* configure.in: Reorganize "Checks for library functions section"
[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 5.3:
5
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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
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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
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20* REMOVED configurations and files
21
22V850EA ISA
23
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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
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34* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
35
36When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
37`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
38in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
39library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
40shared libs like mad''.
41
b9d14705 42* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 43
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44Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
45the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
46arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
47powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 48
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49* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
50
51GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
52and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
53they expand.
54
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55The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
56invocations in expression, and shows the result.
57
58The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
59macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
60
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61Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
62information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
63your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
64information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
65
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66* Multi-arched targets.
67
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68DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
69DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 70NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 71National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
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72Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
73Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 74
cd9bfe15 75* New targets.
e33ce519 76
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77Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
78
e33ce519 79
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80* New native configurations
81
82Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 83SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 84MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 85UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 86
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87* OBSOLETE configurations and files
88
89Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
90been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
91configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
92permanently REMOVED.
93
92eb23c5 94Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 95OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 96IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 97Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 98Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 99Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
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100i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
101i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
102i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
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103HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
104 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
105 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 106I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 107
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108* OBSOLETE languages
109
110CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
111
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112* REMOVED configurations and files
113
114AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
115A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
116AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
117AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
118AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
119
120testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
121
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122* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
123
124This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
125commands. The default is 1024.
126
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127* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
128
129Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
130
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131* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
132
133These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
134to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
135from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 136
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137* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
138
139The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
140including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
141of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
142
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143*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
144
145* New targets.
146
147Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
148
149* Bug fixes
150
151gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
152mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
153Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
154
155gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
156dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
157Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
158
159Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
160Surprisingly enough, it works now.
161By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
162
163i386 hardware watchpoint support:
164avoid misses on second run for some targets.
165By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
166
37057839 167*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 168
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169* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
170
171This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
172really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
173In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
174target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
175This can be a significant performance improvement on some
176(notably embedded) targets.
177
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178* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
179
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180This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
181process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
182GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
183hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 184
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185* New command line option
186
187GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
188
189* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
190
191There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
192command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
193a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
194be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
195open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
196issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
197a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
198it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
199GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
200is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
201
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202* Changes in ARM configurations.
203
204Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
205configuration is fully multi-arch.
206
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207* New native configurations
208
fe419ffc 209ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 210x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 211AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 212Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 213
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214* New targets
215
216Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
217
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218* OBSOLETE configurations and files
219
220Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
221been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
222configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
223permanently REMOVED.
224
225AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
226A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
227AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
228AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
229AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
230
b4ceaee6 231testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 232
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233* REMOVED configurations and files
234
235TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 236WDC 65816 w65-*-*
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237PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
238PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
239PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 240Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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241Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
242 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 243SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 244Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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245Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
246ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 247Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 248
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249* Changes to command line processing
250
251The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
252for the inferior from gdb's command line.
253
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254* Changes to key bindings
255
256There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
257
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258*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
259
260Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
261
262Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
263corrupted.
264
265Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
266
267Numerous documentation fixes.
268
269Numerous testsuite fixes.
270
34f47bc4 271*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
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272
273* New native configurations
274
275Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
276x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 277MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
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278MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
279ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 280s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 281
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282* New targets
283
def90278 284Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 285CRIS cris-axis
55241689 286UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 287
17e78a56 288* OBSOLETE configurations and files
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289
290x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 291Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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292Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
293 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
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294TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
295WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 296Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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297PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
298PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
299PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 300SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
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301Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
302ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 303Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 304
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305stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
306kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
307
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308Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
309been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
310configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
311permanently REMOVED.
312
a196c81c 313* REMOVED configurations and files
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314
315Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
316Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
317Pyramid pyramid-*-*
318ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
319Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 320ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 321
6d6b80e5 322* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 323
6d6b80e5 324GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
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325sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
326present.
327
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328* Other news:
329
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330* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
331
332* The MI enabled by default.
333
334The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
335revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
336engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
337using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
338which is now deprecated.
339
340* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
341
342GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
343main features are supported:
344
345 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
346
347 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
348 extension;
349
350 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
351
352 - a Pascal expression parser.
353
354However, some important features are not yet supported.
355
356 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
357
358 - there are some problems with boolean types;
359
360 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
361 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
362
363 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
364
365 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
366
367* Changes in completion.
368
369Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
370to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
371users expect at the shell prompt.
372
373Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
374`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
375program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
376files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
377be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
378considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
379name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
380
381`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
382
383* New platform-independent commands:
384
385It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
386hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
387documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
388
389* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
390
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391Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
392revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
393many threads as your system allows you to have.
394
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395Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
396
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397Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
398multi-threaded programs though.
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399
400* Changes in MIPS configurations.
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401
402Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
403
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404GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
405debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
406supported.)
407
408* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
409
410Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
411breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
412implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
413put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
414and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
415registers.
416
417The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
418debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
419watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
420
421* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
422
423New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
424the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
425
426New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
427display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
428IDT.
429
430New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
431from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
432New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
433a given linear address.
434
435GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
436program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
437which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
438
439DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
440
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441It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
442
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443* Changes in documentation.
444
445All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
446Documentation License.
447
448Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
449manual.
450
451TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
452
453Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
454manual.
455
456The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
457documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
458hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
459
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460* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
461
462The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
463``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
464contents of this file.
465
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466* gdba.el deleted
467
468GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 469
9debab2f 470*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 471
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472* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
473
474Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
475programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
476displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
477greater level of detail.
478
479* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
480
481It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
482bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
483on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
484written.
485
486* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
487
488The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
489necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
490machines ``out of the box''.
491
492The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
493possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
494signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
495would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
496interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
497
498It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
499standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
500even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
501and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
502terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
503
504The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
505enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
506also works.
507
508DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
509GDB.
510
511It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
512directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
513times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
514breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
515
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516* New native configurations
517
518ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 519PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 520
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521* New targets
522
96baa820 523Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
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524x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
525PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
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526TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
527
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528* OBSOLETE configurations
529
530Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
531Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 532Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 533ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 534Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 535
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536Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
537but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
538these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
539be permanently REMOVED.
540
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541* Gould support removed
542
543Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
544
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545* New features for SVR4
546
547On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
548without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
549load symbols from the running process's executable file.
550
551* Many C++ enhancements
552
553C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
554in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
555
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556* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
557
558A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
559sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
560with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
561``|<program> <args>'' vis:
562
563 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
564 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
565
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566* MIPS 64 remote protocol
567
568A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
569expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
570instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
571
572The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
573added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
574
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575* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
576
577The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
578``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
579include ``set remote P-packet''.
580
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581* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
582
583The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
584accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
585``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
586
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587* ``apropos'' command added.
588
589The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
590documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
591try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
592
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593* New MI interface
594
595A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
596interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
597process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
598"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
599enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
600
601 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
602
c906108c
SS
603*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
604
605* New native configurations
606
607HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
608HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 609M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
610
611* New targets
612
613Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
614Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
615Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
616
617* OBSOLETE configurations
618
619Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
620
621Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
622but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
623these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
624be permanently REMOVED.
625
626* ANSI/ISO C
627
628As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
629buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
630containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
631use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
632available. If this is not true, please report the affected
633configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
634information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
635already.
636
637* Readline 2.2
638
639GDB now uses readline 2.2.
640
641* set extension-language
642
643You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
644languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
645you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
646 set extension-language .c c++
647The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
648and their associated languages.
649
650* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
651
652When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
653you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
654PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
655
656 set processor NAME
657
658sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
659following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
660
661 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
662 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
663 403 IBM PowerPC 403
664 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
665 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
666 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
667 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
668 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
669 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
670 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
671 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
672
673At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
674special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
675registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
676only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
677
678* HP-UX support
679
680Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
681more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
682library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
683support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
684for xdb and dbx commands.
685
686* Catchpoints
687
688HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
689generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
690to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
691
692This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
693argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
694output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
695
696* Debugging across forks
697
698On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
699in the inferior.
700
701* TUI
702
703HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
704it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
705configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
706
707* GDB remote protocol additions
708
709A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
710Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
711fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
712allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
713
714For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
715full 64-bit address. The command
716
717 set remoteaddresssize 32
718
719can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
720the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
721will be discarded.
722
723In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
724command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
725
726 maint packet heythere
727
728sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
729disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
730time.
731
732The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
733target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
734downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
735
736* Tracing can collect general expressions
737
738You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
739further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
740doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
741
742* mask-address variable for Mips
743
744For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
745a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
746of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
747
748* Higher serial baud rates
749
750GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
751230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
752to achieve all of these rates.)
753
754* i960 simulator
755
756The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
757builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
758
759
760*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
761
762* New native configurations
763
764Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
765Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
766Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
767PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
768PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
769Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
770Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
771
772* New targets
773
774Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
775Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
776Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
777Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
778MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
779MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
780MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
781Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
782Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
783Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
784NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
785
786* New debugging protocols
787
788ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
789M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
790DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
791PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
792PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
793Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
794
795* DWARF 2
796
797All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
798format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
799information.
800
801* Java frontend
802
803GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
804only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
805
806* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
807
808For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
809loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
810locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
811
812* Live range splitting
813
814GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
815range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
816more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
817
818* Hurd support
819
820GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
821updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
822
823* ARM Thumb support
824
825GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
826instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
827instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
828accordingly.
829
830* MIPS16 support
831
832GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
833instruction set.
834
835* Overlay support
836
837GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
838linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
839will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
840control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
841additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
842in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
843
844* info symbol
845
846The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
847the symbol at the specified address.
848
849* Trace support
850
851The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
852asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
853extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
854includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
855file tracepoint.c for more details.
856
857* MIPS simulator
858
859Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
860by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
861of most MIPS variants.
862
863* Sparc simulator
864
865Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
866by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
867Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
868
869* set architecture
870
871For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
872basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
873architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
874the possible architectures.
875
876*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
877
878* New native configurations
879
880Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
881M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
882PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
883PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
884PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
885RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
886
887* New targets
888
889ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
890I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
891MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
892MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
893PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
894Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
895Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
896
897* PowerPC simulator
898
899The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
900contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
901PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
902basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
903performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
904
905* Solaris 2.5
906
907GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
908
909* Windows 95/NT native
910
911GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
912To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
913which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
914Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
915ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
916
917* dont-repeat command
918
919If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
920command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
921useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
922extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
923
924* Send break instead of ^C
925
926The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
927rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
928GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
929
930* Remote protocol timeout
931
932The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
933that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
934to read from the target. The default value is 2.
935
936* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
937
938By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
939loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
940stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
941when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
942in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
943
944Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
945/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
946automatically on hpux10.
947
948* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
949
950Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
951
952* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
953
954When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
955may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
956the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
957every character. The default value is 1050.
958
959* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
960
961If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
962a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
963replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
964details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
965remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
966to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
967
968* Speedups for remote debugging
969
970GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
971the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
972and more efficient S-record downloading.
973
974* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
975
976GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
977Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
978
979*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
980
981* Psymtabs for XCOFF
982
983The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
984can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
985
986* Remote targets use caching
987
988Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
989remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
990it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
991debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
992off' turns the the data cache off.
993
994* Remote targets may have threads
995
996The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
997in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
998gdb/remote.c for details.
999
1000* NetROM support
1001
1002If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1003support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1004acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1005write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1006support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1007another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1008sequence is something like
1009
1010 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1011 load <prog>
1012 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1013
1014* Macintosh host
1015
1016GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1017may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1018it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1019available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1020device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1021directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1022scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1023mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1024
1025* Autoconf
1026
1027GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1028but does simplify configuration and building.
1029
1030* hpux10
1031
1032GDB now supports hpux10.
1033
1034*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1035
1036* New native configurations
1037
1038x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1039x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1040NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1041Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1042
1043* New targets
1044
1045A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1046HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1047CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1048PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1049WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1050
1051* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1052
1053GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1054possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1055filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1056the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1057if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1058
1059* Arguments to user-defined commands
1060
1061User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1062Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1063trivial example:
1064define adder
1065 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1066
1067To execute the command use:
1068adder 1 2 3
1069
1070Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1071Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1072use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1073
1074* New `if' and `while' commands
1075
1076This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1077commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1078expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1079execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1080terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1081`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1082if the expression is zero.
1083
1084* Fortran source language mode
1085
1086GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1087Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1088variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1089with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1090Fortran compilers.
1091
1092* Better HPUX support
1093
1094Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1095running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1096processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1097for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1098that behavior do the following before running the program:
1099
1100 adb -w a.out
1101 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1102 control-d
1103
1104This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1105To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1106
1107 adb -w a.out
1108 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1109 control-d
1110
1111You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1112the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1113external linkage.
1114
1115GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1116HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1117
1118* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1119
1120You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1121commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1122current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1123"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1124associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1125configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1126
1127* New DOS host serial code
1128
1129This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1130no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1131a PC's serial port.
1132
1133*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1134
1135* New "complete" command
1136
1137This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1138were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1139
1140* Trailing space optional in prompt
1141
1142"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1143allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1144
1145* Breakpoint hit counts
1146
1147"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1148has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1149can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1150to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1151less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1152that breakpoint.
1153
1154* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1155
1156"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1157an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1158arrays actually contain only short strings.
1159
1160* Shared library breakpoints
1161
1162In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1163breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1164
1165* Hardware watchpoints
1166
1167There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1168targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1169
55241689 1170Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1171
1172* Annotations
1173
1174Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1175and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1176
1177* Improved Irix 5 support
1178
1179GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1180
1181* Improved HPPA support
1182
1183GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1184
1185* New native configurations
1186
1187Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1188HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1189Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1190RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1191
1192* New targets
1193
1194OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1195MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1196Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1197
1198* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1199
1200There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1201This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1202
1203* Fixes
1204
1205As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1206and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1207
1208*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1209
1210* Irix 5 is now supported
1211
1212* HPPA support
1213
1214GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1215to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1216GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1217of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1218can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1219
1220
1221*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1222
1223* User visible changes:
1224
1225* Remote Debugging
1226
1227The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1228target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1229debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1230integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1231debugging info for the mips target).
1232
1233* DEC Alpha native support
1234
1235GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1236debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1237work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1238Alpha-specific notes.
1239
1240* Preliminary thread implementation
1241
1242GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1243
1244* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1245
1246This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1247to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1248for details).
1249
1250* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1251
1252This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1253mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1254call methods, ...etc.
1255
1256*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1257
1258 * User visible changes:
1259
1260Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1261supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1262other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1263somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1264
1265Filename completion now works.
1266
1267When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1268arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1269addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1270
1271All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1272vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1273should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1274your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1275to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1276
1277 * DEC alpha support
1278
1279This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1280cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1281
1282
1283*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1284
1285 * Testsuite
1286
1287This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1288The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1289via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1290
1291 * C++ demangling
1292
1293'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1294emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1295Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1296disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1297use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1298
1299 * Simulators
1300
1301GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1302So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1303Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1304
1305 * New targets supported
1306
1307H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1308H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1309SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1310Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1311IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1312
1313Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1314version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1315GO32 memory extender.
1316
1317 * New remote protocols
1318
1319MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1320
1321 * New source languages supported
1322
1323This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1324used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1325into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1326
1327
1328*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1329
1330 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1331
1332GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1333version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1334University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1335compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1336format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1337(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1338
1339Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1340
1341 * Faster and better demangling
1342
1343We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1344demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1345character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1346only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1347This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1348increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1349symbol lookups.
1350
1351`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1352from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1353compiler does not actually implement.
1354
1355 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1356
1357In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1358inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1359recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1360very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1361The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1362circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1363fix.
1364
1365The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1366release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1367
1368 * Improved configure script
1369
1370The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1371you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1372host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1373done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1374
1375We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1376version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1377`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1378The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1379only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1380We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1381
1382 * Documentation improvements
1383
1384There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1385produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1386before submitting changes.
1387
1388The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1389M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1390`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1391you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1392a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1393
1394*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1395We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1396been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1397or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1398`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1399around this problem.
1400
1401 * New features
1402
1403GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1404the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1405`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1406the target program.
1407
1408The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1409how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1410
1411 * New native hosts supported
1412
1413HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1414386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1415
1416 * New targets supported
1417
1418AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1419
1420 * New file formats supported
1421
1422BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1423HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1424
1425 * Major bug fixes
1426
1427Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1428
1429We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1430printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1431
1432We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1433for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1434release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1435
1436You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1437will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1438
1439We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1440for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1441especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1442libraries.
1443
1444The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1445information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1446command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1447any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1448when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1449
1450 * Internal improvements
1451
1452GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1453debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1454
1455GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1456Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1457symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1458contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1459shared code that handles any of them.
1460
1461 * New command line options
1462
1463We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1464
1465 * Mmalloc licensing
1466
1467The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1468General Public License.
1469
1470*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1471
1472 * Host/native/target split
1473
1474GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1475hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1476target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1477local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1478ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1479
1480The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1481GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1482is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1483code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1484any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1485built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1486handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1487
1488GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1489It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1490plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1491
1492 * New hosts supported
1493
1494HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1495386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1496386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1497
1498 * New targets supported
1499
1500Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
150168030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1502
1503 * New native hosts supported
1504
1505386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1506 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1507386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1508
1509 * New file formats supported
1510
1511BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1512supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1513format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1514
1515 * New commands
1516
1517`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1518`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1519These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1520
1521`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1522
1523You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1524scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1525prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1526executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1527
1528 * C++ improvements
1529
1530We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1531info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1532symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1533
1534Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1535
1536 * Major bug fixes
1537
1538The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1539fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1540by the compiler.
1541
1542We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1543support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1544
1545John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1546slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1547that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1548purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1549the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1550mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1551
1552Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1553about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1554completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1555we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1556
1557 * AMD 29k support
1558
1559A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1560specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1561calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1562usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1563in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1564
1565We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1566Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1567of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1568resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1569
1570 * Remote interfaces
1571
1572We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1573with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1574message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1575This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1576needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1577breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1578each instruction being stepped through.
1579
1580The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1581registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1582
1583There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1584find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1585Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1586processor with a serial port.
1587
1588 * Configuration
1589
1590Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1591`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1592supported, and what files each one uses.
1593
1594 * Library changes
1595
1596There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1597disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1598Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1599disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1600
1601The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1602Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1603can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1604grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1605
1606 * Documentation
1607
1608The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1609reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1610as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1611encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1612system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1613bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1614
1615And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1616
1617
1618*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1619
1620 * Better support for C++ function names
1621
1622GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1623names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1624(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1625single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1626Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1627
1628GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1629the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1630You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1631lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1632for the list of formats.
1633
1634 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1635
1636Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1637C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1638directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1639can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1640usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1641about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1642this problem.)
1643
1644 * New 'maintenance' command
1645
1646All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1647the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1648can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1649
1650 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1651 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1652 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1653 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1654 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1655 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1656
1657The following commands are new:
1658
1659 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1660 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1661 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1662
1663 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1664
1665We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1666(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1667be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1668read after argv processing.
1669
1670 * New hosts supported
1671
1672Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1673
55241689 1674GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
1675
1676We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1677is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1678for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1679masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1680fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1681It costs extra.
1682
1683 * New targets supported
1684
1685Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1686
1687 * More smarts about finding #include files
1688
1689GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1690all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1691greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1692especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1693the one that contains your sources.
1694
1695We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1696breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1697try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1698
1699 * Interesting infernals change
1700
1701GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1702section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1703target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1704stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1705
1706 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1707
1708There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1709 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1710 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1711
1712See the ChangeLog for details.
1713
1714*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1715
1716 * New machines supported (host and target)
1717
1718IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1719
1720SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1721
1722 * New malloc package
1723
1724GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1725Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1726capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1727This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1728pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1729more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1730
1731 * info proc
1732
1733The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1734'help info proc' for details.
1735
1736 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1737
1738The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1739Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1740possible.
1741
1742 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1743
1744Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1745support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1746conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1747environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1748that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1749in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1750
1751 * Cross byte order fixes
1752
1753Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1754targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1755
1756 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1757
1758If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1759system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1760`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1761program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1762called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1763Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1764and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1765the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1766option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1767starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1768
1769You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1770the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1771information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1772slower, but makes future operations faster.
1773
1774The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1775build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1776A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1777use is:
1778
1779 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1780
1781The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1782It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1783shared across multiple host platforms.
1784
1785 * longjmp() handling
1786
1787GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1788siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1789all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1790platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1791
1792 * Solaris 2.0
1793
1794Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1795this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1796reading symbols.
1797
1798 * Bug fixes
1799
1800As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1801People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1802crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1803
1804*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1805
1806 * New machines supported (host and target)
1807
1808SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1809 (except core files)
1810BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1811Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1812
1813 * New machines supported (target)
1814
1815AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1816
1817 * C++ support
1818
1819GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1820The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1821per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1822
1823GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1824`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1825extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1826good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1827will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1828released.
1829
1830 * New features for SVR4
1831
1832GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1833shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1834only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1835
1836The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1837on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1838it prints the address mappings of the process.
1839
1840If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1841bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1842
1843 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1844
1845Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1846now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1847skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1848make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1849same code linked statically.
1850
1851 * New Getopt
1852
1853GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1854version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1855continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1856Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1857added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1858future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1859
1860 * Bugs fixed
1861
1862The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1863Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1864See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1865
1866
1867*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1868
1869 * New machines supported (host and target)
1870
1871Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1872NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1873Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1874
1875 * Almost SCO Unix support
1876
1877We had hoped to support:
1878SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1879(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1880that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1881about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1882
1883 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1884
1885GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1886debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1887is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1888send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1889reqired (if any).
1890
1891 * New Readline
1892
1893GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1894is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1895required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1896
1897 * Bugs fixed
1898
1899The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1900Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1901See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1902
1903 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1904
1905GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1906supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1907symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1908
1909Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1910mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1911debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1912mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1913version 2.
1914
1915Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1916really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1917line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1918variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1919situation somewhat.
1920
1921When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1922However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1923methods.
1924
1925We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1926DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1927encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1928
1929
1930*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1931
1932 * Improved configuration
1933
1934Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1935Porting BFD is simpler.
1936
1937 * Stepping improved
1938
1939The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1940of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1941in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1942function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1943
1944 * Bug fixing
1945
1946Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1947
1948 * New host supported (not target)
1949
1950Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1951
1952
1953*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1954
1955 * Multiple source language support
1956
1957GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1958It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1959and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1960language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1961You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1962`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1963
1964 * GDB and Modula-2
1965
1966GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1967currently under development at the State University of New York at
1968Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1969continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1970
1971Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1972debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1973symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1974
1975There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1976in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1977
1978 * set write on/off
1979
1980GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1981a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1982the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1983by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1984effect immediately.
1985
1986 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1987
1988When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1989shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1990The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1991examining core files.
1992
1993 * set listsize
1994
1995You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1996The default is 10.
1997
1998 * New machines supported (host and target)
1999
2000SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2001Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2002Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2003
2004 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2005
2006IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2007
2008 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2009
2010AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2011AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2012Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2013
2014 * New remote interfaces
2015
2016AMD 29000 Adapt
2017AMD 29000 Minimon
2018
2019
2020*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2021
2022 * New Facilities
2023
2024Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2025
2026Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2027target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2028is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2029remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2030remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2031also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2032using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2033stub on the target system.
2034
2035New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2036
2037GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2038library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2039object file types such as a.out and coff.
2040
2041There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2042refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2043
2044
2045 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2046
2047All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2048by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2049
2050For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2051``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2052Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2053
2054What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2055print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2056will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2057all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2058
2059confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2060 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2061 it is already running. Default is ON.
2062
2063editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2064 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2065 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2066 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2067 Default is ON.
2068
2069history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2070 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2071 or the value of the environment variable
2072 GDBHISTFILE.
2073
2074history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2075 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2076 HISTSIZE.
2077
2078history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2079 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2080 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2081
2082history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2083 history expansion will be performed on
2084 command line input. The default is OFF.
2085
2086radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2087 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2088 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2089
2090height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2091 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2092 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2093 variable TERM.
2094
2095width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2096 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2097 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2098 variable TERM.
2099
2100Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2101``set width'' instead.
2102
2103print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2104 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2105 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2106 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2107
2108print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2109 is OFF.
2110
2111print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2112 "raw" form if off.
2113
2114print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2115 like instructions.
2116
2117print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2118
2119
2120 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2121
2122The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2123new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2124are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2125window.
2126
2127
2128 * Support for Shared Libraries
2129
2130GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2131Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2132before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2133happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2134At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2135from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2136shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2137It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2138
2139sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2140 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2141 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2142
2143info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2144
2145
2146 * Watchpoints
2147
2148A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2149expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2150tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2151quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2152problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2153more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2154
2155watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2156
2157info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2158
2159delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2160disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2161enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2162
2163
2164 * C++ multiple inheritance
2165
2166When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2167for C++ programs.
2168
2169 * C++ exception handling
2170
2171Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2172ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2173the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2174handler's context).
2175
2176catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2177 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2178 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2179
2180info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2181 current stack frame.
2182
2183
2184 * Minor command changes
2185
2186The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2187command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2188is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2189
2190The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2191at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2192frames without printing.
2193
2194 * New directory command
2195
2196'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2197The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2198about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2199with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2200find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2201
2202 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2203
2204For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2205for more details.
2206
2207GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2208two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2209Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2210where the program that you are debugging will run.
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