1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 5.0:
6 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
8 * New native configurations
10 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
11 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
15 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
17 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
18 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
19 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
20 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
22 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
23 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
25 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
26 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
27 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
30 * REMOVED configurations
32 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
35 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
40 * All MIPS configurations are multi-arched.
42 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
46 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
48 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
50 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
52 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
53 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
54 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
55 greater level of detail.
57 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
59 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
60 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
61 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
64 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
66 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
67 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
68 machines ``out of the box''.
70 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
71 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
72 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
73 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
74 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
76 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
77 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
78 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
79 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
80 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
82 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
83 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
86 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
89 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
90 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
91 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
92 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
94 * New native configurations
96 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
97 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
101 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
102 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
103 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
104 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
106 * OBSOLETE configurations
108 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
109 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
111 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
114 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
115 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
116 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
117 be permanently REMOVED.
119 * Gould support removed
121 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
123 * New features for SVR4
125 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
126 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
127 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
129 * Many C++ enhancements
131 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
132 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
134 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
136 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
137 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
138 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
139 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
141 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
142 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
144 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
146 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
147 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
148 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
150 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
151 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
153 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
155 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
156 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
157 include ``set remote P-packet''.
159 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
161 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
162 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
163 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
165 * ``apropos'' command added.
167 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
168 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
169 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
173 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
174 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
175 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
176 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
177 enabled by configuring with:
179 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
181 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
183 * New native configurations
185 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
186 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
187 M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
191 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
192 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
193 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
195 * OBSOLETE configurations
197 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
199 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
200 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
201 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
202 be permanently REMOVED.
206 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
207 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
208 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
209 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
210 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
211 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
212 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
217 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
219 * set extension-language
221 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
222 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
223 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
224 set extension-language .c c++
225 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
226 and their associated languages.
228 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
230 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
231 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
232 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
236 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
237 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
239 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
240 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
242 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
243 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
244 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
245 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
246 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
247 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
248 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
249 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
251 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
252 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
253 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
254 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
258 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
259 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
260 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
261 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
262 for xdb and dbx commands.
266 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
267 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
268 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
270 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
271 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
272 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
274 * Debugging across forks
276 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
281 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
282 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
283 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
285 * GDB remote protocol additions
287 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
288 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
289 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
290 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
292 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
293 full 64-bit address. The command
295 set remoteaddresssize 32
297 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
298 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
301 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
302 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
304 maint packet heythere
306 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
307 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
310 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
311 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
312 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
314 * Tracing can collect general expressions
316 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
317 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
318 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
320 * mask-address variable for Mips
322 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
323 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
324 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
326 * Higher serial baud rates
328 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
329 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
330 to achieve all of these rates.)
334 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
335 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
338 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
340 * New native configurations
342 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
343 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
344 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
345 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
346 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
347 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
348 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
352 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
353 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
354 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
355 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
356 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
357 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
358 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
359 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
360 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
361 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
362 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
364 * New debugging protocols
366 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
367 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
368 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
369 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
370 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
371 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
375 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
376 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
381 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
382 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
384 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
386 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
387 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
388 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
390 * Live range splitting
392 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
393 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
394 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
398 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
399 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
403 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
404 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
405 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
410 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
415 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
416 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
417 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
418 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
419 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
420 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
424 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
425 the symbol at the specified address.
429 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
430 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
431 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
432 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
433 file tracepoint.c for more details.
437 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
438 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
439 of most MIPS variants.
443 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
444 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
445 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
449 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
450 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
451 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
452 the possible architectures.
454 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
456 * New native configurations
458 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
459 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
460 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
461 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
462 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
463 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
467 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
468 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
469 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
470 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
471 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
473 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
477 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
478 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
479 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
480 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
481 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
485 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
487 * Windows 95/NT native
489 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
490 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
491 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
492 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
493 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
495 * dont-repeat command
497 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
498 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
499 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
500 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
502 * Send break instead of ^C
504 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
505 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
506 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
508 * Remote protocol timeout
510 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
511 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
512 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
514 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
516 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
517 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
518 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
519 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
520 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
522 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
523 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
524 automatically on hpux10.
526 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
528 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
530 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
532 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
533 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
534 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
535 every character. The default value is 1050.
537 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
539 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
540 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
541 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
542 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
543 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
544 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
546 * Speedups for remote debugging
548 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
549 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
550 and more efficient S-record downloading.
552 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
554 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
555 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
557 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
561 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
562 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
564 * Remote targets use caching
566 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
567 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
568 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
569 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
570 off' turns the the data cache off.
572 * Remote targets may have threads
574 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
575 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
576 gdb/remote.c for details.
580 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
581 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
582 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
583 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
584 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
585 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
586 sequence is something like
588 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
590 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
594 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
595 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
596 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
597 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
598 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
599 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
600 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
601 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
605 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
606 but does simplify configuration and building.
610 GDB now supports hpux10.
612 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
614 * New native configurations
616 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
617 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
618 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
619 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
623 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
624 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
625 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
626 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
629 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
631 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
632 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
633 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
634 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
635 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
637 * Arguments to user-defined commands
639 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
640 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
643 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
645 To execute the command use:
648 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
649 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
650 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
652 * New `if' and `while' commands
654 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
655 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
656 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
657 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
658 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
659 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
660 if the expression is zero.
662 * Fortran source language mode
664 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
665 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
666 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
667 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
670 * Better HPUX support
672 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
673 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
674 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
675 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
676 that behavior do the following before running the program:
682 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
683 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
689 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
690 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
693 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
694 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
696 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
698 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
699 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
700 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
701 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
702 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
703 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
705 * New DOS host serial code
707 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
708 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
711 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
713 * New "complete" command
715 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
716 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
718 * Trailing space optional in prompt
720 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
721 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
723 * Breakpoint hit counts
725 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
726 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
727 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
728 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
729 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
732 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
734 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
735 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
736 arrays actually contain only short strings.
738 * Shared library breakpoints
740 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
741 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
743 * Hardware watchpoints
745 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
746 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
748 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
752 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
753 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
755 * Improved Irix 5 support
757 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
759 * Improved HPPA support
761 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
763 * New native configurations
765 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
766 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
767 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
768 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
772 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
773 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
776 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
778 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
779 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
783 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
784 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
786 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
788 * Irix 5 is now supported
792 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
793 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
794 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
795 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
796 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
799 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
801 * User visible changes:
805 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
806 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
807 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
808 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
809 debugging info for the mips target).
811 * DEC Alpha native support
813 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
814 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
815 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
816 Alpha-specific notes.
818 * Preliminary thread implementation
820 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
822 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
824 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
825 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
828 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
830 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
831 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
832 call methods, ...etc.
834 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
836 * User visible changes:
838 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
839 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
840 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
841 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
843 Filename completion now works.
845 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
846 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
847 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
849 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
850 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
851 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
852 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
853 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
857 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
858 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
861 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
865 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
866 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
867 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
871 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
872 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
873 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
874 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
875 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
879 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
880 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
881 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
883 * New targets supported
885 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
886 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
887 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
888 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
889 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
891 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
892 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
893 GO32 memory extender.
895 * New remote protocols
897 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
899 * New source languages supported
901 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
902 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
903 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
906 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
908 * HP Precision Architecture supported
910 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
911 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
912 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
913 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
914 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
915 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
917 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
919 * Faster and better demangling
921 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
922 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
923 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
924 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
925 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
926 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
929 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
930 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
931 compiler does not actually implement.
933 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
935 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
936 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
937 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
938 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
939 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
940 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
943 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
944 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
946 * Improved configure script
948 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
949 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
950 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
951 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
953 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
954 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
955 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
956 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
957 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
958 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
960 * Documentation improvements
962 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
963 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
964 before submitting changes.
966 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
967 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
968 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
969 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
970 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
972 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
973 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
974 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
975 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
976 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
981 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
982 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
983 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
986 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
987 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
989 * New native hosts supported
991 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
992 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
994 * New targets supported
996 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
998 * New file formats supported
1000 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1001 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1005 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1007 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1008 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1010 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1011 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1012 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1014 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1015 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1017 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1018 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1019 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1022 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1023 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1024 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1025 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1026 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1028 * Internal improvements
1030 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1031 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1033 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1034 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1035 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1036 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1037 shared code that handles any of them.
1039 * New command line options
1041 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1045 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1046 General Public License.
1048 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1050 * Host/native/target split
1052 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1053 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1054 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1055 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1056 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1058 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1059 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1060 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1061 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1062 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1063 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1064 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1066 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1067 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1068 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1070 * New hosts supported
1072 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1073 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1074 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1076 * New targets supported
1078 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1079 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1081 * New native hosts supported
1083 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1084 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1085 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1087 * New file formats supported
1089 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1090 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1091 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1095 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1096 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1097 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1099 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1101 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1102 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1103 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1104 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1108 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1109 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1110 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1112 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1116 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1117 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1120 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1121 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1123 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1124 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1125 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1126 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1127 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1128 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1130 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1131 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1132 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1133 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1137 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1138 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1139 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1140 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1141 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1143 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1144 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1145 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1146 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1150 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1151 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1152 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1153 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1154 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1155 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1156 each instruction being stepped through.
1158 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1159 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1161 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1162 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1163 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1164 processor with a serial port.
1168 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1169 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1170 supported, and what files each one uses.
1174 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1175 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1176 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1177 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1179 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1180 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1181 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1182 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1186 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1187 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1188 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1189 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1190 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1191 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1193 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1196 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1198 * Better support for C++ function names
1200 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1201 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1202 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1203 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1204 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1206 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1207 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1208 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1209 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1210 for the list of formats.
1212 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1214 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1215 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1216 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1217 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1218 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1219 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1222 * New 'maintenance' command
1224 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1225 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1226 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1228 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1229 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1230 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1231 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1232 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1233 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1235 The following commands are new:
1237 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1238 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1239 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1241 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1243 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1244 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1245 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1246 read after argv processing.
1248 * New hosts supported
1250 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1252 Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1254 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1255 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1256 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1257 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1258 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1261 * New targets supported
1263 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1265 * More smarts about finding #include files
1267 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1268 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1269 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1270 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1271 the one that contains your sources.
1273 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1274 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1275 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1277 * Interesting infernals change
1279 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1280 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1281 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1282 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1284 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1286 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1287 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1288 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1290 See the ChangeLog for details.
1292 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1294 * New machines supported (host and target)
1296 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1298 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1300 * New malloc package
1302 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1303 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1304 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1305 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1306 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1307 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1311 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1312 'help info proc' for details.
1314 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1316 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1317 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1320 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1322 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1323 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1324 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1325 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1326 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1327 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1329 * Cross byte order fixes
1331 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1332 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1334 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1336 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1337 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1338 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1339 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1340 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1341 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1342 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1343 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1344 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1345 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1347 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1348 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1349 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1350 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1352 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1353 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1354 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1357 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1359 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1360 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1361 shared across multiple host platforms.
1363 * longjmp() handling
1365 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1366 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1367 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1368 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1372 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1373 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1378 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1379 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1380 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1382 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1384 * New machines supported (host and target)
1386 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1388 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1389 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1391 * New machines supported (target)
1393 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1397 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1398 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1399 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1401 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1402 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1403 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1404 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1405 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1408 * New features for SVR4
1410 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1411 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1412 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1414 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1415 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1416 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1418 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1419 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1421 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1423 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1424 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1425 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1426 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1427 same code linked statically.
1431 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1432 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1433 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1434 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1435 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1436 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1440 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1441 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1442 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1445 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1447 * New machines supported (host and target)
1449 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1450 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1451 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1453 * Almost SCO Unix support
1455 We had hoped to support:
1456 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1457 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1458 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1459 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1461 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1463 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1464 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1465 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1466 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1471 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1472 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1473 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1477 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1478 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1479 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1481 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1483 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1484 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1485 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1487 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1488 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1489 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1490 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1493 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1494 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1495 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1496 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1499 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1500 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1503 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1504 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1505 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1508 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1510 * Improved configuration
1512 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1513 Porting BFD is simpler.
1517 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1518 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1519 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1520 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1524 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1526 * New host supported (not target)
1528 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1531 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1533 * Multiple source language support
1535 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1536 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1537 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1538 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1539 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1540 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1544 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1545 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1546 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1547 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1549 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1550 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1551 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1553 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1554 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1558 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1559 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1560 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1561 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1564 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1566 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1567 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1568 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1569 examining core files.
1573 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1576 * New machines supported (host and target)
1578 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1579 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1580 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1582 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1584 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1586 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1588 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1589 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1590 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1592 * New remote interfaces
1598 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1602 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1604 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1605 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1606 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1607 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1608 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1609 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1610 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1611 stub on the target system.
1613 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1615 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1616 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1617 object file types such as a.out and coff.
1619 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1620 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1623 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1625 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1626 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1628 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1629 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1630 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1632 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1633 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1634 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1635 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1637 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1638 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1639 it is already running. Default is ON.
1641 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1642 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1643 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1644 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1647 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1648 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1649 or the value of the environment variable
1652 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1653 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1656 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1657 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1658 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1660 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1661 history expansion will be performed on
1662 command line input. The default is OFF.
1664 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1665 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1666 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1668 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1669 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1670 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1673 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1674 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1675 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1678 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1679 ``set width'' instead.
1681 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1682 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1683 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1684 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1686 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1689 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1692 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1695 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1698 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1700 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1701 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1702 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1706 * Support for Shared Libraries
1708 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1709 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1710 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1711 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1712 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1713 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1714 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1715 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1717 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1718 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1719 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1721 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1726 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1727 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1728 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1729 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1730 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1731 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1733 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1735 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1737 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1738 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1739 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1742 * C++ multiple inheritance
1744 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1747 * C++ exception handling
1749 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1750 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1751 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1754 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1755 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1756 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1758 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1759 current stack frame.
1762 * Minor command changes
1764 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1765 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1766 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1768 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1769 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1770 frames without printing.
1772 * New directory command
1774 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1775 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1776 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1777 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1778 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1780 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1782 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1785 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1786 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1787 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1788 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob