From 2001-07-09 D.J. Barrow <djbarrow@de.ibm.com>:
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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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
6* New native configurations
7
8Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
9x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2aa830e4 10MIPS Linux mips*-*-linux*
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11MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
12ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
139760b7 13
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14* New targets
15
def90278 16Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 17CRIS cris-axis
e23194cb 18UltraSparc running Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 19
17e78a56 20* OBSOLETE configurations and files
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21
22x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 23Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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24Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
25 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
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26TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
27WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 28Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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29PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
30PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
31PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 32SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
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33Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
34ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 35Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 36
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37stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
38kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
39
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40Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
41been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
42configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
43permanently REMOVED.
44
a196c81c 45* REMOVED configurations and files
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46
47Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
48Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
49Pyramid pyramid-*-*
50ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
51Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 52ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 53
6d6b80e5 54* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 55
6d6b80e5 56GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
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57sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
58present.
59
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60* Other news:
61
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62* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
63
64* The MI enabled by default.
65
66The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
67revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
68engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
69using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
70which is now deprecated.
71
72* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
73
74GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
75main features are supported:
76
77 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
78
79 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
80 extension;
81
82 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
83
84 - a Pascal expression parser.
85
86However, some important features are not yet supported.
87
88 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
89
90 - there are some problems with boolean types;
91
92 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
93 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
94
95 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
96
97 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
98
99* Changes in completion.
100
101Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
102to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
103users expect at the shell prompt.
104
105Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
106`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
107program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
108files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
109be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
110considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
111name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
112
113`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
114
115* New platform-independent commands:
116
117It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
118hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
119documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
120
121* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
122
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123Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
124revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
125many threads as your system allows you to have.
126
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127Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
128
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129Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
130multi-threaded programs though.
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131
132* Changes in MIPS configurations.
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133
134Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
135
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136GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
137debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
138supported.)
139
140* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
141
142Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
143breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
144implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
145put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
146and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
147registers.
148
149The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
150debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
151watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
152
153* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
154
155New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
156the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
157
158New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
159display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
160IDT.
161
162New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
163from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
164New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
165a given linear address.
166
167GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
168program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
169which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
170
171DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
172
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173It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
174
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175* Changes in documentation.
176
177All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
178Documentation License.
179
180Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
181manual.
182
183TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
184
185Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
186manual.
187
188The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
189documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
190hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
191
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192* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
193
194The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
195``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
196contents of this file.
197
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198* gdba.el deleted
199
200GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 201
9debab2f 202*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 203
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204* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
205
206Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
207programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
208displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
209greater level of detail.
210
211* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
212
213It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
214bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
215on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
216written.
217
218* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
219
220The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
221necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
222machines ``out of the box''.
223
224The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
225possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
226signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
227would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
228interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
229
230It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
231standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
232even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
233and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
234terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
235
236The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
237enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
238also works.
239
240DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
241GDB.
242
243It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
244directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
245times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
246breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
247
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248* New native configurations
249
250ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 251PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 252
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253* New targets
254
96baa820 255Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
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256x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
257PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
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258TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
259
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260* OBSOLETE configurations
261
262Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
263Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 264Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 265ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 266Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 267
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268Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
269but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
270these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
271be permanently REMOVED.
272
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273* Gould support removed
274
275Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
276
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277* New features for SVR4
278
279On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
280without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
281load symbols from the running process's executable file.
282
283* Many C++ enhancements
284
285C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
286in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
287
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288* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
289
290A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
291sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
292with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
293``|<program> <args>'' vis:
294
295 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
296 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
297
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298* MIPS 64 remote protocol
299
300A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
301expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
302instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
303
304The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
305added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
306
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307* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
308
309The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
310``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
311include ``set remote P-packet''.
312
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313* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
314
315The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
316accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
317``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
318
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319* ``apropos'' command added.
320
321The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
322documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
323try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
324
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325* New MI interface
326
327A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
328interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
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329process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
330"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
331enabled by configuring with:
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332
333 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
334
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335*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
336
337* New native configurations
338
339HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
340HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
341M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
342
343* New targets
344
345Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
346Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
347Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
348
349* OBSOLETE configurations
350
351Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
352
353Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
354but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
355these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
356be permanently REMOVED.
357
358* ANSI/ISO C
359
360As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
361buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
362containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
363use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
364available. If this is not true, please report the affected
365configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
366information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
367already.
368
369* Readline 2.2
370
371GDB now uses readline 2.2.
372
373* set extension-language
374
375You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
376languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
377you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
378 set extension-language .c c++
379The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
380and their associated languages.
381
382* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
383
384When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
385you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
386PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
387
388 set processor NAME
389
390sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
391following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
392
393 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
394 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
395 403 IBM PowerPC 403
396 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
397 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
398 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
399 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
400 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
401 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
402 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
403 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
404
405At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
406special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
407registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
408only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
409
410* HP-UX support
411
412Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
413more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
414library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
415support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
416for xdb and dbx commands.
417
418* Catchpoints
419
420HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
421generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
422to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
423
424This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
425argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
426output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
427
428* Debugging across forks
429
430On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
431in the inferior.
432
433* TUI
434
435HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
436it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
437configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
438
439* GDB remote protocol additions
440
441A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
442Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
443fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
444allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
445
446For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
447full 64-bit address. The command
448
449 set remoteaddresssize 32
450
451can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
452the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
453will be discarded.
454
455In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
456command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
457
458 maint packet heythere
459
460sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
461disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
462time.
463
464The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
465target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
466downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
467
468* Tracing can collect general expressions
469
470You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
471further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
472doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
473
474* mask-address variable for Mips
475
476For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
477a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
478of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
479
480* Higher serial baud rates
481
482GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
483230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
484to achieve all of these rates.)
485
486* i960 simulator
487
488The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
489builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
490
491
492*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
493
494* New native configurations
495
496Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
497Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
498Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
499PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
500PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
501Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
502Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
503
504* New targets
505
506Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
507Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
508Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
509Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
510MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
511MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
512MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
513Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
514Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
515Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
516NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
517
518* New debugging protocols
519
520ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
521M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
522DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
523PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
524PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
525Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
526
527* DWARF 2
528
529All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
530format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
531information.
532
533* Java frontend
534
535GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
536only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
537
538* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
539
540For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
541loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
542locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
543
544* Live range splitting
545
546GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
547range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
548more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
549
550* Hurd support
551
552GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
553updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
554
555* ARM Thumb support
556
557GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
558instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
559instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
560accordingly.
561
562* MIPS16 support
563
564GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
565instruction set.
566
567* Overlay support
568
569GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
570linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
571will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
572control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
573additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
574in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
575
576* info symbol
577
578The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
579the symbol at the specified address.
580
581* Trace support
582
583The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
584asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
585extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
586includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
587file tracepoint.c for more details.
588
589* MIPS simulator
590
591Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
592by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
593of most MIPS variants.
594
595* Sparc simulator
596
597Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
598by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
599Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
600
601* set architecture
602
603For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
604basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
605architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
606the possible architectures.
607
608*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
609
610* New native configurations
611
612Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
613M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
614PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
615PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
616PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
617RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
618
619* New targets
620
621ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
622I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
623MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
624MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
625PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
626Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
627Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
628
629* PowerPC simulator
630
631The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
632contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
633PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
634basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
635performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
636
637* Solaris 2.5
638
639GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
640
641* Windows 95/NT native
642
643GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
644To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
645which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
646Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
647ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
648
649* dont-repeat command
650
651If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
652command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
653useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
654extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
655
656* Send break instead of ^C
657
658The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
659rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
660GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
661
662* Remote protocol timeout
663
664The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
665that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
666to read from the target. The default value is 2.
667
668* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
669
670By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
671loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
672stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
673when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
674in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
675
676Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
677/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
678automatically on hpux10.
679
680* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
681
682Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
683
684* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
685
686When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
687may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
688the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
689every character. The default value is 1050.
690
691* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
692
693If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
694a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
695replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
696details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
697remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
698to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
699
700* Speedups for remote debugging
701
702GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
703the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
704and more efficient S-record downloading.
705
706* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
707
708GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
709Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
710
711*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
712
713* Psymtabs for XCOFF
714
715The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
716can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
717
718* Remote targets use caching
719
720Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
721remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
722it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
723debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
724off' turns the the data cache off.
725
726* Remote targets may have threads
727
728The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
729in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
730gdb/remote.c for details.
731
732* NetROM support
733
734If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
735support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
736acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
737write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
738support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
739another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
740sequence is something like
741
742 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
743 load <prog>
744 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
745
746* Macintosh host
747
748GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
749may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
750it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
751available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
752device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
753directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
754scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
755mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
756
757* Autoconf
758
759GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
760but does simplify configuration and building.
761
762* hpux10
763
764GDB now supports hpux10.
765
766*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
767
768* New native configurations
769
770x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
771x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
772NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
773Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
774
775* New targets
776
777A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
778HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
779CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
780PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
781WDC 65816 w65-*-*
782
783* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
784
785GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
786possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
787filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
788the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
789if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
790
791* Arguments to user-defined commands
792
793User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
794Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
795trivial example:
796define adder
797 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
798
799To execute the command use:
800adder 1 2 3
801
802Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
803Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
804use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
805
806* New `if' and `while' commands
807
808This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
809commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
810expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
811execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
812terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
813`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
814if the expression is zero.
815
816* Fortran source language mode
817
818GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
819Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
820variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
821with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
822Fortran compilers.
823
824* Better HPUX support
825
826Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
827running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
828processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
829for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
830that behavior do the following before running the program:
831
832 adb -w a.out
833 __dld_flags?W 0x5
834 control-d
835
836This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
837To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
838
839 adb -w a.out
840 __dld_flags?W 0x4
841 control-d
842
843You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
844the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
845external linkage.
846
847GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
848HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
849
850* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
851
852You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
853commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
854current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
855"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
856associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
857configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
858
859* New DOS host serial code
860
861This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
862no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
863a PC's serial port.
864
865*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
866
867* New "complete" command
868
869This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
870were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
871
872* Trailing space optional in prompt
873
874"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
875allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
876
877* Breakpoint hit counts
878
879"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
880has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
881can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
882to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
883less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
884that breakpoint.
885
886* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
887
888"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
889an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
890arrays actually contain only short strings.
891
892* Shared library breakpoints
893
894In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
895breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
896
897* Hardware watchpoints
898
899There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
900targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
901
902Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
903
904* Annotations
905
906Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
907and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
908
909* Improved Irix 5 support
910
911GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
912
913* Improved HPPA support
914
915GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
916
917* New native configurations
918
919Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
920HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
921Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
922RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
923
924* New targets
925
926OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
927MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
928Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
929
930* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
931
932There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
933This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
934
935* Fixes
936
937As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
938and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
939
940*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
941
942* Irix 5 is now supported
943
944* HPPA support
945
946GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
947to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
948GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
949of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
950can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
951
952
953*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
954
955* User visible changes:
956
957* Remote Debugging
958
959The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
960target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
961debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
962integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
963debugging info for the mips target).
964
965* DEC Alpha native support
966
967GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
968debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
969work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
970Alpha-specific notes.
971
972* Preliminary thread implementation
973
974GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
975
976* LynxOS native and target support for 386
977
978This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
979to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
980for details).
981
982* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
983
984This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
985mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
986call methods, ...etc.
987
988*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
989
990 * User visible changes:
991
992Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
993supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
994other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
995somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
996
997Filename completion now works.
998
999When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1000arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1001addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1002
1003All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1004vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1005should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1006your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1007to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1008
1009 * DEC alpha support
1010
1011This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1012cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1013
1014
1015*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1016
1017 * Testsuite
1018
1019This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1020The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1021via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1022
1023 * C++ demangling
1024
1025'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1026emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1027Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1028disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1029use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1030
1031 * Simulators
1032
1033GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1034So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1035Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1036
1037 * New targets supported
1038
1039H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1040H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1041SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1042Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1043IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1044
1045Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1046version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1047GO32 memory extender.
1048
1049 * New remote protocols
1050
1051MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1052
1053 * New source languages supported
1054
1055This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1056used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1057into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1058
1059
1060*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1061
1062 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1063
1064GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1065version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1066University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1067compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1068format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1069(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1070
1071Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1072
1073 * Faster and better demangling
1074
1075We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1076demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1077character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1078only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1079This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1080increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1081symbol lookups.
1082
1083`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1084from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1085compiler does not actually implement.
1086
1087 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1088
1089In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1090inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1091recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1092very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1093The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1094circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1095fix.
1096
1097The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1098release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1099
1100 * Improved configure script
1101
1102The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1103you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1104host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1105done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1106
1107We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1108version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1109`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1110The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1111only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1112We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1113
1114 * Documentation improvements
1115
1116There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1117produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1118before submitting changes.
1119
1120The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1121M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1122`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1123you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1124a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1125
1126*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1127We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1128been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1129or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1130`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1131around this problem.
1132
1133 * New features
1134
1135GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1136the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1137`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1138the target program.
1139
1140The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1141how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1142
1143 * New native hosts supported
1144
1145HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1146386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1147
1148 * New targets supported
1149
1150AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1151
1152 * New file formats supported
1153
1154BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1155HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1156
1157 * Major bug fixes
1158
1159Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1160
1161We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1162printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1163
1164We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1165for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1166release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1167
1168You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1169will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1170
1171We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1172for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1173especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1174libraries.
1175
1176The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1177information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1178command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1179any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1180when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1181
1182 * Internal improvements
1183
1184GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1185debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1186
1187GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1188Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1189symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1190contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1191shared code that handles any of them.
1192
1193 * New command line options
1194
1195We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1196
1197 * Mmalloc licensing
1198
1199The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1200General Public License.
1201
1202*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1203
1204 * Host/native/target split
1205
1206GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1207hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1208target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1209local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1210ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1211
1212The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1213GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1214is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1215code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1216any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1217built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1218handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1219
1220GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1221It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1222plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1223
1224 * New hosts supported
1225
1226HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1227386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1228386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1229
1230 * New targets supported
1231
1232Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
123368030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1234
1235 * New native hosts supported
1236
1237386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1238 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1239386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1240
1241 * New file formats supported
1242
1243BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1244supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1245format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1246
1247 * New commands
1248
1249`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1250`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1251These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1252
1253`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1254
1255You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1256scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1257prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1258executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1259
1260 * C++ improvements
1261
1262We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1263info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1264symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1265
1266Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1267
1268 * Major bug fixes
1269
1270The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1271fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1272by the compiler.
1273
1274We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1275support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1276
1277John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1278slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1279that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1280purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1281the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1282mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1283
1284Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1285about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1286completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1287we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1288
1289 * AMD 29k support
1290
1291A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1292specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1293calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1294usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1295in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1296
1297We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1298Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1299of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1300resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1301
1302 * Remote interfaces
1303
1304We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1305with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1306message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1307This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1308needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1309breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1310each instruction being stepped through.
1311
1312The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1313registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1314
1315There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1316find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1317Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1318processor with a serial port.
1319
1320 * Configuration
1321
1322Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1323`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1324supported, and what files each one uses.
1325
1326 * Library changes
1327
1328There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1329disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1330Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1331disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1332
1333The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1334Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1335can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1336grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1337
1338 * Documentation
1339
1340The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1341reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1342as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1343encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1344system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1345bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1346
1347And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1348
1349
1350*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1351
1352 * Better support for C++ function names
1353
1354GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1355names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1356(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1357single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1358Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1359
1360GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1361the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1362You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1363lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1364for the list of formats.
1365
1366 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1367
1368Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1369C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1370directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1371can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1372usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1373about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1374this problem.)
1375
1376 * New 'maintenance' command
1377
1378All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1379the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1380can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1381
1382 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1383 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1384 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1385 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1386 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1387 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1388
1389The following commands are new:
1390
1391 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1392 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1393 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1394
1395 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1396
1397We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1398(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1399be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1400read after argv processing.
1401
1402 * New hosts supported
1403
1404Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1405
1406Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1407
1408We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1409is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1410for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1411masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1412fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1413It costs extra.
1414
1415 * New targets supported
1416
1417Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1418
1419 * More smarts about finding #include files
1420
1421GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1422all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1423greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1424especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1425the one that contains your sources.
1426
1427We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1428breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1429try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1430
1431 * Interesting infernals change
1432
1433GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1434section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1435target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1436stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1437
1438 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1439
1440There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1441 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1442 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1443
1444See the ChangeLog for details.
1445
1446*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1447
1448 * New machines supported (host and target)
1449
1450IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1451
1452SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1453
1454 * New malloc package
1455
1456GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1457Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1458capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1459This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1460pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1461more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1462
1463 * info proc
1464
1465The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1466'help info proc' for details.
1467
1468 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1469
1470The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1471Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1472possible.
1473
1474 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1475
1476Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1477support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1478conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1479environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1480that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1481in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1482
1483 * Cross byte order fixes
1484
1485Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1486targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1487
1488 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1489
1490If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1491system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1492`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1493program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1494called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1495Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1496and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1497the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1498option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1499starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1500
1501You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1502the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1503information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1504slower, but makes future operations faster.
1505
1506The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1507build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1508A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1509use is:
1510
1511 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1512
1513The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1514It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1515shared across multiple host platforms.
1516
1517 * longjmp() handling
1518
1519GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1520siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1521all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1522platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1523
1524 * Solaris 2.0
1525
1526Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1527this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1528reading symbols.
1529
1530 * Bug fixes
1531
1532As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1533People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1534crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1535
1536*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1537
1538 * New machines supported (host and target)
1539
1540SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1541 (except core files)
1542BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1543Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1544
1545 * New machines supported (target)
1546
1547AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1548
1549 * C++ support
1550
1551GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1552The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1553per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1554
1555GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1556`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1557extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1558good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1559will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1560released.
1561
1562 * New features for SVR4
1563
1564GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1565shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1566only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1567
1568The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1569on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1570it prints the address mappings of the process.
1571
1572If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1573bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1574
1575 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1576
1577Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1578now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1579skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1580make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1581same code linked statically.
1582
1583 * New Getopt
1584
1585GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1586version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1587continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1588Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1589added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1590future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1591
1592 * Bugs fixed
1593
1594The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1595Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1596See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1597
1598
1599*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1600
1601 * New machines supported (host and target)
1602
1603Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1604NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1605Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1606
1607 * Almost SCO Unix support
1608
1609We had hoped to support:
1610SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1611(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1612that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1613about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1614
1615 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1616
1617GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1618debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1619is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1620send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1621reqired (if any).
1622
1623 * New Readline
1624
1625GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1626is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1627required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1628
1629 * Bugs fixed
1630
1631The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1632Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1633See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1634
1635 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1636
1637GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1638supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1639symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1640
1641Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1642mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1643debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1644mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1645version 2.
1646
1647Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1648really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1649line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1650variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1651situation somewhat.
1652
1653When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1654However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1655methods.
1656
1657We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1658DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1659encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1660
1661
1662*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1663
1664 * Improved configuration
1665
1666Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1667Porting BFD is simpler.
1668
1669 * Stepping improved
1670
1671The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1672of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1673in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1674function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1675
1676 * Bug fixing
1677
1678Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1679
1680 * New host supported (not target)
1681
1682Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1683
1684
1685*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1686
1687 * Multiple source language support
1688
1689GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1690It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1691and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1692language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1693You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1694`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1695
1696 * GDB and Modula-2
1697
1698GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1699currently under development at the State University of New York at
1700Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1701continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1702
1703Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1704debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1705symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1706
1707There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1708in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1709
1710 * set write on/off
1711
1712GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1713a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1714the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1715by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1716effect immediately.
1717
1718 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1719
1720When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1721shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1722The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1723examining core files.
1724
1725 * set listsize
1726
1727You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1728The default is 10.
1729
1730 * New machines supported (host and target)
1731
1732SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1733Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1734Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1735
1736 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1737
1738IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1739
1740 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1741
1742AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1743AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1744Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1745
1746 * New remote interfaces
1747
1748AMD 29000 Adapt
1749AMD 29000 Minimon
1750
1751
1752*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1753
1754 * New Facilities
1755
1756Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1757
1758Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1759target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1760is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1761remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1762remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1763also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1764using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1765stub on the target system.
1766
1767New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1768
1769GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1770library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1771object file types such as a.out and coff.
1772
1773There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1774refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1775
1776
1777 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1778
1779All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1780by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1781
1782For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1783``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1784Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1785
1786What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1787print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1788will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1789all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1790
1791confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1792 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1793 it is already running. Default is ON.
1794
1795editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1796 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1797 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1798 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1799 Default is ON.
1800
1801history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1802 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1803 or the value of the environment variable
1804 GDBHISTFILE.
1805
1806history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1807 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1808 HISTSIZE.
1809
1810history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1811 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1812 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1813
1814history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1815 history expansion will be performed on
1816 command line input. The default is OFF.
1817
1818radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1819 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1820 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1821
1822height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1823 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1824 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1825 variable TERM.
1826
1827width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1828 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1829 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1830 variable TERM.
1831
1832Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1833``set width'' instead.
1834
1835print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1836 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1837 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1838 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1839
1840print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1841 is OFF.
1842
1843print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1844 "raw" form if off.
1845
1846print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1847 like instructions.
1848
1849print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1850
1851
1852 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1853
1854The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1855new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1856are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1857window.
1858
1859
1860 * Support for Shared Libraries
1861
1862GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1863Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1864before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1865happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1866At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1867from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1868shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1869It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1870
1871sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1872 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1873 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1874
1875info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1876
1877
1878 * Watchpoints
1879
1880A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1881expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1882tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1883quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1884problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1885more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1886
1887watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1888
1889info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1890
1891delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1892disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1893enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1894
1895
1896 * C++ multiple inheritance
1897
1898When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1899for C++ programs.
1900
1901 * C++ exception handling
1902
1903Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1904ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1905the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1906handler's context).
1907
1908catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1909 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1910 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1911
1912info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1913 current stack frame.
1914
1915
1916 * Minor command changes
1917
1918The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1919command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1920is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1921
1922The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1923at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1924frames without printing.
1925
1926 * New directory command
1927
1928'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1929The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1930about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1931with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1932find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1933
1934 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1935
1936For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1937for more details.
1938
1939GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1940two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1941Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1942where the program that you are debugging will run.
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