* ldlang.c (insert_os_after): Don't tie assignments to non-alloc
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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c906108c
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.8
5
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6* Process record and replay
7
8 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
9 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
10 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
11 execute commands.
12
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13* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
14step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
15set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
16reverse execution.
17
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18* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
19feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
202.6.28 or later.
21
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22* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
23target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
24char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
25literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
26U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
27`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
28system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
29the installation instructions for more information.
30
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31* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
32remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
33with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
34the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
35
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36* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
37now complete on file names.
38
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39* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
40completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
41For instance, consider:
42
43 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
44 # struct example variable;
45 (gdb) p variable.
46
47If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
48completions will be "f1" and "f2".
49
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50* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
51the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
52
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53* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
54operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
55macros.
56
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57* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
59 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
60
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61* New remote packets
62
63qSearch:memory:
64 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
65
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66QStartNoAckMode
67 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
68 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
69 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
70
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71vKill
72 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
73 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
74
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75qXfer:osdata:read
76 Obtains additional operating system information
77
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78qXfer:siginfo:read
79qXfer:siginfo:write
80 Read or write additional signal information.
81
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82* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
83
84 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
85 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
86 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
87
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88* The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
89source+assembly.
90
c055b101 91* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 92DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
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93
94* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
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95and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
96`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 97
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98* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
99with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
100
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101* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
102
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103* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
104
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105* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
106which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
107
1fddbabb 108* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 109list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 110
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111* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
112conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
113have also been fixed.
114
bfb8797a 115* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
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116From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
117are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 118
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119* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
120example, given:
121
122 template<typename T> class C { };
123 C<char const *> c;
124
125GDB will now correctly handle all of:
126
127 ptype C<char const *>
128 ptype C<char const*>
129 ptype C<const char *>
130 ptype C<const char*>
131
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132* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
133
134 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
135 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
136
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137 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
138 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
139 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
140
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141 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
142 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
143
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144 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
145 gdbserver.
146
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147 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
148 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
149
150 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
151 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
152 as appropriate.
153
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154* Python scripting
155
156 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
157 available is determined at configure time.
158
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159 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
160
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161* Ada tasking support
162
163 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
164 been introduced:
165
166 info tasks
167 Print the list of Ada tasks.
168 info task N
169 Print detailed information about task number N.
170 task
171 Print the task number of the current task.
172 task N
173 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
174
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175* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
176add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
177
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178* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
179
180 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
181 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
182 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
183 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
184 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
185 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
186 below.
187
d7713ae0 188* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 189
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190find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
191 val1 [, val2, ...]
192 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
193
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194maint set python print-stack
195maint show python print-stack
196 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
197
198python [CODE]
199 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
200
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201macro define
202macro list
203macro undef
204 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
205 interactively.
206
207info os processes
208 Show operating system information about processes.
209
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210info inferiors
211 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
212
213inferior NUM
214 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
215
216detach inferior NUM
217 Detach from inferior number NUM.
218
219kill inferior NUM
220 Kill inferior number NUM.
221
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222* New options
223
224set sh calling-convention
225show sh calling-convention
226 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
227
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228set print symbol-loading
229show print symbol-loading
230 Control printing of symbol loading messages.
231
e0a3ce09 232set debug timestamp
75feb17d 233show debug timestamp
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234 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
235
236set disassemble-next-line
237show disassemble-next-line
238 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
239 the debuggee stops.
240
241set remote noack-packet
242show remote noack-packet
243 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
244 under "New remote packets."
245
246set remote query-attached-packet
247show remote query-attached-packet
248 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
249
250set remote read-siginfo-object
251show remote read-siginfo-object
252 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
253 packet.
254
255set remote write-siginfo-object
256show remote write-siginfo-object
257 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
258 packet.
259
260set displaced-stepping
261show displaced-stepping
262 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
263 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
264 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
265
266set debug displaced
267show debug displaced
268 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
269
270maint set internal-error
271maint show internal-error
272 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
273
274maint set internal-warning
275maint show internal-warning
276 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 277
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278set exec-wrapper
279show exec-wrapper
280unset exec-wrapper
281 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 282
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283set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
284show multiple-symbols
285 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
286 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
287 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
288
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289set breakpoint always-inserted
290show breakpoint always-inserted
291 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
292 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
293 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
294
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295set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
296show arm fallback-mode
297set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
298show arm force-mode
299 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
300 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
301 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
302 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
303
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304set disable-randomization
305show disable-randomization
306 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
307 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
308 multiple debugging sessions.
309
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310set non-stop
311show non-stop
312 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
313 a breakpoint.
314
b3eb342c 315set target-async
d7713ae0 316show target-async
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317 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
318 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
319 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
320 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
321
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322set target-wide-charset
323show target-wide-charset
324 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
325 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
326
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327set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
328show tcp auto-retry
329set tcp connect-timeout
330show tcp connect-timeout
331 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
332 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
333 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
334
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335set libthread-db-search-path
336show libthread-db-search-path
337 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
338 libthread_db.
339
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340set schedule-multiple (on|off)
341show schedule-multiple
342 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
343 the current process.
344
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345* Removed commands
346
347info forks
348 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
349 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
350 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
351 command.
352
353fork NUM
354 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
355 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
356 alias for the `fork' command.
357
358process PID
359 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
360 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
361 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
362
363delete fork NUM
364 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
365 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
366 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
367 fork' command.
368
369detach fork NUM
370 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
371 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
372 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
373 fork' command.
374
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375* New native configurations
376
377x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
378
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379x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
380
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381* New targets
382
c28c63d8 383Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 384x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 385x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
75a2d5e7 386
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387* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
388 (mingw32ce) debugging.
389
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390* Removed commands
391
392catch load
393catch unload
394 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
395
75feb17d 396*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 397
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398* New native configurations
399
400NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 401Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
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402
403* New targets
404
405NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 406Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 407
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408* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
409
410 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
411 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
412 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
413 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
414
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415* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
416(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
417
fe6fbf8b 418* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 419is resolved.
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420
421* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
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422including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
423and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 424
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425* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
426accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
427more than one contiguous range of addresses.
428
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429* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
430
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431* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
432registers on PowerPC targets.
433
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434* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
435targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
436
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437* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
438commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
439
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440* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
441extended-remote mode.
442
24a836bd 443* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
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444The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
445error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
446The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 447
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448* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
449building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
450target architectures.
451
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452* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
453Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
454now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
455stored in two consecutive float registers.
456
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457* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
458breakpoints now.
459
b93b6ca7 460* Improved support for debugging Ada
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461Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
462include:
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463 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
464 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
465 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
466 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
467 of an assignment
468 - Improved command completion in Ada
469 - Several bug fixes
470
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471* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
472process.
473
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474* New commands
475
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476set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
477show print frame-arguments
478 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
479 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
480
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481remote put
482remote get
483remote delete
484 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
485
486* New MI commands
487
488-target-file-put
489-target-file-get
490-target-file-delete
491 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
492
493* New remote packets
494
495vFile:open:
496vFile:close:
497vFile:pread:
498vFile:pwrite:
499vFile:unlink:
500 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 501
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502vAttach
503 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
504 mode.
505
506vRun
507 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
508
8d5f9c6f 509*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 510
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511* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
512bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
513Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
514
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515* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
516symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
517-Bsymbolic linker option.
518
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519* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
520recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
521is not supported.
522
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523* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
524frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
525
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526* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
52732-bit or 64-bit register values.
528
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529* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
530
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531* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
532target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
533a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
534
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535* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
536automatically displayed as character or string data.
537
538* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
539arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
540as strings.
e1f48ead 541
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542* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
543for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 544only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 545
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546* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
547iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 548
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549* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
550ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
551has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
552
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553* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
554
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555* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
556
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557* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
558layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
559segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
560
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561* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
562immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
563
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564* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
565"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
566packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
567where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
568Windows and SymbianOS).
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569
570* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
571(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
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572
573* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
574according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 575
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576* New commands
577
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578set remoteflow
579show remoteflow
580 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
581 when debugging using remote targets.
582
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583set mem inaccessible-by-default
584show mem inaccessible-by-default
585 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
586 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
587 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
588 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
589 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
590
591set breakpoint auto-hw
592show breakpoint auto-hw
593 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
594 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
595 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
596 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
597 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
598 including "next" and "finish".
599
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600catch exception
601catch exception unhandled
602 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
603
604catch assert
605 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
606
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607set sysroot
608show sysroot
609 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
610 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
611 an alias to "set sysroot".
612
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613info spu
614 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
615 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
616 architecture.
617
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618* New native configurations
619
620OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
621
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622set tdesc filename
623unset tdesc filename
624show tdesc filename
625 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
626 not query the target for its built-in description.
627
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628* New targets
629
54fe9172 630OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 631MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 632Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 633
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634* New remote packets
635
636QPassSignals:
637 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
638 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
639
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DJ
640qXfer:features:read:
641 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
642 features.
6dd09645 643
83cc5c53
UW
644qXfer:spu:read:
645qXfer:spu:write:
646 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
647 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
648
cfa9d6d9
DJ
649qXfer:libraries:read:
650 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
651 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
652 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
653 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
654
483367ee
DJ
655* Removed targets
656
657Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
658
d08950c4
UW
659alpha*-*-osf1*
660alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 661d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
662hppa*-*-hiux*
663i[34567]86-ncr-*
664i[34567]86-*-dgux*
665i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
666i[34567]86-*-netware*
667i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
668i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
669i[34567]86-*-sco*
670i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
671i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
672i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
673i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
674i[34567]86-*-unixware*
675i[34567]86-*-sysv*
676i[34567]86-*-isc*
677m68*-cisco*-*
678m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 679mips*-*-pe
483367ee 680rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 681sh*-*-pe
483367ee 682
7ce59000
DJ
683* Other removed features
684
685target abug
686target cpu32bug
687target est
688target rom68k
689
690 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
691
ea35711c
DJ
692target hms
693target e7000
694target sh3
695target sh3e
696
697 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
698 H8/300.
699
700target ocd
701
702 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
703 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
704 interfaces.
705
7ce59000
DJ
706DWARF 1 support
707
708 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
709 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
710
54d61198
DJ
711Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
712
713 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
714 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
715 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
716 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
717
ea35711c
DJ
718MIPS ".pdr" sections
719
720 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
721 in debugging information.
722
723Scheme support
724
725 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
726 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
727
1a69e1e4
DJ
728set mips stack-arg-size
729set mips saved-gpreg-size
730
731 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
732
6dd09645 733*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 734
ca3bf3bd
DJ
735* New targets
736
737Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 738Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 739
6aec2e11
DJ
740* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
741(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
742running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
743
744* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
745Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
746supported.
747
17218d91
DJ
748* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
749broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
750
9ebce043
DJ
751* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
752stub provides the required support.
753
7d3d3ece
DJ
754* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
755longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
756
4f8253f3
JB
757* New commands
758
759set substitute-path
760unset substitute-path
761show substitute-path
762 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
763 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
764 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
765 between compilation and debugging.
766
9fa66fd7
AS
767set trace-commands
768show trace-commands
769 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
770 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
771 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
772
1f5befc1
DJ
773* REMOVED features
774
775The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
776
2ec3381a
DJ
777Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
778an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
779
3d00d119
DJ
780The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
781
be2a5f71
DJ
782* New remote packets
783
784qSupported:
785 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
786 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
787 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
788 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
789 target.
790
0876f84a
DJ
791qXfer:auxv:read:
792 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
793 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
794
9ebce043
DJ
795qXfer:memory-map:read:
796 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
797 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
798
799vFlashErase:
800vFlashWrite:
801vFlashDone:
802 Erase and program a flash memory device.
803
0876f84a
DJ
804* Removed remote packets
805
806qPart:auxv:read:
807 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
808 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
809
e374b601 810*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 811
96309189
MS
812* New targets
813
814Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
815
816Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
817
53e5f3cf
AS
818* New commands
819
820init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
821 only if it doesn't already have a value.
822
ac264b3b
MS
823The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
824
825checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
826
827restart <n> Return the program state to a
828 previously saved state.
829
830info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
831
832delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
833
834set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
835 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
836
837info forks List forks of the user program that
838 are available to be debugged.
839
840fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
841 forks of the user program that are
842 available to be debugged.
843
844delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
845 that are available to be debugged (and
846 kill the forked process).
847
848detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
849 that are available to be debugged (and
850 allow the process to continue).
851
3950dc3f
NS
852* New architecture
853
854Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
855
0ea3f30e
DJ
856* Improved Windows host support
857
858GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
859native console support, and remote communications using either
860network sockets or serial ports.
861
f79daebb
GM
862* Improved Modula-2 language support
863
864GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
865basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
866pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
867printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
868written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
869GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
870
acab6ab2
MM
871* REMOVED features
872
873The ARM rdi-share module.
874
f4267320
DJ
875The Netware NLM debug server.
876
53e5f3cf 877*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 878
e0ecbda1
MK
879* New native configurations
880
02a677ac 881OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
882OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
883
d64a6579
KB
884* New targets
885
886Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
887
b33a6190
AS
888* New command line options
889
890--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
891--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
892 the child (debugged) program exited with.
893--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
894 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
895 specified multiple times and in conjunction
896 with the --command (-x) option.
897
11dced61
AC
898* Deprecated commands removed
899
900The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
901removed:
902
903 Command Replacement
904 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
905 othernames set arm disassembler
906 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
907 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
908 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
909 regs info registers
910
6fe85783
MK
911* New BSD user-level threads support
912
913It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
914library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
915configurations are:
916
917FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
918FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
919OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
920
921Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
922are not yet supported.
923
5260ca71
MS
924* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
925(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
926
e84ecc99
AC
927* REMOVED configurations and files
928
929VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 930Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 931National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 932
31e35378
JB
933* New "set print array-indexes" command
934
935After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
936when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
937behavior.
938
e85e5c83
MK
939* VAX floating point support
940
941GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
942
d91e9901
AS
943* User-defined command support
944
945In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
946to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
947section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
948
f2cb65ca
MC
949*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
950
f47b1503
AS
951* New command line option
952
953GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
954debugging.
955
f2cb65ca
MC
956* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
957
958GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
959information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
960by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
961proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
962to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 963
d08c0230
AC
964* Internationalization
965
966When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
967internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
968continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
969
117ea3cf
PH
970* Ada
971
972Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
973implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
974into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
975
d08c0230
AC
976* New native configurations
977
978GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
979
980* Remote 'p' packet
981
982GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
983packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
984
985* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
986
987GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
988The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
989features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
990i386 application).
991
992GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
993compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
994continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
995configurations:
996
997hppa-*-hpux
998ia64-*-aix
999mips-*-irix*
1000*-*-lynx
1001mips-*-linux-gnu
1002sds protocol
1003xdr protocol
1004powerpc bdm protocol
1005
1006Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1007made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1008
1009* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1010
1011Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1012been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1013configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1014permanently REMOVED.
1015
1016h8300-*-*
1017mcore-*-*
1018mn10300-*-*
1019ns32k-*-*
1020sh64-*-*
1021v850-*-*
1022
ebb7c577
AC
1023*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1024
1025* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1026
1027When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1028heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1029been fixed.
1030
1031* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1032
1033When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1034fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1035IRIX long double values).
1036
1037* VAX and "next"
1038
1039A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1040command. This problem has been fixed.
1041
860660cb 1042*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 1043
0dea2468
AC
1044* Fix for ``many threads''
1045
1046On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1047rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1048error message:
1049
1050 ptrace: No such process.
1051 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1052
1053This problem has been fixed.
1054
2c07db7a
AC
1055* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1056
1057Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1058GDB to dump core).
1059
c23968a2
JB
1060* New ``start'' command.
1061
1062This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1063
71009278
MK
1064* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1065
1066Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1067live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1068platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1069
1070FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1071FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1072NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1073NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1074NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1075OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1076OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1077OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1078OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1079
3c0b7db2
AC
1080* Signal trampoline code overhauled
1081
1082Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1083These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1084of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1085call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1086signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1087
73cc75f3
AC
1088Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1089features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1090include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 1091
7243600a
BF
1092* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1093
6f606e1c
MK
1094* New native configurations
1095
97dc871c 1096GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 1097OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
1098OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1099OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 1100OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1101NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 1102OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1103
a1b461bf
AC
1104* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1105
1106GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1107The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1108including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1109migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1110compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1111work, was also included.
1112
1113GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1114module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1115
1116h8300-*-*
1117mcore-*-*
1118mn10300-*-*
1119ns32k-*-*
1120sh64-*-*
1121v850-*-*
1122xstormy16-*-*
1123
1124Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1125made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1126
3c7012f5
AC
1127* REMOVED configurations and files
1128
1129Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1130Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1131Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1132Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1133Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1134AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1135Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1136decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1137riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1138sonymips mips-sony-*
1139sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1140
e5fe55f7
AC
1141*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1142
1143* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1144
1145The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1146GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1147command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1148program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1149with GDB".
1150
1151* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1152
1153Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1154libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1155cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1156GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1157shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1158the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1159are created.
1160
1161Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1162
1163* Fixed ISO-C build problems
1164
1165The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1166non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1167compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1168
1169* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1170
1171Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1172wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1173
1174* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1175
1176The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1177permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1178systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1179
1180* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1181
1182Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1183has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1184
1185* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1186
1187GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1188its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1189panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1190
1191* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1192
1193When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1194by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1195not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1196
faae5abe 1197*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 1198
9175c9a3
MC
1199* Removed --with-mmalloc
1200
1201Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1202conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1203
3cc87ec0
MK
1204* Changes in AMD64 configurations
1205
1206The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1207the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1208and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1209you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1210
f0424ef6
MK
1211* Revised SPARC target
1212
1213The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1214FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
1215support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1216from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1217(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 1218
59659be2
ILT
1219* New C++ demangler
1220
1221GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1222names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1223with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1224programs.
1225
9e08b29b
DJ
1226* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1227
1228GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1229arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1230encountered these.
1231
8dfe8985
DC
1232* C++ nested types and namespaces
1233
1234GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1235improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1236is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1237Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1238namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1239"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1240frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1241if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1242GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1243
cced5e27
MK
1244* New native configurations
1245
1246NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 1247OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 1248OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
1249OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1250OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 1251
b4b4b794
KI
1252* New debugging protocols
1253
1254M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1255
7989c619
AC
1256* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1257
1258The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1259and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1260tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1261
5994185b
AC
1262* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1263
1264Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1265been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1266configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1267permanently REMOVED.
1268
1269Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1270Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1271Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1272Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1273Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1274AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1275Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
1276decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1277riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1278sonymips mips-sony-*
1279sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 1280
0ddabb4c
AC
1281* REMOVED configurations and files
1282
1283SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1284SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
1285Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1286Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1287H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1288HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1289HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1290HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1291PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 1292386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
1293Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1294 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1295 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
1296SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1297SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
1298Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1299Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 1300
c7f1390e
DJ
1301*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1302
1fe43d45
AC
1303* Objective-C
1304
1305Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1306integrated into GDB.
1307
e6beb428
AC
1308* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1309
1310DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1311information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1312By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1313backtraces.
1314
1315The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1316have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1317DWARF 2 CFI support.
1318
1319* Hosted file I/O.
1320
1321GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1322file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1323remote protocol documentation for details.
1324
1325* All targets using the new architecture framework.
1326
1327All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1328architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1329to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1330ppc32 on ppc64).
1331
1332* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1333
1334GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1335per-thread variables.
1336
1337* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1338
1339GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1340GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1341
1342* Separate debug info.
1343
1344GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1345automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1346of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1347system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1348and optional debug files.
1349
1350* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1351
1352DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1353describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1354debugger.
1355
1356GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1357for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1358
1359* Java
1360
1361A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1362Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1363considered "useable".
1364
85f8f974
DJ
1365* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1366
1367The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1368commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1369kernel.
1370
0fac0b41
DJ
1371* GDB supports logging output to a file
1372
1373There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1374used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 1375
6ad8ae5c
DJ
1376* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1377
1378The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1379disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1380command.
1381
e286caf2 1382* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
1383
1384The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1385registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1386
d28f9cdf
DJ
1387* Profiling support
1388
1389A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1390be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1391session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1392"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1393data, for more informative profiling results.
1394
da0f9dcd
AC
1395* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1396
1397The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1398option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 1399"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
1400
1401Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1402removed.
1403
fb9b6b35
JJ
1404Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1405Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1406Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1407 in a subsequent -var-update.
1408
954a4db8
MK
1409* New native configurations.
1410
1411FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1412
6760f9e6
JB
1413* Multi-arched targets.
1414
b4263afa 1415HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 1416Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 1417
1b831c93
AC
1418* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1419
1420Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1421been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1422configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1423permanently REMOVED.
1424
8b0e5691 1425Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 1426Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 1427H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
1428HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1429HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1430HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 1431PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
1432Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1433 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1434 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
1435Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1436Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 1437
5835abe7
NC
1438* REMOVED configurations and files
1439
1440V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
1441Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1442IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1443i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1444i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1445i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1446HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1447 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1448 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1449Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1450Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1451Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1452OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1453I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 1454
a094c6fb
AC
1455* MIPS $fp behavior changed
1456
1457The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1458the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1459context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1460address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1461The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1462
299ffc64 1463*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 1464
46248966
AC
1465* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1466
1467When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1468`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1469in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1470library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1471shared libs like mad''.
1472
b9d14705 1473* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 1474
b9d14705
DJ
1475Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1476the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1477arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1478powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 1479
e0e9281e
JB
1480* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1481
1482GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1483and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1484they expand.
1485
dd73b9bb
AC
1486The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1487invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1488
1489The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1490macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1491
e0e9281e
JB
1492Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1493information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1494your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1495information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1496
2250ee0c
CV
1497* Multi-arched targets.
1498
6e3ba3b8
JT
1499DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1500DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 1501NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 1502National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
1503Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1504Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 1505
cd9bfe15 1506* New targets.
e33ce519 1507
456f8b9d
DB
1508Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1509
e33ce519 1510
da8ca43d
JT
1511* New native configurations
1512
1513Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 1514SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 1515MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 1516UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 1517
cd9bfe15
AC
1518* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1519
1520Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1521been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1522configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1523permanently REMOVED.
1524
92eb23c5 1525Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 1526OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 1527IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 1528Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 1529Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 1530Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
1531i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1532i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1533i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
1534HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1535 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1536 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 1537I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 1538
db034ac5
AC
1539* OBSOLETE languages
1540
1541CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1542
cd9bfe15
AC
1543* REMOVED configurations and files
1544
1545AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1546A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1547AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1548AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1549AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1550
1551testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1552
20f01a46
DH
1553* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1554
1555This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1556commands. The default is 1024.
1557
a5941fbf
MK
1558* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1559
1560Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1561
89743e04
MS
1562* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1563
1564These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1565to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1566from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 1567
9fb14e79
JB
1568* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1569
1570The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1571including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1572of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1573
2037aebb
AC
1574*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1575
1576* New targets.
1577
1578Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
1579
1580* Bug fixes
1581
1582gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1583mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1584Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1585
1586gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1587dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1588Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1589
1590Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1591Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1592By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1593
1594i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1595avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1596By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1597
37057839 1598*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 1599
1a703748
MS
1600* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1601
1602This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1603really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1604In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1605target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1606This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1607(notably embedded) targets.
1608
cefd4ef5
MS
1609* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1610
55241689
AC
1611This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1612process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1613GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1614hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 1615
352ed7b4
MS
1616* New command line option
1617
1618GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1619
1620* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1621
1622There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1623command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1624a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1625be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1626open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1627issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1628a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1629it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1630GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1631is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1632
fe419ffc
RE
1633* Changes in ARM configurations.
1634
1635Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1636configuration is fully multi-arch.
1637
eb7cedd9
MK
1638* New native configurations
1639
fe419ffc 1640ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 1641x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 1642AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 1643Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 1644
c9f63e6b
CV
1645* New targets
1646
1647Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1648
9b4ff276
AC
1649* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1650
1651Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1652been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1653configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1654permanently REMOVED.
1655
1656AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1657A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1658AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1659AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1660AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1661
b4ceaee6 1662testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 1663
e2caac18
AC
1664* REMOVED configurations and files
1665
1666TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 1667WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
1668PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1669PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1670PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 1671Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
1672Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1673 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 1674SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 1675Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
1676Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1677ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 1678Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 1679
c2a727fa
TT
1680* Changes to command line processing
1681
1682The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1683for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1684
467d8519
TT
1685* Changes to key bindings
1686
1687There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1688
7072a954
AC
1689*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1690
1691Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1692
1693Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1694corrupted.
1695
1696Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1697
1698Numerous documentation fixes.
1699
1700Numerous testsuite fixes.
1701
34f47bc4 1702*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
1703
1704* New native configurations
1705
1706Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1707x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 1708MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
1709MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1710ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 1711s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 1712
bf64bfd6
AC
1713* New targets
1714
def90278 1715Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 1716CRIS cris-axis
55241689 1717UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 1718
17e78a56 1719* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
1720
1721x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 1722Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
1723Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1724 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
1725TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1726WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 1727Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
1728PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1729PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1730PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 1731SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
1732Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1733ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 1734Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 1735
17e78a56
AC
1736stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1737kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1738
7fcca85b
AC
1739Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1740been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1741configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1742permanently REMOVED.
1743
a196c81c 1744* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
1745
1746Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1747Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1748Pyramid pyramid-*-*
1749ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1750Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 1751ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 1752
6d6b80e5 1753* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 1754
6d6b80e5 1755GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
1756sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1757present.
1758
bf64bfd6
AC
1759* Other news:
1760
e23194cb
EZ
1761* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1762
1763* The MI enabled by default.
1764
1765The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1766revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1767engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1768using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1769which is now deprecated.
1770
1771* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1772
1773GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1774main features are supported:
1775
1776 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1777
1778 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1779 extension;
1780
1781 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1782
1783 - a Pascal expression parser.
1784
1785However, some important features are not yet supported.
1786
1787 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1788
1789 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1790
1791 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1792 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1793
1794 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1795
1796 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1797
1798* Changes in completion.
1799
1800Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1801to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1802users expect at the shell prompt.
1803
1804Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1805`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1806program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1807files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1808be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1809considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1810name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1811
1812`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1813
1814* New platform-independent commands:
1815
1816It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1817hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1818documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1819
1820* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1821
d7275149
MK
1822Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1823revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1824many threads as your system allows you to have.
1825
e23194cb
EZ
1826Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1827
d7275149
MK
1828Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1829multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
1830
1831* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
1832
1833Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1834
e23194cb
EZ
1835GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1836debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1837supported.)
1838
1839* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1840
1841Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1842breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1843implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1844put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1845and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1846registers.
1847
1848The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1849debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1850watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1851
1852* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1853
1854New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1855the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1856
1857New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1858display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1859IDT.
1860
1861New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1862from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1863New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1864a given linear address.
1865
1866GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1867program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1868which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1869
1870DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1871
6c56c069
EZ
1872It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1873
e23194cb
EZ
1874* Changes in documentation.
1875
1876All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1877Documentation License.
1878
1879Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1880manual.
1881
1882TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1883
1884Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1885manual.
1886
1887The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1888documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1889hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1890
5d6640b1
AC
1891* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1892
1893The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1894``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1895contents of this file.
1896
1a1d8446
AC
1897* gdba.el deleted
1898
1899GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 1900
9debab2f 1901*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 1902
c63ce875
EZ
1903* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1904
1905Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1906programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1907displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1908greater level of detail.
1909
1910* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1911
1912It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1913bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1914on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1915written.
1916
1917* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1918
1919The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1920necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1921machines ``out of the box''.
1922
1923The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1924possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1925signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1926would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1927interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1928
1929It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1930standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1931even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1932and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1933terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1934
1935The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1936enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1937also works.
1938
1939DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1940GDB.
1941
1942It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1943directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1944times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1945breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1946
ed9a39eb
JM
1947* New native configurations
1948
1949ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 1950PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 1951
7a292a7a
SS
1952* New targets
1953
96baa820 1954Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
1955x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1956PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
1957TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1958
085dd6e6
JM
1959* OBSOLETE configurations
1960
1961Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1962Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 1963Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 1964ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 1965Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 1966
9debab2f
AC
1967Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1968but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1969these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1970be permanently REMOVED.
1971
5330533d
SS
1972* Gould support removed
1973
1974Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1975
bc9e5bbf
AC
1976* New features for SVR4
1977
1978On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1979without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1980load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1981
1982* Many C++ enhancements
1983
1984C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1985in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1986
adf40b2e
JM
1987* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1988
1989A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1990sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1991with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1992``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1993
1994 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1995 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1996
43e526b9
JM
1997* MIPS 64 remote protocol
1998
1999A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2000expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2001instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2002
2003The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2004added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2005
96baa820
JM
2006* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2007
2008The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2009``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2010include ``set remote P-packet''.
2011
11cf8741
JM
2012* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2013
2014The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2015accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2016``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2017
7876dd43
DB
2018* ``apropos'' command added.
2019
2020The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2021documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2022try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2023
bc9e5bbf
AC
2024* New MI interface
2025
2026A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2027interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
2028process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2029"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2030enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
2031
2032 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2033
c906108c
SS
2034*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2035
2036* New native configurations
2037
2038HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2039HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 2040M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
2041
2042* New targets
2043
2044Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2045Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2046Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2047
2048* OBSOLETE configurations
2049
2050Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2051
2052Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2053but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2054these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2055be permanently REMOVED.
2056
2057* ANSI/ISO C
2058
2059As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2060buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2061containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2062use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2063available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2064configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2065information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2066already.
2067
2068* Readline 2.2
2069
2070GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2071
2072* set extension-language
2073
2074You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2075languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2076you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2077 set extension-language .c c++
2078The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2079and their associated languages.
2080
2081* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2082
2083When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2084you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2085PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2086
2087 set processor NAME
2088
2089sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2090following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2091
2092 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2093 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2094 403 IBM PowerPC 403
2095 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2096 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2097 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2098 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2099 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2100 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2101 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2102 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2103
2104At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2105special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2106registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2107only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2108
2109* HP-UX support
2110
2111Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2112more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2113library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2114support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2115for xdb and dbx commands.
2116
2117* Catchpoints
2118
2119HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2120generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2121to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2122
2123This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2124argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2125output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2126
2127* Debugging across forks
2128
2129On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2130in the inferior.
2131
2132* TUI
2133
2134HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2135it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2136configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2137
2138* GDB remote protocol additions
2139
2140A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2141Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2142fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2143allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2144
2145For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2146full 64-bit address. The command
2147
2148 set remoteaddresssize 32
2149
2150can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2151the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2152will be discarded.
2153
2154In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2155command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2156
2157 maint packet heythere
2158
2159sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2160disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2161time.
2162
2163The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2164target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2165downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2166
2167* Tracing can collect general expressions
2168
2169You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2170further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2171doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2172
2173* mask-address variable for Mips
2174
2175For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2176a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2177of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2178
2179* Higher serial baud rates
2180
2181GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2182230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2183to achieve all of these rates.)
2184
2185* i960 simulator
2186
2187The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2188builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2189
2190
2191*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2192
2193* New native configurations
2194
2195Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2196Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2197Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2198PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2199PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2200Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2201Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2202
2203* New targets
2204
2205Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2206Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2207Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2208Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2209MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2210MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2211MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2212Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2213Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2214Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2215NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2216
2217* New debugging protocols
2218
2219ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2220M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2221DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2222PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2223PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2224Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2225
2226* DWARF 2
2227
2228All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2229format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2230information.
2231
2232* Java frontend
2233
2234GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2235only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2236
2237* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2238
2239For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2240loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2241locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2242
2243* Live range splitting
2244
2245GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2246range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2247more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2248
2249* Hurd support
2250
2251GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2252updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2253
2254* ARM Thumb support
2255
2256GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2257instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2258instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2259accordingly.
2260
2261* MIPS16 support
2262
2263GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2264instruction set.
2265
2266* Overlay support
2267
2268GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2269linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2270will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2271control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2272additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2273in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2274
2275* info symbol
2276
2277The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2278the symbol at the specified address.
2279
2280* Trace support
2281
2282The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2283asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2284extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2285includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2286file tracepoint.c for more details.
2287
2288* MIPS simulator
2289
2290Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2291by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2292of most MIPS variants.
2293
2294* Sparc simulator
2295
2296Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2297by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2298Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2299
2300* set architecture
2301
2302For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2303basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2304architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2305the possible architectures.
2306
2307*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2308
2309* New native configurations
2310
2311Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2312M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2313PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2314PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2315PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2316RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2317
2318* New targets
2319
2320ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2321I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2322MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2323MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2324PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2325Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
2326Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2327
2328* PowerPC simulator
2329
2330The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2331contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2332PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2333basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2334performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2335
2336* Solaris 2.5
2337
2338GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2339
2340* Windows 95/NT native
2341
2342GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2343To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2344which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2345Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2346ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2347
2348* dont-repeat command
2349
2350If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2351command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2352useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2353extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2354
2355* Send break instead of ^C
2356
2357The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2358rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2359GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2360
2361* Remote protocol timeout
2362
2363The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2364that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2365to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2366
2367* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2368
2369By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2370loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2371stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2372when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2373in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2374
2375Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2376/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2377automatically on hpux10.
2378
2379* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2380
2381Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2382
2383* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2384
2385When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2386may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2387the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2388every character. The default value is 1050.
2389
2390* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2391
2392If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2393a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2394replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2395details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2396remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2397to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2398
2399* Speedups for remote debugging
2400
2401GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2402the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2403and more efficient S-record downloading.
2404
2405* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2406
2407GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2408Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2409
2410*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2411
2412* Psymtabs for XCOFF
2413
2414The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2415can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2416
2417* Remote targets use caching
2418
2419Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2420remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2421it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2422debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2423off' turns the the data cache off.
2424
2425* Remote targets may have threads
2426
2427The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2428in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2429gdb/remote.c for details.
2430
2431* NetROM support
2432
2433If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2434support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2435acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2436write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2437support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2438another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2439sequence is something like
2440
2441 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2442 load <prog>
2443 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2444
2445* Macintosh host
2446
2447GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2448may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2449it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2450available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2451device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2452directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2453scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2454mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2455
2456* Autoconf
2457
2458GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2459but does simplify configuration and building.
2460
2461* hpux10
2462
2463GDB now supports hpux10.
2464
2465*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2466
2467* New native configurations
2468
2469x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2470x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2471NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2472Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2473
2474* New targets
2475
2476A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2477HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2478CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2479PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2480WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2481
2482* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2483
2484GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2485possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2486filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2487the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2488if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2489
2490* Arguments to user-defined commands
2491
2492User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2493Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2494trivial example:
2495define adder
2496 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2497
2498To execute the command use:
2499adder 1 2 3
2500
2501Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2502Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2503use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2504
2505* New `if' and `while' commands
2506
2507This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2508commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2509expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2510execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2511terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2512`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2513if the expression is zero.
2514
2515* Fortran source language mode
2516
2517GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2518Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2519variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2520with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2521Fortran compilers.
2522
2523* Better HPUX support
2524
2525Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2526running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2527processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2528for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2529that behavior do the following before running the program:
2530
2531 adb -w a.out
2532 __dld_flags?W 0x5
2533 control-d
2534
2535This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2536To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2537
2538 adb -w a.out
2539 __dld_flags?W 0x4
2540 control-d
2541
2542You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2543the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2544external linkage.
2545
2546GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2547HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2548
2549* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2550
2551You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2552commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2553current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2554"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2555associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2556configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2557
2558* New DOS host serial code
2559
2560This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2561no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2562a PC's serial port.
2563
2564*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2565
2566* New "complete" command
2567
2568This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2569were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2570
2571* Trailing space optional in prompt
2572
2573"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2574allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2575
2576* Breakpoint hit counts
2577
2578"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2579has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2580can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2581to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2582less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2583that breakpoint.
2584
2585* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2586
2587"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2588an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2589arrays actually contain only short strings.
2590
2591* Shared library breakpoints
2592
2593In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2594breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2595
2596* Hardware watchpoints
2597
2598There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2599targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2600
55241689 2601Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
2602
2603* Annotations
2604
2605Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2606and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2607
2608* Improved Irix 5 support
2609
2610GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2611
2612* Improved HPPA support
2613
2614GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2615
2616* New native configurations
2617
2618Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2619HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2620Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2621RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2622
2623* New targets
2624
2625OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2626MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2627Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
2628
2629* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2630
2631There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2632This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2633
2634* Fixes
2635
2636As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2637and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2638
2639*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2640
2641* Irix 5 is now supported
2642
2643* HPPA support
2644
2645GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2646to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2647GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2648of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2649can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2650
2651
2652*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2653
2654* User visible changes:
2655
2656* Remote Debugging
2657
2658The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2659target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2660debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2661integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2662debugging info for the mips target).
2663
2664* DEC Alpha native support
2665
2666GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2667debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2668work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2669Alpha-specific notes.
2670
2671* Preliminary thread implementation
2672
2673GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2674
2675* LynxOS native and target support for 386
2676
2677This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2678to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2679for details).
2680
2681* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2682
2683This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2684mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2685call methods, ...etc.
2686
2687*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2688
2689 * User visible changes:
2690
2691Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2692supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2693other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2694somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2695
2696Filename completion now works.
2697
2698When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2699arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2700addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2701
2702All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2703vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2704should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2705your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2706to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2707
2708 * DEC alpha support
2709
2710This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2711cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2712
2713
2714*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2715
2716 * Testsuite
2717
2718This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2719The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2720via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2721
2722 * C++ demangling
2723
2724'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2725emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2726Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2727disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2728use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2729
2730 * Simulators
2731
2732GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2733So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2734Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2735
2736 * New targets supported
2737
2738H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2739H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2740SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2741Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2742IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2743
2744Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2745version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2746GO32 memory extender.
2747
2748 * New remote protocols
2749
2750MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2751
2752 * New source languages supported
2753
2754This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2755used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2756into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2757
2758
2759*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2760
2761 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2762
2763GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2764version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2765University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2766compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2767format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2768(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2769
2770Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2771
2772 * Faster and better demangling
2773
2774We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2775demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2776character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2777only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2778This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2779increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2780symbol lookups.
2781
2782`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2783from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2784compiler does not actually implement.
2785
2786 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2787
2788In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2789inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2790recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2791very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2792The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2793circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2794fix.
2795
2796The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2797release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2798
2799 * Improved configure script
2800
2801The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2802you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2803host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2804done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2805
2806We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2807version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2808`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2809The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2810only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2811We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2812
2813 * Documentation improvements
2814
2815There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2816produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2817before submitting changes.
2818
2819The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2820M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2821`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2822you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2823a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2824
2825*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2826We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2827been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2828or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2829`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2830around this problem.
2831
2832 * New features
2833
2834GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2835the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2836`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2837the target program.
2838
2839The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2840how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2841
2842 * New native hosts supported
2843
2844HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2845386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2846
2847 * New targets supported
2848
2849AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2850
2851 * New file formats supported
2852
2853BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2854HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2855
2856 * Major bug fixes
2857
2858Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2859
2860We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2861printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2862
2863We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2864for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2865release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2866
2867You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2868will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2869
2870We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2871for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2872especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2873libraries.
2874
2875The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2876information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2877command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2878any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2879when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2880
2881 * Internal improvements
2882
2883GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2884debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2885
2886GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2887Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2888symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2889contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2890shared code that handles any of them.
2891
2892 * New command line options
2893
2894We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2895
2896 * Mmalloc licensing
2897
2898The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2899General Public License.
2900
2901*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2902
2903 * Host/native/target split
2904
2905GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2906hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2907target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2908local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2909ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2910
2911The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2912GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2913is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2914code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2915any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2916built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2917handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2918
2919GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2920It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2921plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2922
2923 * New hosts supported
2924
2925HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2926386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2927386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2928
2929 * New targets supported
2930
2931Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
293268030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2933
2934 * New native hosts supported
2935
2936386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2937 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2938386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2939
2940 * New file formats supported
2941
2942BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2943supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2944format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2945
2946 * New commands
2947
2948`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2949`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2950These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2951
2952`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2953
2954You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2955scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2956prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2957executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2958
2959 * C++ improvements
2960
2961We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2962info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2963symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2964
2965Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2966
2967 * Major bug fixes
2968
2969The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2970fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2971by the compiler.
2972
2973We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2974support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2975
2976John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2977slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2978that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2979purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2980the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2981mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2982
2983Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2984about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2985completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2986we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2987
2988 * AMD 29k support
2989
2990A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2991specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2992calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2993usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2994in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2995
2996We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2997Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2998of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2999resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3000
3001 * Remote interfaces
3002
3003We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3004with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3005message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3006This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3007needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3008breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3009each instruction being stepped through.
3010
3011The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3012registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3013
3014There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3015find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3016Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3017processor with a serial port.
3018
3019 * Configuration
3020
3021Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3022`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3023supported, and what files each one uses.
3024
3025 * Library changes
3026
3027There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3028disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3029Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3030disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3031
3032The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3033Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3034can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3035grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3036
3037 * Documentation
3038
3039The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3040reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3041as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3042encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3043system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3044bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3045
3046And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3047
3048
3049*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3050
3051 * Better support for C++ function names
3052
3053GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3054names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3055(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3056single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3057Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3058
3059GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3060the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3061You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3062lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3063for the list of formats.
3064
3065 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3066
3067Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3068C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3069directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3070can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3071usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3072about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3073this problem.)
3074
3075 * New 'maintenance' command
3076
3077All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3078the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3079can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3080
3081 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3082 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3083 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3084 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3085 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3086 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3087
3088The following commands are new:
3089
3090 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3091 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3092 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3093
3094 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3095
3096We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3097(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3098be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3099read after argv processing.
3100
3101 * New hosts supported
3102
3103Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3104
55241689 3105GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
3106
3107We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3108is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3109for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3110masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3111fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3112It costs extra.
3113
3114 * New targets supported
3115
3116Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3117
3118 * More smarts about finding #include files
3119
3120GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3121all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3122greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3123especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3124the one that contains your sources.
3125
3126We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3127breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3128try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3129
3130 * Interesting infernals change
3131
3132GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3133section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3134target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3135stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3136
3137 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3138
3139There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3140 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3141 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3142
3143See the ChangeLog for details.
3144
3145*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3146
3147 * New machines supported (host and target)
3148
3149IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3150
3151SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3152
3153 * New malloc package
3154
3155GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3156Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3157capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3158This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3159pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3160more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3161
3162 * info proc
3163
3164The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3165'help info proc' for details.
3166
3167 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3168
3169The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3170Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3171possible.
3172
3173 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3174
3175Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3176support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3177conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3178environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3179that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3180in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3181
3182 * Cross byte order fixes
3183
3184Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3185targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3186
3187 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3188
3189If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3190system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3191`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3192program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3193called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3194Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3195and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3196the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3197option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3198starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3199
3200You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3201the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3202information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3203slower, but makes future operations faster.
3204
3205The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3206build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3207A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3208use is:
3209
3210 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3211
3212The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3213It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3214shared across multiple host platforms.
3215
3216 * longjmp() handling
3217
3218GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3219siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3220all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3221platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3222
3223 * Solaris 2.0
3224
3225Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3226this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3227reading symbols.
3228
3229 * Bug fixes
3230
3231As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3232People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3233crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3234
3235*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3236
3237 * New machines supported (host and target)
3238
3239SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3240 (except core files)
3241BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3242Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3243
3244 * New machines supported (target)
3245
3246AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3247
3248 * C++ support
3249
3250GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3251The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3252per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3253
3254GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3255`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3256extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3257good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3258will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3259released.
3260
3261 * New features for SVR4
3262
3263GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3264shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3265only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3266
3267The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3268on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3269it prints the address mappings of the process.
3270
3271If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3272bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3273
3274 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3275
3276Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3277now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3278skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3279make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3280same code linked statically.
3281
3282 * New Getopt
3283
3284GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3285version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3286continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3287Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3288added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3289future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3290
3291 * Bugs fixed
3292
3293The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3294Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3295See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3296
3297
3298*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3299
3300 * New machines supported (host and target)
3301
3302Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3303NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3304Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3305
3306 * Almost SCO Unix support
3307
3308We had hoped to support:
3309SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3310(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3311that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3312about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3313
3314 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3315
3316GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3317debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3318is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3319send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3320reqired (if any).
3321
3322 * New Readline
3323
3324GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3325is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3326required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3327
3328 * Bugs fixed
3329
3330The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3331Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3332See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3333
3334 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3335
3336GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3337supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3338symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3339
3340Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3341mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3342debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3343mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3344version 2.
3345
3346Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3347really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3348line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3349variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3350situation somewhat.
3351
3352When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3353However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3354methods.
3355
3356We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3357DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3358encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3359
3360
3361*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3362
3363 * Improved configuration
3364
3365Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3366Porting BFD is simpler.
3367
3368 * Stepping improved
3369
3370The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3371of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3372in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3373function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3374
3375 * Bug fixing
3376
3377Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3378
3379 * New host supported (not target)
3380
3381Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3382
3383
3384*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3385
3386 * Multiple source language support
3387
3388GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3389It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3390and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3391language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3392You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3393`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3394
3395 * GDB and Modula-2
3396
3397GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3398currently under development at the State University of New York at
3399Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3400continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3401
3402Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3403debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3404symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3405
3406There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3407in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3408
3409 * set write on/off
3410
3411GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3412a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3413the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3414by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3415effect immediately.
3416
3417 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3418
3419When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3420shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3421The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3422examining core files.
3423
3424 * set listsize
3425
3426You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3427The default is 10.
3428
3429 * New machines supported (host and target)
3430
3431SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3432Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3433Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3434
3435 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3436
3437IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3438
3439 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3440
3441AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3442AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3443Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3444
3445 * New remote interfaces
3446
3447AMD 29000 Adapt
3448AMD 29000 Minimon
3449
3450
3451*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3452
3453 * New Facilities
3454
3455Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3456
3457Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3458target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3459is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3460remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3461remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3462also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3463using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3464stub on the target system.
3465
3466New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3467
3468GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3469library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3470object file types such as a.out and coff.
3471
3472There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3473refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3474
3475
3476 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3477
3478All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3479by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3480
3481For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3482``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3483Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3484
3485What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3486print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3487will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3488all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3489
3490confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3491 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3492 it is already running. Default is ON.
3493
3494editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3495 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3496 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3497 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3498 Default is ON.
3499
3500history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3501 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3502 or the value of the environment variable
3503 GDBHISTFILE.
3504
3505history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3506 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3507 HISTSIZE.
3508
3509history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3510 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3511 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3512
3513history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3514 history expansion will be performed on
3515 command line input. The default is OFF.
3516
3517radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3518 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3519 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3520
3521height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3522 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3523 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3524 variable TERM.
3525
3526width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3527 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3528 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3529 variable TERM.
3530
3531Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3532``set width'' instead.
3533
3534print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3535 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3536 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3537 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3538
3539print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3540 is OFF.
3541
3542print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3543 "raw" form if off.
3544
3545print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3546 like instructions.
3547
3548print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3549
3550
3551 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3552
3553The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3554new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3555are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3556window.
3557
3558
3559 * Support for Shared Libraries
3560
3561GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3562Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3563before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3564happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3565At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3566from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3567shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3568It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3569
3570sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3571 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3572 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3573
3574info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3575
3576
3577 * Watchpoints
3578
3579A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3580expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3581tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3582quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3583problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3584more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3585
3586watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3587
3588info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3589
3590delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3591disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3592enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3593
3594
3595 * C++ multiple inheritance
3596
3597When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3598for C++ programs.
3599
3600 * C++ exception handling
3601
3602Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3603ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3604the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3605handler's context).
3606
3607catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3608 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3609 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3610
3611info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3612 current stack frame.
3613
3614
3615 * Minor command changes
3616
3617The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3618command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3619is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3620
3621The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3622at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3623frames without printing.
3624
3625 * New directory command
3626
3627'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3628The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3629about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3630with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3631find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3632
3633 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3634
3635For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3636for more details.
3637
3638GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3639two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3640Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3641where the program that you are debugging will run.
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