*** empty log message ***
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
5
6 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
7 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
8 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
9 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
10 for tracepoint actions.
11
12 * "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
13 in hex as well as in symbolic form."
14
15 * Process record and replay
16
17 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
18 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
19 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
20 execute commands.
21
22 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
23 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
24 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
25 reverse execution.
26
27 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
28 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
29 2.6.28 or later.
30
31 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
32 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
33 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
34 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
35 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
36 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
37 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
38 the installation instructions for more information.
39
40 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
41 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
42 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
43 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
44
45 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
46 now complete on file names.
47
48 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
49 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
50 For instance, consider:
51
52 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
53 # struct example variable;
54 (gdb) p variable.
55
56 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
57 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
58
59 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
60 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
61
62 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
63 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
64 macros.
65
66 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
67 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
68 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
69
70 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
71 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
72 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
73 and simulator targets may also provide them.
74
75 * New remote packets
76
77 qSearch:memory:
78 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
79
80 QStartNoAckMode
81 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
82 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
83 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
84
85 vKill
86 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
87 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
88
89 qXfer:osdata:read
90 Obtains additional operating system information
91
92 qXfer:siginfo:read
93 qXfer:siginfo:write
94 Read or write additional signal information.
95
96 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
97
98 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
99 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
100 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
101
102 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
103 source+assembly.
104
105 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
106 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
107
108 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
109 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
110 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
111
112 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
113 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
114
115 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
116
117 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
118
119 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
120 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
121
122 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
123 list of section offsets.
124
125 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
126 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
127 have also been fixed.
128
129 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
130 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
131 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
132
133 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
134 example, given:
135
136 template<typename T> class C { };
137 C<char const *> c;
138
139 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
140
141 ptype C<char const *>
142 ptype C<char const*>
143 ptype C<const char *>
144 ptype C<const char*>
145
146 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
147
148 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
149 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
150
151 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
152 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
153 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
154
155 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
156 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
157
158 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
159 gdbserver.
160
161 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
162 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
163
164 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
165 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
166 as appropriate.
167
168 * Python scripting
169
170 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
171 available is determined at configure time.
172
173 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
174
175 * Ada tasking support
176
177 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
178 been introduced:
179
180 info tasks
181 Print the list of Ada tasks.
182 info task N
183 Print detailed information about task number N.
184 task
185 Print the task number of the current task.
186 task N
187 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
188
189 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
190 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
191
192 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
193
194 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
195 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
196 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
197 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
198 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
199 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
200 below.
201
202 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
203 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
204 information.
205
206 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
207 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
208 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
209 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
210 more information.
211
212 * Multi-architecture debugging.
213
214 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
215 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
216 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
217 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
218 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
219
220 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
221 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
222 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
223 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
224 --enable-targets configure option.
225
226 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
227
228 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
229 val1 [, val2, ...]
230 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
231
232 maint set python print-stack
233 maint show python print-stack
234 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
235
236 python [CODE]
237 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
238
239 macro define
240 macro list
241 macro undef
242 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
243 interactively.
244
245 info os processes
246 Show operating system information about processes.
247
248 info inferiors
249 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
250
251 inferior NUM
252 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
253
254 detach inferior NUM
255 Detach from inferior number NUM.
256
257 kill inferior NUM
258 Kill inferior number NUM.
259
260 * New options
261
262 set spu stop-on-load
263 show spu stop-on-load
264 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
265
266 set spu auto-flush-cache
267 show spu auto-flush-cache
268 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
269 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
270
271 set sh calling-convention
272 show sh calling-convention
273 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
274
275 set print symbol-loading
276 show print symbol-loading
277 Control printing of symbol loading messages.
278
279 set debug timestamp
280 show debug timestamp
281 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
282
283 set disassemble-next-line
284 show disassemble-next-line
285 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
286 the debuggee stops.
287
288 set remote noack-packet
289 show remote noack-packet
290 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
291 under "New remote packets."
292
293 set remote query-attached-packet
294 show remote query-attached-packet
295 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
296
297 set remote read-siginfo-object
298 show remote read-siginfo-object
299 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
300 packet.
301
302 set remote write-siginfo-object
303 show remote write-siginfo-object
304 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
305 packet.
306
307 set displaced-stepping
308 show displaced-stepping
309 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
310 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
311 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
312
313 set debug displaced
314 show debug displaced
315 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
316
317 maint set internal-error
318 maint show internal-error
319 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
320
321 maint set internal-warning
322 maint show internal-warning
323 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
324
325 set exec-wrapper
326 show exec-wrapper
327 unset exec-wrapper
328 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
329
330 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
331 show multiple-symbols
332 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
333 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
334 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
335
336 set breakpoint always-inserted
337 show breakpoint always-inserted
338 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
339 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
340 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
341
342 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
343 show arm fallback-mode
344 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
345 show arm force-mode
346 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
347 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
348 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
349 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
350
351 set disable-randomization
352 show disable-randomization
353 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
354 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
355 multiple debugging sessions.
356
357 set non-stop
358 show non-stop
359 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
360 a breakpoint.
361
362 set target-async
363 show target-async
364 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
365 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
366 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
367 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
368
369 set target-wide-charset
370 show target-wide-charset
371 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
372 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
373
374 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
375 show tcp auto-retry
376 set tcp connect-timeout
377 show tcp connect-timeout
378 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
379 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
380 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
381
382 set libthread-db-search-path
383 show libthread-db-search-path
384 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
385 libthread_db.
386
387 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
388 show schedule-multiple
389 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
390 the current process.
391
392 * Removed commands
393
394 info forks
395 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
396 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
397 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
398 command.
399
400 fork NUM
401 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
402 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
403 alias for the `fork' command.
404
405 process PID
406 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
407 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
408 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
409
410 delete fork NUM
411 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
412 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
413 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
414 fork' command.
415
416 detach fork NUM
417 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
418 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
419 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
420 fork' command.
421
422 * New native configurations
423
424 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
425
426 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
427
428 * New targets
429
430 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
431 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
432 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
433
434 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
435 (mingw32ce) debugging.
436
437 * Removed commands
438
439 catch load
440 catch unload
441 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
442
443 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
444
445 * New native configurations
446
447 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
448 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
449
450 * New targets
451
452 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
453 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
454
455 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
456
457 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
458 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
459 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
460 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
461
462 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
463 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
464
465 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
466 is resolved.
467
468 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
469 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
470 and in inlined functions.
471
472 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
473 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
474 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
475
476 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
477
478 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
479 registers on PowerPC targets.
480
481 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
482 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
483
484 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
485 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
486
487 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
488 extended-remote mode.
489
490 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
491 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
492 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
493 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
494
495 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
496 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
497 target architectures.
498
499 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
500 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
501 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
502 stored in two consecutive float registers.
503
504 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
505 breakpoints now.
506
507 * Improved support for debugging Ada
508 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
509 include:
510 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
511 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
512 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
513 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
514 of an assignment
515 - Improved command completion in Ada
516 - Several bug fixes
517
518 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
519 process.
520
521 * New commands
522
523 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
524 show print frame-arguments
525 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
526 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
527
528 remote put
529 remote get
530 remote delete
531 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
532
533 * New MI commands
534
535 -target-file-put
536 -target-file-get
537 -target-file-delete
538 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
539
540 * New remote packets
541
542 vFile:open:
543 vFile:close:
544 vFile:pread:
545 vFile:pwrite:
546 vFile:unlink:
547 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
548
549 vAttach
550 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
551 mode.
552
553 vRun
554 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
555
556 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
557
558 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
559 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
560 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
561
562 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
563 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
564 -Bsymbolic linker option.
565
566 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
567 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
568 is not supported.
569
570 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
571 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
572
573 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
574 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
575
576 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
577
578 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
579 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
580 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
581
582 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
583 automatically displayed as character or string data.
584
585 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
586 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
587 as strings.
588
589 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
590 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
591 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
592
593 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
594 iWMMXt coprocessor.
595
596 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
597 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
598 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
599
600 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
601
602 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
603
604 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
605 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
606 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
607
608 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
609 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
610
611 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
612 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
613 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
614 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
615 Windows and SymbianOS).
616
617 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
618 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
619
620 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
621 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
622
623 * New commands
624
625 set remoteflow
626 show remoteflow
627 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
628 when debugging using remote targets.
629
630 set mem inaccessible-by-default
631 show mem inaccessible-by-default
632 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
633 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
634 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
635 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
636 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
637
638 set breakpoint auto-hw
639 show breakpoint auto-hw
640 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
641 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
642 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
643 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
644 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
645 including "next" and "finish".
646
647 catch exception
648 catch exception unhandled
649 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
650
651 catch assert
652 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
653
654 set sysroot
655 show sysroot
656 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
657 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
658 an alias to "set sysroot".
659
660 info spu
661 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
662 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
663 architecture.
664
665 * New native configurations
666
667 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
668
669 set tdesc filename
670 unset tdesc filename
671 show tdesc filename
672 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
673 not query the target for its built-in description.
674
675 * New targets
676
677 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
678 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
679 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
680
681 * New remote packets
682
683 QPassSignals:
684 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
685 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
686
687 qXfer:features:read:
688 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
689 features.
690
691 qXfer:spu:read:
692 qXfer:spu:write:
693 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
694 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
695
696 qXfer:libraries:read:
697 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
698 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
699 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
700 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
701
702 * Removed targets
703
704 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
705
706 alpha*-*-osf1*
707 alpha*-*-osf2*
708 d10v-*-*
709 hppa*-*-hiux*
710 i[34567]86-ncr-*
711 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
712 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
713 i[34567]86-*-netware*
714 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
715 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
716 i[34567]86-*-sco*
717 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
718 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
719 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
720 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
721 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
722 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
723 i[34567]86-*-isc*
724 m68*-cisco*-*
725 m68*-tandem-*
726 mips*-*-pe
727 rs6000-*-lynxos*
728 sh*-*-pe
729
730 * Other removed features
731
732 target abug
733 target cpu32bug
734 target est
735 target rom68k
736
737 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
738
739 target hms
740 target e7000
741 target sh3
742 target sh3e
743
744 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
745 H8/300.
746
747 target ocd
748
749 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
750 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
751 interfaces.
752
753 DWARF 1 support
754
755 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
756 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
757
758 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
759
760 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
761 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
762 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
763 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
764
765 MIPS ".pdr" sections
766
767 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
768 in debugging information.
769
770 Scheme support
771
772 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
773 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
774
775 set mips stack-arg-size
776 set mips saved-gpreg-size
777
778 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
779
780 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
781
782 * New targets
783
784 Xtensa xtensa-elf
785 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
786
787 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
788 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
789 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
790
791 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
792 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
793 supported.
794
795 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
796 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
797
798 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
799 stub provides the required support.
800
801 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
802 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
803
804 * New commands
805
806 set substitute-path
807 unset substitute-path
808 show substitute-path
809 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
810 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
811 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
812 between compilation and debugging.
813
814 set trace-commands
815 show trace-commands
816 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
817 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
818 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
819
820 * REMOVED features
821
822 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
823
824 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
825 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
826
827 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
828
829 * New remote packets
830
831 qSupported:
832 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
833 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
834 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
835 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
836 target.
837
838 qXfer:auxv:read:
839 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
840 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
841
842 qXfer:memory-map:read:
843 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
844 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
845
846 vFlashErase:
847 vFlashWrite:
848 vFlashDone:
849 Erase and program a flash memory device.
850
851 * Removed remote packets
852
853 qPart:auxv:read:
854 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
855 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
856
857 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
858
859 * New targets
860
861 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
862
863 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
864
865 * New commands
866
867 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
868 only if it doesn't already have a value.
869
870 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
871
872 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
873
874 restart <n> Return the program state to a
875 previously saved state.
876
877 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
878
879 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
880
881 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
882 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
883
884 info forks List forks of the user program that
885 are available to be debugged.
886
887 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
888 forks of the user program that are
889 available to be debugged.
890
891 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
892 that are available to be debugged (and
893 kill the forked process).
894
895 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
896 that are available to be debugged (and
897 allow the process to continue).
898
899 * New architecture
900
901 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
902
903 * Improved Windows host support
904
905 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
906 native console support, and remote communications using either
907 network sockets or serial ports.
908
909 * Improved Modula-2 language support
910
911 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
912 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
913 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
914 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
915 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
916 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
917
918 * REMOVED features
919
920 The ARM rdi-share module.
921
922 The Netware NLM debug server.
923
924 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
925
926 * New native configurations
927
928 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
929 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
930
931 * New targets
932
933 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
934
935 * New command line options
936
937 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
938 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
939 the child (debugged) program exited with.
940 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
941 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
942 specified multiple times and in conjunction
943 with the --command (-x) option.
944
945 * Deprecated commands removed
946
947 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
948 removed:
949
950 Command Replacement
951 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
952 othernames set arm disassembler
953 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
954 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
955 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
956 regs info registers
957
958 * New BSD user-level threads support
959
960 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
961 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
962 configurations are:
963
964 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
965 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
966 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
967
968 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
969 are not yet supported.
970
971 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
972 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
973
974 * REMOVED configurations and files
975
976 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
977 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
978 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
979
980 * New "set print array-indexes" command
981
982 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
983 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
984 behavior.
985
986 * VAX floating point support
987
988 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
989
990 * User-defined command support
991
992 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
993 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
994 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
995
996 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
997
998 * New command line option
999
1000 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1001 debugging.
1002
1003 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1004
1005 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1006 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1007 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1008 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1009 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1010
1011 * Internationalization
1012
1013 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1014 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1015 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1016
1017 * Ada
1018
1019 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1020 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1021 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1022
1023 * New native configurations
1024
1025 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1026
1027 * Remote 'p' packet
1028
1029 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1030 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1031
1032 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1033
1034 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1035 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1036 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1037 i386 application).
1038
1039 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1040 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1041 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1042 configurations:
1043
1044 hppa-*-hpux
1045 ia64-*-aix
1046 mips-*-irix*
1047 *-*-lynx
1048 mips-*-linux-gnu
1049 sds protocol
1050 xdr protocol
1051 powerpc bdm protocol
1052
1053 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1054 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1055
1056 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1057
1058 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1059 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1060 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1061 permanently REMOVED.
1062
1063 h8300-*-*
1064 mcore-*-*
1065 mn10300-*-*
1066 ns32k-*-*
1067 sh64-*-*
1068 v850-*-*
1069
1070 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1071
1072 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1073
1074 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1075 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1076 been fixed.
1077
1078 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1079
1080 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1081 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1082 IRIX long double values).
1083
1084 * VAX and "next"
1085
1086 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1087 command. This problem has been fixed.
1088
1089 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1090
1091 * Fix for ``many threads''
1092
1093 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1094 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1095 error message:
1096
1097 ptrace: No such process.
1098 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1099
1100 This problem has been fixed.
1101
1102 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1103
1104 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1105 GDB to dump core).
1106
1107 * New ``start'' command.
1108
1109 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1110
1111 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1112
1113 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1114 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1115 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1116
1117 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1118 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1119 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1120 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1121 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1122 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1123 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1124 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1125 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1126
1127 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1128
1129 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1130 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1131 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1132 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1133 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1134
1135 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1136 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1137 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1138
1139 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1140
1141 * New native configurations
1142
1143 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1144 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1145 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1146 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1147 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1148 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1149 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1150
1151 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1152
1153 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1154 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1155 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1156 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1157 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1158 work, was also included.
1159
1160 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1161 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1162
1163 h8300-*-*
1164 mcore-*-*
1165 mn10300-*-*
1166 ns32k-*-*
1167 sh64-*-*
1168 v850-*-*
1169 xstormy16-*-*
1170
1171 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1172 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1173
1174 * REMOVED configurations and files
1175
1176 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1177 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1178 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1179 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1180 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1181 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1182 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1183 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1184 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1185 sonymips mips-sony-*
1186 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1187
1188 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1189
1190 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1191
1192 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1193 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1194 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1195 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1196 with GDB".
1197
1198 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1199
1200 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1201 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1202 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1203 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1204 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1205 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1206 are created.
1207
1208 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1209
1210 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1211
1212 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1213 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1214 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1215
1216 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1217
1218 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1219 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1220
1221 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1222
1223 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1224 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1225 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1226
1227 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1228
1229 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1230 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1231
1232 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1233
1234 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1235 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1236 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1237
1238 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1239
1240 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1241 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1242 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1243
1244 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1245
1246 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1247
1248 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1249 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1250
1251 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1252
1253 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1254 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1255 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1256 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1257
1258 * Revised SPARC target
1259
1260 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1261 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1262 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1263 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1264 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1265
1266 * New C++ demangler
1267
1268 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1269 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1270 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1271 programs.
1272
1273 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1274
1275 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1276 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1277 encountered these.
1278
1279 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1280
1281 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1282 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1283 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1284 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1285 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1286 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1287 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1288 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1289 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1290
1291 * New native configurations
1292
1293 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1294 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1295 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1296 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1297 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1298
1299 * New debugging protocols
1300
1301 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1302
1303 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1304
1305 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1306 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1307 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1308
1309 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1310
1311 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1312 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1313 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1314 permanently REMOVED.
1315
1316 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1317 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1318 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1319 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1320 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1321 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1322 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1323 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1324 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1325 sonymips mips-sony-*
1326 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1327
1328 * REMOVED configurations and files
1329
1330 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1331 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1332 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1333 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1334 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1335 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1336 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1337 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1338 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1339 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1340 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1341 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1342 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1343 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1344 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1345 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1346 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1347
1348 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1349
1350 * Objective-C
1351
1352 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1353 integrated into GDB.
1354
1355 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1356
1357 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1358 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1359 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1360 backtraces.
1361
1362 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1363 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1364 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1365
1366 * Hosted file I/O.
1367
1368 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1369 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1370 remote protocol documentation for details.
1371
1372 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1373
1374 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1375 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1376 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1377 ppc32 on ppc64).
1378
1379 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1380
1381 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1382 per-thread variables.
1383
1384 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1385
1386 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1387 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1388
1389 * Separate debug info.
1390
1391 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1392 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1393 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1394 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1395 and optional debug files.
1396
1397 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1398
1399 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1400 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1401 debugger.
1402
1403 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1404 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1405
1406 * Java
1407
1408 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1409 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1410 considered "useable".
1411
1412 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1413
1414 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1415 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1416 kernel.
1417
1418 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1419
1420 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1421 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1422
1423 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1424
1425 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1426 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1427 command.
1428
1429 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1430
1431 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1432 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1433
1434 * Profiling support
1435
1436 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1437 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1438 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1439 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1440 data, for more informative profiling results.
1441
1442 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1443
1444 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1445 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1446 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1447
1448 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1449 removed.
1450
1451 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1452 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1453 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1454 in a subsequent -var-update.
1455
1456 * New native configurations.
1457
1458 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1459
1460 * Multi-arched targets.
1461
1462 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1463 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1464
1465 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1466
1467 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1468 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1469 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1470 permanently REMOVED.
1471
1472 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1473 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1474 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1475 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1476 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1477 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1478 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1479 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1480 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1481 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1482 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1483 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1484
1485 * REMOVED configurations and files
1486
1487 V850EA ISA
1488 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1489 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1490 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1491 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1492 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1493 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1494 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1495 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1496 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1497 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1498 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1499 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1500 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1501
1502 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1503
1504 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1505 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1506 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1507 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1508 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1509
1510 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1511
1512 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1513
1514 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1515 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1516 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1517 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1518 shared libs like mad''.
1519
1520 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1521
1522 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1523 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1524 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1525 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1526
1527 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1528
1529 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1530 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1531 they expand.
1532
1533 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1534 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1535
1536 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1537 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1538
1539 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1540 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1541 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1542 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1543
1544 * Multi-arched targets.
1545
1546 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1547 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1548 NEC V850 v850-*-*
1549 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1550 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1551 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1552
1553 * New targets.
1554
1555 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1556
1557
1558 * New native configurations
1559
1560 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1561 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1562 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1563 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1564
1565 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1566
1567 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1568 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1569 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1570 permanently REMOVED.
1571
1572 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1573 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1574 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1575 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1576 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1577 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1578 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1579 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1580 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1581 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1582 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1583 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1584 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1585
1586 * OBSOLETE languages
1587
1588 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1589
1590 * REMOVED configurations and files
1591
1592 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1593 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1594 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1595 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1596 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1597
1598 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1599
1600 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1601
1602 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1603 commands. The default is 1024.
1604
1605 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1606
1607 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1608
1609 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1610
1611 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1612 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1613 from a file into memory (restore).
1614
1615 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1616
1617 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1618 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1619 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1620
1621 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1622
1623 * New targets.
1624
1625 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
1626
1627 * Bug fixes
1628
1629 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1630 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1631 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1632
1633 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1634 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1635 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1636
1637 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1638 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1639 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1640
1641 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1642 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1643 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1644
1645 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1646
1647 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1648
1649 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1650 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1651 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1652 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1653 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1654 (notably embedded) targets.
1655
1656 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1657
1658 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1659 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1660 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1661 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1662
1663 * New command line option
1664
1665 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1666
1667 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1668
1669 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1670 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1671 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1672 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1673 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1674 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1675 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1676 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1677 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1678 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1679
1680 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1681
1682 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1683 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1684
1685 * New native configurations
1686
1687 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1688 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1689 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1690 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1691
1692 * New targets
1693
1694 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1695
1696 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1697
1698 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1699 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1700 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1701 permanently REMOVED.
1702
1703 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1704 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1705 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1706 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1707 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1708
1709 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1710
1711 * REMOVED configurations and files
1712
1713 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1714 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1715 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1716 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1717 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1718 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1719 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1720 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1721 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1722 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1723 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1724 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1725 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1726
1727 * Changes to command line processing
1728
1729 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1730 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1731
1732 * Changes to key bindings
1733
1734 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1735
1736 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1737
1738 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1739
1740 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1741 corrupted.
1742
1743 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1744
1745 Numerous documentation fixes.
1746
1747 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1748
1749 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1750
1751 * New native configurations
1752
1753 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1754 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1755 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1756 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1757 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1758 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1759
1760 * New targets
1761
1762 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1763 CRIS cris-axis
1764 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1765
1766 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1767
1768 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1769 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1770 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1771 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1772 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1773 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1774 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1775 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1776 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1777 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1778 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1779 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1780 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1781 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1782
1783 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1784 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1785
1786 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1787 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1788 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1789 permanently REMOVED.
1790
1791 * REMOVED configurations and files
1792
1793 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1794 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1795 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
1796 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1797 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
1798 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
1799
1800 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1801
1802 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1803 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1804 present.
1805
1806 * Other news:
1807
1808 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1809
1810 * The MI enabled by default.
1811
1812 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1813 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1814 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1815 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1816 which is now deprecated.
1817
1818 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1819
1820 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1821 main features are supported:
1822
1823 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1824
1825 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1826 extension;
1827
1828 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1829
1830 - a Pascal expression parser.
1831
1832 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1833
1834 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1835
1836 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1837
1838 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1839 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1840
1841 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1842
1843 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1844
1845 * Changes in completion.
1846
1847 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1848 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1849 users expect at the shell prompt.
1850
1851 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1852 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1853 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1854 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1855 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1856 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1857 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1858
1859 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1860
1861 * New platform-independent commands:
1862
1863 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1864 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1865 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1866
1867 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1868
1869 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1870 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1871 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1872
1873 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1874
1875 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1876 multi-threaded programs though.
1877
1878 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1879
1880 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1881
1882 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1883 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1884 supported.)
1885
1886 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1887
1888 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1889 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1890 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1891 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1892 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1893 registers.
1894
1895 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1896 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1897 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1898
1899 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1900
1901 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1902 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1903
1904 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1905 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1906 IDT.
1907
1908 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1909 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1910 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1911 a given linear address.
1912
1913 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1914 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1915 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1916
1917 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1918
1919 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1920
1921 * Changes in documentation.
1922
1923 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1924 Documentation License.
1925
1926 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1927 manual.
1928
1929 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1930
1931 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1932 manual.
1933
1934 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1935 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1936 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1937
1938 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1939
1940 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1941 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1942 contents of this file.
1943
1944 * gdba.el deleted
1945
1946 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1947
1948 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1949
1950 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1951
1952 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1953 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1954 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1955 greater level of detail.
1956
1957 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1958
1959 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1960 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1961 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1962 written.
1963
1964 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1965
1966 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1967 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1968 machines ``out of the box''.
1969
1970 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1971 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1972 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1973 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1974 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1975
1976 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1977 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1978 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1979 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1980 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1981
1982 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1983 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1984 also works.
1985
1986 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1987 GDB.
1988
1989 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1990 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1991 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1992 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1993
1994 * New native configurations
1995
1996 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1997 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1998
1999 * New targets
2000
2001 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2002 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2003 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2004 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2005
2006 * OBSOLETE configurations
2007
2008 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2009 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2010 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2011 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2012 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
2013
2014 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2015 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2016 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2017 be permanently REMOVED.
2018
2019 * Gould support removed
2020
2021 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2022
2023 * New features for SVR4
2024
2025 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2026 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2027 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2028
2029 * Many C++ enhancements
2030
2031 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2032 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2033
2034 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2035
2036 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2037 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2038 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2039 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2040
2041 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2042 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2043
2044 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2045
2046 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2047 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2048 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2049
2050 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2051 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2052
2053 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2054
2055 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2056 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2057 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2058
2059 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2060
2061 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2062 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2063 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2064
2065 * ``apropos'' command added.
2066
2067 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2068 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2069 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2070
2071 * New MI interface
2072
2073 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2074 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2075 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2076 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2077 enabled by configuring with:
2078
2079 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2080
2081 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2082
2083 * New native configurations
2084
2085 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2086 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2087 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2088
2089 * New targets
2090
2091 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2092 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2093 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2094
2095 * OBSOLETE configurations
2096
2097 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2098
2099 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2100 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2101 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2102 be permanently REMOVED.
2103
2104 * ANSI/ISO C
2105
2106 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2107 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2108 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2109 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2110 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2111 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2112 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2113 already.
2114
2115 * Readline 2.2
2116
2117 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2118
2119 * set extension-language
2120
2121 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2122 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2123 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2124 set extension-language .c c++
2125 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2126 and their associated languages.
2127
2128 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2129
2130 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2131 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2132 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2133
2134 set processor NAME
2135
2136 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2137 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2138
2139 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2140 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2141 403 IBM PowerPC 403
2142 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2143 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2144 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2145 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2146 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2147 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2148 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2149 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2150
2151 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2152 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2153 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2154 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2155
2156 * HP-UX support
2157
2158 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2159 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2160 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2161 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2162 for xdb and dbx commands.
2163
2164 * Catchpoints
2165
2166 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2167 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2168 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2169
2170 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2171 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2172 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2173
2174 * Debugging across forks
2175
2176 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2177 in the inferior.
2178
2179 * TUI
2180
2181 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2182 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2183 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2184
2185 * GDB remote protocol additions
2186
2187 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2188 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2189 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2190 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2191
2192 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2193 full 64-bit address. The command
2194
2195 set remoteaddresssize 32
2196
2197 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2198 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2199 will be discarded.
2200
2201 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2202 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2203
2204 maint packet heythere
2205
2206 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2207 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2208 time.
2209
2210 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2211 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2212 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2213
2214 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2215
2216 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2217 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2218 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2219
2220 * mask-address variable for Mips
2221
2222 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2223 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2224 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2225
2226 * Higher serial baud rates
2227
2228 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2229 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2230 to achieve all of these rates.)
2231
2232 * i960 simulator
2233
2234 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2235 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2236
2237
2238 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2239
2240 * New native configurations
2241
2242 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2243 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2244 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2245 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2246 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2247 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2248 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2249
2250 * New targets
2251
2252 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2253 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2254 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2255 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2256 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2257 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2258 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2259 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2260 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2261 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2262 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2263
2264 * New debugging protocols
2265
2266 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2267 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2268 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2269 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2270 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2271 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2272
2273 * DWARF 2
2274
2275 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2276 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2277 information.
2278
2279 * Java frontend
2280
2281 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2282 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2283
2284 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2285
2286 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2287 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2288 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2289
2290 * Live range splitting
2291
2292 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2293 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2294 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2295
2296 * Hurd support
2297
2298 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2299 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2300
2301 * ARM Thumb support
2302
2303 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2304 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2305 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2306 accordingly.
2307
2308 * MIPS16 support
2309
2310 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2311 instruction set.
2312
2313 * Overlay support
2314
2315 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2316 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2317 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2318 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2319 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2320 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2321
2322 * info symbol
2323
2324 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2325 the symbol at the specified address.
2326
2327 * Trace support
2328
2329 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2330 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2331 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2332 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2333 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2334
2335 * MIPS simulator
2336
2337 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2338 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2339 of most MIPS variants.
2340
2341 * Sparc simulator
2342
2343 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2344 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2345 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2346
2347 * set architecture
2348
2349 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2350 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2351 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2352 the possible architectures.
2353
2354 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2355
2356 * New native configurations
2357
2358 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2359 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2360 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2361 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2362 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2363 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2364
2365 * New targets
2366
2367 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2368 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2369 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2370 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2371 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2372 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
2373 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2374
2375 * PowerPC simulator
2376
2377 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2378 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2379 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2380 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2381 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2382
2383 * Solaris 2.5
2384
2385 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2386
2387 * Windows 95/NT native
2388
2389 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2390 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2391 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2392 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2393 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2394
2395 * dont-repeat command
2396
2397 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2398 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2399 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2400 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2401
2402 * Send break instead of ^C
2403
2404 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2405 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2406 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2407
2408 * Remote protocol timeout
2409
2410 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2411 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2412 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2413
2414 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2415
2416 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2417 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2418 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2419 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2420 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2421
2422 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2423 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2424 automatically on hpux10.
2425
2426 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2427
2428 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2429
2430 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2431
2432 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2433 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2434 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2435 every character. The default value is 1050.
2436
2437 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2438
2439 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2440 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2441 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2442 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2443 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2444 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2445
2446 * Speedups for remote debugging
2447
2448 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2449 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2450 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2451
2452 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2453
2454 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2455 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2456
2457 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2458
2459 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2460
2461 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2462 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2463
2464 * Remote targets use caching
2465
2466 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2467 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2468 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2469 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2470 off' turns the the data cache off.
2471
2472 * Remote targets may have threads
2473
2474 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2475 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2476 gdb/remote.c for details.
2477
2478 * NetROM support
2479
2480 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2481 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2482 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2483 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2484 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2485 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2486 sequence is something like
2487
2488 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2489 load <prog>
2490 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2491
2492 * Macintosh host
2493
2494 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2495 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2496 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2497 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2498 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2499 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2500 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2501 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2502
2503 * Autoconf
2504
2505 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2506 but does simplify configuration and building.
2507
2508 * hpux10
2509
2510 GDB now supports hpux10.
2511
2512 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2513
2514 * New native configurations
2515
2516 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2517 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2518 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2519 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2520
2521 * New targets
2522
2523 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2524 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2525 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2526 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2527 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2528
2529 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2530
2531 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2532 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2533 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2534 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2535 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2536
2537 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2538
2539 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2540 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2541 trivial example:
2542 define adder
2543 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2544
2545 To execute the command use:
2546 adder 1 2 3
2547
2548 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2549 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2550 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2551
2552 * New `if' and `while' commands
2553
2554 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2555 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2556 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2557 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2558 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2559 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2560 if the expression is zero.
2561
2562 * Fortran source language mode
2563
2564 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2565 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2566 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2567 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2568 Fortran compilers.
2569
2570 * Better HPUX support
2571
2572 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2573 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2574 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2575 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2576 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2577
2578 adb -w a.out
2579 __dld_flags?W 0x5
2580 control-d
2581
2582 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2583 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2584
2585 adb -w a.out
2586 __dld_flags?W 0x4
2587 control-d
2588
2589 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2590 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2591 external linkage.
2592
2593 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2594 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2595
2596 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2597
2598 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2599 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2600 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2601 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2602 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2603 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2604
2605 * New DOS host serial code
2606
2607 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2608 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2609 a PC's serial port.
2610
2611 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2612
2613 * New "complete" command
2614
2615 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2616 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2617
2618 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2619
2620 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2621 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2622
2623 * Breakpoint hit counts
2624
2625 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2626 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2627 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2628 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2629 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2630 that breakpoint.
2631
2632 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2633
2634 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2635 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2636 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2637
2638 * Shared library breakpoints
2639
2640 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2641 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2642
2643 * Hardware watchpoints
2644
2645 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2646 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2647
2648 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2649
2650 * Annotations
2651
2652 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2653 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2654
2655 * Improved Irix 5 support
2656
2657 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2658
2659 * Improved HPPA support
2660
2661 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2662
2663 * New native configurations
2664
2665 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2666 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2667 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2668 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2669
2670 * New targets
2671
2672 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2673 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2674 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
2675
2676 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2677
2678 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2679 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2680
2681 * Fixes
2682
2683 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2684 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2685
2686 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2687
2688 * Irix 5 is now supported
2689
2690 * HPPA support
2691
2692 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2693 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2694 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2695 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2696 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2697
2698
2699 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2700
2701 * User visible changes:
2702
2703 * Remote Debugging
2704
2705 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2706 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2707 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2708 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2709 debugging info for the mips target).
2710
2711 * DEC Alpha native support
2712
2713 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2714 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2715 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2716 Alpha-specific notes.
2717
2718 * Preliminary thread implementation
2719
2720 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2721
2722 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2723
2724 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2725 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2726 for details).
2727
2728 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2729
2730 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2731 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2732 call methods, ...etc.
2733
2734 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2735
2736 * User visible changes:
2737
2738 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2739 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2740 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2741 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2742
2743 Filename completion now works.
2744
2745 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2746 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2747 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2748
2749 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2750 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2751 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2752 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2753 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2754
2755 * DEC alpha support
2756
2757 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2758 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2759
2760
2761 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2762
2763 * Testsuite
2764
2765 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2766 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2767 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2768
2769 * C++ demangling
2770
2771 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2772 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2773 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2774 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2775 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2776
2777 * Simulators
2778
2779 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2780 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2781 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2782
2783 * New targets supported
2784
2785 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2786 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2787 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2788 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2789 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2790
2791 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2792 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2793 GO32 memory extender.
2794
2795 * New remote protocols
2796
2797 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2798
2799 * New source languages supported
2800
2801 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2802 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2803 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2804
2805
2806 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2807
2808 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2809
2810 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2811 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2812 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2813 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2814 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2815 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2816
2817 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2818
2819 * Faster and better demangling
2820
2821 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2822 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2823 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2824 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2825 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2826 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2827 symbol lookups.
2828
2829 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2830 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2831 compiler does not actually implement.
2832
2833 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2834
2835 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2836 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2837 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2838 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2839 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2840 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2841 fix.
2842
2843 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2844 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2845
2846 * Improved configure script
2847
2848 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2849 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2850 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2851 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2852
2853 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2854 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2855 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2856 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2857 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2858 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2859
2860 * Documentation improvements
2861
2862 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2863 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2864 before submitting changes.
2865
2866 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2867 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2868 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2869 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2870 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2871
2872 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2873 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2874 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2875 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2876 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2877 around this problem.
2878
2879 * New features
2880
2881 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2882 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2883 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2884 the target program.
2885
2886 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2887 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2888
2889 * New native hosts supported
2890
2891 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2892 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2893
2894 * New targets supported
2895
2896 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2897
2898 * New file formats supported
2899
2900 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2901 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2902
2903 * Major bug fixes
2904
2905 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2906
2907 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2908 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2909
2910 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2911 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2912 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2913
2914 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2915 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2916
2917 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2918 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2919 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2920 libraries.
2921
2922 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2923 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2924 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2925 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2926 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2927
2928 * Internal improvements
2929
2930 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2931 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2932
2933 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2934 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2935 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2936 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2937 shared code that handles any of them.
2938
2939 * New command line options
2940
2941 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2942
2943 * Mmalloc licensing
2944
2945 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2946 General Public License.
2947
2948 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2949
2950 * Host/native/target split
2951
2952 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2953 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2954 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2955 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2956 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2957
2958 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2959 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2960 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2961 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2962 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2963 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2964 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2965
2966 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2967 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2968 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2969
2970 * New hosts supported
2971
2972 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2973 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2974 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2975
2976 * New targets supported
2977
2978 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2979 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2980
2981 * New native hosts supported
2982
2983 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2984 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2985 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2986
2987 * New file formats supported
2988
2989 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2990 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2991 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2992
2993 * New commands
2994
2995 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2996 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2997 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2998
2999 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3000
3001 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3002 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3003 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3004 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3005
3006 * C++ improvements
3007
3008 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3009 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3010 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3011
3012 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3013
3014 * Major bug fixes
3015
3016 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3017 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3018 by the compiler.
3019
3020 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3021 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3022
3023 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3024 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3025 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3026 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3027 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3028 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3029
3030 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3031 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3032 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3033 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3034
3035 * AMD 29k support
3036
3037 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3038 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3039 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3040 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3041 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3042
3043 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3044 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3045 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3046 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3047
3048 * Remote interfaces
3049
3050 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3051 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3052 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3053 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3054 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3055 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3056 each instruction being stepped through.
3057
3058 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3059 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3060
3061 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3062 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3063 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3064 processor with a serial port.
3065
3066 * Configuration
3067
3068 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3069 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3070 supported, and what files each one uses.
3071
3072 * Library changes
3073
3074 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3075 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3076 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3077 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3078
3079 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3080 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3081 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3082 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3083
3084 * Documentation
3085
3086 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3087 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3088 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3089 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3090 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3091 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3092
3093 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3094
3095
3096 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3097
3098 * Better support for C++ function names
3099
3100 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3101 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3102 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3103 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3104 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3105
3106 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3107 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3108 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3109 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3110 for the list of formats.
3111
3112 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3113
3114 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3115 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3116 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3117 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3118 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3119 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3120 this problem.)
3121
3122 * New 'maintenance' command
3123
3124 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3125 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3126 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3127
3128 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3129 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3130 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3131 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3132 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3133 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3134
3135 The following commands are new:
3136
3137 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3138 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3139 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3140
3141 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3142
3143 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3144 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3145 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3146 read after argv processing.
3147
3148 * New hosts supported
3149
3150 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3151
3152 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3153
3154 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3155 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3156 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3157 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3158 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3159 It costs extra.
3160
3161 * New targets supported
3162
3163 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3164
3165 * More smarts about finding #include files
3166
3167 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3168 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3169 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3170 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3171 the one that contains your sources.
3172
3173 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3174 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3175 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3176
3177 * Interesting infernals change
3178
3179 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3180 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3181 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3182 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3183
3184 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3185
3186 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3187 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3188 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3189
3190 See the ChangeLog for details.
3191
3192 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3193
3194 * New machines supported (host and target)
3195
3196 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3197
3198 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3199
3200 * New malloc package
3201
3202 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3203 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3204 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3205 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3206 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3207 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3208
3209 * info proc
3210
3211 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3212 'help info proc' for details.
3213
3214 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3215
3216 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3217 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3218 possible.
3219
3220 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3221
3222 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3223 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3224 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3225 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3226 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3227 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3228
3229 * Cross byte order fixes
3230
3231 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3232 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3233
3234 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3235
3236 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3237 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3238 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3239 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3240 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3241 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3242 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3243 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3244 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3245 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3246
3247 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3248 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3249 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3250 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3251
3252 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3253 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3254 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3255 use is:
3256
3257 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3258
3259 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3260 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3261 shared across multiple host platforms.
3262
3263 * longjmp() handling
3264
3265 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3266 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3267 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3268 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3269
3270 * Solaris 2.0
3271
3272 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3273 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3274 reading symbols.
3275
3276 * Bug fixes
3277
3278 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3279 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3280 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3281
3282 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3283
3284 * New machines supported (host and target)
3285
3286 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3287 (except core files)
3288 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3289 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3290
3291 * New machines supported (target)
3292
3293 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3294
3295 * C++ support
3296
3297 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3298 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3299 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3300
3301 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3302 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3303 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3304 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3305 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3306 released.
3307
3308 * New features for SVR4
3309
3310 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3311 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3312 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3313
3314 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3315 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3316 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3317
3318 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3319 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3320
3321 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3322
3323 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3324 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3325 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3326 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3327 same code linked statically.
3328
3329 * New Getopt
3330
3331 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3332 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3333 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3334 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3335 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3336 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3337
3338 * Bugs fixed
3339
3340 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3341 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3342 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3343
3344
3345 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3346
3347 * New machines supported (host and target)
3348
3349 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3350 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3351 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3352
3353 * Almost SCO Unix support
3354
3355 We had hoped to support:
3356 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3357 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3358 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3359 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3360
3361 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3362
3363 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3364 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3365 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3366 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3367 reqired (if any).
3368
3369 * New Readline
3370
3371 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3372 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3373 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3374
3375 * Bugs fixed
3376
3377 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3378 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3379 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3380
3381 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3382
3383 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3384 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3385 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3386
3387 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3388 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3389 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3390 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3391 version 2.
3392
3393 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3394 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3395 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3396 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3397 situation somewhat.
3398
3399 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3400 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3401 methods.
3402
3403 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3404 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3405 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3406
3407
3408 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3409
3410 * Improved configuration
3411
3412 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3413 Porting BFD is simpler.
3414
3415 * Stepping improved
3416
3417 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3418 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3419 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3420 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3421
3422 * Bug fixing
3423
3424 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3425
3426 * New host supported (not target)
3427
3428 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3429
3430
3431 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3432
3433 * Multiple source language support
3434
3435 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3436 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3437 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3438 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3439 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3440 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3441
3442 * GDB and Modula-2
3443
3444 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3445 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3446 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3447 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3448
3449 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3450 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3451 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3452
3453 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3454 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3455
3456 * set write on/off
3457
3458 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3459 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3460 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3461 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3462 effect immediately.
3463
3464 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3465
3466 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3467 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3468 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3469 examining core files.
3470
3471 * set listsize
3472
3473 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3474 The default is 10.
3475
3476 * New machines supported (host and target)
3477
3478 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3479 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3480 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3481
3482 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3483
3484 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3485
3486 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3487
3488 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3489 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3490 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3491
3492 * New remote interfaces
3493
3494 AMD 29000 Adapt
3495 AMD 29000 Minimon
3496
3497
3498 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3499
3500 * New Facilities
3501
3502 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3503
3504 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3505 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3506 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3507 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3508 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3509 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3510 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3511 stub on the target system.
3512
3513 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3514
3515 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3516 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3517 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3518
3519 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3520 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3521
3522
3523 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3524
3525 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3526 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3527
3528 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3529 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3530 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3531
3532 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3533 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3534 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3535 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3536
3537 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3538 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3539 it is already running. Default is ON.
3540
3541 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3542 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3543 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3544 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3545 Default is ON.
3546
3547 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3548 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3549 or the value of the environment variable
3550 GDBHISTFILE.
3551
3552 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3553 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3554 HISTSIZE.
3555
3556 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3557 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3558 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3559
3560 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3561 history expansion will be performed on
3562 command line input. The default is OFF.
3563
3564 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3565 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3566 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3567
3568 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3569 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3570 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3571 variable TERM.
3572
3573 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3574 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3575 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3576 variable TERM.
3577
3578 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3579 ``set width'' instead.
3580
3581 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3582 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3583 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3584 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3585
3586 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3587 is OFF.
3588
3589 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3590 "raw" form if off.
3591
3592 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3593 like instructions.
3594
3595 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3596
3597
3598 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3599
3600 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3601 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3602 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3603 window.
3604
3605
3606 * Support for Shared Libraries
3607
3608 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3609 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3610 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3611 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3612 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3613 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3614 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3615 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3616
3617 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3618 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3619 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3620
3621 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3622
3623
3624 * Watchpoints
3625
3626 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3627 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3628 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3629 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3630 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3631 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3632
3633 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3634
3635 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3636
3637 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3638 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3639 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3640
3641
3642 * C++ multiple inheritance
3643
3644 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3645 for C++ programs.
3646
3647 * C++ exception handling
3648
3649 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3650 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3651 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3652 handler's context).
3653
3654 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3655 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3656 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3657
3658 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3659 current stack frame.
3660
3661
3662 * Minor command changes
3663
3664 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3665 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3666 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3667
3668 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3669 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3670 frames without printing.
3671
3672 * New directory command
3673
3674 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3675 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3676 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3677 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3678 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3679
3680 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3681
3682 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3683 for more details.
3684
3685 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3686 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3687 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3688 where the program that you are debugging will run.
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