Obsolete sun386i.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
CommitLineData
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 5.0:
5
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6* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
7
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8* New native configurations
9
10Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
11x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
12
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13* New targets
14
17e78a56 15* OBSOLETE configurations and files
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16
17x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 18Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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19Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
20 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
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21TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
22WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 23Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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24PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
25PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
26PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 27SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
bf64bfd6 28
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29stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
30kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
31
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32Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
33been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
34configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
35permanently REMOVED.
36
37* REMOVED configurations
38
39Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
40Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
41Pyramid pyramid-*-*
42ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
43Tahoe tahoe-*-*
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44
45* Other news:
46
47* All MIPS configurations are multi-arched.
48
49Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
50
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51* gdba.el deleted
52
53GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 54
9debab2f 55*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
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57* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
58
59Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
60programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
61displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
62greater level of detail.
63
64* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
65
66It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
67bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
68on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
69written.
70
71* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
72
73The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
74necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
75machines ``out of the box''.
76
77The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
78possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
79signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
80would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
81interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
82
83It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
84standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
85even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
86and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
87terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
88
89The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
90enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
91also works.
92
93DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
94GDB.
95
96It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
97directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
98times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
99breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
100
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101* New native configurations
102
103ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 104PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 105
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106* New targets
107
96baa820 108Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
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109x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
110PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
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111TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
112
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113* OBSOLETE configurations
114
115Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
116Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 117Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 118ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 119Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 120
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121Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
122but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
123these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
124be permanently REMOVED.
125
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126* Gould support removed
127
128Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
129
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130* New features for SVR4
131
132On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
133without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
134load symbols from the running process's executable file.
135
136* Many C++ enhancements
137
138C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
139in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
140
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141* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
142
143A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
144sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
145with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
146``|<program> <args>'' vis:
147
148 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
149 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
150
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151* MIPS 64 remote protocol
152
153A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
154expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
155instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
156
157The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
158added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
159
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160* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
161
162The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
163``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
164include ``set remote P-packet''.
165
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166* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
167
168The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
169accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
170``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
171
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172* ``apropos'' command added.
173
174The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
175documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
176try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
177
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178* New MI interface
179
180A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
181interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
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182process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
183"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
184enabled by configuring with:
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185
186 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
187
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188*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
189
190* New native configurations
191
192HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
193HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
194M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
195
196* New targets
197
198Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
199Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
200Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
201
202* OBSOLETE configurations
203
204Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
205
206Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
207but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
208these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
209be permanently REMOVED.
210
211* ANSI/ISO C
212
213As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
214buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
215containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
216use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
217available. If this is not true, please report the affected
218configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
219information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
220already.
221
222* Readline 2.2
223
224GDB now uses readline 2.2.
225
226* set extension-language
227
228You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
229languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
230you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
231 set extension-language .c c++
232The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
233and their associated languages.
234
235* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
236
237When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
238you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
239PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
240
241 set processor NAME
242
243sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
244following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
245
246 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
247 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
248 403 IBM PowerPC 403
249 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
250 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
251 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
252 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
253 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
254 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
255 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
256 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
257
258At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
259special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
260registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
261only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
262
263* HP-UX support
264
265Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
266more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
267library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
268support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
269for xdb and dbx commands.
270
271* Catchpoints
272
273HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
274generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
275to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
276
277This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
278argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
279output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
280
281* Debugging across forks
282
283On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
284in the inferior.
285
286* TUI
287
288HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
289it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
290configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
291
292* GDB remote protocol additions
293
294A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
295Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
296fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
297allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
298
299For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
300full 64-bit address. The command
301
302 set remoteaddresssize 32
303
304can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
305the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
306will be discarded.
307
308In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
309command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
310
311 maint packet heythere
312
313sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
314disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
315time.
316
317The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
318target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
319downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
320
321* Tracing can collect general expressions
322
323You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
324further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
325doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
326
327* mask-address variable for Mips
328
329For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
330a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
331of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
332
333* Higher serial baud rates
334
335GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
336230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
337to achieve all of these rates.)
338
339* i960 simulator
340
341The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
342builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
343
344
345*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
346
347* New native configurations
348
349Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
350Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
351Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
352PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
353PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
354Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
355Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
356
357* New targets
358
359Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
360Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
361Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
362Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
363MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
364MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
365MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
366Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
367Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
368Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
369NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
370
371* New debugging protocols
372
373ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
374M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
375DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
376PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
377PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
378Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
379
380* DWARF 2
381
382All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
383format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
384information.
385
386* Java frontend
387
388GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
389only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
390
391* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
392
393For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
394loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
395locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
396
397* Live range splitting
398
399GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
400range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
401more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
402
403* Hurd support
404
405GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
406updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
407
408* ARM Thumb support
409
410GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
411instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
412instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
413accordingly.
414
415* MIPS16 support
416
417GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
418instruction set.
419
420* Overlay support
421
422GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
423linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
424will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
425control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
426additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
427in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
428
429* info symbol
430
431The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
432the symbol at the specified address.
433
434* Trace support
435
436The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
437asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
438extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
439includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
440file tracepoint.c for more details.
441
442* MIPS simulator
443
444Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
445by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
446of most MIPS variants.
447
448* Sparc simulator
449
450Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
451by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
452Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
453
454* set architecture
455
456For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
457basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
458architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
459the possible architectures.
460
461*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
462
463* New native configurations
464
465Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
466M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
467PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
468PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
469PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
470RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
471
472* New targets
473
474ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
475I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
476MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
477MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
478PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
479Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
480Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
481
482* PowerPC simulator
483
484The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
485contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
486PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
487basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
488performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
489
490* Solaris 2.5
491
492GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
493
494* Windows 95/NT native
495
496GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
497To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
498which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
499Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
500ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
501
502* dont-repeat command
503
504If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
505command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
506useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
507extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
508
509* Send break instead of ^C
510
511The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
512rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
513GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
514
515* Remote protocol timeout
516
517The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
518that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
519to read from the target. The default value is 2.
520
521* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
522
523By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
524loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
525stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
526when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
527in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
528
529Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
530/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
531automatically on hpux10.
532
533* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
534
535Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
536
537* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
538
539When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
540may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
541the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
542every character. The default value is 1050.
543
544* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
545
546If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
547a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
548replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
549details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
550remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
551to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
552
553* Speedups for remote debugging
554
555GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
556the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
557and more efficient S-record downloading.
558
559* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
560
561GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
562Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
563
564*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
565
566* Psymtabs for XCOFF
567
568The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
569can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
570
571* Remote targets use caching
572
573Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
574remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
575it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
576debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
577off' turns the the data cache off.
578
579* Remote targets may have threads
580
581The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
582in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
583gdb/remote.c for details.
584
585* NetROM support
586
587If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
588support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
589acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
590write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
591support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
592another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
593sequence is something like
594
595 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
596 load <prog>
597 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
598
599* Macintosh host
600
601GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
602may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
603it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
604available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
605device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
606directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
607scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
608mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
609
610* Autoconf
611
612GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
613but does simplify configuration and building.
614
615* hpux10
616
617GDB now supports hpux10.
618
619*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
620
621* New native configurations
622
623x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
624x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
625NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
626Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
627
628* New targets
629
630A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
631HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
632CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
633PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
634WDC 65816 w65-*-*
635
636* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
637
638GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
639possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
640filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
641the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
642if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
643
644* Arguments to user-defined commands
645
646User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
647Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
648trivial example:
649define adder
650 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
651
652To execute the command use:
653adder 1 2 3
654
655Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
656Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
657use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
658
659* New `if' and `while' commands
660
661This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
662commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
663expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
664execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
665terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
666`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
667if the expression is zero.
668
669* Fortran source language mode
670
671GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
672Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
673variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
674with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
675Fortran compilers.
676
677* Better HPUX support
678
679Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
680running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
681processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
682for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
683that behavior do the following before running the program:
684
685 adb -w a.out
686 __dld_flags?W 0x5
687 control-d
688
689This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
690To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
691
692 adb -w a.out
693 __dld_flags?W 0x4
694 control-d
695
696You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
697the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
698external linkage.
699
700GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
701HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
702
703* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
704
705You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
706commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
707current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
708"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
709associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
710configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
711
712* New DOS host serial code
713
714This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
715no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
716a PC's serial port.
717
718*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
719
720* New "complete" command
721
722This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
723were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
724
725* Trailing space optional in prompt
726
727"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
728allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
729
730* Breakpoint hit counts
731
732"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
733has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
734can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
735to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
736less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
737that breakpoint.
738
739* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
740
741"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
742an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
743arrays actually contain only short strings.
744
745* Shared library breakpoints
746
747In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
748breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
749
750* Hardware watchpoints
751
752There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
753targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
754
755Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
756
757* Annotations
758
759Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
760and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
761
762* Improved Irix 5 support
763
764GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
765
766* Improved HPPA support
767
768GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
769
770* New native configurations
771
772Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
773HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
774Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
775RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
776
777* New targets
778
779OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
780MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
781Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
782
783* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
784
785There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
786This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
787
788* Fixes
789
790As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
791and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
792
793*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
794
795* Irix 5 is now supported
796
797* HPPA support
798
799GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
800to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
801GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
802of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
803can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
804
805
806*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
807
808* User visible changes:
809
810* Remote Debugging
811
812The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
813target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
814debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
815integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
816debugging info for the mips target).
817
818* DEC Alpha native support
819
820GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
821debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
822work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
823Alpha-specific notes.
824
825* Preliminary thread implementation
826
827GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
828
829* LynxOS native and target support for 386
830
831This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
832to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
833for details).
834
835* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
836
837This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
838mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
839call methods, ...etc.
840
841*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
842
843 * User visible changes:
844
845Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
846supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
847other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
848somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
849
850Filename completion now works.
851
852When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
853arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
854addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
855
856All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
857vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
858should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
859your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
860to be on the far side of a thin network line.
861
862 * DEC alpha support
863
864This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
865cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
866
867
868*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
869
870 * Testsuite
871
872This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
873The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
874via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
875
876 * C++ demangling
877
878'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
879emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
880Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
881disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
882use gdb with AT&T cfront.
883
884 * Simulators
885
886GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
887So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
888Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
889
890 * New targets supported
891
892H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
893H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
894SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
895Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
896IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
897
898Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
899version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
900GO32 memory extender.
901
902 * New remote protocols
903
904MIPS remote debugging protocol.
905
906 * New source languages supported
907
908This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
909used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
910into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
911
912
913*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
914
915 * HP Precision Architecture supported
916
917GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
918version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
919University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
920compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
921format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
922(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
923
924Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
925
926 * Faster and better demangling
927
928We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
929demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
930character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
931only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
932This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
933increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
934symbol lookups.
935
936`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
937from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
938compiler does not actually implement.
939
940 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
941
942In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
943inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
944recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
945very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
946The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
947circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
948fix.
949
950The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
951release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
952
953 * Improved configure script
954
955The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
956you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
957host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
958done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
959
960We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
961version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
962`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
963The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
964only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
965We hope to make this the default in a future release.
966
967 * Documentation improvements
968
969There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
970produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
971before submitting changes.
972
973The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
974M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
975`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
976you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
977a future texinfo-X.Y release.
978
979*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
980We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
981been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
982or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
983`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
984around this problem.
985
986 * New features
987
988GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
989the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
990`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
991the target program.
992
993The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
994how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
995
996 * New native hosts supported
997
998HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
999386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1000
1001 * New targets supported
1002
1003AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1004
1005 * New file formats supported
1006
1007BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1008HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1009
1010 * Major bug fixes
1011
1012Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1013
1014We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1015printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1016
1017We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1018for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1019release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1020
1021You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1022will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1023
1024We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1025for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1026especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1027libraries.
1028
1029The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1030information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1031command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1032any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1033when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1034
1035 * Internal improvements
1036
1037GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1038debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1039
1040GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1041Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1042symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1043contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1044shared code that handles any of them.
1045
1046 * New command line options
1047
1048We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1049
1050 * Mmalloc licensing
1051
1052The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1053General Public License.
1054
1055*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1056
1057 * Host/native/target split
1058
1059GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1060hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1061target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1062local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1063ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1064
1065The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1066GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1067is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1068code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1069any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1070built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1071handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1072
1073GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1074It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1075plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1076
1077 * New hosts supported
1078
1079HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1080386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1081386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1082
1083 * New targets supported
1084
1085Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
108668030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1087
1088 * New native hosts supported
1089
1090386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1091 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1092386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1093
1094 * New file formats supported
1095
1096BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1097supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1098format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1099
1100 * New commands
1101
1102`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1103`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1104These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1105
1106`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1107
1108You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1109scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1110prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1111executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1112
1113 * C++ improvements
1114
1115We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1116info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1117symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1118
1119Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1120
1121 * Major bug fixes
1122
1123The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1124fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1125by the compiler.
1126
1127We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1128support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1129
1130John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1131slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1132that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1133purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1134the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1135mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1136
1137Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1138about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1139completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1140we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1141
1142 * AMD 29k support
1143
1144A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1145specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1146calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1147usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1148in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1149
1150We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1151Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1152of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1153resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1154
1155 * Remote interfaces
1156
1157We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1158with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1159message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1160This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1161needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1162breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1163each instruction being stepped through.
1164
1165The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1166registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1167
1168There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1169find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1170Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1171processor with a serial port.
1172
1173 * Configuration
1174
1175Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1176`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1177supported, and what files each one uses.
1178
1179 * Library changes
1180
1181There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1182disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1183Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1184disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1185
1186The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1187Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1188can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1189grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1190
1191 * Documentation
1192
1193The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1194reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1195as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1196encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1197system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1198bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1199
1200And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1201
1202
1203*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1204
1205 * Better support for C++ function names
1206
1207GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1208names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1209(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1210single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1211Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1212
1213GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1214the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1215You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1216lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1217for the list of formats.
1218
1219 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1220
1221Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1222C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1223directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1224can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1225usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1226about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1227this problem.)
1228
1229 * New 'maintenance' command
1230
1231All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1232the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1233can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1234
1235 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1236 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1237 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1238 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1239 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1240 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1241
1242The following commands are new:
1243
1244 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1245 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1246 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1247
1248 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1249
1250We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1251(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1252be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1253read after argv processing.
1254
1255 * New hosts supported
1256
1257Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1258
1259Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1260
1261We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1262is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1263for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1264masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1265fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1266It costs extra.
1267
1268 * New targets supported
1269
1270Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1271
1272 * More smarts about finding #include files
1273
1274GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1275all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1276greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1277especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1278the one that contains your sources.
1279
1280We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1281breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1282try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1283
1284 * Interesting infernals change
1285
1286GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1287section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1288target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1289stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1290
1291 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1292
1293There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1294 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1295 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1296
1297See the ChangeLog for details.
1298
1299*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1300
1301 * New machines supported (host and target)
1302
1303IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1304
1305SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1306
1307 * New malloc package
1308
1309GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1310Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1311capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1312This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1313pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1314more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1315
1316 * info proc
1317
1318The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1319'help info proc' for details.
1320
1321 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1322
1323The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1324Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1325possible.
1326
1327 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1328
1329Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1330support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1331conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1332environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1333that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1334in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1335
1336 * Cross byte order fixes
1337
1338Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1339targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1340
1341 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1342
1343If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1344system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1345`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1346program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1347called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1348Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1349and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1350the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1351option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1352starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1353
1354You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1355the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1356information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1357slower, but makes future operations faster.
1358
1359The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1360build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1361A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1362use is:
1363
1364 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1365
1366The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1367It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1368shared across multiple host platforms.
1369
1370 * longjmp() handling
1371
1372GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1373siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1374all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1375platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1376
1377 * Solaris 2.0
1378
1379Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1380this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1381reading symbols.
1382
1383 * Bug fixes
1384
1385As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1386People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1387crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1388
1389*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1390
1391 * New machines supported (host and target)
1392
1393SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1394 (except core files)
1395BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1396Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1397
1398 * New machines supported (target)
1399
1400AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1401
1402 * C++ support
1403
1404GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1405The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1406per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1407
1408GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1409`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1410extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1411good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1412will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1413released.
1414
1415 * New features for SVR4
1416
1417GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1418shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1419only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1420
1421The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1422on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1423it prints the address mappings of the process.
1424
1425If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1426bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1427
1428 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1429
1430Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1431now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1432skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1433make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1434same code linked statically.
1435
1436 * New Getopt
1437
1438GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1439version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1440continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1441Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1442added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1443future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1444
1445 * Bugs fixed
1446
1447The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1448Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1449See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1450
1451
1452*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1453
1454 * New machines supported (host and target)
1455
1456Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1457NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1458Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1459
1460 * Almost SCO Unix support
1461
1462We had hoped to support:
1463SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1464(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1465that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1466about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1467
1468 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1469
1470GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1471debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1472is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1473send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1474reqired (if any).
1475
1476 * New Readline
1477
1478GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1479is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1480required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1481
1482 * Bugs fixed
1483
1484The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1485Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1486See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1487
1488 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1489
1490GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1491supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1492symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1493
1494Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1495mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1496debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1497mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1498version 2.
1499
1500Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1501really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1502line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1503variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1504situation somewhat.
1505
1506When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1507However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1508methods.
1509
1510We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1511DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1512encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1513
1514
1515*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1516
1517 * Improved configuration
1518
1519Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1520Porting BFD is simpler.
1521
1522 * Stepping improved
1523
1524The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1525of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1526in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1527function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1528
1529 * Bug fixing
1530
1531Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1532
1533 * New host supported (not target)
1534
1535Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1536
1537
1538*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1539
1540 * Multiple source language support
1541
1542GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1543It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1544and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1545language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1546You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1547`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1548
1549 * GDB and Modula-2
1550
1551GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1552currently under development at the State University of New York at
1553Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1554continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1555
1556Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1557debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1558symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1559
1560There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1561in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1562
1563 * set write on/off
1564
1565GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1566a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1567the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1568by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1569effect immediately.
1570
1571 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1572
1573When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1574shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1575The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1576examining core files.
1577
1578 * set listsize
1579
1580You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1581The default is 10.
1582
1583 * New machines supported (host and target)
1584
1585SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1586Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1587Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1588
1589 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1590
1591IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1592
1593 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1594
1595AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1596AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1597Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1598
1599 * New remote interfaces
1600
1601AMD 29000 Adapt
1602AMD 29000 Minimon
1603
1604
1605*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1606
1607 * New Facilities
1608
1609Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1610
1611Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1612target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1613is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1614remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1615remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1616also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1617using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1618stub on the target system.
1619
1620New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1621
1622GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1623library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1624object file types such as a.out and coff.
1625
1626There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1627refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1628
1629
1630 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1631
1632All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1633by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1634
1635For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1636``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1637Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1638
1639What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1640print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1641will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1642all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1643
1644confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1645 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1646 it is already running. Default is ON.
1647
1648editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1649 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1650 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1651 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1652 Default is ON.
1653
1654history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1655 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1656 or the value of the environment variable
1657 GDBHISTFILE.
1658
1659history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1660 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1661 HISTSIZE.
1662
1663history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1664 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1665 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1666
1667history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1668 history expansion will be performed on
1669 command line input. The default is OFF.
1670
1671radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1672 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1673 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1674
1675height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1676 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1677 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1678 variable TERM.
1679
1680width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1681 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1682 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1683 variable TERM.
1684
1685Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1686``set width'' instead.
1687
1688print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1689 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1690 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1691 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1692
1693print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1694 is OFF.
1695
1696print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1697 "raw" form if off.
1698
1699print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1700 like instructions.
1701
1702print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1703
1704
1705 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1706
1707The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1708new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1709are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1710window.
1711
1712
1713 * Support for Shared Libraries
1714
1715GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1716Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1717before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1718happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1719At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1720from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1721shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1722It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1723
1724sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1725 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1726 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1727
1728info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1729
1730
1731 * Watchpoints
1732
1733A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1734expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1735tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1736quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1737problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1738more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1739
1740watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1741
1742info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1743
1744delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1745disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1746enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1747
1748
1749 * C++ multiple inheritance
1750
1751When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1752for C++ programs.
1753
1754 * C++ exception handling
1755
1756Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1757ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1758the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1759handler's context).
1760
1761catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1762 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1763 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1764
1765info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1766 current stack frame.
1767
1768
1769 * Minor command changes
1770
1771The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1772command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1773is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1774
1775The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1776at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1777frames without printing.
1778
1779 * New directory command
1780
1781'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1782The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1783about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1784with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1785find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1786
1787 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1788
1789For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1790for more details.
1791
1792GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1793two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1794Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1795where the program that you are debugging will run.
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