2003-06-22 Andrew Cagney <cagney@redhat.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 6.0:
5
6
7*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
299ffc64 8
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9* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
10
11The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
12disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
13command.
14
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15* d10v `regs' command deprecated
16
17The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
18registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
19
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20* Profiling support
21
22A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
23be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
24session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
25"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
26data, for more informative profiling results.
27
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28* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
29
30The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
31option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 32"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
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33
34Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
35removed.
36
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37Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
38Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
39Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
40 in a subsequent -var-update.
41
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42* Multi-arched targets.
43
44HP/PA HPUX11, 32bit ABI (partial) hppa*-*-hpux* except hppa*64*-*-hpux11*
45
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46* OBSOLETE configurations and files
47
48Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
49been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
50configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
51permanently REMOVED.
52
05d57f6f 53Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
8b0e5691 54Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 55Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 56H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
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57HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
58HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
59HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 60PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
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61Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
62 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
63 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
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64Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
65Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 66
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67* REMOVED configurations and files
68
69V850EA ISA
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70Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
71IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
72i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
73i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
74i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
75HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
76 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
77 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
78Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
79Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
80Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
81OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
82I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 83
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84* MIPS $fp behavior changed
85
86The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
87the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
88context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
89address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
90The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
91
299ffc64 92*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 93
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94* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
95
96When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
97`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
98in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
99library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
100shared libs like mad''.
101
b9d14705 102* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 103
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104Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
105the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
106arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
107powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 108
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109* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
110
111GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
112and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
113they expand.
114
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115The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
116invocations in expression, and shows the result.
117
118The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
119macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
120
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121Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
122information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
123your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
124information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
125
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126* Multi-arched targets.
127
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128DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
129DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 130NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 131National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
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132Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
133Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 134
cd9bfe15 135* New targets.
e33ce519 136
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137Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
138
e33ce519 139
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140* New native configurations
141
142Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 143SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 144MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 145UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 146
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147* OBSOLETE configurations and files
148
149Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
150been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
151configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
152permanently REMOVED.
153
92eb23c5 154Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 155OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 156IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 157Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 158Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 159Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
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160i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
161i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
162i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
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163HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
164 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
165 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 166I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 167
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168* OBSOLETE languages
169
170CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
171
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172* REMOVED configurations and files
173
174AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
175A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
176AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
177AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
178AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
179
180testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
181
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182* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
183
184This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
185commands. The default is 1024.
186
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187* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
188
189Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
190
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191* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
192
193These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
194to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
195from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 196
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197* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
198
199The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
200including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
201of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
202
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203*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
204
205* New targets.
206
207Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
208
209* Bug fixes
210
211gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
212mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
213Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
214
215gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
216dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
217Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
218
219Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
220Surprisingly enough, it works now.
221By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
222
223i386 hardware watchpoint support:
224avoid misses on second run for some targets.
225By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
226
37057839 227*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 228
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229* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
230
231This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
232really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
233In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
234target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
235This can be a significant performance improvement on some
236(notably embedded) targets.
237
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238* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
239
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240This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
241process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
242GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
243hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 244
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245* New command line option
246
247GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
248
249* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
250
251There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
252command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
253a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
254be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
255open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
256issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
257a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
258it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
259GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
260is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
261
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262* Changes in ARM configurations.
263
264Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
265configuration is fully multi-arch.
266
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267* New native configurations
268
fe419ffc 269ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 270x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 271AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 272Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 273
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274* New targets
275
276Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
277
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278* OBSOLETE configurations and files
279
280Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
281been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
282configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
283permanently REMOVED.
284
285AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
286A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
287AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
288AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
289AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
290
b4ceaee6 291testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 292
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293* REMOVED configurations and files
294
295TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 296WDC 65816 w65-*-*
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297PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
298PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
299PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 300Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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301Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
302 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 303SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 304Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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305Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
306ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 307Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 308
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309* Changes to command line processing
310
311The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
312for the inferior from gdb's command line.
313
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314* Changes to key bindings
315
316There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
317
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318*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
319
320Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
321
322Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
323corrupted.
324
325Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
326
327Numerous documentation fixes.
328
329Numerous testsuite fixes.
330
34f47bc4 331*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
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332
333* New native configurations
334
335Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
336x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 337MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
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338MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
339ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 340s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 341
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342* New targets
343
def90278 344Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 345CRIS cris-axis
55241689 346UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 347
17e78a56 348* OBSOLETE configurations and files
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349
350x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 351Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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352Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
353 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
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354TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
355WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 356Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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357PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
358PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
359PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 360SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
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361Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
362ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 363Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 364
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365stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
366kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
367
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368Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
369been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
370configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
371permanently REMOVED.
372
a196c81c 373* REMOVED configurations and files
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374
375Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
376Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
377Pyramid pyramid-*-*
378ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
379Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 380ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 381
6d6b80e5 382* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 383
6d6b80e5 384GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
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385sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
386present.
387
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388* Other news:
389
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390* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
391
392* The MI enabled by default.
393
394The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
395revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
396engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
397using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
398which is now deprecated.
399
400* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
401
402GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
403main features are supported:
404
405 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
406
407 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
408 extension;
409
410 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
411
412 - a Pascal expression parser.
413
414However, some important features are not yet supported.
415
416 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
417
418 - there are some problems with boolean types;
419
420 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
421 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
422
423 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
424
425 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
426
427* Changes in completion.
428
429Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
430to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
431users expect at the shell prompt.
432
433Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
434`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
435program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
436files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
437be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
438considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
439name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
440
441`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
442
443* New platform-independent commands:
444
445It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
446hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
447documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
448
449* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
450
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451Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
452revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
453many threads as your system allows you to have.
454
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455Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
456
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457Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
458multi-threaded programs though.
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459
460* Changes in MIPS configurations.
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461
462Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
463
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464GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
465debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
466supported.)
467
468* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
469
470Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
471breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
472implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
473put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
474and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
475registers.
476
477The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
478debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
479watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
480
481* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
482
483New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
484the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
485
486New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
487display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
488IDT.
489
490New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
491from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
492New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
493a given linear address.
494
495GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
496program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
497which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
498
499DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
500
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501It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
502
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503* Changes in documentation.
504
505All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
506Documentation License.
507
508Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
509manual.
510
511TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
512
513Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
514manual.
515
516The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
517documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
518hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
519
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520* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
521
522The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
523``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
524contents of this file.
525
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526* gdba.el deleted
527
528GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 529
9debab2f 530*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 531
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532* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
533
534Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
535programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
536displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
537greater level of detail.
538
539* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
540
541It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
542bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
543on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
544written.
545
546* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
547
548The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
549necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
550machines ``out of the box''.
551
552The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
553possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
554signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
555would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
556interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
557
558It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
559standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
560even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
561and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
562terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
563
564The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
565enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
566also works.
567
568DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
569GDB.
570
571It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
572directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
573times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
574breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
575
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576* New native configurations
577
578ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 579PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 580
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581* New targets
582
96baa820 583Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
584x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
585PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
586TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
587
085dd6e6
JM
588* OBSOLETE configurations
589
590Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
591Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 592Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 593ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 594Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 595
9debab2f
AC
596Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
597but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
598these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
599be permanently REMOVED.
600
5330533d
SS
601* Gould support removed
602
603Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
604
bc9e5bbf
AC
605* New features for SVR4
606
607On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
608without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
609load symbols from the running process's executable file.
610
611* Many C++ enhancements
612
613C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
614in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
615
adf40b2e
JM
616* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
617
618A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
619sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
620with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
621``|<program> <args>'' vis:
622
623 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
624 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
625
43e526b9
JM
626* MIPS 64 remote protocol
627
628A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
629expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
630instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
631
632The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
633added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
634
96baa820
JM
635* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
636
637The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
638``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
639include ``set remote P-packet''.
640
11cf8741
JM
641* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
642
643The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
644accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
645``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
646
7876dd43
DB
647* ``apropos'' command added.
648
649The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
650documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
651try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
652
bc9e5bbf
AC
653* New MI interface
654
655A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
656interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
657process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
658"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
659enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
660
661 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
662
c906108c
SS
663*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
664
665* New native configurations
666
667HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
668HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 669M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
670
671* New targets
672
673Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
674Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
675Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
676
677* OBSOLETE configurations
678
679Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
680
681Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
682but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
683these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
684be permanently REMOVED.
685
686* ANSI/ISO C
687
688As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
689buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
690containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
691use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
692available. If this is not true, please report the affected
693configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
694information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
695already.
696
697* Readline 2.2
698
699GDB now uses readline 2.2.
700
701* set extension-language
702
703You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
704languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
705you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
706 set extension-language .c c++
707The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
708and their associated languages.
709
710* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
711
712When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
713you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
714PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
715
716 set processor NAME
717
718sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
719following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
720
721 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
722 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
723 403 IBM PowerPC 403
724 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
725 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
726 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
727 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
728 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
729 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
730 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
731 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
732
733At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
734special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
735registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
736only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
737
738* HP-UX support
739
740Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
741more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
742library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
743support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
744for xdb and dbx commands.
745
746* Catchpoints
747
748HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
749generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
750to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
751
752This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
753argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
754output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
755
756* Debugging across forks
757
758On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
759in the inferior.
760
761* TUI
762
763HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
764it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
765configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
766
767* GDB remote protocol additions
768
769A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
770Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
771fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
772allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
773
774For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
775full 64-bit address. The command
776
777 set remoteaddresssize 32
778
779can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
780the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
781will be discarded.
782
783In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
784command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
785
786 maint packet heythere
787
788sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
789disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
790time.
791
792The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
793target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
794downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
795
796* Tracing can collect general expressions
797
798You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
799further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
800doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
801
802* mask-address variable for Mips
803
804For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
805a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
806of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
807
808* Higher serial baud rates
809
810GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
811230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
812to achieve all of these rates.)
813
814* i960 simulator
815
816The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
817builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
818
819
820*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
821
822* New native configurations
823
824Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
825Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
826Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
827PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
828PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
829Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
830Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
831
832* New targets
833
834Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
835Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
836Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
837Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
838MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
839MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
840MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
841Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
842Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
843Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
844NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
845
846* New debugging protocols
847
848ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
849M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
850DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
851PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
852PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
853Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
854
855* DWARF 2
856
857All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
858format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
859information.
860
861* Java frontend
862
863GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
864only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
865
866* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
867
868For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
869loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
870locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
871
872* Live range splitting
873
874GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
875range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
876more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
877
878* Hurd support
879
880GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
881updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
882
883* ARM Thumb support
884
885GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
886instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
887instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
888accordingly.
889
890* MIPS16 support
891
892GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
893instruction set.
894
895* Overlay support
896
897GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
898linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
899will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
900control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
901additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
902in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
903
904* info symbol
905
906The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
907the symbol at the specified address.
908
909* Trace support
910
911The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
912asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
913extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
914includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
915file tracepoint.c for more details.
916
917* MIPS simulator
918
919Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
920by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
921of most MIPS variants.
922
923* Sparc simulator
924
925Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
926by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
927Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
928
929* set architecture
930
931For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
932basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
933architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
934the possible architectures.
935
936*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
937
938* New native configurations
939
940Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
941M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
942PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
943PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
944PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
945RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
946
947* New targets
948
949ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
950I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
951MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
952MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
953PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
954Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
955Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
956
957* PowerPC simulator
958
959The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
960contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
961PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
962basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
963performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
964
965* Solaris 2.5
966
967GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
968
969* Windows 95/NT native
970
971GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
972To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
973which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
974Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
975ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
976
977* dont-repeat command
978
979If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
980command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
981useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
982extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
983
984* Send break instead of ^C
985
986The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
987rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
988GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
989
990* Remote protocol timeout
991
992The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
993that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
994to read from the target. The default value is 2.
995
996* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
997
998By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
999loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1000stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1001when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1002in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1003
1004Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1005/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1006automatically on hpux10.
1007
1008* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1009
1010Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1011
1012* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1013
1014When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1015may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1016the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1017every character. The default value is 1050.
1018
1019* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1020
1021If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1022a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1023replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1024details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1025remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1026to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1027
1028* Speedups for remote debugging
1029
1030GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1031the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1032and more efficient S-record downloading.
1033
1034* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1035
1036GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1037Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1038
1039*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1040
1041* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1042
1043The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1044can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1045
1046* Remote targets use caching
1047
1048Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1049remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1050it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1051debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1052off' turns the the data cache off.
1053
1054* Remote targets may have threads
1055
1056The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1057in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1058gdb/remote.c for details.
1059
1060* NetROM support
1061
1062If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1063support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1064acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1065write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1066support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1067another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1068sequence is something like
1069
1070 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1071 load <prog>
1072 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1073
1074* Macintosh host
1075
1076GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1077may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1078it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1079available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1080device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1081directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1082scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1083mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1084
1085* Autoconf
1086
1087GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1088but does simplify configuration and building.
1089
1090* hpux10
1091
1092GDB now supports hpux10.
1093
1094*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1095
1096* New native configurations
1097
1098x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1099x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1100NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1101Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1102
1103* New targets
1104
1105A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1106HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1107CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1108PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1109WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1110
1111* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1112
1113GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1114possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1115filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1116the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1117if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1118
1119* Arguments to user-defined commands
1120
1121User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1122Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1123trivial example:
1124define adder
1125 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1126
1127To execute the command use:
1128adder 1 2 3
1129
1130Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1131Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1132use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1133
1134* New `if' and `while' commands
1135
1136This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1137commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1138expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1139execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1140terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1141`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1142if the expression is zero.
1143
1144* Fortran source language mode
1145
1146GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1147Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1148variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1149with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1150Fortran compilers.
1151
1152* Better HPUX support
1153
1154Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1155running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1156processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1157for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1158that behavior do the following before running the program:
1159
1160 adb -w a.out
1161 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1162 control-d
1163
1164This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1165To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1166
1167 adb -w a.out
1168 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1169 control-d
1170
1171You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1172the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1173external linkage.
1174
1175GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1176HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1177
1178* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1179
1180You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1181commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1182current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1183"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1184associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1185configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1186
1187* New DOS host serial code
1188
1189This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1190no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1191a PC's serial port.
1192
1193*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1194
1195* New "complete" command
1196
1197This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1198were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1199
1200* Trailing space optional in prompt
1201
1202"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1203allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1204
1205* Breakpoint hit counts
1206
1207"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1208has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1209can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1210to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1211less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1212that breakpoint.
1213
1214* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1215
1216"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1217an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1218arrays actually contain only short strings.
1219
1220* Shared library breakpoints
1221
1222In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1223breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1224
1225* Hardware watchpoints
1226
1227There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1228targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1229
55241689 1230Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1231
1232* Annotations
1233
1234Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1235and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1236
1237* Improved Irix 5 support
1238
1239GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1240
1241* Improved HPPA support
1242
1243GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1244
1245* New native configurations
1246
1247Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1248HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1249Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1250RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1251
1252* New targets
1253
1254OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1255MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1256Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1257
1258* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1259
1260There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1261This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1262
1263* Fixes
1264
1265As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1266and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1267
1268*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1269
1270* Irix 5 is now supported
1271
1272* HPPA support
1273
1274GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1275to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1276GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1277of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1278can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1279
1280
1281*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1282
1283* User visible changes:
1284
1285* Remote Debugging
1286
1287The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1288target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1289debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1290integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1291debugging info for the mips target).
1292
1293* DEC Alpha native support
1294
1295GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1296debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1297work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1298Alpha-specific notes.
1299
1300* Preliminary thread implementation
1301
1302GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1303
1304* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1305
1306This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1307to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1308for details).
1309
1310* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1311
1312This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1313mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1314call methods, ...etc.
1315
1316*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1317
1318 * User visible changes:
1319
1320Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1321supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1322other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1323somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1324
1325Filename completion now works.
1326
1327When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1328arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1329addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1330
1331All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1332vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1333should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1334your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1335to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1336
1337 * DEC alpha support
1338
1339This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1340cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1341
1342
1343*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1344
1345 * Testsuite
1346
1347This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1348The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1349via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1350
1351 * C++ demangling
1352
1353'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1354emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1355Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1356disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1357use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1358
1359 * Simulators
1360
1361GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1362So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1363Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1364
1365 * New targets supported
1366
1367H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1368H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1369SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1370Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1371IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1372
1373Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1374version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1375GO32 memory extender.
1376
1377 * New remote protocols
1378
1379MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1380
1381 * New source languages supported
1382
1383This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1384used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1385into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1386
1387
1388*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1389
1390 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1391
1392GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1393version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1394University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1395compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1396format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1397(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1398
1399Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1400
1401 * Faster and better demangling
1402
1403We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1404demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1405character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1406only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1407This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1408increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1409symbol lookups.
1410
1411`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1412from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1413compiler does not actually implement.
1414
1415 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1416
1417In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1418inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1419recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1420very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1421The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1422circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1423fix.
1424
1425The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1426release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1427
1428 * Improved configure script
1429
1430The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1431you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1432host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1433done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1434
1435We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1436version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1437`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1438The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1439only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1440We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1441
1442 * Documentation improvements
1443
1444There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1445produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1446before submitting changes.
1447
1448The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1449M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1450`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1451you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1452a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1453
1454*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1455We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1456been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1457or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1458`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1459around this problem.
1460
1461 * New features
1462
1463GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1464the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1465`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1466the target program.
1467
1468The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1469how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1470
1471 * New native hosts supported
1472
1473HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1474386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1475
1476 * New targets supported
1477
1478AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1479
1480 * New file formats supported
1481
1482BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1483HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1484
1485 * Major bug fixes
1486
1487Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1488
1489We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1490printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1491
1492We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1493for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1494release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1495
1496You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1497will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1498
1499We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1500for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1501especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1502libraries.
1503
1504The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1505information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1506command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1507any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1508when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1509
1510 * Internal improvements
1511
1512GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1513debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1514
1515GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1516Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1517symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1518contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1519shared code that handles any of them.
1520
1521 * New command line options
1522
1523We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1524
1525 * Mmalloc licensing
1526
1527The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1528General Public License.
1529
1530*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1531
1532 * Host/native/target split
1533
1534GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1535hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1536target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1537local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1538ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1539
1540The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1541GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1542is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1543code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1544any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1545built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1546handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1547
1548GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1549It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1550plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1551
1552 * New hosts supported
1553
1554HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1555386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1556386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1557
1558 * New targets supported
1559
1560Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
156168030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1562
1563 * New native hosts supported
1564
1565386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1566 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1567386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1568
1569 * New file formats supported
1570
1571BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1572supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1573format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1574
1575 * New commands
1576
1577`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1578`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1579These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1580
1581`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1582
1583You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1584scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1585prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1586executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1587
1588 * C++ improvements
1589
1590We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1591info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1592symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1593
1594Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1595
1596 * Major bug fixes
1597
1598The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1599fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1600by the compiler.
1601
1602We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1603support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1604
1605John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1606slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1607that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1608purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1609the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1610mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1611
1612Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1613about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1614completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1615we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1616
1617 * AMD 29k support
1618
1619A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1620specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1621calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1622usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1623in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1624
1625We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1626Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1627of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1628resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1629
1630 * Remote interfaces
1631
1632We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1633with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1634message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1635This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1636needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1637breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1638each instruction being stepped through.
1639
1640The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1641registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1642
1643There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1644find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1645Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1646processor with a serial port.
1647
1648 * Configuration
1649
1650Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1651`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1652supported, and what files each one uses.
1653
1654 * Library changes
1655
1656There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1657disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1658Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1659disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1660
1661The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1662Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1663can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1664grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1665
1666 * Documentation
1667
1668The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1669reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1670as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1671encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1672system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1673bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1674
1675And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1676
1677
1678*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1679
1680 * Better support for C++ function names
1681
1682GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1683names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1684(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1685single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1686Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1687
1688GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1689the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1690You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1691lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1692for the list of formats.
1693
1694 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1695
1696Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1697C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1698directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1699can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1700usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1701about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1702this problem.)
1703
1704 * New 'maintenance' command
1705
1706All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1707the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1708can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1709
1710 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1711 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1712 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1713 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1714 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1715 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1716
1717The following commands are new:
1718
1719 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1720 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1721 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1722
1723 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1724
1725We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1726(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1727be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1728read after argv processing.
1729
1730 * New hosts supported
1731
1732Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1733
55241689 1734GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
1735
1736We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1737is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1738for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1739masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1740fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1741It costs extra.
1742
1743 * New targets supported
1744
1745Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1746
1747 * More smarts about finding #include files
1748
1749GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1750all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1751greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1752especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1753the one that contains your sources.
1754
1755We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1756breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1757try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1758
1759 * Interesting infernals change
1760
1761GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1762section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1763target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1764stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1765
1766 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1767
1768There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1769 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1770 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1771
1772See the ChangeLog for details.
1773
1774*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1775
1776 * New machines supported (host and target)
1777
1778IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1779
1780SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1781
1782 * New malloc package
1783
1784GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1785Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1786capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1787This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1788pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1789more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1790
1791 * info proc
1792
1793The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1794'help info proc' for details.
1795
1796 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1797
1798The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1799Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1800possible.
1801
1802 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1803
1804Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1805support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1806conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1807environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1808that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1809in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1810
1811 * Cross byte order fixes
1812
1813Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1814targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1815
1816 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1817
1818If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1819system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1820`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1821program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1822called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1823Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1824and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1825the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1826option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1827starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1828
1829You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1830the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1831information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1832slower, but makes future operations faster.
1833
1834The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1835build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1836A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1837use is:
1838
1839 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1840
1841The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1842It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1843shared across multiple host platforms.
1844
1845 * longjmp() handling
1846
1847GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1848siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1849all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1850platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1851
1852 * Solaris 2.0
1853
1854Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1855this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1856reading symbols.
1857
1858 * Bug fixes
1859
1860As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1861People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1862crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1863
1864*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1865
1866 * New machines supported (host and target)
1867
1868SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1869 (except core files)
1870BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1871Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1872
1873 * New machines supported (target)
1874
1875AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1876
1877 * C++ support
1878
1879GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1880The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1881per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1882
1883GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1884`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1885extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1886good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1887will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1888released.
1889
1890 * New features for SVR4
1891
1892GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1893shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1894only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1895
1896The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1897on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1898it prints the address mappings of the process.
1899
1900If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1901bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1902
1903 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1904
1905Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1906now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1907skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1908make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1909same code linked statically.
1910
1911 * New Getopt
1912
1913GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1914version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1915continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1916Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1917added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1918future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1919
1920 * Bugs fixed
1921
1922The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1923Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1924See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1925
1926
1927*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1928
1929 * New machines supported (host and target)
1930
1931Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1932NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1933Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1934
1935 * Almost SCO Unix support
1936
1937We had hoped to support:
1938SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1939(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1940that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1941about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1942
1943 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1944
1945GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1946debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1947is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1948send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1949reqired (if any).
1950
1951 * New Readline
1952
1953GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1954is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1955required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1956
1957 * Bugs fixed
1958
1959The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1960Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1961See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1962
1963 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1964
1965GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1966supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1967symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1968
1969Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1970mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1971debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1972mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1973version 2.
1974
1975Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1976really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1977line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1978variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1979situation somewhat.
1980
1981When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1982However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1983methods.
1984
1985We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1986DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1987encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1988
1989
1990*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1991
1992 * Improved configuration
1993
1994Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1995Porting BFD is simpler.
1996
1997 * Stepping improved
1998
1999The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2000of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2001in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2002function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2003
2004 * Bug fixing
2005
2006Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2007
2008 * New host supported (not target)
2009
2010Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2011
2012
2013*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2014
2015 * Multiple source language support
2016
2017GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2018It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2019and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2020language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2021You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2022`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2023
2024 * GDB and Modula-2
2025
2026GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2027currently under development at the State University of New York at
2028Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2029continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2030
2031Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2032debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2033symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2034
2035There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2036in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2037
2038 * set write on/off
2039
2040GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2041a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2042the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2043by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2044effect immediately.
2045
2046 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2047
2048When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2049shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2050The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2051examining core files.
2052
2053 * set listsize
2054
2055You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2056The default is 10.
2057
2058 * New machines supported (host and target)
2059
2060SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2061Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2062Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2063
2064 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2065
2066IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2067
2068 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2069
2070AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2071AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2072Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2073
2074 * New remote interfaces
2075
2076AMD 29000 Adapt
2077AMD 29000 Minimon
2078
2079
2080*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2081
2082 * New Facilities
2083
2084Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2085
2086Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2087target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2088is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2089remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2090remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2091also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2092using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2093stub on the target system.
2094
2095New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2096
2097GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2098library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2099object file types such as a.out and coff.
2100
2101There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2102refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2103
2104
2105 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2106
2107All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2108by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2109
2110For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2111``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2112Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2113
2114What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2115print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2116will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2117all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2118
2119confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2120 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2121 it is already running. Default is ON.
2122
2123editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2124 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2125 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2126 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2127 Default is ON.
2128
2129history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2130 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2131 or the value of the environment variable
2132 GDBHISTFILE.
2133
2134history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2135 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2136 HISTSIZE.
2137
2138history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2139 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2140 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2141
2142history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2143 history expansion will be performed on
2144 command line input. The default is OFF.
2145
2146radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2147 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2148 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2149
2150height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2151 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2152 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2153 variable TERM.
2154
2155width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2156 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2157 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2158 variable TERM.
2159
2160Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2161``set width'' instead.
2162
2163print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2164 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2165 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2166 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2167
2168print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2169 is OFF.
2170
2171print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2172 "raw" form if off.
2173
2174print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2175 like instructions.
2176
2177print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2178
2179
2180 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2181
2182The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2183new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2184are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2185window.
2186
2187
2188 * Support for Shared Libraries
2189
2190GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2191Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2192before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2193happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2194At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2195from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2196shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2197It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2198
2199sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2200 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2201 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2202
2203info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2204
2205
2206 * Watchpoints
2207
2208A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2209expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2210tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2211quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2212problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2213more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2214
2215watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2216
2217info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2218
2219delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2220disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2221enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2222
2223
2224 * C++ multiple inheritance
2225
2226When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2227for C++ programs.
2228
2229 * C++ exception handling
2230
2231Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2232ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2233the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2234handler's context).
2235
2236catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2237 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2238 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2239
2240info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2241 current stack frame.
2242
2243
2244 * Minor command changes
2245
2246The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2247command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2248is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2249
2250The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2251at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2252frames without printing.
2253
2254 * New directory command
2255
2256'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2257The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2258about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2259with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2260find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2261
2262 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2263
2264For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2265for more details.
2266
2267GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2268two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2269Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2270where the program that you are debugging will run.
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