* linker.c (link_action): Ignore duplicate warning syms.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 5.2:
5
6
7 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
8
9 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
10
11 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
12 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
13 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
14 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
15 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
16 (notably embedded) targets.
17
18 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
19
20 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
21 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
22 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
23 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
24
25 * New command line option
26
27 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
28
29 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
30
31 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
32 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
33 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
34 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
35 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
36 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
37 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
38 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
39 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
40 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
41
42 * Changes in ARM configurations.
43
44 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
45 configuration is fully multi-arch.
46
47 * New native configurations
48
49 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
50 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
51 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
52 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
53
54 * New targets
55
56 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
57
58 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
59
60 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
61 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
62 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
63 permanently REMOVED.
64
65 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
66 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
67 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
68 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
69 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
70
71 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
72
73 * REMOVED configurations and files
74
75 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
76 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
77 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
78 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
79 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
80 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
81 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
82 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
83 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
84 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
85 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
86 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
87 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
88
89 * Changes to command line processing
90
91 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
92 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
93
94 * Changes to key bindings
95
96 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
97
98 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
99
100 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
101
102 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
103 corrupted.
104
105 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
106
107 Numerous documentation fixes.
108
109 Numerous testsuite fixes.
110
111 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
112
113 * New native configurations
114
115 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
116 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
117 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
118 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
119 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
120 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
121
122 * New targets
123
124 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
125 CRIS cris-axis
126 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
127
128 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
129
130 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
131 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
132 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
133 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
134 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
135 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
136 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
137 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
138 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
139 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
140 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
141 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
142 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
143 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
144
145 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
146 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
147
148 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
149 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
150 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
151 permanently REMOVED.
152
153 * REMOVED configurations and files
154
155 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
156 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
157 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
158 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
159 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
160 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
161
162 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
163
164 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
165 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
166 present.
167
168 * Other news:
169
170 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
171
172 * The MI enabled by default.
173
174 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
175 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
176 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
177 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
178 which is now deprecated.
179
180 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
181
182 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
183 main features are supported:
184
185 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
186
187 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
188 extension;
189
190 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
191
192 - a Pascal expression parser.
193
194 However, some important features are not yet supported.
195
196 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
197
198 - there are some problems with boolean types;
199
200 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
201 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
202
203 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
204
205 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
206
207 * Changes in completion.
208
209 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
210 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
211 users expect at the shell prompt.
212
213 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
214 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
215 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
216 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
217 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
218 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
219 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
220
221 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
222
223 * New platform-independent commands:
224
225 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
226 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
227 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
228
229 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
230
231 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
232 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
233 many threads as your system allows you to have.
234
235 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
236
237 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
238 multi-threaded programs though.
239
240 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
241
242 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
243
244 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
245 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
246 supported.)
247
248 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
249
250 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
251 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
252 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
253 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
254 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
255 registers.
256
257 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
258 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
259 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
260
261 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
262
263 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
264 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
265
266 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
267 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
268 IDT.
269
270 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
271 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
272 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
273 a given linear address.
274
275 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
276 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
277 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
278
279 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
280
281 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
282
283 * Changes in documentation.
284
285 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
286 Documentation License.
287
288 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
289 manual.
290
291 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
292
293 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
294 manual.
295
296 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
297 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
298 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
299
300 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
301
302 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
303 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
304 contents of this file.
305
306 * gdba.el deleted
307
308 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
309
310 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
311
312 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
313
314 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
315 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
316 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
317 greater level of detail.
318
319 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
320
321 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
322 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
323 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
324 written.
325
326 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
327
328 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
329 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
330 machines ``out of the box''.
331
332 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
333 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
334 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
335 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
336 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
337
338 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
339 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
340 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
341 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
342 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
343
344 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
345 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
346 also works.
347
348 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
349 GDB.
350
351 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
352 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
353 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
354 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
355
356 * New native configurations
357
358 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
359 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
360
361 * New targets
362
363 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
364 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
365 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
366 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
367
368 * OBSOLETE configurations
369
370 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
371 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
372 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
373 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
374 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
375
376 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
377 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
378 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
379 be permanently REMOVED.
380
381 * Gould support removed
382
383 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
384
385 * New features for SVR4
386
387 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
388 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
389 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
390
391 * Many C++ enhancements
392
393 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
394 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
395
396 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
397
398 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
399 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
400 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
401 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
402
403 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
404 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
405
406 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
407
408 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
409 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
410 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
411
412 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
413 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
414
415 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
416
417 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
418 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
419 include ``set remote P-packet''.
420
421 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
422
423 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
424 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
425 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
426
427 * ``apropos'' command added.
428
429 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
430 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
431 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
432
433 * New MI interface
434
435 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
436 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
437 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
438 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
439 enabled by configuring with:
440
441 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
442
443 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
444
445 * New native configurations
446
447 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
448 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
449 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
450
451 * New targets
452
453 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
454 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
455 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
456
457 * OBSOLETE configurations
458
459 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
460
461 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
462 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
463 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
464 be permanently REMOVED.
465
466 * ANSI/ISO C
467
468 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
469 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
470 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
471 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
472 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
473 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
474 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
475 already.
476
477 * Readline 2.2
478
479 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
480
481 * set extension-language
482
483 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
484 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
485 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
486 set extension-language .c c++
487 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
488 and their associated languages.
489
490 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
491
492 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
493 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
494 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
495
496 set processor NAME
497
498 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
499 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
500
501 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
502 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
503 403 IBM PowerPC 403
504 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
505 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
506 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
507 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
508 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
509 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
510 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
511 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
512
513 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
514 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
515 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
516 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
517
518 * HP-UX support
519
520 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
521 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
522 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
523 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
524 for xdb and dbx commands.
525
526 * Catchpoints
527
528 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
529 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
530 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
531
532 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
533 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
534 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
535
536 * Debugging across forks
537
538 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
539 in the inferior.
540
541 * TUI
542
543 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
544 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
545 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
546
547 * GDB remote protocol additions
548
549 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
550 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
551 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
552 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
553
554 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
555 full 64-bit address. The command
556
557 set remoteaddresssize 32
558
559 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
560 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
561 will be discarded.
562
563 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
564 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
565
566 maint packet heythere
567
568 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
569 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
570 time.
571
572 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
573 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
574 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
575
576 * Tracing can collect general expressions
577
578 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
579 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
580 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
581
582 * mask-address variable for Mips
583
584 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
585 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
586 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
587
588 * Higher serial baud rates
589
590 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
591 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
592 to achieve all of these rates.)
593
594 * i960 simulator
595
596 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
597 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
598
599
600 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
601
602 * New native configurations
603
604 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
605 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
606 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
607 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
608 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
609 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
610 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
611
612 * New targets
613
614 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
615 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
616 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
617 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
618 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
619 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
620 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
621 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
622 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
623 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
624 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
625
626 * New debugging protocols
627
628 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
629 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
630 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
631 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
632 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
633 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
634
635 * DWARF 2
636
637 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
638 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
639 information.
640
641 * Java frontend
642
643 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
644 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
645
646 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
647
648 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
649 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
650 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
651
652 * Live range splitting
653
654 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
655 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
656 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
657
658 * Hurd support
659
660 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
661 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
662
663 * ARM Thumb support
664
665 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
666 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
667 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
668 accordingly.
669
670 * MIPS16 support
671
672 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
673 instruction set.
674
675 * Overlay support
676
677 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
678 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
679 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
680 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
681 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
682 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
683
684 * info symbol
685
686 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
687 the symbol at the specified address.
688
689 * Trace support
690
691 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
692 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
693 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
694 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
695 file tracepoint.c for more details.
696
697 * MIPS simulator
698
699 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
700 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
701 of most MIPS variants.
702
703 * Sparc simulator
704
705 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
706 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
707 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
708
709 * set architecture
710
711 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
712 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
713 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
714 the possible architectures.
715
716 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
717
718 * New native configurations
719
720 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
721 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
722 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
723 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
724 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
725 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
726
727 * New targets
728
729 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
730 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
731 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
732 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
733 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
734 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
735 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
736
737 * PowerPC simulator
738
739 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
740 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
741 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
742 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
743 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
744
745 * Solaris 2.5
746
747 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
748
749 * Windows 95/NT native
750
751 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
752 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
753 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
754 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
755 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
756
757 * dont-repeat command
758
759 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
760 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
761 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
762 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
763
764 * Send break instead of ^C
765
766 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
767 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
768 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
769
770 * Remote protocol timeout
771
772 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
773 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
774 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
775
776 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
777
778 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
779 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
780 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
781 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
782 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
783
784 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
785 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
786 automatically on hpux10.
787
788 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
789
790 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
791
792 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
793
794 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
795 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
796 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
797 every character. The default value is 1050.
798
799 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
800
801 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
802 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
803 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
804 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
805 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
806 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
807
808 * Speedups for remote debugging
809
810 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
811 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
812 and more efficient S-record downloading.
813
814 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
815
816 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
817 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
818
819 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
820
821 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
822
823 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
824 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
825
826 * Remote targets use caching
827
828 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
829 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
830 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
831 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
832 off' turns the the data cache off.
833
834 * Remote targets may have threads
835
836 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
837 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
838 gdb/remote.c for details.
839
840 * NetROM support
841
842 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
843 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
844 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
845 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
846 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
847 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
848 sequence is something like
849
850 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
851 load <prog>
852 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
853
854 * Macintosh host
855
856 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
857 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
858 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
859 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
860 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
861 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
862 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
863 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
864
865 * Autoconf
866
867 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
868 but does simplify configuration and building.
869
870 * hpux10
871
872 GDB now supports hpux10.
873
874 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
875
876 * New native configurations
877
878 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
879 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
880 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
881 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
882
883 * New targets
884
885 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
886 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
887 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
888 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
889 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
890
891 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
892
893 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
894 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
895 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
896 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
897 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
898
899 * Arguments to user-defined commands
900
901 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
902 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
903 trivial example:
904 define adder
905 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
906
907 To execute the command use:
908 adder 1 2 3
909
910 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
911 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
912 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
913
914 * New `if' and `while' commands
915
916 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
917 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
918 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
919 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
920 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
921 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
922 if the expression is zero.
923
924 * Fortran source language mode
925
926 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
927 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
928 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
929 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
930 Fortran compilers.
931
932 * Better HPUX support
933
934 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
935 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
936 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
937 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
938 that behavior do the following before running the program:
939
940 adb -w a.out
941 __dld_flags?W 0x5
942 control-d
943
944 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
945 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
946
947 adb -w a.out
948 __dld_flags?W 0x4
949 control-d
950
951 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
952 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
953 external linkage.
954
955 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
956 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
957
958 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
959
960 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
961 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
962 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
963 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
964 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
965 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
966
967 * New DOS host serial code
968
969 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
970 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
971 a PC's serial port.
972
973 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
974
975 * New "complete" command
976
977 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
978 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
979
980 * Trailing space optional in prompt
981
982 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
983 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
984
985 * Breakpoint hit counts
986
987 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
988 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
989 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
990 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
991 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
992 that breakpoint.
993
994 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
995
996 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
997 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
998 arrays actually contain only short strings.
999
1000 * Shared library breakpoints
1001
1002 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1003 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1004
1005 * Hardware watchpoints
1006
1007 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1008 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1009
1010 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1011
1012 * Annotations
1013
1014 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1015 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1016
1017 * Improved Irix 5 support
1018
1019 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1020
1021 * Improved HPPA support
1022
1023 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1024
1025 * New native configurations
1026
1027 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1028 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1029 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1030 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1031
1032 * New targets
1033
1034 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1035 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1036 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1037
1038 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1039
1040 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1041 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1042
1043 * Fixes
1044
1045 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1046 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1047
1048 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1049
1050 * Irix 5 is now supported
1051
1052 * HPPA support
1053
1054 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1055 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1056 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1057 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1058 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1059
1060
1061 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1062
1063 * User visible changes:
1064
1065 * Remote Debugging
1066
1067 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1068 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1069 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1070 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1071 debugging info for the mips target).
1072
1073 * DEC Alpha native support
1074
1075 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1076 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1077 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1078 Alpha-specific notes.
1079
1080 * Preliminary thread implementation
1081
1082 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1083
1084 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1085
1086 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1087 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1088 for details).
1089
1090 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1091
1092 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1093 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1094 call methods, ...etc.
1095
1096 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1097
1098 * User visible changes:
1099
1100 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1101 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1102 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1103 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1104
1105 Filename completion now works.
1106
1107 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1108 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1109 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1110
1111 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1112 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1113 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1114 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1115 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1116
1117 * DEC alpha support
1118
1119 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1120 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1121
1122
1123 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1124
1125 * Testsuite
1126
1127 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1128 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1129 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1130
1131 * C++ demangling
1132
1133 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1134 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1135 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1136 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1137 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1138
1139 * Simulators
1140
1141 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1142 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1143 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1144
1145 * New targets supported
1146
1147 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1148 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1149 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1150 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1151 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1152
1153 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1154 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1155 GO32 memory extender.
1156
1157 * New remote protocols
1158
1159 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1160
1161 * New source languages supported
1162
1163 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1164 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1165 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1166
1167
1168 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1169
1170 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1171
1172 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1173 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1174 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1175 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1176 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1177 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1178
1179 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1180
1181 * Faster and better demangling
1182
1183 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1184 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1185 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1186 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1187 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1188 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1189 symbol lookups.
1190
1191 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1192 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1193 compiler does not actually implement.
1194
1195 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1196
1197 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1198 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1199 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1200 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1201 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1202 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1203 fix.
1204
1205 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1206 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1207
1208 * Improved configure script
1209
1210 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1211 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1212 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1213 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1214
1215 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1216 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1217 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1218 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1219 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1220 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1221
1222 * Documentation improvements
1223
1224 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1225 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1226 before submitting changes.
1227
1228 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1229 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1230 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1231 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1232 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1233
1234 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1235 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1236 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1237 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1238 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1239 around this problem.
1240
1241 * New features
1242
1243 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1244 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1245 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1246 the target program.
1247
1248 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1249 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1250
1251 * New native hosts supported
1252
1253 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1254 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1255
1256 * New targets supported
1257
1258 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1259
1260 * New file formats supported
1261
1262 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1263 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1264
1265 * Major bug fixes
1266
1267 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1268
1269 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1270 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1271
1272 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1273 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1274 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1275
1276 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1277 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1278
1279 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1280 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1281 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1282 libraries.
1283
1284 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1285 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1286 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1287 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1288 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1289
1290 * Internal improvements
1291
1292 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1293 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1294
1295 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1296 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1297 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1298 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1299 shared code that handles any of them.
1300
1301 * New command line options
1302
1303 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1304
1305 * Mmalloc licensing
1306
1307 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1308 General Public License.
1309
1310 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1311
1312 * Host/native/target split
1313
1314 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1315 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1316 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1317 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1318 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1319
1320 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1321 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1322 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1323 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1324 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1325 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1326 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1327
1328 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1329 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1330 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1331
1332 * New hosts supported
1333
1334 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1335 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1336 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1337
1338 * New targets supported
1339
1340 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1341 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1342
1343 * New native hosts supported
1344
1345 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1346 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1347 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1348
1349 * New file formats supported
1350
1351 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1352 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1353 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1354
1355 * New commands
1356
1357 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1358 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1359 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1360
1361 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1362
1363 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1364 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1365 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1366 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1367
1368 * C++ improvements
1369
1370 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1371 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1372 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1373
1374 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1375
1376 * Major bug fixes
1377
1378 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1379 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1380 by the compiler.
1381
1382 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1383 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1384
1385 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1386 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1387 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1388 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1389 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1390 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1391
1392 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1393 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1394 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1395 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1396
1397 * AMD 29k support
1398
1399 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1400 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1401 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1402 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1403 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1404
1405 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1406 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1407 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1408 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1409
1410 * Remote interfaces
1411
1412 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1413 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1414 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1415 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1416 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1417 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1418 each instruction being stepped through.
1419
1420 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1421 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1422
1423 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1424 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1425 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1426 processor with a serial port.
1427
1428 * Configuration
1429
1430 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1431 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1432 supported, and what files each one uses.
1433
1434 * Library changes
1435
1436 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1437 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1438 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1439 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1440
1441 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1442 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1443 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1444 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1445
1446 * Documentation
1447
1448 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1449 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1450 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1451 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1452 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1453 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1454
1455 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1456
1457
1458 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1459
1460 * Better support for C++ function names
1461
1462 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1463 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1464 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1465 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1466 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1467
1468 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1469 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1470 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1471 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1472 for the list of formats.
1473
1474 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1475
1476 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1477 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1478 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1479 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1480 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1481 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1482 this problem.)
1483
1484 * New 'maintenance' command
1485
1486 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1487 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1488 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1489
1490 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1491 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1492 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1493 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1494 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1495 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1496
1497 The following commands are new:
1498
1499 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1500 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1501 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1502
1503 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1504
1505 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1506 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1507 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1508 read after argv processing.
1509
1510 * New hosts supported
1511
1512 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1513
1514 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1515
1516 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1517 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1518 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1519 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1520 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1521 It costs extra.
1522
1523 * New targets supported
1524
1525 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1526
1527 * More smarts about finding #include files
1528
1529 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1530 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1531 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1532 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1533 the one that contains your sources.
1534
1535 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1536 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1537 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1538
1539 * Interesting infernals change
1540
1541 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1542 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1543 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1544 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1545
1546 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1547
1548 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1549 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1550 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1551
1552 See the ChangeLog for details.
1553
1554 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1555
1556 * New machines supported (host and target)
1557
1558 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1559
1560 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1561
1562 * New malloc package
1563
1564 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1565 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1566 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1567 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1568 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1569 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1570
1571 * info proc
1572
1573 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1574 'help info proc' for details.
1575
1576 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1577
1578 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1579 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1580 possible.
1581
1582 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1583
1584 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1585 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1586 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1587 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1588 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1589 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1590
1591 * Cross byte order fixes
1592
1593 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1594 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1595
1596 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1597
1598 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1599 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1600 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1601 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1602 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1603 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1604 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1605 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1606 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1607 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1608
1609 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1610 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1611 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1612 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1613
1614 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1615 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1616 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1617 use is:
1618
1619 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1620
1621 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1622 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1623 shared across multiple host platforms.
1624
1625 * longjmp() handling
1626
1627 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1628 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1629 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1630 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1631
1632 * Solaris 2.0
1633
1634 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1635 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1636 reading symbols.
1637
1638 * Bug fixes
1639
1640 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1641 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1642 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1643
1644 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1645
1646 * New machines supported (host and target)
1647
1648 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1649 (except core files)
1650 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1651 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1652
1653 * New machines supported (target)
1654
1655 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1656
1657 * C++ support
1658
1659 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1660 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1661 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1662
1663 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1664 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1665 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1666 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1667 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1668 released.
1669
1670 * New features for SVR4
1671
1672 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1673 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1674 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1675
1676 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1677 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1678 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1679
1680 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1681 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1682
1683 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1684
1685 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1686 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1687 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1688 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1689 same code linked statically.
1690
1691 * New Getopt
1692
1693 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1694 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1695 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1696 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1697 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1698 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1699
1700 * Bugs fixed
1701
1702 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1703 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1704 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1705
1706
1707 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1708
1709 * New machines supported (host and target)
1710
1711 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1712 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1713 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1714
1715 * Almost SCO Unix support
1716
1717 We had hoped to support:
1718 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1719 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1720 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1721 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1722
1723 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1724
1725 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1726 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1727 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1728 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1729 reqired (if any).
1730
1731 * New Readline
1732
1733 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1734 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1735 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1736
1737 * Bugs fixed
1738
1739 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1740 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1741 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1742
1743 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1744
1745 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1746 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1747 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1748
1749 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1750 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1751 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1752 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1753 version 2.
1754
1755 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1756 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1757 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1758 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1759 situation somewhat.
1760
1761 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1762 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1763 methods.
1764
1765 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1766 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1767 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1768
1769
1770 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1771
1772 * Improved configuration
1773
1774 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1775 Porting BFD is simpler.
1776
1777 * Stepping improved
1778
1779 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1780 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1781 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1782 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1783
1784 * Bug fixing
1785
1786 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1787
1788 * New host supported (not target)
1789
1790 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1791
1792
1793 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1794
1795 * Multiple source language support
1796
1797 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1798 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1799 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1800 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1801 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1802 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1803
1804 * GDB and Modula-2
1805
1806 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1807 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1808 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1809 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1810
1811 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1812 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1813 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1814
1815 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1816 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1817
1818 * set write on/off
1819
1820 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1821 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1822 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1823 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1824 effect immediately.
1825
1826 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1827
1828 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1829 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1830 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1831 examining core files.
1832
1833 * set listsize
1834
1835 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1836 The default is 10.
1837
1838 * New machines supported (host and target)
1839
1840 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1841 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1842 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1843
1844 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1845
1846 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1847
1848 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1849
1850 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1851 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1852 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1853
1854 * New remote interfaces
1855
1856 AMD 29000 Adapt
1857 AMD 29000 Minimon
1858
1859
1860 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1861
1862 * New Facilities
1863
1864 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1865
1866 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1867 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1868 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1869 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1870 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1871 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1872 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1873 stub on the target system.
1874
1875 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1876
1877 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1878 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1879 object file types such as a.out and coff.
1880
1881 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1882 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1883
1884
1885 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1886
1887 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1888 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1889
1890 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1891 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1892 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1893
1894 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1895 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1896 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1897 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1898
1899 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1900 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1901 it is already running. Default is ON.
1902
1903 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1904 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1905 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1906 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1907 Default is ON.
1908
1909 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1910 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1911 or the value of the environment variable
1912 GDBHISTFILE.
1913
1914 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1915 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1916 HISTSIZE.
1917
1918 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1919 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1920 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1921
1922 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1923 history expansion will be performed on
1924 command line input. The default is OFF.
1925
1926 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1927 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1928 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1929
1930 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1931 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1932 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1933 variable TERM.
1934
1935 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1936 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1937 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1938 variable TERM.
1939
1940 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1941 ``set width'' instead.
1942
1943 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1944 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1945 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1946 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1947
1948 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1949 is OFF.
1950
1951 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1952 "raw" form if off.
1953
1954 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1955 like instructions.
1956
1957 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1958
1959
1960 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1961
1962 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1963 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1964 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1965 window.
1966
1967
1968 * Support for Shared Libraries
1969
1970 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1971 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1972 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1973 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1974 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1975 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1976 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1977 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1978
1979 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1980 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1981 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1982
1983 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1984
1985
1986 * Watchpoints
1987
1988 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1989 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1990 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1991 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1992 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1993 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1994
1995 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1996
1997 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1998
1999 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2000 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2001 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2002
2003
2004 * C++ multiple inheritance
2005
2006 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2007 for C++ programs.
2008
2009 * C++ exception handling
2010
2011 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2012 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2013 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2014 handler's context).
2015
2016 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2017 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2018 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2019
2020 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2021 current stack frame.
2022
2023
2024 * Minor command changes
2025
2026 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2027 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2028 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2029
2030 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2031 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2032 frames without printing.
2033
2034 * New directory command
2035
2036 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2037 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2038 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2039 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2040 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2041
2042 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2043
2044 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2045 for more details.
2046
2047 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2048 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2049 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2050 where the program that you are debugging will run.
This page took 0.078415 seconds and 4 git commands to generate.