1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB-4.18:
8 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
9 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
10 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
12 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
13 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
15 * New native configurations
17 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
21 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
22 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
23 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
24 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
26 * OBSOLETE configurations
28 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
31 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
34 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
36 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
37 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
38 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
39 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
41 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
42 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
44 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
46 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
47 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
48 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
50 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
51 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
53 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
55 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
56 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
57 include ``set remote P-packet''.
59 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
61 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
62 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
63 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
65 * ``apropos'' command added.
67 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
68 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
69 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
71 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
73 * New native configurations
75 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
76 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
77 M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
81 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
82 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
83 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
85 * OBSOLETE configurations
87 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
89 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
90 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
91 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
92 be permanently REMOVED.
96 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
97 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
98 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
99 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
100 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
101 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
102 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
107 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
109 * set extension-language
111 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
112 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
113 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
114 set extension-language .c c++
115 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
116 and their associated languages.
118 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
120 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
121 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
122 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
126 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
127 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
129 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
130 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
132 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
133 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
134 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
135 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
136 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
137 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
138 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
139 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
141 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
142 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
143 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
144 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
148 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
149 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
150 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
151 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
152 for xdb and dbx commands.
156 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
157 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
158 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
160 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
161 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
162 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
164 * Debugging across forks
166 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
171 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
172 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
173 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
175 * GDB remote protocol additions
177 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
178 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
179 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
180 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
182 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
183 full 64-bit address. The command
185 set remoteaddresssize 32
187 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
188 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
191 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
192 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
194 maint packet heythere
196 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
197 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
200 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
201 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
202 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
204 * Tracing can collect general expressions
206 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
207 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
208 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
210 * mask-address variable for Mips
212 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
213 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
214 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
216 * Higher serial baud rates
218 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
219 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
220 to achieve all of these rates.)
224 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
225 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
228 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
230 * New native configurations
232 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
233 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
234 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
235 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
236 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
237 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
238 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
242 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
243 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
244 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
245 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
246 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
247 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
248 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
249 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
250 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
251 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
252 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
254 * New debugging protocols
256 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
257 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
258 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
259 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
260 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
261 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
265 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
266 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
271 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
272 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
274 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
276 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
277 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
278 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
280 * Live range splitting
282 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
283 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
284 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
288 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
289 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
293 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
294 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
295 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
300 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
305 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
306 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
307 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
308 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
309 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
310 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
314 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
315 the symbol at the specified address.
319 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
320 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
321 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
322 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
323 file tracepoint.c for more details.
327 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
328 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
329 of most MIPS variants.
333 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
334 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
335 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
339 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
340 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
341 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
342 the possible architectures.
344 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
346 * New native configurations
348 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
349 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
350 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
351 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
352 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
353 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
357 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
358 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
359 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
360 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
361 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
363 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
367 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
368 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
369 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
370 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
371 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
375 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
377 * Windows 95/NT native
379 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
380 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
381 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
382 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
383 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
385 * dont-repeat command
387 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
388 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
389 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
390 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
392 * Send break instead of ^C
394 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
395 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
396 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
398 * Remote protocol timeout
400 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
401 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
402 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
404 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
406 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
407 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
408 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
409 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
410 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
412 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
413 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
414 automatically on hpux10.
416 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
418 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
420 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
422 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
423 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
424 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
425 every character. The default value is 1050.
427 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
429 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
430 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
431 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
432 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
433 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
434 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
436 * Speedups for remote debugging
438 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
439 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
440 and more efficient S-record downloading.
442 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
444 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
445 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
447 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
451 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
452 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
454 * Remote targets use caching
456 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
457 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
458 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
459 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
460 off' turns the the data cache off.
462 * Remote targets may have threads
464 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
465 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
466 gdb/remote.c for details.
470 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
471 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
472 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
473 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
474 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
475 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
476 sequence is something like
478 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
480 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
484 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
485 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
486 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
487 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
488 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
489 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
490 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
491 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
495 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
496 but does simplify configuration and building.
500 GDB now supports hpux10.
502 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
504 * New native configurations
506 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
507 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
508 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
509 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
513 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
514 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
515 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
516 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
519 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
521 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
522 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
523 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
524 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
525 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
527 * Arguments to user-defined commands
529 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
530 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
533 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
535 To execute the command use:
538 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
539 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
540 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
542 * New `if' and `while' commands
544 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
545 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
546 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
547 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
548 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
549 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
550 if the expression is zero.
552 * Fortran source language mode
554 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
555 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
556 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
557 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
560 * Better HPUX support
562 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
563 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
564 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
565 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
566 that behavior do the following before running the program:
572 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
573 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
579 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
580 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
583 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
584 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
586 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
588 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
589 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
590 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
591 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
592 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
593 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
595 * New DOS host serial code
597 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
598 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
601 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
603 * New "complete" command
605 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
606 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
608 * Trailing space optional in prompt
610 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
611 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
613 * Breakpoint hit counts
615 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
616 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
617 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
618 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
619 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
622 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
624 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
625 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
626 arrays actually contain only short strings.
628 * Shared library breakpoints
630 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
631 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
633 * Hardware watchpoints
635 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
636 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
638 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
642 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
643 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
645 * Improved Irix 5 support
647 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
649 * Improved HPPA support
651 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
653 * New native configurations
655 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
656 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
657 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
658 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
662 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
663 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
666 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
668 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
669 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
673 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
674 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
676 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
678 * Irix 5 is now supported
682 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
683 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
684 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
685 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
686 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
689 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
691 * User visible changes:
695 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
696 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
697 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
698 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
699 debugging info for the mips target).
701 * DEC Alpha native support
703 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
704 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
705 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
706 Alpha-specific notes.
708 * Preliminary thread implementation
710 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
712 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
714 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
715 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
718 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
720 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
721 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
722 call methods, ...etc.
724 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
726 * User visible changes:
728 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
729 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
730 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
731 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
733 Filename completion now works.
735 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
736 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
737 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
739 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
740 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
741 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
742 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
743 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
747 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
748 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
751 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
755 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
756 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
757 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
761 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
762 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
763 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
764 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
765 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
769 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
770 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
771 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
773 * New targets supported
775 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
776 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
777 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
778 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
779 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
781 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
782 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
783 GO32 memory extender.
785 * New remote protocols
787 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
789 * New source languages supported
791 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
792 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
793 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
796 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
798 * HP Precision Architecture supported
800 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
801 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
802 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
803 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
804 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
805 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
807 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
809 * Faster and better demangling
811 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
812 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
813 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
814 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
815 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
816 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
819 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
820 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
821 compiler does not actually implement.
823 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
825 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
826 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
827 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
828 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
829 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
830 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
833 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
834 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
836 * Improved configure script
838 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
839 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
840 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
841 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
843 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
844 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
845 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
846 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
847 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
848 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
850 * Documentation improvements
852 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
853 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
854 before submitting changes.
856 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
857 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
858 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
859 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
860 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
862 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
863 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
864 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
865 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
866 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
871 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
872 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
873 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
876 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
877 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
879 * New native hosts supported
881 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
882 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
884 * New targets supported
886 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
888 * New file formats supported
890 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
891 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
895 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
897 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
898 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
900 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
901 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
902 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
904 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
905 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
907 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
908 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
909 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
912 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
913 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
914 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
915 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
916 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
918 * Internal improvements
920 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
921 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
923 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
924 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
925 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
926 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
927 shared code that handles any of them.
929 * New command line options
931 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
935 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
936 General Public License.
938 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
940 * Host/native/target split
942 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
943 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
944 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
945 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
946 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
948 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
949 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
950 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
951 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
952 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
953 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
954 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
956 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
957 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
958 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
960 * New hosts supported
962 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
963 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
964 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
966 * New targets supported
968 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
969 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
971 * New native hosts supported
973 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
974 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
975 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
977 * New file formats supported
979 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
980 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
981 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
985 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
986 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
987 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
989 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
991 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
992 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
993 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
994 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
998 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
999 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1000 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1002 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1006 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1007 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1010 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1011 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1013 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1014 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1015 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1016 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1017 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1018 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1020 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1021 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1022 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1023 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1027 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1028 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1029 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1030 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1031 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1033 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1034 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1035 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1036 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1040 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1041 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1042 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1043 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1044 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1045 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1046 each instruction being stepped through.
1048 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1049 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1051 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1052 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1053 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1054 processor with a serial port.
1058 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1059 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1060 supported, and what files each one uses.
1064 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1065 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1066 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1067 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1069 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1070 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1071 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1072 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1076 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1077 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1078 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1079 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1080 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1081 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1083 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1086 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1088 * Better support for C++ function names
1090 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1091 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1092 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1093 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1094 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1096 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1097 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1098 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1099 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1100 for the list of formats.
1102 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1104 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1105 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1106 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1107 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1108 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1109 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1112 * New 'maintenance' command
1114 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1115 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1116 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1118 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1119 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1120 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1121 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1122 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1123 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1125 The following commands are new:
1127 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1128 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1129 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1131 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1133 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1134 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1135 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1136 read after argv processing.
1138 * New hosts supported
1140 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1142 Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1144 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1145 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1146 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1147 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1148 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1151 * New targets supported
1153 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1155 * More smarts about finding #include files
1157 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1158 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1159 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1160 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1161 the one that contains your sources.
1163 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1164 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1165 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1167 * Interesting infernals change
1169 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1170 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1171 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1172 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1174 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1176 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1177 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1178 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1180 See the ChangeLog for details.
1182 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1184 * New machines supported (host and target)
1186 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1188 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1190 * New malloc package
1192 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1193 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1194 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1195 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1196 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1197 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1201 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1202 'help info proc' for details.
1204 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1206 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1207 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1210 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1212 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1213 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1214 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1215 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1216 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1217 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1219 * Cross byte order fixes
1221 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1222 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1224 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1226 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1227 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1228 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1229 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1230 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1231 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1232 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1233 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1234 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1235 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1237 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1238 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1239 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1240 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1242 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1243 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1244 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1247 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1249 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1250 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1251 shared across multiple host platforms.
1253 * longjmp() handling
1255 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1256 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1257 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1258 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1262 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1263 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1268 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1269 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1270 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1272 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1274 * New machines supported (host and target)
1276 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1278 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1279 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1281 * New machines supported (target)
1283 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1287 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1288 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1289 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1291 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1292 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1293 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1294 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1295 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1298 * New features for SVR4
1300 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1301 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1302 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1304 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1305 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1306 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1308 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1309 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1311 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1313 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1314 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1315 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1316 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1317 same code linked statically.
1321 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1322 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1323 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1324 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1325 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1326 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1330 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1331 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1332 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1335 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1337 * New machines supported (host and target)
1339 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1340 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1341 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1343 * Almost SCO Unix support
1345 We had hoped to support:
1346 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1347 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1348 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1349 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1351 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1353 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1354 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1355 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1356 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1361 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1362 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1363 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1367 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1368 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1369 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1371 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1373 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1374 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1375 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1377 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1378 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1379 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1380 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1383 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1384 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1385 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1386 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1389 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1390 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1393 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1394 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1395 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1398 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1400 * Improved configuration
1402 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1403 Porting BFD is simpler.
1407 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1408 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1409 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1410 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1414 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1416 * New host supported (not target)
1418 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1421 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1423 * Multiple source language support
1425 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1426 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1427 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1428 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1429 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1430 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1434 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1435 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1436 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1437 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1439 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1440 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1441 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1443 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1444 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1448 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1449 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1450 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1451 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1454 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1456 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1457 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1458 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1459 examining core files.
1463 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1466 * New machines supported (host and target)
1468 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1469 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1470 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1472 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1474 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1476 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1478 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1479 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1480 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1482 * New remote interfaces
1488 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1492 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1494 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1495 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1496 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1497 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1498 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1499 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1500 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1501 stub on the target system.
1503 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1505 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1506 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1507 object file types such as a.out and coff.
1509 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1510 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1513 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1515 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1516 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1518 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1519 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1520 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1522 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1523 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1524 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1525 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1527 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1528 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1529 it is already running. Default is ON.
1531 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1532 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1533 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1534 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1537 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1538 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1539 or the value of the environment variable
1542 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1543 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1546 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1547 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1548 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1550 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1551 history expansion will be performed on
1552 command line input. The default is OFF.
1554 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1555 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1556 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1558 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1559 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1560 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1563 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1564 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1565 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1568 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1569 ``set width'' instead.
1571 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1572 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1573 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1574 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1576 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1579 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1582 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1585 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1588 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1590 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1591 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1592 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1596 * Support for Shared Libraries
1598 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1599 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1600 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1601 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1602 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1603 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1604 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1605 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1607 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1608 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1609 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1611 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1616 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1617 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1618 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1619 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1620 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1621 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1623 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1625 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1627 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1628 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1629 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1632 * C++ multiple inheritance
1634 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1637 * C++ exception handling
1639 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1640 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1641 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1644 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1645 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1646 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1648 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1649 current stack frame.
1652 * Minor command changes
1654 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1655 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1656 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1658 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1659 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1660 frames without printing.
1662 * New directory command
1664 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1665 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1666 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1667 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1668 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1670 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1672 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1675 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1676 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1677 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1678 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob