |
404 | GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary |
405 | version of this support was available as a set of patches from the | |
406 | University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs | |
407 | compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file | |
6d0380ee | 408 | format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS |
3421ec35 | 409 | (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z). |
c5cc95b1 | 410 | |
3421ec35 | 411 | Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed. |
c5cc95b1 SG |
412 | |
413 | * Faster and better demangling | |
414 | ||
415 | We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style | |
416 | demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide | |
417 | character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now | |
418 | only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in. | |
3421ec35 JG |
419 | This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate |
420 | increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in | |
c5cc95b1 SG |
421 | symbol lookups. |
422 | ||
423 | `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written | |
424 | from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's | |
425 | compiler does not actually implement. | |
426 | ||
6d0380ee JG |
427 | * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem |
428 | ||
429 | In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple | |
430 | inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We | |
431 | recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a | |
432 | very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes. | |
433 | The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to | |
434 | circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete | |
435 | fix. | |
436 | ||
437 | The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7 | |
438 | release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2. | |
439 | ||
c5cc95b1 SG |
440 | * Improved configure script |
441 | ||
3421ec35 JG |
442 | The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if |
443 | you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a | |
444 | host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is | |
445 | done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details. | |
c5cc95b1 SG |
446 | |
447 | We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's | |
448 | version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular, | |
3421ec35 JG |
449 | `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller. |
450 | The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats -- | |
451 | only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system. | |
452 | We hope to make this the default in a future release. | |
453 | ||
454 | * Documentation improvements | |
455 | ||
456 | There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to | |
457 | produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it | |
458 | before submitting changes. | |
459 | ||
460 | The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane | |
461 | M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built | |
462 | `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch, | |
463 | you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in | |
464 | a future texinfo-X.Y release. | |
465 | ||
466 | *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang. | |
467 | We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has | |
468 | been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141 | |
469 | or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in | |
470 | `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work | |
471 | around this problem. | |
c5cc95b1 | 472 | |
3421ec35 | 473 | * New features |
c5cc95b1 | 474 | |
3421ec35 JG |
475 | GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by |
476 | the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type | |
477 | `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in | |
478 | the target program. | |
c5cc95b1 | 479 | |
3421ec35 JG |
480 | The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates |
481 | how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor. | |
c5cc95b1 SG |
482 | |
483 | * New native hosts supported | |
484 | ||
485 | HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux | |
c5cc95b1 SG |
486 | 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4 |
487 | ||
488 | * New targets supported | |
489 | ||
490 | AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k | |
491 | ||
492 | * New file formats supported | |
493 | ||
3421ec35 JG |
494 | BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?), |
495 | HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files. | |
496 | ||
497 | * Major bug fixes | |
498 | ||
499 | Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports. | |
500 | ||
501 | We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by | |
502 | printf_filtered("%s") problems. | |
503 | ||
504 | We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files | |
505 | for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7 | |
506 | release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB. | |
507 | ||
508 | You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This | |
509 | will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB. | |
510 | ||
511 | We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors | |
512 | for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was | |
513 | especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared | |
514 | libraries. | |
c5cc95b1 | 515 | |
3421ec35 JG |
516 | The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number |
517 | information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next' | |
518 | command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was | |
519 | any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems | |
520 | when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines. | |
521 | ||
522 | * Internal improvements | |
523 | ||
524 | GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support | |
525 | debugging of multiple languages in the future. | |
526 | ||
527 | GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally. | |
528 | Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial | |
529 | symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols | |
530 | contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write | |
531 | shared code that handles any of them. | |
532 | ||
533 | * New command line options | |
c5cc95b1 SG |
534 | |
535 | We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet. | |
536 | ||
3421ec35 | 537 | * Mmalloc licensing |
c5cc95b1 | 538 | |
3421ec35 JG |
539 | The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library |
540 | General Public License. | |
c5cc95b1 | 541 | |
76ba9b5b SG |
542 | *** Changes in GDB-4.7: |
543 | ||
c00d8242 JG |
544 | * Host/native/target split |
545 | ||
546 | GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for | |
547 | hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote | |
548 | target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging | |
549 | local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will | |
550 | ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible. | |
551 | ||
552 | The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in | |
553 | GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB | |
554 | is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific | |
555 | code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on | |
556 | any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be | |
557 | built when the host and target are the same system. Child process | |
558 | handling and core file support are two common `native' examples. | |
559 | ||
560 | GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner. | |
561 | It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector, | |
562 | plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc. | |
563 | ||
564 | * New hosts supported | |
565 | ||
566 | HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd | |
567 | 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd | |
568 | 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco | |
569 | ||
570 | * New targets supported | |
76ba9b5b | 571 | |
c00d8242 JG |
572 | Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite |
573 | 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-* | |
5f5be54c | 574 | |
c00d8242 | 575 | * New native hosts supported |
5f5be54c | 576 | |
c00d8242 JG |
577 | 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd |
578 | (386bsd is not well tested yet) | |
579 | 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco | |
5f5be54c | 580 | |
c00d8242 | 581 | * New file formats supported |
5f5be54c | 582 | |
c00d8242 JG |
583 | BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It |
584 | supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out | |
585 | format extended with minimal information about multiple sections. | |
5f5be54c | 586 | |
c00d8242 | 587 | * New commands |
5f5be54c | 588 | |
c00d8242 JG |
589 | `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'. |
590 | `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'. | |
591 | These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work. | |
5f5be54c | 592 | |
c00d8242 | 593 | `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'. |
5f5be54c | 594 | |
c00d8242 JG |
595 | You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command |
596 | scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed | |
597 | prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be | |
598 | executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo. | |
599 | ||
600 | * C++ improvements | |
601 | ||
602 | We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type | |
603 | info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which | |
604 | symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses. | |
605 | ||
606 | Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well. | |
5f5be54c SG |
607 | |
608 | * Major bug fixes | |
609 | ||
c00d8242 JG |
610 | The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is |
611 | fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output | |
612 | by the compiler. | |
5f5be54c | 613 | |
c00d8242 JG |
614 | We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file |
615 | support, with help from a dozen people on the net. | |
616 | ||
617 | John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so | |
618 | slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was | |
619 | that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal | |
620 | purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing | |
621 | the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++ | |
622 | mangled symbol sped things up a great deal. | |
623 | ||
624 | Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter | |
625 | about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol | |
626 | completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as | |
627 | we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6. | |
628 | ||
629 | * AMD 29k support | |
5f5be54c | 630 | |
c00d8242 JG |
631 | A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can |
632 | specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB | |
633 | calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the | |
634 | usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work | |
635 | in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces. | |
636 | ||
637 | We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger | |
638 | Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all | |
639 | of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to | |
640 | resolve this, and hope to have it available soon. | |
641 | ||
642 | * Remote interfaces | |
643 | ||
644 | We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets | |
645 | with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T') | |
646 | message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message. | |
647 | This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB | |
648 | needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional | |
649 | breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for | |
650 | each instruction being stepped through. | |
651 | ||
652 | The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for | |
653 | registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run. | |
654 | ||
655 | There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can | |
656 | find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the | |
657 | Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC | |
658 | processor with a serial port. | |
659 | ||
660 | * Configuration | |
661 | ||
662 | Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new | |
663 | `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are | |
664 | supported, and what files each one uses. | |
665 | ||
666 | * Library changes | |
667 | ||
668 | There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the | |
669 | disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains | |
670 | Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and | |
671 | disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines. | |
672 | ||
673 | The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General | |
674 | Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++ | |
675 | can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License | |
676 | grants all the rights from the General Public License. | |
677 | ||
678 | * Documentation | |
679 | ||
680 | The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete | |
681 | reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far | |
682 | as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We | |
683 | encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your | |
684 | system, and send improvements on the document in general (to | |
685 | bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu). | |
5f5be54c SG |
686 | |
687 | And, of course, many bugs have been fixed. | |
76ba9b5b | 688 | |
c00d8242 | 689 | |
3ddcdc59 SG |
690 | *** Changes in GDB-4.6: |
691 | ||
692 | * Better support for C++ function names | |
693 | ||
694 | GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function | |
695 | names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names | |
696 | (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of | |
697 | single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'. | |
698 | Make use of command completion, it is your friend. | |
699 | ||
700 | GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are | |
701 | the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style. | |
702 | You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu, | |
703 | lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo' | |
704 | for the list of formats. | |
705 | ||
706 | * G++ symbol mangling problem | |
707 | ||
708 | Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for | |
709 | C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this | |
710 | directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you | |
711 | can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The | |
712 | usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains | |
713 | about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has | |
714 | this problem.) | |
715 | ||
716 | * New 'maintenance' command | |
717 | ||
718 | All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of | |
719 | the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This | |
720 | can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made: | |
721 | ||
722 | dump-me -> maintenance dump-me | |
723 | info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints | |
724 | printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms | |
725 | printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles | |
726 | printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols | |
727 | printsyms -> maintenance print symbols | |
728 | ||
729 | The following commands are new: | |
730 | ||
731 | maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to | |
732 | demangle a C++ link name and prints the result. | |
733 | maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol | |
734 | ||
735 | * Change to .gdbinit file processing | |
736 | ||
737 | We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments | |
738 | (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to | |
739 | be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still | |
740 | read after argv processing. | |
741 | ||
742 | * New hosts supported | |
743 | ||
744 | Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2 | |
745 | ||
746 | Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux | |
747 | ||
748 | We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This | |
749 | is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it | |
750 | for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or | |
751 | masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the | |
752 | fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option. | |
753 | It costs extra. | |
754 | ||
755 | * New targets supported | |
756 | ||
757 | Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms | |
758 | ||
759 | * More smarts about finding #include files | |
760 | ||
761 | GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for | |
762 | all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This | |
763 | greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files, | |
764 | especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from | |
765 | the one that contains your sources. | |
766 | ||
767 | We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting | |
768 | breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to | |
769 | try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.) | |
770 | ||
771 | * Interesting infernals change | |
772 | ||
773 | GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each | |
774 | section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the | |
775 | target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded | |
776 | stabs used by Solaris-2.0. | |
777 | ||
778 | * Bug fixes (of course!) | |
779 | ||
780 | There have been loads of fixes for the following things: | |
781 | mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k, | |
782 | i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc... | |
783 | ||
784 | See the ChangeLog for details. | |
785 | ||
786 | *** Changes in GDB-4.5: | |
787 | ||
788 | * New machines supported (host and target) | |
789 | ||
790 | IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000 | |
791 | ||
792 | SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4 | |
793 | ||
794 | * New malloc package | |
795 | ||
796 | GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc. | |
797 | Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also | |
798 | capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later. | |
799 | This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a | |
800 | pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For | |
801 | more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi. | |
802 | ||
803 | * info proc | |
804 | ||
805 | The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See | |
806 | 'help info proc' for details. | |
807 | ||
808 | * MIPS ecoff symbol table format | |
809 | ||
810 | The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts. | |
811 | Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this | |
812 | possible. | |
813 | ||
814 | * File name changes for MS-DOS | |
815 | ||
816 | Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to | |
817 | support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name | |
818 | conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32 | |
819 | environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note | |
820 | that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations | |
821 | in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging. | |
822 | ||
823 | * Cross byte order fixes | |
824 | ||
825 | Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS | |
826 | targets from hosts whose byte order differs. | |
827 | ||
828 | * New -mapped and -readnow options | |
829 | ||
830 | If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap' | |
831 | system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or | |
832 | `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your | |
833 | program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is | |
834 | called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'. | |
835 | Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file, | |
836 | and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading | |
837 | the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped' | |
838 | option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as | |
839 | starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option. | |
840 | ||
841 | You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using | |
842 | the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table | |
843 | information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command | |
844 | slower, but makes future operations faster. | |
845 | ||
846 | The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to | |
847 | build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information. | |
848 | A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future | |
849 | use is: | |
850 | ||
851 | gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname | |
852 | ||
853 | The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run. | |
854 | It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be | |
855 | shared across multiple host platforms. | |
856 | ||
857 | * longjmp() handling | |
858 | ||
859 | GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and | |
860 | siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to | |
861 | all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based | |
862 | platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4. | |
863 | ||
864 | * Solaris 2.0 | |
865 | ||
866 | Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At | |
867 | this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of | |
868 | reading symbols. | |
869 | ||
870 | * Bug fixes | |
871 | ||
872 | As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread. | |
873 | People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious | |
874 | crashes and trashed symbol tables. | |
875 | ||
876 | *** Changes in GDB-4.4: | |
877 | ||
878 | * New machines supported (host and target) | |
879 | ||
880 | SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco | |
881 | (except core files) | |
882 | BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd | |
883 | Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix | |
884 | ||
885 | * New machines supported (target) | |
886 | ||
887 | AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none | |
888 | ||
889 | * C++ support | |
890 | ||
891 | GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better. | |
892 | The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as | |
893 | per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide. | |
894 | ||
895 | GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS | |
896 | `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily | |
897 | extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a | |
898 | good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option | |
899 | will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is | |
900 | released. | |
901 | ||
902 | * New features for SVR4 | |
903 | ||
904 | GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS | |
905 | shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present | |
906 | only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs. | |
907 | ||
908 | The `info proc' command will print out information about any process | |
909 | on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment, | |
910 | it prints the address mappings of the process. | |
911 | ||
912 | If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to | |
913 | bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any). | |
914 | ||
915 | * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS | |
916 | ||
917 | Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols | |
918 | now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic | |
919 | skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which | |
920 | make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the | |
921 | same code linked statically. | |
922 | ||
923 | * New Getopt | |
924 | ||
925 | GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This | |
926 | version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will | |
927 | continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well. | |
928 | Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity | |
929 | added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the | |
930 | future by other options that begin with the same letter. | |
931 | ||
932 | * Bugs fixed | |
933 | ||
934 | The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed. | |
935 | Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled. | |
936 | See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details. | |
937 | ||
938 | ||
939 | *** Changes in GDB-4.3: | |
940 | ||
941 | * New machines supported (host and target) | |
942 | ||
943 | Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix | |
944 | NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000 | |
945 | Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88 | |
946 | ||
947 | * Almost SCO Unix support | |
948 | ||
949 | We had hoped to support: | |
950 | SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco | |
951 | (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release | |
952 | that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry | |
953 | about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes. | |
954 | ||
955 | * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support | |
956 | ||
957 | GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle | |
958 | debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support | |
959 | is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please | |
960 | send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were | |
961 | reqired (if any). | |
962 | ||
963 | * New Readline | |
964 | ||
965 | GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change | |
966 | is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously | |
967 | required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?). | |
968 | ||
969 | * Bugs fixed | |
970 | ||
971 | The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed. | |
972 | Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled. | |
973 | See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details. | |
974 | ||
975 | * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered): | |
976 | ||
977 | GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers | |
978 | supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These | |
979 | symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses. | |
980 | ||
981 | Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called | |
982 | mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level | |
983 | debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship | |
984 | mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc | |
985 | version 2. | |
986 | ||
987 | Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not | |
988 | really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get | |
989 | line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local | |
990 | variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the | |
991 | situation somewhat. | |
992 | ||
993 | When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck. | |
994 | However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and | |
995 | methods. | |
996 | ||
997 | We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on | |
998 | DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff | |
999 | encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet. | |
1000 | ||
1001 | ||
1002 | *** Changes in GDB-4.2: | |
1003 | ||
1004 | * Improved configuration | |
1005 | ||
1006 | Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying. | |
1007 | Porting BFD is simpler. | |
1008 | ||
1009 | * Stepping improved | |
1010 | ||
1011 | The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction | |
1012 | of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur | |
1013 | in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a | |
1014 | function that has debugging information is called within the line. | |
1015 | ||
1016 | * Bug fixing | |
1017 | ||
1018 | Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain. | |
1019 | ||
1020 | * New host supported (not target) | |
1021 | ||
1022 | Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach | |
1023 | ||
1024 | ||
1025 | *** Changes in GDB-4.1: | |
1026 | ||
1027 | * Multiple source language support | |
1028 | ||
1029 | GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages. | |
1030 | It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension, | |
1031 | and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the | |
1032 | language of the function in the currently selected stack frame. | |
1033 | You can also specifically set the language to be used, with | |
1034 | `set language c' or `set language modula-2'. | |
1035 | ||
1036 | * GDB and Modula-2 | |
1037 | ||
1038 | GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler, | |
1039 | currently under development at the State University of New York at | |
1040 | Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will | |
1041 | continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992. | |
1042 | ||
1043 | Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to | |
1044 | debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the | |
1045 | symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though! | |
1046 | ||
1047 | There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking, | |
1048 | in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work. | |
1049 | ||
1050 | * set write on/off | |
1051 | ||
1052 | GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch | |
1053 | a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify | |
1054 | the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g. | |
1055 | by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take | |
1056 | effect immediately. | |
1057 | ||
1058 | * Automatic SunOS shared library reading | |
1059 | ||
1060 | When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its | |
1061 | shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols. | |
1062 | The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when | |
1063 | examining core files. | |
1064 | ||
1065 | * set listsize | |
1066 | ||
1067 | You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows. | |
1068 | The default is 10. | |
1069 | ||
1070 | * New machines supported (host and target) | |
1071 | ||
1072 | SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris | |
1073 | Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news | |
1074 | Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3 | |
1075 | ||
1076 | * New hosts supported (not targets) | |
1077 | ||
1078 | IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc | |
1079 | ||
1080 | * New targets supported (not hosts) | |
1081 | ||
1082 | AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff | |
1083 | AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout | |
1084 | Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern | |
1085 | ||
1086 | * New remote interfaces | |
1087 | ||
1088 | AMD 29000 Adapt | |
1089 | AMD 29000 Minimon | |
1090 | ||
1091 | ||
1092 | *** Changes in GDB-4.0: | |
1093 | ||
1094 | * New Facilities | |
1095 | ||
1096 | Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable. | |
1097 | ||
1098 | Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a | |
1099 | target machine of another type. Communication with the target system | |
1100 | is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the | |
1101 | remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the | |
1102 | remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb | |
1103 | also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks, | |
1104 | using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger | |
1105 | stub on the target system. | |
1106 | ||
1107 | New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960. | |
1108 | ||
1109 | GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file'' | |
1110 | library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple | |
1111 | object file types such as a.out and coff. | |
1112 | ||
1113 | There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets | |
1114 | refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it). | |
1115 | ||
1116 | ||
1117 | * Control-Variable user interface simplified | |
1118 | ||
1119 | All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set | |
1120 | by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command. | |
1121 | ||
1122 | For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>. | |
1123 | ``Show prompt'' produces the response: | |
1124 | Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>. | |
1125 | ||
1126 | What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will | |
1127 | print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO'' | |
1128 | will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show | |
1129 | all of the variable descriptions and their current settings. | |
1130 | ||
1131 | confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are | |
1132 | hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while | |
1133 | it is already running. Default is ON. | |
1134 | ||
1135 | editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing | |
1136 | of input. Previous lines can be recalled with | |
1137 | control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B, | |
1138 | you can search for commands with control-R, etc. | |
1139 | Default is ON. | |
1140 | ||
1141 | history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history | |
1142 | will be stored. The default is .gdb_history, | |
1143 | or the value of the environment variable | |
1144 | GDBHISTFILE. | |
1145 | ||
1146 | history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The | |
1147 | default is 256, or the value of the environment variable | |
1148 | HISTSIZE. | |
1149 | ||
1150 | history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will | |
1151 | be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the | |
1152 | file will not be saved. The default is OFF. | |
1153 | ||
1154 | history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like | |
1155 | history expansion will be performed on | |
1156 | command line input. The default is OFF. | |
1157 | ||
1158 | radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set | |
1159 | to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted | |
1160 | in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op. | |
1161 | ||
1162 | height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default | |
1163 | is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#'' | |
1164 | setting from the termcap entry matching the environment | |
1165 | variable TERM. | |
1166 | ||
1167 | width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line. | |
1168 | Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#'' | |
1169 | setting from the termcap entry matching the environment | |
1170 | variable TERM. | |
1171 | ||
1172 | Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and | |
1173 | ``set width'' instead. | |
1174 | ||
1175 | print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays, | |
1176 | such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks | |
1177 | more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more | |
1178 | ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON. | |
1179 | ||
1180 | print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default | |
1181 | is OFF. | |
1182 | ||
1183 | print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on, | |
1184 | "raw" form if off. | |
1185 | ||
1186 | print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts | |
1187 | like instructions. | |
1188 | ||
1189 | print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF. | |
1190 | ||
1191 | ||
1192 | * Support for Epoch Environment. | |
1193 | ||
1194 | The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One | |
1195 | new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you | |
1196 | are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own | |
1197 | window. | |
1198 | ||
1199 | ||
1200 | * Support for Shared Libraries | |
1201 | ||
1202 | GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries. | |
1203 | Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced | |
1204 | before the shared library has been linked with the program (this | |
1205 | happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered). | |
1206 | At any time after this linking (including when examining core files | |
1207 | from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each | |
1208 | shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command. | |
1209 | It can be abbreviated ``share''. | |
1210 | ||
1211 | sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files | |
1212 | matching a unix regular expression. No argument | |
1213 | indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries. | |
1214 | ||
1215 | info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries. | |
1216 | ||
1217 | ||
1218 | * Watchpoints | |
1219 | ||
1220 | A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an | |
1221 | expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution | |
1222 | tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is | |
1223 | quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse | |
1224 | problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this | |
1225 | more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware. | |
1226 | ||
1227 | watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression. | |
1228 | ||
1229 | info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints. | |
1230 | ||
1231 | delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints). | |
1232 | disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints). | |
1233 | enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints). | |
1234 | ||
1235 | ||
1236 | * C++ multiple inheritance | |
1237 | ||
1238 | When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance | |
1239 | for C++ programs. | |
1240 | ||
1241 | * C++ exception handling | |
1242 | ||
1243 | Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing | |
1244 | ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on | |
1245 | the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the | |
1246 | handler's context). | |
1247 | ||
1248 | catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope, | |
1249 | set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there. | |
1250 | Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught. | |
1251 | ||
1252 | info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the | |
1253 | current stack frame. | |
1254 | ||
1255 | ||
1256 | * Minor command changes | |
1257 | ||
1258 | The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print | |
1259 | command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result | |
1260 | is void. This is similar to dbx usage. | |
1261 | ||
1262 | The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up | |
1263 | at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change | |
1264 | frames without printing. | |
1265 | ||
1266 | * New directory command | |
1267 | ||
1268 | 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path. | |
1269 | The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information | |
1270 | about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even | |
1271 | with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't | |
1272 | find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .". | |
1273 | ||
1274 | * Configuring GDB for compilation | |
1275 | ||
1276 | For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo | |
1277 | for more details. | |
1278 | ||
1279 | GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between | |
1280 | two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''. | |
1281 | Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine | |
1282 | where the program that you are debugging will run. |