2004-10-08 Michael Chastain <mec.gnu@mindspring.com>
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
CommitLineData
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.2:
5
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6*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
7
8* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
9
10When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
11heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
12been fixed.
13
14* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
15
16When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
17fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
18IRIX long double values).
19
20* VAX and "next"
21
22A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
23command. This problem has been fixed.
24
860660cb 25*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 26
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27* Fix for ``many threads''
28
29On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
30rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
31error message:
32
33 ptrace: No such process.
34 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
35
36This problem has been fixed.
37
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38* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
39
40Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
41GDB to dump core).
42
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43* New ``start'' command.
44
45This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
46
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47* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
48
49Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
50live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
51platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
52
53FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
54FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
55NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
56NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
57NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
58OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
59OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
60OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
61OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
62
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63* Signal trampoline code overhauled
64
65Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
66These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
67of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
68call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
69signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
70
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71Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
72features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
73include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 74
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75* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
76
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77* New native configurations
78
97dc871c 79GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 80OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
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81OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
82OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 83OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 84NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 85OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 86
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87* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
88
89GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
90The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
91including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
92migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
93compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
94work, was also included.
95
96GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
97module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
98
99h8300-*-*
100mcore-*-*
101mn10300-*-*
102ns32k-*-*
103sh64-*-*
104v850-*-*
105xstormy16-*-*
106
107Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
108made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
109
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110* REMOVED configurations and files
111
112Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
113Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
114Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
115Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
116Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
117AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
118Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
119decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
120riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
121sonymips mips-sony-*
122sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
123
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124*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
125
126* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
127
128The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
129GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
130command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
131program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
132with GDB".
133
134* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
135
136Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
137libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
138cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
139GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
140shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
141the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
142are created.
143
144Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
145
146* Fixed ISO-C build problems
147
148The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
149non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
150compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
151
152* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
153
154Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
155wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
156
157* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
158
159The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
160permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
161systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
162
163* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
164
165Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
166has been updated to use constant array sizes.
167
168* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
169
170GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
171its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
172panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
173
174* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
175
176When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
177by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
178not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
179
faae5abe 180*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 181
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182* Removed --with-mmalloc
183
184Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
185conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
186
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187* Changes in AMD64 configurations
188
189The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
190the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
191and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
192you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
193
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194* Revised SPARC target
195
196The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
197FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
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198support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
199from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
200(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 201
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202* New C++ demangler
203
204GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
205names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
206with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
207programs.
208
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209* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
210
211GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
212arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
213encountered these.
214
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215* C++ nested types and namespaces
216
217GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
218improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
219is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
220Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
221namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
222"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
223frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
224if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
225GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
226
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227* New native configurations
228
229NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 230OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 231OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
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232OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
233OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 234
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235* New debugging protocols
236
237M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
238
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239* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
240
241The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
242and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
243tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
244
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245* OBSOLETE configurations and files
246
247Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
248been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
249configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
250permanently REMOVED.
251
252Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
253Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
254Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
255Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
256Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
257AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
258Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
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259decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
260riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
261sonymips mips-sony-*
262sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 263
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264* REMOVED configurations and files
265
266SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
267SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
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268Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
269Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
270H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
271HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
272HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
273HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
274PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 275386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
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276Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
277 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
278 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
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279SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
280SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
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281Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
282Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 283
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284*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
285
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286* Objective-C
287
288Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
289integrated into GDB.
290
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291* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
292
293DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
294information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
295By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
296backtraces.
297
298The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
299have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
300DWARF 2 CFI support.
301
302* Hosted file I/O.
303
304GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
305file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
306remote protocol documentation for details.
307
308* All targets using the new architecture framework.
309
310All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
311architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
312to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
313ppc32 on ppc64).
314
315* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
316
317GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
318per-thread variables.
319
320* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
321
322GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
323GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
324
325* Separate debug info.
326
327GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
328automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
329of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
330system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
331and optional debug files.
332
333* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
334
335DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
336describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
337debugger.
338
339GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
340for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
341
342* Java
343
344A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
345Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
346considered "useable".
347
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348* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
349
350The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
351commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
352kernel.
353
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354* GDB supports logging output to a file
355
356There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
357used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 358
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359* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
360
361The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
362disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
363command.
364
e286caf2 365* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
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366
367The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
368registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
369
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370* Profiling support
371
372A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
373be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
374session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
375"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
376data, for more informative profiling results.
377
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378* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
379
380The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
381option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 382"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
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383
384Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
385removed.
386
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387Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
388Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
389Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
390 in a subsequent -var-update.
391
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392* New native configurations.
393
394FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
395
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396* Multi-arched targets.
397
b4263afa 398HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 399Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 400
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401* OBSOLETE configurations and files
402
403Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
404been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
405configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
406permanently REMOVED.
407
8b0e5691 408Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 409Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 410H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
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411HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
412HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
413HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 414PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
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415Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
416 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
417 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
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418Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
419Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 420
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421* REMOVED configurations and files
422
423V850EA ISA
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424Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
425IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
426i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
427i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
428i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
429HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
430 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
431 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
432Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
433Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
434Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
435OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
436I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 437
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438* MIPS $fp behavior changed
439
440The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
441the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
442context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
443address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
444The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
445
299ffc64 446*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 447
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448* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
449
450When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
451`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
452in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
453library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
454shared libs like mad''.
455
b9d14705 456* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 457
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458Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
459the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
460arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
461powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 462
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463* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
464
465GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
466and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
467they expand.
468
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469The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
470invocations in expression, and shows the result.
471
472The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
473macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
474
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475Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
476information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
477your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
478information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
479
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480* Multi-arched targets.
481
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482DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
483DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 484NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 485National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
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486Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
487Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 488
cd9bfe15 489* New targets.
e33ce519 490
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491Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
492
e33ce519 493
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494* New native configurations
495
496Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 497SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 498MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 499UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 500
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501* OBSOLETE configurations and files
502
503Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
504been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
505configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
506permanently REMOVED.
507
92eb23c5 508Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 509OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 510IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 511Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 512Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 513Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
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514i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
515i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
516i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
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517HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
518 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
519 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 520I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 521
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522* OBSOLETE languages
523
524CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
525
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526* REMOVED configurations and files
527
528AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
529A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
530AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
531AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
532AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
533
534testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
535
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536* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
537
538This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
539commands. The default is 1024.
540
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541* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
542
543Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
544
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545* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
546
547These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
548to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
549from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 550
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551* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
552
553The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
554including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
555of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
556
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557*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
558
559* New targets.
560
561Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
562
563* Bug fixes
564
565gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
566mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
567Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
568
569gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
570dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
571Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
572
573Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
574Surprisingly enough, it works now.
575By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
576
577i386 hardware watchpoint support:
578avoid misses on second run for some targets.
579By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
580
37057839 581*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 582
1a703748
MS
583* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
584
585This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
586really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
587In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
588target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
589This can be a significant performance improvement on some
590(notably embedded) targets.
591
cefd4ef5
MS
592* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
593
55241689
AC
594This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
595process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
596GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
597hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 598
352ed7b4
MS
599* New command line option
600
601GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
602
603* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
604
605There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
606command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
607a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
608be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
609open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
610issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
611a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
612it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
613GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
614is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
615
fe419ffc
RE
616* Changes in ARM configurations.
617
618Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
619configuration is fully multi-arch.
620
eb7cedd9
MK
621* New native configurations
622
fe419ffc 623ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 624x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 625AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 626Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 627
c9f63e6b
CV
628* New targets
629
630Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
631
9b4ff276
AC
632* OBSOLETE configurations and files
633
634Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
635been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
636configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
637permanently REMOVED.
638
639AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
640A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
641AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
642AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
643AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
644
b4ceaee6 645testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 646
e2caac18
AC
647* REMOVED configurations and files
648
649TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 650WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
651PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
652PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
653PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 654Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
655Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
656 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 657SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 658Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
659Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
660ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 661Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 662
c2a727fa
TT
663* Changes to command line processing
664
665The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
666for the inferior from gdb's command line.
667
467d8519
TT
668* Changes to key bindings
669
670There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
671
7072a954
AC
672*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
673
674Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
675
676Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
677corrupted.
678
679Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
680
681Numerous documentation fixes.
682
683Numerous testsuite fixes.
684
34f47bc4 685*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
686
687* New native configurations
688
689Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
690x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 691MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
692MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
693ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 694s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 695
bf64bfd6
AC
696* New targets
697
def90278 698Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 699CRIS cris-axis
55241689 700UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 701
17e78a56 702* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
703
704x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 705Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
706Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
707 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
708TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
709WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 710Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
711PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
712PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
713PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 714SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
715Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
716ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 717Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 718
17e78a56
AC
719stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
720kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
721
7fcca85b
AC
722Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
723been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
724configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
725permanently REMOVED.
726
a196c81c 727* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
728
729Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
730Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
731Pyramid pyramid-*-*
732ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
733Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 734ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 735
6d6b80e5 736* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 737
6d6b80e5 738GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
739sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
740present.
741
bf64bfd6
AC
742* Other news:
743
e23194cb
EZ
744* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
745
746* The MI enabled by default.
747
748The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
749revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
750engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
751using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
752which is now deprecated.
753
754* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
755
756GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
757main features are supported:
758
759 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
760
761 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
762 extension;
763
764 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
765
766 - a Pascal expression parser.
767
768However, some important features are not yet supported.
769
770 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
771
772 - there are some problems with boolean types;
773
774 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
775 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
776
777 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
778
779 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
780
781* Changes in completion.
782
783Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
784to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
785users expect at the shell prompt.
786
787Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
788`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
789program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
790files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
791be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
792considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
793name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
794
795`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
796
797* New platform-independent commands:
798
799It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
800hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
801documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
802
803* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
804
d7275149
MK
805Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
806revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
807many threads as your system allows you to have.
808
e23194cb
EZ
809Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
810
d7275149
MK
811Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
812multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
813
814* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
815
816Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
817
e23194cb
EZ
818GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
819debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
820supported.)
821
822* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
823
824Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
825breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
826implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
827put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
828and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
829registers.
830
831The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
832debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
833watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
834
835* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
836
837New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
838the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
839
840New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
841display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
842IDT.
843
844New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
845from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
846New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
847a given linear address.
848
849GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
850program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
851which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
852
853DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
854
6c56c069
EZ
855It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
856
e23194cb
EZ
857* Changes in documentation.
858
859All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
860Documentation License.
861
862Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
863manual.
864
865TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
866
867Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
868manual.
869
870The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
871documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
872hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
873
5d6640b1
AC
874* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
875
876The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
877``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
878contents of this file.
879
1a1d8446
AC
880* gdba.el deleted
881
882GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 883
9debab2f 884*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 885
c63ce875
EZ
886* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
887
888Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
889programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
890displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
891greater level of detail.
892
893* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
894
895It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
896bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
897on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
898written.
899
900* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
901
902The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
903necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
904machines ``out of the box''.
905
906The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
907possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
908signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
909would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
910interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
911
912It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
913standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
914even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
915and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
916terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
917
918The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
919enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
920also works.
921
922DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
923GDB.
924
925It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
926directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
927times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
928breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
929
ed9a39eb
JM
930* New native configurations
931
932ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 933PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 934
7a292a7a
SS
935* New targets
936
96baa820 937Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
938x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
939PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
940TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
941
085dd6e6
JM
942* OBSOLETE configurations
943
944Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
945Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 946Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 947ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 948Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 949
9debab2f
AC
950Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
951but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
952these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
953be permanently REMOVED.
954
5330533d
SS
955* Gould support removed
956
957Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
958
bc9e5bbf
AC
959* New features for SVR4
960
961On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
962without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
963load symbols from the running process's executable file.
964
965* Many C++ enhancements
966
967C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
968in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
969
adf40b2e
JM
970* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
971
972A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
973sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
974with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
975``|<program> <args>'' vis:
976
977 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
978 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
979
43e526b9
JM
980* MIPS 64 remote protocol
981
982A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
983expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
984instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
985
986The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
987added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
988
96baa820
JM
989* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
990
991The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
992``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
993include ``set remote P-packet''.
994
11cf8741
JM
995* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
996
997The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
998accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
999``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1000
7876dd43
DB
1001* ``apropos'' command added.
1002
1003The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1004documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1005try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1006
bc9e5bbf
AC
1007* New MI interface
1008
1009A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1010interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
1011process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1012"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1013enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
1014
1015 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1016
c906108c
SS
1017*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1018
1019* New native configurations
1020
1021HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1022HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 1023M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
1024
1025* New targets
1026
1027Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1028Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1029Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1030
1031* OBSOLETE configurations
1032
1033Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1034
1035Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1036but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1037these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1038be permanently REMOVED.
1039
1040* ANSI/ISO C
1041
1042As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1043buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1044containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1045use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1046available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1047configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1048information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1049already.
1050
1051* Readline 2.2
1052
1053GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1054
1055* set extension-language
1056
1057You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1058languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1059you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1060 set extension-language .c c++
1061The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1062and their associated languages.
1063
1064* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1065
1066When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1067you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1068PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1069
1070 set processor NAME
1071
1072sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1073following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1074
1075 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1076 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1077 403 IBM PowerPC 403
1078 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1079 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1080 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1081 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1082 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1083 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1084 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1085 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1086
1087At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1088special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1089registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1090only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1091
1092* HP-UX support
1093
1094Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1095more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1096library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1097support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1098for xdb and dbx commands.
1099
1100* Catchpoints
1101
1102HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1103generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1104to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1105
1106This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1107argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1108output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1109
1110* Debugging across forks
1111
1112On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1113in the inferior.
1114
1115* TUI
1116
1117HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1118it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1119configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1120
1121* GDB remote protocol additions
1122
1123A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1124Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1125fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1126allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1127
1128For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1129full 64-bit address. The command
1130
1131 set remoteaddresssize 32
1132
1133can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1134the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1135will be discarded.
1136
1137In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1138command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1139
1140 maint packet heythere
1141
1142sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1143disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1144time.
1145
1146The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1147target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1148downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1149
1150* Tracing can collect general expressions
1151
1152You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1153further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1154doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1155
1156* mask-address variable for Mips
1157
1158For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1159a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1160of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1161
1162* Higher serial baud rates
1163
1164GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1165230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1166to achieve all of these rates.)
1167
1168* i960 simulator
1169
1170The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1171builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1172
1173
1174*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1175
1176* New native configurations
1177
1178Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1179Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1180Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1181PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1182PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1183Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1184Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1185
1186* New targets
1187
1188Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1189Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1190Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1191Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1192MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1193MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1194MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1195Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1196Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1197Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1198NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1199
1200* New debugging protocols
1201
1202ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1203M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1204DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1205PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1206PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1207Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1208
1209* DWARF 2
1210
1211All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1212format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1213information.
1214
1215* Java frontend
1216
1217GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1218only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1219
1220* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1221
1222For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1223loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1224locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1225
1226* Live range splitting
1227
1228GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1229range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1230more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1231
1232* Hurd support
1233
1234GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1235updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1236
1237* ARM Thumb support
1238
1239GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1240instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1241instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1242accordingly.
1243
1244* MIPS16 support
1245
1246GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1247instruction set.
1248
1249* Overlay support
1250
1251GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1252linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1253will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1254control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1255additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1256in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1257
1258* info symbol
1259
1260The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1261the symbol at the specified address.
1262
1263* Trace support
1264
1265The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1266asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1267extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1268includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1269file tracepoint.c for more details.
1270
1271* MIPS simulator
1272
1273Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1274by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1275of most MIPS variants.
1276
1277* Sparc simulator
1278
1279Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1280by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1281Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1282
1283* set architecture
1284
1285For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1286basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1287architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1288the possible architectures.
1289
1290*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1291
1292* New native configurations
1293
1294Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1295M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1296PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1297PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1298PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1299RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1300
1301* New targets
1302
1303ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1304I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1305MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1306MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1307PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1308Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
1309Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1310
1311* PowerPC simulator
1312
1313The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1314contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1315PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1316basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1317performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1318
1319* Solaris 2.5
1320
1321GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1322
1323* Windows 95/NT native
1324
1325GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1326To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1327which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1328Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1329ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1330
1331* dont-repeat command
1332
1333If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1334command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1335useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1336extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1337
1338* Send break instead of ^C
1339
1340The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1341rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1342GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1343
1344* Remote protocol timeout
1345
1346The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1347that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1348to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1349
1350* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1351
1352By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1353loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1354stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1355when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1356in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1357
1358Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1359/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1360automatically on hpux10.
1361
1362* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1363
1364Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1365
1366* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1367
1368When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1369may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1370the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1371every character. The default value is 1050.
1372
1373* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1374
1375If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1376a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1377replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1378details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1379remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1380to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1381
1382* Speedups for remote debugging
1383
1384GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1385the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1386and more efficient S-record downloading.
1387
1388* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1389
1390GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1391Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1392
1393*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1394
1395* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1396
1397The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1398can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1399
1400* Remote targets use caching
1401
1402Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1403remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1404it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1405debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1406off' turns the the data cache off.
1407
1408* Remote targets may have threads
1409
1410The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1411in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1412gdb/remote.c for details.
1413
1414* NetROM support
1415
1416If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1417support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1418acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1419write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1420support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1421another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1422sequence is something like
1423
1424 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1425 load <prog>
1426 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1427
1428* Macintosh host
1429
1430GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1431may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1432it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1433available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1434device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1435directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1436scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1437mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1438
1439* Autoconf
1440
1441GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1442but does simplify configuration and building.
1443
1444* hpux10
1445
1446GDB now supports hpux10.
1447
1448*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1449
1450* New native configurations
1451
1452x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1453x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1454NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1455Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1456
1457* New targets
1458
1459A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1460HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1461CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1462PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1463WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1464
1465* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1466
1467GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1468possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1469filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1470the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1471if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1472
1473* Arguments to user-defined commands
1474
1475User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1476Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1477trivial example:
1478define adder
1479 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1480
1481To execute the command use:
1482adder 1 2 3
1483
1484Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1485Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1486use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1487
1488* New `if' and `while' commands
1489
1490This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1491commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1492expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1493execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1494terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1495`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1496if the expression is zero.
1497
1498* Fortran source language mode
1499
1500GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1501Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1502variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1503with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1504Fortran compilers.
1505
1506* Better HPUX support
1507
1508Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1509running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1510processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1511for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1512that behavior do the following before running the program:
1513
1514 adb -w a.out
1515 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1516 control-d
1517
1518This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1519To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1520
1521 adb -w a.out
1522 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1523 control-d
1524
1525You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1526the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1527external linkage.
1528
1529GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1530HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1531
1532* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1533
1534You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1535commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1536current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1537"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1538associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1539configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1540
1541* New DOS host serial code
1542
1543This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1544no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1545a PC's serial port.
1546
1547*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1548
1549* New "complete" command
1550
1551This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1552were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1553
1554* Trailing space optional in prompt
1555
1556"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1557allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1558
1559* Breakpoint hit counts
1560
1561"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1562has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1563can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1564to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1565less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1566that breakpoint.
1567
1568* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1569
1570"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1571an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1572arrays actually contain only short strings.
1573
1574* Shared library breakpoints
1575
1576In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1577breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1578
1579* Hardware watchpoints
1580
1581There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1582targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1583
55241689 1584Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1585
1586* Annotations
1587
1588Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1589and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1590
1591* Improved Irix 5 support
1592
1593GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1594
1595* Improved HPPA support
1596
1597GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1598
1599* New native configurations
1600
1601Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1602HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1603Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1604RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1605
1606* New targets
1607
1608OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1609MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1610Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1611
1612* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1613
1614There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1615This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1616
1617* Fixes
1618
1619As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1620and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1621
1622*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1623
1624* Irix 5 is now supported
1625
1626* HPPA support
1627
1628GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1629to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1630GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1631of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1632can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1633
1634
1635*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1636
1637* User visible changes:
1638
1639* Remote Debugging
1640
1641The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1642target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1643debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1644integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1645debugging info for the mips target).
1646
1647* DEC Alpha native support
1648
1649GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1650debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1651work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1652Alpha-specific notes.
1653
1654* Preliminary thread implementation
1655
1656GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1657
1658* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1659
1660This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1661to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1662for details).
1663
1664* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1665
1666This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1667mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1668call methods, ...etc.
1669
1670*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1671
1672 * User visible changes:
1673
1674Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1675supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1676other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1677somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1678
1679Filename completion now works.
1680
1681When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1682arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1683addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1684
1685All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1686vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1687should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1688your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1689to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1690
1691 * DEC alpha support
1692
1693This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1694cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1695
1696
1697*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1698
1699 * Testsuite
1700
1701This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1702The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1703via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1704
1705 * C++ demangling
1706
1707'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1708emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1709Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1710disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1711use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1712
1713 * Simulators
1714
1715GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1716So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1717Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1718
1719 * New targets supported
1720
1721H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1722H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1723SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1724Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1725IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1726
1727Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1728version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1729GO32 memory extender.
1730
1731 * New remote protocols
1732
1733MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1734
1735 * New source languages supported
1736
1737This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1738used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1739into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1740
1741
1742*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1743
1744 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1745
1746GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1747version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1748University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1749compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1750format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1751(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1752
1753Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1754
1755 * Faster and better demangling
1756
1757We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1758demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1759character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1760only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1761This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1762increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1763symbol lookups.
1764
1765`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1766from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1767compiler does not actually implement.
1768
1769 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1770
1771In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1772inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1773recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1774very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1775The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1776circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1777fix.
1778
1779The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1780release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1781
1782 * Improved configure script
1783
1784The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1785you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1786host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1787done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1788
1789We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1790version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1791`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1792The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1793only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1794We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1795
1796 * Documentation improvements
1797
1798There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1799produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1800before submitting changes.
1801
1802The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1803M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1804`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1805you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1806a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1807
1808*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1809We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1810been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1811or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1812`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1813around this problem.
1814
1815 * New features
1816
1817GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1818the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1819`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1820the target program.
1821
1822The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1823how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1824
1825 * New native hosts supported
1826
1827HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1828386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1829
1830 * New targets supported
1831
1832AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1833
1834 * New file formats supported
1835
1836BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1837HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1838
1839 * Major bug fixes
1840
1841Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1842
1843We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1844printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1845
1846We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1847for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1848release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1849
1850You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1851will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1852
1853We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1854for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1855especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1856libraries.
1857
1858The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1859information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1860command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1861any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1862when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1863
1864 * Internal improvements
1865
1866GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1867debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1868
1869GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1870Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1871symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1872contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1873shared code that handles any of them.
1874
1875 * New command line options
1876
1877We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1878
1879 * Mmalloc licensing
1880
1881The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1882General Public License.
1883
1884*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1885
1886 * Host/native/target split
1887
1888GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1889hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1890target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1891local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1892ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1893
1894The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1895GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1896is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1897code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1898any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1899built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1900handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1901
1902GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1903It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1904plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1905
1906 * New hosts supported
1907
1908HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1909386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1910386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1911
1912 * New targets supported
1913
1914Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
191568030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1916
1917 * New native hosts supported
1918
1919386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1920 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1921386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1922
1923 * New file formats supported
1924
1925BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1926supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1927format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1928
1929 * New commands
1930
1931`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1932`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1933These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1934
1935`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1936
1937You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1938scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1939prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1940executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1941
1942 * C++ improvements
1943
1944We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1945info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1946symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1947
1948Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1949
1950 * Major bug fixes
1951
1952The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1953fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1954by the compiler.
1955
1956We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1957support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1958
1959John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1960slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1961that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1962purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1963the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1964mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1965
1966Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1967about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1968completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1969we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1970
1971 * AMD 29k support
1972
1973A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1974specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1975calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1976usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1977in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1978
1979We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1980Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1981of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1982resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1983
1984 * Remote interfaces
1985
1986We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1987with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1988message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1989This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1990needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1991breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1992each instruction being stepped through.
1993
1994The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1995registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1996
1997There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1998find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1999Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2000processor with a serial port.
2001
2002 * Configuration
2003
2004Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2005`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2006supported, and what files each one uses.
2007
2008 * Library changes
2009
2010There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2011disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2012Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2013disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2014
2015The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2016Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2017can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2018grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2019
2020 * Documentation
2021
2022The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2023reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2024as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2025encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2026system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2027bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2028
2029And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2030
2031
2032*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2033
2034 * Better support for C++ function names
2035
2036GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2037names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2038(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2039single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2040Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2041
2042GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2043the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2044You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2045lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2046for the list of formats.
2047
2048 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2049
2050Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2051C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2052directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2053can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2054usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2055about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2056this problem.)
2057
2058 * New 'maintenance' command
2059
2060All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2061the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2062can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2063
2064 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2065 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2066 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2067 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2068 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2069 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2070
2071The following commands are new:
2072
2073 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2074 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2075 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2076
2077 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2078
2079We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2080(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2081be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2082read after argv processing.
2083
2084 * New hosts supported
2085
2086Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2087
55241689 2088GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
2089
2090We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2091is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2092for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2093masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2094fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2095It costs extra.
2096
2097 * New targets supported
2098
2099Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2100
2101 * More smarts about finding #include files
2102
2103GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2104all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2105greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2106especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2107the one that contains your sources.
2108
2109We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2110breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2111try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2112
2113 * Interesting infernals change
2114
2115GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2116section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2117target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2118stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2119
2120 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2121
2122There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2123 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2124 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2125
2126See the ChangeLog for details.
2127
2128*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2129
2130 * New machines supported (host and target)
2131
2132IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2133
2134SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2135
2136 * New malloc package
2137
2138GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2139Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2140capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2141This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2142pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2143more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2144
2145 * info proc
2146
2147The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2148'help info proc' for details.
2149
2150 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2151
2152The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2153Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2154possible.
2155
2156 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2157
2158Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2159support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2160conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2161environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2162that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2163in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2164
2165 * Cross byte order fixes
2166
2167Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2168targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2169
2170 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2171
2172If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2173system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2174`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2175program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2176called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2177Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2178and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2179the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2180option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2181starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2182
2183You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2184the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2185information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2186slower, but makes future operations faster.
2187
2188The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2189build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2190A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2191use is:
2192
2193 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2194
2195The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2196It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2197shared across multiple host platforms.
2198
2199 * longjmp() handling
2200
2201GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2202siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2203all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2204platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2205
2206 * Solaris 2.0
2207
2208Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2209this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2210reading symbols.
2211
2212 * Bug fixes
2213
2214As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2215People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2216crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2217
2218*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2219
2220 * New machines supported (host and target)
2221
2222SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2223 (except core files)
2224BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2225Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2226
2227 * New machines supported (target)
2228
2229AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2230
2231 * C++ support
2232
2233GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2234The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2235per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2236
2237GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2238`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2239extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2240good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2241will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2242released.
2243
2244 * New features for SVR4
2245
2246GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2247shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2248only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2249
2250The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2251on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2252it prints the address mappings of the process.
2253
2254If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2255bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2256
2257 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2258
2259Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2260now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2261skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2262make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2263same code linked statically.
2264
2265 * New Getopt
2266
2267GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2268version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2269continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2270Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2271added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2272future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2273
2274 * Bugs fixed
2275
2276The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2277Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2278See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2279
2280
2281*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2282
2283 * New machines supported (host and target)
2284
2285Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2286NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2287Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2288
2289 * Almost SCO Unix support
2290
2291We had hoped to support:
2292SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2293(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2294that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2295about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2296
2297 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2298
2299GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2300debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2301is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2302send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2303reqired (if any).
2304
2305 * New Readline
2306
2307GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2308is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2309required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2310
2311 * Bugs fixed
2312
2313The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2314Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2315See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2316
2317 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2318
2319GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2320supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2321symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2322
2323Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2324mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2325debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2326mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2327version 2.
2328
2329Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2330really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2331line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2332variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2333situation somewhat.
2334
2335When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2336However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2337methods.
2338
2339We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2340DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2341encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2342
2343
2344*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2345
2346 * Improved configuration
2347
2348Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2349Porting BFD is simpler.
2350
2351 * Stepping improved
2352
2353The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2354of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2355in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2356function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2357
2358 * Bug fixing
2359
2360Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2361
2362 * New host supported (not target)
2363
2364Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2365
2366
2367*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2368
2369 * Multiple source language support
2370
2371GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2372It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2373and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2374language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2375You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2376`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2377
2378 * GDB and Modula-2
2379
2380GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2381currently under development at the State University of New York at
2382Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2383continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2384
2385Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2386debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2387symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2388
2389There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2390in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2391
2392 * set write on/off
2393
2394GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2395a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2396the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2397by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2398effect immediately.
2399
2400 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2401
2402When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2403shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2404The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2405examining core files.
2406
2407 * set listsize
2408
2409You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2410The default is 10.
2411
2412 * New machines supported (host and target)
2413
2414SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2415Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2416Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2417
2418 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2419
2420IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2421
2422 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2423
2424AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2425AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2426Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2427
2428 * New remote interfaces
2429
2430AMD 29000 Adapt
2431AMD 29000 Minimon
2432
2433
2434*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2435
2436 * New Facilities
2437
2438Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2439
2440Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2441target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2442is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2443remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2444remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2445also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2446using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2447stub on the target system.
2448
2449New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2450
2451GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2452library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2453object file types such as a.out and coff.
2454
2455There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2456refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2457
2458
2459 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2460
2461All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2462by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2463
2464For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2465``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2466Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2467
2468What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2469print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2470will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2471all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2472
2473confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2474 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2475 it is already running. Default is ON.
2476
2477editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2478 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2479 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2480 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2481 Default is ON.
2482
2483history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2484 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2485 or the value of the environment variable
2486 GDBHISTFILE.
2487
2488history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2489 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2490 HISTSIZE.
2491
2492history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2493 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2494 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2495
2496history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2497 history expansion will be performed on
2498 command line input. The default is OFF.
2499
2500radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2501 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2502 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2503
2504height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2505 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2506 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2507 variable TERM.
2508
2509width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2510 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2511 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2512 variable TERM.
2513
2514Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2515``set width'' instead.
2516
2517print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2518 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2519 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2520 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2521
2522print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2523 is OFF.
2524
2525print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2526 "raw" form if off.
2527
2528print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2529 like instructions.
2530
2531print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2532
2533
2534 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2535
2536The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2537new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2538are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2539window.
2540
2541
2542 * Support for Shared Libraries
2543
2544GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2545Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2546before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2547happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2548At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2549from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2550shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2551It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2552
2553sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2554 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2555 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2556
2557info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2558
2559
2560 * Watchpoints
2561
2562A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2563expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2564tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2565quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2566problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2567more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2568
2569watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2570
2571info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2572
2573delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2574disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2575enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2576
2577
2578 * C++ multiple inheritance
2579
2580When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2581for C++ programs.
2582
2583 * C++ exception handling
2584
2585Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2586ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2587the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2588handler's context).
2589
2590catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2591 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2592 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2593
2594info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2595 current stack frame.
2596
2597
2598 * Minor command changes
2599
2600The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2601command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2602is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2603
2604The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2605at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2606frames without printing.
2607
2608 * New directory command
2609
2610'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2611The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2612about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2613with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2614find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2615
2616 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2617
2618For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2619for more details.
2620
2621GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2622two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2623Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2624where the program that you are debugging will run.
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