Fix typo in ChangeLog entry.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
CommitLineData
c906108c
SS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
299ffc64
AC
4*** Changes since GDB 5.3:
5
da0f9dcd
AC
6* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
7
8The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
9option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
10"mi1", can be enabled by sepcifying the option "-i=mi1".
11
12Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
13removed.
14
fb9b6b35
JJ
15Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
16Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
17Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
18 in a subsequent -var-update.
19
5835abe7
NC
20* REMOVED configurations and files
21
22V850EA ISA
23
a094c6fb
AC
24* MIPS $fp behavior changed
25
26The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
27the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
28context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
29address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
30The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
31
299ffc64 32*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 33
b9d14705 34* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 35
b9d14705
DJ
36Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
37the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
38arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
39powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 40
e0e9281e
JB
41* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
42
43GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
44and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
45they expand.
46
dd73b9bb
AC
47The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
48invocations in expression, and shows the result.
49
50The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
51macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
52
e0e9281e
JB
53Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
54information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
55your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
56information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
57
2250ee0c
CV
58* Multi-arched targets.
59
6e3ba3b8
JT
60DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
61DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 62NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 63National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
64Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
65Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 66
cd9bfe15 67* New targets.
e33ce519 68
456f8b9d
DB
69Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
70
e33ce519 71
da8ca43d
JT
72* New native configurations
73
74Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 75SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 76MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 77UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 78
cd9bfe15
AC
79* OBSOLETE configurations and files
80
81Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
82been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
83configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
84permanently REMOVED.
85
92eb23c5 86Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 87OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 88IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 89Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 90Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 91Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
92i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
93i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
94i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
95HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
96 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
97 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 98I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 99
db034ac5
AC
100* OBSOLETE languages
101
102CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
103
cd9bfe15
AC
104* REMOVED configurations and files
105
106AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
107A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
108AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
109AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
110AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
111
112testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
113
20f01a46
DH
114* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
115
116This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
117commands. The default is 1024.
118
a5941fbf
MK
119* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
120
121Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
122
89743e04
MS
123* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
124
125These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
126to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
127from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 128
9fb14e79
JB
129* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
130
131The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
132including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
133of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
134
2037aebb
AC
135*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
136
137* New targets.
138
139Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
140
141* Bug fixes
142
143gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
144mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
145Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
146
147gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
148dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
149Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
150
151Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
152Surprisingly enough, it works now.
153By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
154
155i386 hardware watchpoint support:
156avoid misses on second run for some targets.
157By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
158
37057839 159*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 160
1a703748
MS
161* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
162
163This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
164really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
165In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
166target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
167This can be a significant performance improvement on some
168(notably embedded) targets.
169
cefd4ef5
MS
170* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
171
55241689
AC
172This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
173process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
174GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
175hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 176
352ed7b4
MS
177* New command line option
178
179GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
180
181* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
182
183There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
184command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
185a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
186be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
187open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
188issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
189a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
190it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
191GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
192is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
193
fe419ffc
RE
194* Changes in ARM configurations.
195
196Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
197configuration is fully multi-arch.
198
eb7cedd9
MK
199* New native configurations
200
fe419ffc 201ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 202x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 203AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 204Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 205
c9f63e6b
CV
206* New targets
207
208Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
209
9b4ff276
AC
210* OBSOLETE configurations and files
211
212Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
213been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
214configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
215permanently REMOVED.
216
217AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
218A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
219AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
220AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
221AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
222
b4ceaee6 223testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 224
e2caac18
AC
225* REMOVED configurations and files
226
227TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 228WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
229PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
230PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
231PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 232Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
233Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
234 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 235SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 236Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
237Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
238ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 239Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 240
c2a727fa
TT
241* Changes to command line processing
242
243The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
244for the inferior from gdb's command line.
245
467d8519
TT
246* Changes to key bindings
247
248There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
249
7072a954
AC
250*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
251
252Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
253
254Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
255corrupted.
256
257Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
258
259Numerous documentation fixes.
260
261Numerous testsuite fixes.
262
34f47bc4 263*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
264
265* New native configurations
266
267Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
268x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 269MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
270MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
271ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 272s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 273
bf64bfd6
AC
274* New targets
275
def90278 276Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 277CRIS cris-axis
55241689 278UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 279
17e78a56 280* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
281
282x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 283Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
284Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
285 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
286TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
287WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 288Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
289PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
290PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
291PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 292SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
293Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
294ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 295Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 296
17e78a56
AC
297stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
298kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
299
7fcca85b
AC
300Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
301been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
302configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
303permanently REMOVED.
304
a196c81c 305* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
306
307Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
308Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
309Pyramid pyramid-*-*
310ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
311Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 312ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 313
6d6b80e5 314* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 315
6d6b80e5 316GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
317sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
318present.
319
bf64bfd6
AC
320* Other news:
321
e23194cb
EZ
322* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
323
324* The MI enabled by default.
325
326The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
327revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
328engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
329using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
330which is now deprecated.
331
332* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
333
334GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
335main features are supported:
336
337 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
338
339 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
340 extension;
341
342 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
343
344 - a Pascal expression parser.
345
346However, some important features are not yet supported.
347
348 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
349
350 - there are some problems with boolean types;
351
352 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
353 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
354
355 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
356
357 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
358
359* Changes in completion.
360
361Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
362to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
363users expect at the shell prompt.
364
365Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
366`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
367program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
368files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
369be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
370considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
371name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
372
373`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
374
375* New platform-independent commands:
376
377It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
378hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
379documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
380
381* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
382
d7275149
MK
383Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
384revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
385many threads as your system allows you to have.
386
e23194cb
EZ
387Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
388
d7275149
MK
389Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
390multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
391
392* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
393
394Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
395
e23194cb
EZ
396GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
397debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
398supported.)
399
400* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
401
402Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
403breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
404implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
405put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
406and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
407registers.
408
409The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
410debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
411watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
412
413* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
414
415New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
416the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
417
418New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
419display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
420IDT.
421
422New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
423from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
424New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
425a given linear address.
426
427GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
428program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
429which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
430
431DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
432
6c56c069
EZ
433It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
434
e23194cb
EZ
435* Changes in documentation.
436
437All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
438Documentation License.
439
440Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
441manual.
442
443TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
444
445Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
446manual.
447
448The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
449documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
450hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
451
5d6640b1
AC
452* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
453
454The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
455``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
456contents of this file.
457
1a1d8446
AC
458* gdba.el deleted
459
460GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 461
9debab2f 462*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 463
c63ce875
EZ
464* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
465
466Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
467programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
468displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
469greater level of detail.
470
471* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
472
473It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
474bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
475on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
476written.
477
478* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
479
480The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
481necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
482machines ``out of the box''.
483
484The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
485possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
486signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
487would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
488interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
489
490It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
491standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
492even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
493and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
494terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
495
496The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
497enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
498also works.
499
500DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
501GDB.
502
503It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
504directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
505times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
506breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
507
ed9a39eb
JM
508* New native configurations
509
510ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 511PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 512
7a292a7a
SS
513* New targets
514
96baa820 515Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
516x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
517PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
518TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
519
085dd6e6
JM
520* OBSOLETE configurations
521
522Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
523Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 524Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 525ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 526Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 527
9debab2f
AC
528Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
529but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
530these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
531be permanently REMOVED.
532
5330533d
SS
533* Gould support removed
534
535Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
536
bc9e5bbf
AC
537* New features for SVR4
538
539On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
540without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
541load symbols from the running process's executable file.
542
543* Many C++ enhancements
544
545C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
546in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
547
adf40b2e
JM
548* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
549
550A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
551sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
552with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
553``|<program> <args>'' vis:
554
555 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
556 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
557
43e526b9
JM
558* MIPS 64 remote protocol
559
560A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
561expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
562instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
563
564The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
565added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
566
96baa820
JM
567* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
568
569The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
570``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
571include ``set remote P-packet''.
572
11cf8741
JM
573* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
574
575The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
576accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
577``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
578
7876dd43
DB
579* ``apropos'' command added.
580
581The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
582documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
583try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
584
bc9e5bbf
AC
585* New MI interface
586
587A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
588interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
589process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
590"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
591enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
592
593 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
594
c906108c
SS
595*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
596
597* New native configurations
598
599HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
600HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 601M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
602
603* New targets
604
605Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
606Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
607Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
608
609* OBSOLETE configurations
610
611Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
612
613Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
614but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
615these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
616be permanently REMOVED.
617
618* ANSI/ISO C
619
620As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
621buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
622containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
623use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
624available. If this is not true, please report the affected
625configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
626information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
627already.
628
629* Readline 2.2
630
631GDB now uses readline 2.2.
632
633* set extension-language
634
635You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
636languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
637you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
638 set extension-language .c c++
639The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
640and their associated languages.
641
642* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
643
644When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
645you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
646PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
647
648 set processor NAME
649
650sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
651following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
652
653 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
654 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
655 403 IBM PowerPC 403
656 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
657 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
658 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
659 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
660 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
661 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
662 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
663 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
664
665At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
666special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
667registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
668only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
669
670* HP-UX support
671
672Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
673more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
674library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
675support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
676for xdb and dbx commands.
677
678* Catchpoints
679
680HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
681generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
682to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
683
684This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
685argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
686output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
687
688* Debugging across forks
689
690On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
691in the inferior.
692
693* TUI
694
695HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
696it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
697configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
698
699* GDB remote protocol additions
700
701A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
702Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
703fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
704allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
705
706For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
707full 64-bit address. The command
708
709 set remoteaddresssize 32
710
711can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
712the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
713will be discarded.
714
715In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
716command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
717
718 maint packet heythere
719
720sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
721disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
722time.
723
724The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
725target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
726downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
727
728* Tracing can collect general expressions
729
730You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
731further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
732doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
733
734* mask-address variable for Mips
735
736For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
737a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
738of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
739
740* Higher serial baud rates
741
742GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
743230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
744to achieve all of these rates.)
745
746* i960 simulator
747
748The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
749builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
750
751
752*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
753
754* New native configurations
755
756Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
757Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
758Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
759PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
760PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
761Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
762Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
763
764* New targets
765
766Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
767Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
768Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
769Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
770MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
771MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
772MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
773Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
774Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
775Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
776NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
777
778* New debugging protocols
779
780ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
781M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
782DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
783PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
784PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
785Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
786
787* DWARF 2
788
789All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
790format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
791information.
792
793* Java frontend
794
795GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
796only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
797
798* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
799
800For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
801loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
802locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
803
804* Live range splitting
805
806GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
807range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
808more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
809
810* Hurd support
811
812GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
813updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
814
815* ARM Thumb support
816
817GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
818instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
819instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
820accordingly.
821
822* MIPS16 support
823
824GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
825instruction set.
826
827* Overlay support
828
829GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
830linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
831will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
832control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
833additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
834in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
835
836* info symbol
837
838The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
839the symbol at the specified address.
840
841* Trace support
842
843The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
844asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
845extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
846includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
847file tracepoint.c for more details.
848
849* MIPS simulator
850
851Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
852by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
853of most MIPS variants.
854
855* Sparc simulator
856
857Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
858by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
859Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
860
861* set architecture
862
863For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
864basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
865architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
866the possible architectures.
867
868*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
869
870* New native configurations
871
872Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
873M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
874PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
875PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
876PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
877RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
878
879* New targets
880
881ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
882I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
883MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
884MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
885PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
886Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
887Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
888
889* PowerPC simulator
890
891The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
892contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
893PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
894basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
895performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
896
897* Solaris 2.5
898
899GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
900
901* Windows 95/NT native
902
903GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
904To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
905which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
906Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
907ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
908
909* dont-repeat command
910
911If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
912command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
913useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
914extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
915
916* Send break instead of ^C
917
918The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
919rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
920GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
921
922* Remote protocol timeout
923
924The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
925that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
926to read from the target. The default value is 2.
927
928* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
929
930By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
931loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
932stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
933when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
934in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
935
936Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
937/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
938automatically on hpux10.
939
940* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
941
942Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
943
944* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
945
946When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
947may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
948the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
949every character. The default value is 1050.
950
951* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
952
953If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
954a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
955replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
956details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
957remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
958to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
959
960* Speedups for remote debugging
961
962GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
963the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
964and more efficient S-record downloading.
965
966* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
967
968GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
969Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
970
971*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
972
973* Psymtabs for XCOFF
974
975The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
976can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
977
978* Remote targets use caching
979
980Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
981remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
982it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
983debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
984off' turns the the data cache off.
985
986* Remote targets may have threads
987
988The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
989in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
990gdb/remote.c for details.
991
992* NetROM support
993
994If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
995support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
996acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
997write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
998support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
999another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1000sequence is something like
1001
1002 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1003 load <prog>
1004 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1005
1006* Macintosh host
1007
1008GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1009may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1010it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1011available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1012device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1013directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1014scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1015mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1016
1017* Autoconf
1018
1019GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1020but does simplify configuration and building.
1021
1022* hpux10
1023
1024GDB now supports hpux10.
1025
1026*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1027
1028* New native configurations
1029
1030x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1031x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1032NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1033Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1034
1035* New targets
1036
1037A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1038HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1039CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1040PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1041WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1042
1043* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1044
1045GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1046possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1047filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1048the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1049if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1050
1051* Arguments to user-defined commands
1052
1053User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1054Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1055trivial example:
1056define adder
1057 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1058
1059To execute the command use:
1060adder 1 2 3
1061
1062Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1063Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1064use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1065
1066* New `if' and `while' commands
1067
1068This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1069commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1070expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1071execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1072terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1073`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1074if the expression is zero.
1075
1076* Fortran source language mode
1077
1078GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1079Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1080variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1081with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1082Fortran compilers.
1083
1084* Better HPUX support
1085
1086Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1087running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1088processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1089for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1090that behavior do the following before running the program:
1091
1092 adb -w a.out
1093 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1094 control-d
1095
1096This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1097To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1098
1099 adb -w a.out
1100 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1101 control-d
1102
1103You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1104the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1105external linkage.
1106
1107GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1108HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1109
1110* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1111
1112You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1113commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1114current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1115"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1116associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1117configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1118
1119* New DOS host serial code
1120
1121This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1122no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1123a PC's serial port.
1124
1125*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1126
1127* New "complete" command
1128
1129This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1130were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1131
1132* Trailing space optional in prompt
1133
1134"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1135allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1136
1137* Breakpoint hit counts
1138
1139"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1140has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1141can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1142to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1143less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1144that breakpoint.
1145
1146* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1147
1148"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1149an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1150arrays actually contain only short strings.
1151
1152* Shared library breakpoints
1153
1154In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1155breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1156
1157* Hardware watchpoints
1158
1159There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1160targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1161
55241689 1162Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1163
1164* Annotations
1165
1166Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1167and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1168
1169* Improved Irix 5 support
1170
1171GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1172
1173* Improved HPPA support
1174
1175GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1176
1177* New native configurations
1178
1179Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1180HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1181Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1182RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1183
1184* New targets
1185
1186OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1187MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1188Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1189
1190* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1191
1192There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1193This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1194
1195* Fixes
1196
1197As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1198and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1199
1200*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1201
1202* Irix 5 is now supported
1203
1204* HPPA support
1205
1206GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1207to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1208GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1209of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1210can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1211
1212
1213*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1214
1215* User visible changes:
1216
1217* Remote Debugging
1218
1219The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1220target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1221debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1222integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1223debugging info for the mips target).
1224
1225* DEC Alpha native support
1226
1227GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1228debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1229work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1230Alpha-specific notes.
1231
1232* Preliminary thread implementation
1233
1234GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1235
1236* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1237
1238This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1239to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1240for details).
1241
1242* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1243
1244This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1245mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1246call methods, ...etc.
1247
1248*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1249
1250 * User visible changes:
1251
1252Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1253supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1254other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1255somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1256
1257Filename completion now works.
1258
1259When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1260arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1261addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1262
1263All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1264vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1265should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1266your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1267to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1268
1269 * DEC alpha support
1270
1271This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1272cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1273
1274
1275*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1276
1277 * Testsuite
1278
1279This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1280The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1281via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1282
1283 * C++ demangling
1284
1285'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1286emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1287Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1288disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1289use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1290
1291 * Simulators
1292
1293GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1294So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1295Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1296
1297 * New targets supported
1298
1299H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1300H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1301SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1302Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1303IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1304
1305Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1306version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1307GO32 memory extender.
1308
1309 * New remote protocols
1310
1311MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1312
1313 * New source languages supported
1314
1315This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1316used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1317into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1318
1319
1320*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1321
1322 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1323
1324GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1325version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1326University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1327compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1328format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1329(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1330
1331Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1332
1333 * Faster and better demangling
1334
1335We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1336demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1337character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1338only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1339This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1340increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1341symbol lookups.
1342
1343`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1344from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1345compiler does not actually implement.
1346
1347 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1348
1349In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1350inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1351recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1352very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1353The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1354circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1355fix.
1356
1357The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1358release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1359
1360 * Improved configure script
1361
1362The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1363you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1364host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1365done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1366
1367We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1368version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1369`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1370The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1371only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1372We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1373
1374 * Documentation improvements
1375
1376There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1377produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1378before submitting changes.
1379
1380The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1381M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1382`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1383you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1384a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1385
1386*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1387We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1388been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1389or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1390`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1391around this problem.
1392
1393 * New features
1394
1395GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1396the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1397`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1398the target program.
1399
1400The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1401how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1402
1403 * New native hosts supported
1404
1405HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1406386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1407
1408 * New targets supported
1409
1410AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1411
1412 * New file formats supported
1413
1414BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1415HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1416
1417 * Major bug fixes
1418
1419Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1420
1421We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1422printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1423
1424We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1425for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1426release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1427
1428You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1429will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1430
1431We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1432for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1433especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1434libraries.
1435
1436The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1437information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1438command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1439any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1440when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1441
1442 * Internal improvements
1443
1444GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1445debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1446
1447GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1448Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1449symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1450contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1451shared code that handles any of them.
1452
1453 * New command line options
1454
1455We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1456
1457 * Mmalloc licensing
1458
1459The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1460General Public License.
1461
1462*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1463
1464 * Host/native/target split
1465
1466GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1467hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1468target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1469local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1470ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1471
1472The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1473GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1474is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1475code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1476any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1477built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1478handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1479
1480GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1481It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1482plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1483
1484 * New hosts supported
1485
1486HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1487386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1488386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1489
1490 * New targets supported
1491
1492Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
149368030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1494
1495 * New native hosts supported
1496
1497386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1498 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1499386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1500
1501 * New file formats supported
1502
1503BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1504supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1505format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1506
1507 * New commands
1508
1509`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1510`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1511These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1512
1513`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1514
1515You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1516scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1517prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1518executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1519
1520 * C++ improvements
1521
1522We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1523info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1524symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1525
1526Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1527
1528 * Major bug fixes
1529
1530The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1531fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1532by the compiler.
1533
1534We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1535support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1536
1537John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1538slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1539that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1540purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1541the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1542mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1543
1544Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1545about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1546completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1547we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1548
1549 * AMD 29k support
1550
1551A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1552specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1553calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1554usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1555in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1556
1557We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1558Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1559of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1560resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1561
1562 * Remote interfaces
1563
1564We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1565with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1566message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1567This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1568needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1569breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1570each instruction being stepped through.
1571
1572The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1573registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1574
1575There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1576find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1577Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1578processor with a serial port.
1579
1580 * Configuration
1581
1582Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1583`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1584supported, and what files each one uses.
1585
1586 * Library changes
1587
1588There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1589disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1590Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1591disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1592
1593The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1594Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1595can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1596grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1597
1598 * Documentation
1599
1600The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1601reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1602as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1603encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1604system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1605bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1606
1607And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1608
1609
1610*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1611
1612 * Better support for C++ function names
1613
1614GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1615names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1616(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1617single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1618Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1619
1620GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1621the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1622You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1623lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1624for the list of formats.
1625
1626 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1627
1628Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1629C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1630directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1631can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1632usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1633about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1634this problem.)
1635
1636 * New 'maintenance' command
1637
1638All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1639the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1640can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1641
1642 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1643 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1644 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1645 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1646 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1647 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1648
1649The following commands are new:
1650
1651 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1652 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1653 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1654
1655 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1656
1657We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1658(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1659be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1660read after argv processing.
1661
1662 * New hosts supported
1663
1664Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1665
55241689 1666GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
1667
1668We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1669is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1670for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1671masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1672fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1673It costs extra.
1674
1675 * New targets supported
1676
1677Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1678
1679 * More smarts about finding #include files
1680
1681GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1682all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1683greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1684especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1685the one that contains your sources.
1686
1687We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1688breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1689try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1690
1691 * Interesting infernals change
1692
1693GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1694section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1695target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1696stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1697
1698 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1699
1700There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1701 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1702 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1703
1704See the ChangeLog for details.
1705
1706*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1707
1708 * New machines supported (host and target)
1709
1710IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1711
1712SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1713
1714 * New malloc package
1715
1716GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1717Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1718capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1719This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1720pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1721more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1722
1723 * info proc
1724
1725The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1726'help info proc' for details.
1727
1728 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1729
1730The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1731Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1732possible.
1733
1734 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1735
1736Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1737support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1738conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1739environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1740that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1741in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1742
1743 * Cross byte order fixes
1744
1745Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1746targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1747
1748 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1749
1750If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1751system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1752`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1753program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1754called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1755Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1756and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1757the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1758option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1759starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1760
1761You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1762the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1763information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1764slower, but makes future operations faster.
1765
1766The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1767build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1768A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1769use is:
1770
1771 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1772
1773The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1774It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1775shared across multiple host platforms.
1776
1777 * longjmp() handling
1778
1779GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1780siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1781all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1782platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1783
1784 * Solaris 2.0
1785
1786Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1787this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1788reading symbols.
1789
1790 * Bug fixes
1791
1792As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1793People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1794crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1795
1796*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1797
1798 * New machines supported (host and target)
1799
1800SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1801 (except core files)
1802BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1803Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1804
1805 * New machines supported (target)
1806
1807AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1808
1809 * C++ support
1810
1811GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1812The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1813per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1814
1815GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1816`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1817extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1818good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1819will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1820released.
1821
1822 * New features for SVR4
1823
1824GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1825shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1826only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1827
1828The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1829on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1830it prints the address mappings of the process.
1831
1832If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1833bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1834
1835 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1836
1837Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1838now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1839skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1840make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1841same code linked statically.
1842
1843 * New Getopt
1844
1845GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1846version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1847continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1848Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1849added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1850future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1851
1852 * Bugs fixed
1853
1854The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1855Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1856See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1857
1858
1859*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1860
1861 * New machines supported (host and target)
1862
1863Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1864NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1865Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1866
1867 * Almost SCO Unix support
1868
1869We had hoped to support:
1870SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1871(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1872that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1873about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1874
1875 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1876
1877GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1878debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1879is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1880send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1881reqired (if any).
1882
1883 * New Readline
1884
1885GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1886is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1887required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1888
1889 * Bugs fixed
1890
1891The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1892Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1893See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1894
1895 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1896
1897GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1898supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1899symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1900
1901Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1902mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1903debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1904mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1905version 2.
1906
1907Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1908really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1909line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1910variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1911situation somewhat.
1912
1913When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1914However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1915methods.
1916
1917We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1918DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1919encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1920
1921
1922*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1923
1924 * Improved configuration
1925
1926Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1927Porting BFD is simpler.
1928
1929 * Stepping improved
1930
1931The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1932of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1933in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1934function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1935
1936 * Bug fixing
1937
1938Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1939
1940 * New host supported (not target)
1941
1942Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1943
1944
1945*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1946
1947 * Multiple source language support
1948
1949GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1950It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1951and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1952language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1953You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1954`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1955
1956 * GDB and Modula-2
1957
1958GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1959currently under development at the State University of New York at
1960Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1961continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1962
1963Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1964debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1965symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1966
1967There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1968in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1969
1970 * set write on/off
1971
1972GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1973a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1974the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1975by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1976effect immediately.
1977
1978 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1979
1980When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1981shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1982The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1983examining core files.
1984
1985 * set listsize
1986
1987You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1988The default is 10.
1989
1990 * New machines supported (host and target)
1991
1992SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1993Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1994Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1995
1996 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1997
1998IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1999
2000 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2001
2002AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2003AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2004Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2005
2006 * New remote interfaces
2007
2008AMD 29000 Adapt
2009AMD 29000 Minimon
2010
2011
2012*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2013
2014 * New Facilities
2015
2016Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2017
2018Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2019target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2020is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2021remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2022remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2023also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2024using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2025stub on the target system.
2026
2027New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2028
2029GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2030library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2031object file types such as a.out and coff.
2032
2033There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2034refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2035
2036
2037 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2038
2039All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2040by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2041
2042For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2043``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2044Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2045
2046What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2047print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2048will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2049all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2050
2051confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2052 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2053 it is already running. Default is ON.
2054
2055editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2056 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2057 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2058 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2059 Default is ON.
2060
2061history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2062 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2063 or the value of the environment variable
2064 GDBHISTFILE.
2065
2066history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2067 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2068 HISTSIZE.
2069
2070history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2071 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2072 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2073
2074history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2075 history expansion will be performed on
2076 command line input. The default is OFF.
2077
2078radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2079 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2080 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2081
2082height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2083 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2084 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2085 variable TERM.
2086
2087width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2088 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2089 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2090 variable TERM.
2091
2092Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2093``set width'' instead.
2094
2095print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2096 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2097 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2098 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2099
2100print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2101 is OFF.
2102
2103print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2104 "raw" form if off.
2105
2106print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2107 like instructions.
2108
2109print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2110
2111
2112 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2113
2114The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2115new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2116are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2117window.
2118
2119
2120 * Support for Shared Libraries
2121
2122GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2123Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2124before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2125happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2126At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2127from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2128shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2129It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2130
2131sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2132 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2133 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2134
2135info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2136
2137
2138 * Watchpoints
2139
2140A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2141expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2142tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2143quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2144problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2145more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2146
2147watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2148
2149info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2150
2151delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2152disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2153enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2154
2155
2156 * C++ multiple inheritance
2157
2158When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2159for C++ programs.
2160
2161 * C++ exception handling
2162
2163Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2164ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2165the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2166handler's context).
2167
2168catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2169 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2170 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2171
2172info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2173 current stack frame.
2174
2175
2176 * Minor command changes
2177
2178The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2179command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2180is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2181
2182The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2183at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2184frames without printing.
2185
2186 * New directory command
2187
2188'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2189The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2190about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2191with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2192find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2193
2194 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2195
2196For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2197for more details.
2198
2199GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2200two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2201Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2202where the program that you are debugging will run.
This page took 0.268023 seconds and 4 git commands to generate.