1 What has changed since GDB-3.5?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
6 * New "complete" command for use by emacs.
8 * "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
9 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
11 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
13 * Irix 5 is now supported
17 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
18 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
19 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
20 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
21 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
24 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
26 * User visible changes:
30 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
31 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
32 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
33 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
34 debugging info for the mips target).
36 * DEC Alpha native support
38 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
39 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
40 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
43 * Preliminary thread implementation
45 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
47 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
49 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
50 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
53 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
55 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
56 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
59 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
61 * User visible changes:
63 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
64 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
65 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
66 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
68 Filename completion now works.
70 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
71 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
72 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
74 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
75 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
76 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
77 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
78 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
82 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
83 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
86 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
90 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
91 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
92 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
96 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
97 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
98 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
99 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
100 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
104 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
105 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
106 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
108 * New targets supported
110 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
111 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
112 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
113 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
114 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
116 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
117 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
118 GO32 memory extender.
120 * New remote protocols
122 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
124 * New source languages supported
126 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
127 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
128 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
131 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
133 * HP Precision Architecture supported
135 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
136 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
137 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
138 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
139 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
140 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
142 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
144 * Faster and better demangling
146 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
147 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
148 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
149 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
150 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
151 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
154 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
155 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
156 compiler does not actually implement.
158 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
160 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
161 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
162 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
163 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
164 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
165 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
168 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
169 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
171 * Improved configure script
173 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
174 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
175 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
176 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
178 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
179 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
180 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
181 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
182 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
183 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
185 * Documentation improvements
187 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
188 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
189 before submitting changes.
191 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
192 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
193 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
194 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
195 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
197 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
198 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
199 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
200 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
201 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
206 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
207 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
208 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
211 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
212 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
214 * New native hosts supported
216 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
217 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
219 * New targets supported
221 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
223 * New file formats supported
225 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
226 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
230 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
232 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
233 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
235 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
236 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
237 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
239 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
240 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
242 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
243 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
244 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
247 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
248 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
249 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
250 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
251 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
253 * Internal improvements
255 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
256 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
258 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
259 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
260 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
261 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
262 shared code that handles any of them.
264 * New command line options
266 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
270 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
271 General Public License.
273 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
275 * Host/native/target split
277 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
278 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
279 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
280 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
281 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
283 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
284 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
285 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
286 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
287 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
288 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
289 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
291 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
292 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
293 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
295 * New hosts supported
297 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
298 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
299 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
301 * New targets supported
303 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
304 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
306 * New native hosts supported
308 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
309 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
310 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
312 * New file formats supported
314 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
315 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
316 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
320 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
321 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
322 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
324 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
326 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
327 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
328 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
329 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
333 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
334 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
335 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
337 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
341 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
342 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
345 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
346 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
348 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
349 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
350 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
351 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
352 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
353 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
355 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
356 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
357 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
358 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
362 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
363 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
364 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
365 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
366 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
368 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
369 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
370 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
371 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
375 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
376 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
377 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
378 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
379 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
380 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
381 each instruction being stepped through.
383 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
384 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
386 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
387 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
388 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
389 processor with a serial port.
393 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
394 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
395 supported, and what files each one uses.
399 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
400 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
401 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
402 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
404 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
405 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
406 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
407 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
411 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
412 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
413 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
414 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
415 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
416 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
418 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
421 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
423 * Better support for C++ function names
425 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
426 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
427 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
428 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
429 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
431 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
432 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
433 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
434 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
435 for the list of formats.
437 * G++ symbol mangling problem
439 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
440 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
441 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
442 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
443 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
444 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
447 * New 'maintenance' command
449 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
450 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
451 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
453 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
454 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
455 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
456 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
457 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
458 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
460 The following commands are new:
462 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
463 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
464 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
466 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
468 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
469 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
470 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
471 read after argv processing.
473 * New hosts supported
475 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
477 Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
479 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
480 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
481 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
482 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
483 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
486 * New targets supported
488 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
490 * More smarts about finding #include files
492 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
493 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
494 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
495 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
496 the one that contains your sources.
498 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
499 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
500 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
502 * Interesting infernals change
504 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
505 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
506 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
507 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
509 * Bug fixes (of course!)
511 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
512 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
513 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
515 See the ChangeLog for details.
517 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
519 * New machines supported (host and target)
521 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
523 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
527 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
528 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
529 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
530 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
531 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
532 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
536 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
537 'help info proc' for details.
539 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
541 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
542 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
545 * File name changes for MS-DOS
547 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
548 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
549 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
550 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
551 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
552 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
554 * Cross byte order fixes
556 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
557 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
559 * New -mapped and -readnow options
561 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
562 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
563 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
564 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
565 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
566 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
567 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
568 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
569 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
570 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
572 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
573 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
574 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
575 slower, but makes future operations faster.
577 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
578 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
579 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
582 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
584 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
585 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
586 shared across multiple host platforms.
590 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
591 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
592 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
593 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
597 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
598 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
603 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
604 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
605 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
607 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
609 * New machines supported (host and target)
611 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
613 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
614 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
616 * New machines supported (target)
618 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
622 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
623 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
624 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
626 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
627 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
628 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
629 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
630 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
633 * New features for SVR4
635 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
636 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
637 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
639 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
640 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
641 it prints the address mappings of the process.
643 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
644 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
646 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
648 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
649 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
650 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
651 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
652 same code linked statically.
656 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
657 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
658 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
659 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
660 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
661 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
665 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
666 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
667 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
670 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
672 * New machines supported (host and target)
674 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
675 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
676 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
678 * Almost SCO Unix support
680 We had hoped to support:
681 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
682 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
683 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
684 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
686 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
688 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
689 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
690 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
691 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
696 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
697 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
698 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
702 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
703 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
704 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
706 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
708 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
709 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
710 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
712 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
713 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
714 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
715 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
718 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
719 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
720 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
721 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
724 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
725 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
728 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
729 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
730 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
733 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
735 * Improved configuration
737 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
738 Porting BFD is simpler.
742 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
743 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
744 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
745 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
749 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
751 * New host supported (not target)
753 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
756 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
758 * Multiple source language support
760 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
761 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
762 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
763 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
764 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
765 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
769 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
770 currently under development at the State University of New York at
771 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
772 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
774 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
775 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
776 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
778 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
779 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
783 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
784 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
785 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
786 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
789 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
791 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
792 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
793 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
794 examining core files.
798 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
801 * New machines supported (host and target)
803 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
804 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
805 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
807 * New hosts supported (not targets)
809 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
811 * New targets supported (not hosts)
813 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
814 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
815 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
817 * New remote interfaces
823 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
827 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
829 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
830 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
831 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
832 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
833 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
834 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
835 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
836 stub on the target system.
838 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
840 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
841 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
842 object file types such as a.out and coff.
844 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
845 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
848 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
850 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
851 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
853 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
854 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
855 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
857 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
858 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
859 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
860 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
862 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
863 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
864 it is already running. Default is ON.
866 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
867 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
868 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
869 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
872 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
873 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
874 or the value of the environment variable
877 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
878 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
881 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
882 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
883 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
885 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
886 history expansion will be performed on
887 command line input. The default is OFF.
889 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
890 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
891 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
893 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
894 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
895 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
898 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
899 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
900 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
903 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
904 ``set width'' instead.
906 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
907 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
908 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
909 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
911 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
914 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
917 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
920 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
923 * Support for Epoch Environment.
925 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
926 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
927 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
931 * Support for Shared Libraries
933 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
934 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
935 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
936 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
937 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
938 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
939 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
940 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
942 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
943 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
944 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
946 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
951 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
952 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
953 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
954 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
955 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
956 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
958 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
960 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
962 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
963 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
964 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
967 * C++ multiple inheritance
969 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
972 * C++ exception handling
974 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
975 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
976 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
979 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
980 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
981 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
983 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
987 * Minor command changes
989 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
990 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
991 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
993 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
994 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
995 frames without printing.
997 * New directory command
999 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1000 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1001 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1002 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1003 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1005 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1007 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1010 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1011 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1012 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1013 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob