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[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 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
7 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
8 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
9 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
10 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
11
12 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
13 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
14 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
15 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
16 for tracepoint actions.
17
18 * "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
19 in hex as well as in symbolic form."
20
21 * Process record and replay
22
23 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
24 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
25 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
26 execute commands.
27
28 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
29 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
30 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
31 reverse execution.
32
33 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
34 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
35 2.6.28 or later.
36
37 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
38 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
39 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
40 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
41 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
42 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
43 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
44 the installation instructions for more information.
45
46 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
47 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
48 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
49 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
50
51 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
52 now complete on file names.
53
54 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
55 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
56 For instance, consider:
57
58 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
59 # struct example variable;
60 (gdb) p variable.
61
62 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
63 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
64
65 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
66 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
67
68 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
69 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
70 macros.
71
72 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
73 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
74 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
75
76 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
77 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
78 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
79 and simulator targets may also provide them.
80
81 * New remote packets
82
83 qSearch:memory:
84 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
85
86 QStartNoAckMode
87 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
88 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
89 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
90
91 vKill
92 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
93 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
94
95 qXfer:osdata:read
96 Obtains additional operating system information
97
98 qXfer:siginfo:read
99 qXfer:siginfo:write
100 Read or write additional signal information.
101
102 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
103
104 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
105 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
106 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
107
108 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
109 source+assembly.
110
111 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
112 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
113
114 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
115 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
116 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
117
118 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
119 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
120
121 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
122
123 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
124
125 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
126 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
127
128 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
129 list of section offsets.
130
131 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
132 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
133 have also been fixed.
134
135 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
136 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
137 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
138
139 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
140 example, given:
141
142 template<typename T> class C { };
143 C<char const *> c;
144
145 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
146
147 ptype C<char const *>
148 ptype C<char const*>
149 ptype C<const char *>
150 ptype C<const char*>
151
152 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
153
154 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
155 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
156
157 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
158 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
159 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
160
161 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
162 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
163
164 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
165 gdbserver.
166
167 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
168 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
169
170 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
171 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
172 as appropriate.
173
174 * Python scripting
175
176 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
177 available is determined at configure time.
178
179 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
180
181 * Ada tasking support
182
183 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
184 been introduced:
185
186 info tasks
187 Print the list of Ada tasks.
188 info task N
189 Print detailed information about task number N.
190 task
191 Print the task number of the current task.
192 task N
193 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
194
195 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
196 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
197
198 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
199
200 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
201 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
202 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
203 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
204 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
205 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
206 below.
207
208 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
209 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
210 information.
211
212 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
213 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
214 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
215 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
216 more information.
217
218 * Multi-architecture debugging.
219
220 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
221 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
222 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
223 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
224 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
225
226 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
227 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
228 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
229 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
230 --enable-targets configure option.
231
232 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
233
234 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
235 val1 [, val2, ...]
236 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
237
238 maint set python print-stack
239 maint show python print-stack
240 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
241
242 python [CODE]
243 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
244
245 macro define
246 macro list
247 macro undef
248 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
249 interactively.
250
251 info os processes
252 Show operating system information about processes.
253
254 info inferiors
255 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
256
257 inferior NUM
258 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
259
260 detach inferior NUM
261 Detach from inferior number NUM.
262
263 kill inferior NUM
264 Kill inferior number NUM.
265
266 * New options
267
268 set spu stop-on-load
269 show spu stop-on-load
270 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
271
272 set spu auto-flush-cache
273 show spu auto-flush-cache
274 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
275 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
276
277 set sh calling-convention
278 show sh calling-convention
279 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
280
281 set print symbol-loading
282 show print symbol-loading
283 Control printing of symbol loading messages.
284
285 set debug timestamp
286 show debug timestamp
287 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
288
289 set disassemble-next-line
290 show disassemble-next-line
291 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
292 the debuggee stops.
293
294 set remote noack-packet
295 show remote noack-packet
296 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
297 under "New remote packets."
298
299 set remote query-attached-packet
300 show remote query-attached-packet
301 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
302
303 set remote read-siginfo-object
304 show remote read-siginfo-object
305 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
306 packet.
307
308 set remote write-siginfo-object
309 show remote write-siginfo-object
310 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
311 packet.
312
313 set displaced-stepping
314 show displaced-stepping
315 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
316 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
317 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
318
319 set debug displaced
320 show debug displaced
321 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
322
323 maint set internal-error
324 maint show internal-error
325 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
326
327 maint set internal-warning
328 maint show internal-warning
329 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
330
331 set exec-wrapper
332 show exec-wrapper
333 unset exec-wrapper
334 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
335
336 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
337 show multiple-symbols
338 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
339 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
340 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
341
342 set breakpoint always-inserted
343 show breakpoint always-inserted
344 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
345 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
346 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
347
348 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
349 show arm fallback-mode
350 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
351 show arm force-mode
352 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
353 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
354 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
355 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
356
357 set disable-randomization
358 show disable-randomization
359 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
360 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
361 multiple debugging sessions.
362
363 set non-stop
364 show non-stop
365 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
366 a breakpoint.
367
368 set target-async
369 show target-async
370 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
371 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
372 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
373 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
374
375 set target-wide-charset
376 show target-wide-charset
377 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
378 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
379
380 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
381 show tcp auto-retry
382 set tcp connect-timeout
383 show tcp connect-timeout
384 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
385 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
386 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
387
388 set libthread-db-search-path
389 show libthread-db-search-path
390 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
391 libthread_db.
392
393 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
394 show schedule-multiple
395 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
396 the current process.
397
398 * Removed commands
399
400 info forks
401 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
402 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
403 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
404 command.
405
406 fork NUM
407 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
408 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
409 alias for the `fork' command.
410
411 process PID
412 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
413 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
414 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
415
416 delete fork NUM
417 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
418 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
419 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
420 fork' command.
421
422 detach fork NUM
423 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
424 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
425 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
426 fork' command.
427
428 * New native configurations
429
430 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
431
432 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
433
434 * New targets
435
436 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
437 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
438 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
439 S+core 3 score-*-*
440
441 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
442 (mingw32ce) debugging.
443
444 * Removed commands
445
446 catch load
447 catch unload
448 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
449
450 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
451
452 * New native configurations
453
454 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
455 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
456
457 * New targets
458
459 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
460 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
461
462 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
463
464 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
465 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
466 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
467 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
468
469 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
470 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
471
472 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
473 is resolved.
474
475 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
476 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
477 and in inlined functions.
478
479 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
480 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
481 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
482
483 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
484
485 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
486 registers on PowerPC targets.
487
488 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
489 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
490
491 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
492 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
493
494 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
495 extended-remote mode.
496
497 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
498 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
499 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
500 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
501
502 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
503 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
504 target architectures.
505
506 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
507 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
508 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
509 stored in two consecutive float registers.
510
511 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
512 breakpoints now.
513
514 * Improved support for debugging Ada
515 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
516 include:
517 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
518 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
519 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
520 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
521 of an assignment
522 - Improved command completion in Ada
523 - Several bug fixes
524
525 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
526 process.
527
528 * New commands
529
530 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
531 show print frame-arguments
532 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
533 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
534
535 remote put
536 remote get
537 remote delete
538 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
539
540 * New MI commands
541
542 -target-file-put
543 -target-file-get
544 -target-file-delete
545 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
546
547 * New remote packets
548
549 vFile:open:
550 vFile:close:
551 vFile:pread:
552 vFile:pwrite:
553 vFile:unlink:
554 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
555
556 vAttach
557 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
558 mode.
559
560 vRun
561 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
562
563 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
564
565 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
566 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
567 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
568
569 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
570 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
571 -Bsymbolic linker option.
572
573 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
574 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
575 is not supported.
576
577 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
578 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
579
580 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
581 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
582
583 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
584
585 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
586 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
587 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
588
589 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
590 automatically displayed as character or string data.
591
592 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
593 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
594 as strings.
595
596 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
597 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
598 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
599
600 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
601 iWMMXt coprocessor.
602
603 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
604 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
605 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
606
607 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
608
609 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
610
611 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
612 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
613 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
614
615 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
616 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
617
618 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
619 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
620 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
621 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
622 Windows and SymbianOS).
623
624 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
625 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
626
627 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
628 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
629
630 * New commands
631
632 set remoteflow
633 show remoteflow
634 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
635 when debugging using remote targets.
636
637 set mem inaccessible-by-default
638 show mem inaccessible-by-default
639 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
640 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
641 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
642 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
643 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
644
645 set breakpoint auto-hw
646 show breakpoint auto-hw
647 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
648 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
649 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
650 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
651 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
652 including "next" and "finish".
653
654 catch exception
655 catch exception unhandled
656 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
657
658 catch assert
659 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
660
661 set sysroot
662 show sysroot
663 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
664 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
665 an alias to "set sysroot".
666
667 info spu
668 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
669 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
670 architecture.
671
672 * New native configurations
673
674 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
675
676 set tdesc filename
677 unset tdesc filename
678 show tdesc filename
679 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
680 not query the target for its built-in description.
681
682 * New targets
683
684 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
685 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
686 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
687
688 * New remote packets
689
690 QPassSignals:
691 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
692 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
693
694 qXfer:features:read:
695 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
696 features.
697
698 qXfer:spu:read:
699 qXfer:spu:write:
700 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
701 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
702
703 qXfer:libraries:read:
704 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
705 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
706 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
707 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
708
709 * Removed targets
710
711 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
712
713 alpha*-*-osf1*
714 alpha*-*-osf2*
715 d10v-*-*
716 hppa*-*-hiux*
717 i[34567]86-ncr-*
718 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
719 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
720 i[34567]86-*-netware*
721 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
722 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
723 i[34567]86-*-sco*
724 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
725 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
726 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
727 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
728 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
729 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
730 i[34567]86-*-isc*
731 m68*-cisco*-*
732 m68*-tandem-*
733 mips*-*-pe
734 rs6000-*-lynxos*
735 sh*-*-pe
736
737 * Other removed features
738
739 target abug
740 target cpu32bug
741 target est
742 target rom68k
743
744 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
745
746 target hms
747 target e7000
748 target sh3
749 target sh3e
750
751 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
752 H8/300.
753
754 target ocd
755
756 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
757 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
758 interfaces.
759
760 DWARF 1 support
761
762 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
763 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
764
765 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
766
767 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
768 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
769 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
770 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
771
772 MIPS ".pdr" sections
773
774 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
775 in debugging information.
776
777 Scheme support
778
779 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
780 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
781
782 set mips stack-arg-size
783 set mips saved-gpreg-size
784
785 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
786
787 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
788
789 * New targets
790
791 Xtensa xtensa-elf
792 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
793
794 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
795 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
796 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
797
798 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
799 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
800 supported.
801
802 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
803 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
804
805 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
806 stub provides the required support.
807
808 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
809 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
810
811 * New commands
812
813 set substitute-path
814 unset substitute-path
815 show substitute-path
816 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
817 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
818 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
819 between compilation and debugging.
820
821 set trace-commands
822 show trace-commands
823 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
824 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
825 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
826
827 * REMOVED features
828
829 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
830
831 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
832 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
833
834 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
835
836 * New remote packets
837
838 qSupported:
839 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
840 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
841 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
842 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
843 target.
844
845 qXfer:auxv:read:
846 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
847 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
848
849 qXfer:memory-map:read:
850 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
851 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
852
853 vFlashErase:
854 vFlashWrite:
855 vFlashDone:
856 Erase and program a flash memory device.
857
858 * Removed remote packets
859
860 qPart:auxv:read:
861 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
862 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
863
864 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
865
866 * New targets
867
868 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
869
870 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
871
872 * New commands
873
874 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
875 only if it doesn't already have a value.
876
877 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
878
879 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
880
881 restart <n> Return the program state to a
882 previously saved state.
883
884 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
885
886 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
887
888 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
889 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
890
891 info forks List forks of the user program that
892 are available to be debugged.
893
894 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
895 forks of the user program that are
896 available to be debugged.
897
898 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
899 that are available to be debugged (and
900 kill the forked process).
901
902 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
903 that are available to be debugged (and
904 allow the process to continue).
905
906 * New architecture
907
908 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
909
910 * Improved Windows host support
911
912 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
913 native console support, and remote communications using either
914 network sockets or serial ports.
915
916 * Improved Modula-2 language support
917
918 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
919 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
920 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
921 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
922 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
923 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
924
925 * REMOVED features
926
927 The ARM rdi-share module.
928
929 The Netware NLM debug server.
930
931 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
932
933 * New native configurations
934
935 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
936 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
937
938 * New targets
939
940 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
941
942 * New command line options
943
944 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
945 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
946 the child (debugged) program exited with.
947 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
948 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
949 specified multiple times and in conjunction
950 with the --command (-x) option.
951
952 * Deprecated commands removed
953
954 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
955 removed:
956
957 Command Replacement
958 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
959 othernames set arm disassembler
960 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
961 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
962 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
963 regs info registers
964
965 * New BSD user-level threads support
966
967 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
968 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
969 configurations are:
970
971 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
972 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
973 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
974
975 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
976 are not yet supported.
977
978 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
979 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
980
981 * REMOVED configurations and files
982
983 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
984 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
985 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
986
987 * New "set print array-indexes" command
988
989 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
990 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
991 behavior.
992
993 * VAX floating point support
994
995 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
996
997 * User-defined command support
998
999 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1000 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1001 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1002
1003 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1004
1005 * New command line option
1006
1007 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1008 debugging.
1009
1010 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1011
1012 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1013 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1014 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1015 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1016 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1017
1018 * Internationalization
1019
1020 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1021 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1022 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1023
1024 * Ada
1025
1026 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1027 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1028 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1029
1030 * New native configurations
1031
1032 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1033
1034 * Remote 'p' packet
1035
1036 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1037 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1038
1039 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1040
1041 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1042 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1043 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1044 i386 application).
1045
1046 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1047 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1048 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1049 configurations:
1050
1051 hppa-*-hpux
1052 ia64-*-aix
1053 mips-*-irix*
1054 *-*-lynx
1055 mips-*-linux-gnu
1056 sds protocol
1057 xdr protocol
1058 powerpc bdm protocol
1059
1060 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1061 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1062
1063 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1064
1065 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1066 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1067 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1068 permanently REMOVED.
1069
1070 h8300-*-*
1071 mcore-*-*
1072 mn10300-*-*
1073 ns32k-*-*
1074 sh64-*-*
1075 v850-*-*
1076
1077 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1078
1079 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1080
1081 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1082 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1083 been fixed.
1084
1085 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1086
1087 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1088 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1089 IRIX long double values).
1090
1091 * VAX and "next"
1092
1093 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1094 command. This problem has been fixed.
1095
1096 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1097
1098 * Fix for ``many threads''
1099
1100 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1101 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1102 error message:
1103
1104 ptrace: No such process.
1105 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1106
1107 This problem has been fixed.
1108
1109 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1110
1111 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1112 GDB to dump core).
1113
1114 * New ``start'' command.
1115
1116 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1117
1118 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1119
1120 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1121 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1122 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1123
1124 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1125 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1126 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1127 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1128 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1129 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1130 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1131 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1132 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1133
1134 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1135
1136 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1137 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1138 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1139 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1140 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1141
1142 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1143 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1144 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1145
1146 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1147
1148 * New native configurations
1149
1150 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1151 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1152 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1153 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1154 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1155 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1156 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1157
1158 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1159
1160 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1161 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1162 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1163 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1164 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1165 work, was also included.
1166
1167 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1168 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1169
1170 h8300-*-*
1171 mcore-*-*
1172 mn10300-*-*
1173 ns32k-*-*
1174 sh64-*-*
1175 v850-*-*
1176 xstormy16-*-*
1177
1178 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1179 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1180
1181 * REMOVED configurations and files
1182
1183 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1184 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1185 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1186 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1187 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1188 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1189 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1190 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1191 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1192 sonymips mips-sony-*
1193 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1194
1195 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1196
1197 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1198
1199 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1200 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1201 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1202 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1203 with GDB".
1204
1205 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1206
1207 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1208 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1209 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1210 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1211 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1212 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1213 are created.
1214
1215 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1216
1217 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1218
1219 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1220 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1221 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1222
1223 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1224
1225 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1226 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1227
1228 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1229
1230 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1231 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1232 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1233
1234 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1235
1236 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1237 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1238
1239 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1240
1241 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1242 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1243 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1244
1245 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1246
1247 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1248 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1249 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1250
1251 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1252
1253 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1254
1255 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1256 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1257
1258 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1259
1260 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1261 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1262 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1263 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1264
1265 * Revised SPARC target
1266
1267 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1268 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1269 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1270 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1271 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1272
1273 * New C++ demangler
1274
1275 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1276 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1277 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1278 programs.
1279
1280 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1281
1282 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1283 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1284 encountered these.
1285
1286 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1287
1288 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1289 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1290 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1291 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1292 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1293 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1294 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1295 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1296 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1297
1298 * New native configurations
1299
1300 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1301 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1302 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1303 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1304 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1305
1306 * New debugging protocols
1307
1308 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1309
1310 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1311
1312 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1313 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1314 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1315
1316 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1317
1318 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1319 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1320 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1321 permanently REMOVED.
1322
1323 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1324 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1325 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1326 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1327 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1328 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1329 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1330 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1331 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1332 sonymips mips-sony-*
1333 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1334
1335 * REMOVED configurations and files
1336
1337 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1338 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1339 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1340 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1341 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1342 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1343 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1344 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1345 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1346 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1347 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1348 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1349 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1350 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1351 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1352 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1353 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1354
1355 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1356
1357 * Objective-C
1358
1359 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1360 integrated into GDB.
1361
1362 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1363
1364 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1365 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1366 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1367 backtraces.
1368
1369 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1370 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1371 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1372
1373 * Hosted file I/O.
1374
1375 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1376 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1377 remote protocol documentation for details.
1378
1379 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1380
1381 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1382 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1383 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1384 ppc32 on ppc64).
1385
1386 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1387
1388 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1389 per-thread variables.
1390
1391 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1392
1393 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1394 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1395
1396 * Separate debug info.
1397
1398 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1399 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1400 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1401 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1402 and optional debug files.
1403
1404 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1405
1406 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1407 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1408 debugger.
1409
1410 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1411 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1412
1413 * Java
1414
1415 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1416 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1417 considered "useable".
1418
1419 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1420
1421 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1422 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1423 kernel.
1424
1425 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1426
1427 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1428 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1429
1430 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1431
1432 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1433 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1434 command.
1435
1436 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1437
1438 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1439 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1440
1441 * Profiling support
1442
1443 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1444 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1445 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1446 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1447 data, for more informative profiling results.
1448
1449 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1450
1451 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1452 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1453 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1454
1455 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1456 removed.
1457
1458 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1459 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1460 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1461 in a subsequent -var-update.
1462
1463 * New native configurations.
1464
1465 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1466
1467 * Multi-arched targets.
1468
1469 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1470 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1471
1472 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1473
1474 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1475 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1476 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1477 permanently REMOVED.
1478
1479 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1480 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1481 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1482 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1483 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1484 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1485 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1486 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1487 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1488 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1489 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1490 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1491
1492 * REMOVED configurations and files
1493
1494 V850EA ISA
1495 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1496 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1497 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1498 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1499 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1500 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1501 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1502 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1503 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1504 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1505 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1506 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1507 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1508
1509 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1510
1511 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1512 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1513 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1514 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1515 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1516
1517 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1518
1519 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1520
1521 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1522 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1523 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1524 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1525 shared libs like mad''.
1526
1527 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1528
1529 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1530 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1531 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1532 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1533
1534 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1535
1536 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1537 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1538 they expand.
1539
1540 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1541 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1542
1543 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1544 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1545
1546 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1547 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1548 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1549 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1550
1551 * Multi-arched targets.
1552
1553 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1554 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1555 NEC V850 v850-*-*
1556 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1557 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1558 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1559
1560 * New targets.
1561
1562 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1563
1564
1565 * New native configurations
1566
1567 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1568 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1569 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1570 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1571
1572 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1573
1574 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1575 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1576 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1577 permanently REMOVED.
1578
1579 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1580 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1581 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1582 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1583 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1584 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1585 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1586 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1587 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1588 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1589 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1590 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1591 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1592
1593 * OBSOLETE languages
1594
1595 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1596
1597 * REMOVED configurations and files
1598
1599 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1600 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1601 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1602 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1603 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1604
1605 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1606
1607 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1608
1609 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1610 commands. The default is 1024.
1611
1612 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1613
1614 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1615
1616 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1617
1618 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1619 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1620 from a file into memory (restore).
1621
1622 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1623
1624 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1625 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1626 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1627
1628 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1629
1630 * New targets.
1631
1632 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
1633
1634 * Bug fixes
1635
1636 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1637 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1638 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1639
1640 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1641 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1642 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1643
1644 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1645 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1646 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1647
1648 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1649 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1650 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1651
1652 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1653
1654 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1655
1656 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1657 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1658 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1659 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1660 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1661 (notably embedded) targets.
1662
1663 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1664
1665 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1666 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1667 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1668 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1669
1670 * New command line option
1671
1672 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1673
1674 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1675
1676 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1677 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1678 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1679 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1680 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1681 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1682 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1683 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1684 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1685 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1686
1687 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1688
1689 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1690 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1691
1692 * New native configurations
1693
1694 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1695 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1696 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1697 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1698
1699 * New targets
1700
1701 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1702
1703 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1704
1705 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1706 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1707 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1708 permanently REMOVED.
1709
1710 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1711 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1712 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1713 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1714 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1715
1716 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1717
1718 * REMOVED configurations and files
1719
1720 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1721 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1722 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1723 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1724 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1725 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1726 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1727 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1728 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1729 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1730 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1731 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1732 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1733
1734 * Changes to command line processing
1735
1736 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1737 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1738
1739 * Changes to key bindings
1740
1741 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1742
1743 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1744
1745 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1746
1747 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1748 corrupted.
1749
1750 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1751
1752 Numerous documentation fixes.
1753
1754 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1755
1756 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1757
1758 * New native configurations
1759
1760 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1761 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1762 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1763 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1764 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1765 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1766
1767 * New targets
1768
1769 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1770 CRIS cris-axis
1771 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1772
1773 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1774
1775 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1776 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1777 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1778 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1779 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1780 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1781 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1782 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1783 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1784 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1785 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1786 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1787 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1788 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1789
1790 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1791 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1792
1793 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1794 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1795 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1796 permanently REMOVED.
1797
1798 * REMOVED configurations and files
1799
1800 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1801 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1802 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
1803 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1804 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
1805 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
1806
1807 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1808
1809 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1810 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1811 present.
1812
1813 * Other news:
1814
1815 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1816
1817 * The MI enabled by default.
1818
1819 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1820 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1821 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1822 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1823 which is now deprecated.
1824
1825 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1826
1827 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1828 main features are supported:
1829
1830 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1831
1832 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1833 extension;
1834
1835 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1836
1837 - a Pascal expression parser.
1838
1839 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1840
1841 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1842
1843 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1844
1845 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1846 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1847
1848 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1849
1850 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1851
1852 * Changes in completion.
1853
1854 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1855 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1856 users expect at the shell prompt.
1857
1858 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1859 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1860 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1861 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1862 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1863 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1864 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1865
1866 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1867
1868 * New platform-independent commands:
1869
1870 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1871 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1872 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1873
1874 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1875
1876 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1877 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1878 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1879
1880 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1881
1882 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1883 multi-threaded programs though.
1884
1885 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1886
1887 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1888
1889 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1890 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1891 supported.)
1892
1893 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1894
1895 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1896 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1897 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1898 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1899 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1900 registers.
1901
1902 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1903 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1904 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1905
1906 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1907
1908 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1909 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1910
1911 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1912 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1913 IDT.
1914
1915 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1916 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1917 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1918 a given linear address.
1919
1920 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1921 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1922 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1923
1924 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1925
1926 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1927
1928 * Changes in documentation.
1929
1930 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1931 Documentation License.
1932
1933 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1934 manual.
1935
1936 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1937
1938 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1939 manual.
1940
1941 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1942 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1943 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1944
1945 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1946
1947 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1948 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1949 contents of this file.
1950
1951 * gdba.el deleted
1952
1953 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1954
1955 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1956
1957 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1958
1959 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1960 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1961 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1962 greater level of detail.
1963
1964 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1965
1966 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1967 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1968 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1969 written.
1970
1971 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1972
1973 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1974 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1975 machines ``out of the box''.
1976
1977 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1978 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1979 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1980 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1981 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1982
1983 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1984 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1985 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1986 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1987 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1988
1989 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1990 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1991 also works.
1992
1993 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1994 GDB.
1995
1996 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1997 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1998 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1999 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2000
2001 * New native configurations
2002
2003 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2004 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2005
2006 * New targets
2007
2008 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2009 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2010 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2011 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2012
2013 * OBSOLETE configurations
2014
2015 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2016 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2017 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2018 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2019 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
2020
2021 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2022 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2023 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2024 be permanently REMOVED.
2025
2026 * Gould support removed
2027
2028 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2029
2030 * New features for SVR4
2031
2032 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2033 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2034 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2035
2036 * Many C++ enhancements
2037
2038 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2039 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2040
2041 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2042
2043 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2044 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2045 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2046 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2047
2048 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2049 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2050
2051 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2052
2053 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2054 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2055 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2056
2057 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2058 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2059
2060 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2061
2062 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2063 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2064 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2065
2066 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2067
2068 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2069 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2070 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2071
2072 * ``apropos'' command added.
2073
2074 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2075 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2076 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2077
2078 * New MI interface
2079
2080 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2081 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2082 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2083 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2084 enabled by configuring with:
2085
2086 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2087
2088 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2089
2090 * New native configurations
2091
2092 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2093 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2094 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2095
2096 * New targets
2097
2098 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2099 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2100 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2101
2102 * OBSOLETE configurations
2103
2104 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2105
2106 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2107 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2108 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2109 be permanently REMOVED.
2110
2111 * ANSI/ISO C
2112
2113 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2114 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2115 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2116 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2117 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2118 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2119 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2120 already.
2121
2122 * Readline 2.2
2123
2124 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2125
2126 * set extension-language
2127
2128 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2129 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2130 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2131 set extension-language .c c++
2132 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2133 and their associated languages.
2134
2135 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2136
2137 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2138 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2139 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2140
2141 set processor NAME
2142
2143 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2144 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2145
2146 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2147 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2148 403 IBM PowerPC 403
2149 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2150 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2151 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2152 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2153 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2154 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2155 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2156 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2157
2158 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2159 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2160 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2161 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2162
2163 * HP-UX support
2164
2165 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2166 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2167 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2168 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2169 for xdb and dbx commands.
2170
2171 * Catchpoints
2172
2173 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2174 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2175 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2176
2177 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2178 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2179 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2180
2181 * Debugging across forks
2182
2183 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2184 in the inferior.
2185
2186 * TUI
2187
2188 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2189 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2190 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2191
2192 * GDB remote protocol additions
2193
2194 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2195 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2196 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2197 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2198
2199 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2200 full 64-bit address. The command
2201
2202 set remoteaddresssize 32
2203
2204 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2205 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2206 will be discarded.
2207
2208 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2209 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2210
2211 maint packet heythere
2212
2213 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2214 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2215 time.
2216
2217 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2218 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2219 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2220
2221 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2222
2223 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2224 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2225 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2226
2227 * mask-address variable for Mips
2228
2229 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2230 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2231 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2232
2233 * Higher serial baud rates
2234
2235 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2236 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2237 to achieve all of these rates.)
2238
2239 * i960 simulator
2240
2241 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2242 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2243
2244
2245 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2246
2247 * New native configurations
2248
2249 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2250 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2251 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2252 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2253 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2254 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2255 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2256
2257 * New targets
2258
2259 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2260 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2261 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2262 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2263 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2264 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2265 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2266 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2267 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2268 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2269 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2270
2271 * New debugging protocols
2272
2273 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2274 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2275 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2276 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2277 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2278 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2279
2280 * DWARF 2
2281
2282 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2283 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2284 information.
2285
2286 * Java frontend
2287
2288 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2289 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2290
2291 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2292
2293 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2294 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2295 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2296
2297 * Live range splitting
2298
2299 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2300 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2301 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2302
2303 * Hurd support
2304
2305 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2306 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2307
2308 * ARM Thumb support
2309
2310 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2311 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2312 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2313 accordingly.
2314
2315 * MIPS16 support
2316
2317 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2318 instruction set.
2319
2320 * Overlay support
2321
2322 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2323 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2324 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2325 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2326 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2327 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2328
2329 * info symbol
2330
2331 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2332 the symbol at the specified address.
2333
2334 * Trace support
2335
2336 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2337 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2338 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2339 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2340 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2341
2342 * MIPS simulator
2343
2344 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2345 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2346 of most MIPS variants.
2347
2348 * Sparc simulator
2349
2350 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2351 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2352 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2353
2354 * set architecture
2355
2356 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2357 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2358 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2359 the possible architectures.
2360
2361 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2362
2363 * New native configurations
2364
2365 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2366 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2367 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2368 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2369 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2370 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2371
2372 * New targets
2373
2374 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2375 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2376 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2377 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2378 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2379 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
2380 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2381
2382 * PowerPC simulator
2383
2384 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2385 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2386 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2387 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2388 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2389
2390 * Solaris 2.5
2391
2392 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2393
2394 * Windows 95/NT native
2395
2396 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2397 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2398 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2399 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2400 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2401
2402 * dont-repeat command
2403
2404 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2405 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2406 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2407 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2408
2409 * Send break instead of ^C
2410
2411 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2412 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2413 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2414
2415 * Remote protocol timeout
2416
2417 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2418 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2419 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2420
2421 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2422
2423 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2424 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2425 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2426 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2427 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2428
2429 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2430 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2431 automatically on hpux10.
2432
2433 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2434
2435 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2436
2437 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2438
2439 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2440 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2441 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2442 every character. The default value is 1050.
2443
2444 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2445
2446 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2447 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2448 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2449 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2450 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2451 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2452
2453 * Speedups for remote debugging
2454
2455 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2456 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2457 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2458
2459 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2460
2461 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2462 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2463
2464 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2465
2466 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2467
2468 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2469 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2470
2471 * Remote targets use caching
2472
2473 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2474 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2475 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2476 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2477 off' turns the the data cache off.
2478
2479 * Remote targets may have threads
2480
2481 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2482 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2483 gdb/remote.c for details.
2484
2485 * NetROM support
2486
2487 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2488 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2489 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2490 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2491 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2492 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2493 sequence is something like
2494
2495 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2496 load <prog>
2497 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2498
2499 * Macintosh host
2500
2501 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2502 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2503 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2504 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2505 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2506 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2507 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2508 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2509
2510 * Autoconf
2511
2512 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2513 but does simplify configuration and building.
2514
2515 * hpux10
2516
2517 GDB now supports hpux10.
2518
2519 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2520
2521 * New native configurations
2522
2523 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2524 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2525 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2526 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2527
2528 * New targets
2529
2530 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2531 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2532 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2533 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2534 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2535
2536 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2537
2538 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2539 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2540 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2541 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2542 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2543
2544 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2545
2546 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2547 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2548 trivial example:
2549 define adder
2550 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2551
2552 To execute the command use:
2553 adder 1 2 3
2554
2555 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2556 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2557 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2558
2559 * New `if' and `while' commands
2560
2561 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2562 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2563 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2564 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2565 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2566 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2567 if the expression is zero.
2568
2569 * Fortran source language mode
2570
2571 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2572 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2573 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2574 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2575 Fortran compilers.
2576
2577 * Better HPUX support
2578
2579 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2580 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2581 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2582 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2583 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2584
2585 adb -w a.out
2586 __dld_flags?W 0x5
2587 control-d
2588
2589 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2590 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2591
2592 adb -w a.out
2593 __dld_flags?W 0x4
2594 control-d
2595
2596 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2597 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2598 external linkage.
2599
2600 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2601 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2602
2603 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2604
2605 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2606 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2607 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2608 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2609 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2610 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2611
2612 * New DOS host serial code
2613
2614 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2615 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2616 a PC's serial port.
2617
2618 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2619
2620 * New "complete" command
2621
2622 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2623 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2624
2625 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2626
2627 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2628 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2629
2630 * Breakpoint hit counts
2631
2632 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2633 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2634 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2635 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2636 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2637 that breakpoint.
2638
2639 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2640
2641 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2642 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2643 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2644
2645 * Shared library breakpoints
2646
2647 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2648 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2649
2650 * Hardware watchpoints
2651
2652 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2653 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2654
2655 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2656
2657 * Annotations
2658
2659 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2660 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2661
2662 * Improved Irix 5 support
2663
2664 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2665
2666 * Improved HPPA support
2667
2668 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2669
2670 * New native configurations
2671
2672 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2673 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2674 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2675 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2676
2677 * New targets
2678
2679 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2680 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2681 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
2682
2683 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2684
2685 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2686 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2687
2688 * Fixes
2689
2690 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2691 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2692
2693 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2694
2695 * Irix 5 is now supported
2696
2697 * HPPA support
2698
2699 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2700 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2701 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2702 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2703 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2704
2705
2706 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2707
2708 * User visible changes:
2709
2710 * Remote Debugging
2711
2712 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2713 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2714 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2715 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2716 debugging info for the mips target).
2717
2718 * DEC Alpha native support
2719
2720 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2721 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2722 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2723 Alpha-specific notes.
2724
2725 * Preliminary thread implementation
2726
2727 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2728
2729 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2730
2731 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2732 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2733 for details).
2734
2735 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2736
2737 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2738 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2739 call methods, ...etc.
2740
2741 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2742
2743 * User visible changes:
2744
2745 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2746 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2747 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2748 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2749
2750 Filename completion now works.
2751
2752 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2753 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2754 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2755
2756 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2757 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2758 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2759 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2760 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2761
2762 * DEC alpha support
2763
2764 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2765 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2766
2767
2768 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2769
2770 * Testsuite
2771
2772 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2773 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2774 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2775
2776 * C++ demangling
2777
2778 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2779 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2780 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2781 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2782 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2783
2784 * Simulators
2785
2786 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2787 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2788 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2789
2790 * New targets supported
2791
2792 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2793 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2794 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2795 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2796 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2797
2798 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2799 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2800 GO32 memory extender.
2801
2802 * New remote protocols
2803
2804 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2805
2806 * New source languages supported
2807
2808 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2809 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2810 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2811
2812
2813 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2814
2815 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2816
2817 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2818 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2819 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2820 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2821 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2822 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2823
2824 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2825
2826 * Faster and better demangling
2827
2828 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2829 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2830 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2831 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2832 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2833 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2834 symbol lookups.
2835
2836 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2837 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2838 compiler does not actually implement.
2839
2840 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2841
2842 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2843 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2844 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2845 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2846 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2847 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2848 fix.
2849
2850 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2851 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2852
2853 * Improved configure script
2854
2855 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2856 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2857 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2858 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2859
2860 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2861 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2862 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2863 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2864 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2865 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2866
2867 * Documentation improvements
2868
2869 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2870 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2871 before submitting changes.
2872
2873 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2874 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2875 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2876 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2877 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2878
2879 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2880 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2881 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2882 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2883 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2884 around this problem.
2885
2886 * New features
2887
2888 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2889 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2890 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2891 the target program.
2892
2893 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2894 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2895
2896 * New native hosts supported
2897
2898 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2899 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2900
2901 * New targets supported
2902
2903 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2904
2905 * New file formats supported
2906
2907 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2908 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2909
2910 * Major bug fixes
2911
2912 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2913
2914 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2915 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2916
2917 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2918 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2919 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2920
2921 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2922 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2923
2924 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2925 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2926 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2927 libraries.
2928
2929 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2930 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2931 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2932 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2933 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2934
2935 * Internal improvements
2936
2937 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2938 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2939
2940 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2941 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2942 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2943 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2944 shared code that handles any of them.
2945
2946 * New command line options
2947
2948 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2949
2950 * Mmalloc licensing
2951
2952 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2953 General Public License.
2954
2955 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2956
2957 * Host/native/target split
2958
2959 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2960 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2961 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2962 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2963 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2964
2965 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2966 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2967 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2968 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2969 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2970 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2971 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2972
2973 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2974 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2975 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2976
2977 * New hosts supported
2978
2979 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2980 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2981 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2982
2983 * New targets supported
2984
2985 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2986 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2987
2988 * New native hosts supported
2989
2990 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2991 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2992 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2993
2994 * New file formats supported
2995
2996 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2997 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2998 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2999
3000 * New commands
3001
3002 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3003 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3004 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3005
3006 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3007
3008 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3009 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3010 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3011 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3012
3013 * C++ improvements
3014
3015 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3016 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3017 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3018
3019 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3020
3021 * Major bug fixes
3022
3023 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3024 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3025 by the compiler.
3026
3027 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3028 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3029
3030 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3031 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3032 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3033 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3034 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3035 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3036
3037 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3038 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3039 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3040 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3041
3042 * AMD 29k support
3043
3044 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3045 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3046 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3047 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3048 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3049
3050 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3051 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3052 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3053 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3054
3055 * Remote interfaces
3056
3057 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3058 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3059 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3060 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3061 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3062 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3063 each instruction being stepped through.
3064
3065 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3066 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3067
3068 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3069 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3070 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3071 processor with a serial port.
3072
3073 * Configuration
3074
3075 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3076 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3077 supported, and what files each one uses.
3078
3079 * Library changes
3080
3081 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3082 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3083 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3084 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3085
3086 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3087 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3088 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3089 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3090
3091 * Documentation
3092
3093 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3094 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3095 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3096 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3097 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3098 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3099
3100 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3101
3102
3103 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3104
3105 * Better support for C++ function names
3106
3107 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3108 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3109 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3110 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3111 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3112
3113 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3114 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3115 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3116 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3117 for the list of formats.
3118
3119 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3120
3121 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3122 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3123 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3124 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3125 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3126 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3127 this problem.)
3128
3129 * New 'maintenance' command
3130
3131 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3132 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3133 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3134
3135 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3136 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3137 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3138 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3139 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3140 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3141
3142 The following commands are new:
3143
3144 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3145 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3146 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3147
3148 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3149
3150 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3151 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3152 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3153 read after argv processing.
3154
3155 * New hosts supported
3156
3157 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3158
3159 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3160
3161 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3162 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3163 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3164 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3165 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3166 It costs extra.
3167
3168 * New targets supported
3169
3170 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3171
3172 * More smarts about finding #include files
3173
3174 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3175 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3176 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3177 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3178 the one that contains your sources.
3179
3180 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3181 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3182 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3183
3184 * Interesting infernals change
3185
3186 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3187 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3188 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3189 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3190
3191 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3192
3193 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3194 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3195 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3196
3197 See the ChangeLog for details.
3198
3199 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3200
3201 * New machines supported (host and target)
3202
3203 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3204
3205 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3206
3207 * New malloc package
3208
3209 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3210 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3211 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3212 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3213 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3214 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3215
3216 * info proc
3217
3218 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3219 'help info proc' for details.
3220
3221 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3222
3223 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3224 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3225 possible.
3226
3227 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3228
3229 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3230 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3231 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3232 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3233 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3234 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3235
3236 * Cross byte order fixes
3237
3238 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3239 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3240
3241 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3242
3243 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3244 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3245 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3246 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3247 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3248 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3249 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3250 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3251 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3252 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3253
3254 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3255 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3256 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3257 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3258
3259 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3260 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3261 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3262 use is:
3263
3264 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3265
3266 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3267 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3268 shared across multiple host platforms.
3269
3270 * longjmp() handling
3271
3272 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3273 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3274 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3275 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3276
3277 * Solaris 2.0
3278
3279 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3280 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3281 reading symbols.
3282
3283 * Bug fixes
3284
3285 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3286 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3287 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3288
3289 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3290
3291 * New machines supported (host and target)
3292
3293 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3294 (except core files)
3295 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3296 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3297
3298 * New machines supported (target)
3299
3300 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3301
3302 * C++ support
3303
3304 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3305 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3306 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3307
3308 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3309 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3310 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3311 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3312 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3313 released.
3314
3315 * New features for SVR4
3316
3317 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3318 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3319 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3320
3321 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3322 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3323 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3324
3325 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3326 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3327
3328 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3329
3330 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3331 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3332 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3333 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3334 same code linked statically.
3335
3336 * New Getopt
3337
3338 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3339 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3340 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3341 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3342 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3343 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3344
3345 * Bugs fixed
3346
3347 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3348 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3349 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3350
3351
3352 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3353
3354 * New machines supported (host and target)
3355
3356 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3357 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3358 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3359
3360 * Almost SCO Unix support
3361
3362 We had hoped to support:
3363 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3364 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3365 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3366 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3367
3368 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3369
3370 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3371 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3372 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3373 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3374 reqired (if any).
3375
3376 * New Readline
3377
3378 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3379 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3380 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3381
3382 * Bugs fixed
3383
3384 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3385 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3386 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3387
3388 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3389
3390 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3391 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3392 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3393
3394 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3395 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3396 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3397 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3398 version 2.
3399
3400 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3401 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3402 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3403 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3404 situation somewhat.
3405
3406 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3407 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3408 methods.
3409
3410 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3411 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3412 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3413
3414
3415 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3416
3417 * Improved configuration
3418
3419 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3420 Porting BFD is simpler.
3421
3422 * Stepping improved
3423
3424 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3425 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3426 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3427 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3428
3429 * Bug fixing
3430
3431 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3432
3433 * New host supported (not target)
3434
3435 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3436
3437
3438 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3439
3440 * Multiple source language support
3441
3442 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3443 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3444 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3445 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3446 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3447 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3448
3449 * GDB and Modula-2
3450
3451 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3452 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3453 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3454 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3455
3456 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3457 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3458 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3459
3460 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3461 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3462
3463 * set write on/off
3464
3465 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3466 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3467 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3468 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3469 effect immediately.
3470
3471 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3472
3473 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3474 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3475 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3476 examining core files.
3477
3478 * set listsize
3479
3480 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3481 The default is 10.
3482
3483 * New machines supported (host and target)
3484
3485 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3486 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3487 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3488
3489 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3490
3491 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3492
3493 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3494
3495 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3496 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3497 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3498
3499 * New remote interfaces
3500
3501 AMD 29000 Adapt
3502 AMD 29000 Minimon
3503
3504
3505 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3506
3507 * New Facilities
3508
3509 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3510
3511 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3512 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3513 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3514 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3515 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3516 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3517 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3518 stub on the target system.
3519
3520 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3521
3522 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3523 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3524 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3525
3526 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3527 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3528
3529
3530 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3531
3532 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3533 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3534
3535 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3536 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3537 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3538
3539 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3540 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3541 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3542 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3543
3544 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3545 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3546 it is already running. Default is ON.
3547
3548 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3549 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3550 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3551 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3552 Default is ON.
3553
3554 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3555 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3556 or the value of the environment variable
3557 GDBHISTFILE.
3558
3559 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3560 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3561 HISTSIZE.
3562
3563 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3564 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3565 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3566
3567 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3568 history expansion will be performed on
3569 command line input. The default is OFF.
3570
3571 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3572 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3573 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3574
3575 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3576 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3577 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3578 variable TERM.
3579
3580 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3581 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3582 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3583 variable TERM.
3584
3585 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3586 ``set width'' instead.
3587
3588 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3589 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3590 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3591 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3592
3593 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3594 is OFF.
3595
3596 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3597 "raw" form if off.
3598
3599 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3600 like instructions.
3601
3602 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3603
3604
3605 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3606
3607 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3608 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3609 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3610 window.
3611
3612
3613 * Support for Shared Libraries
3614
3615 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3616 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3617 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3618 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3619 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3620 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3621 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3622 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3623
3624 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3625 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3626 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3627
3628 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3629
3630
3631 * Watchpoints
3632
3633 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3634 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3635 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3636 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3637 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3638 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3639
3640 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3641
3642 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3643
3644 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3645 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3646 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3647
3648
3649 * C++ multiple inheritance
3650
3651 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3652 for C++ programs.
3653
3654 * C++ exception handling
3655
3656 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3657 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3658 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3659 handler's context).
3660
3661 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3662 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3663 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3664
3665 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3666 current stack frame.
3667
3668
3669 * Minor command changes
3670
3671 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3672 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3673 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3674
3675 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3676 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3677 frames without printing.
3678
3679 * New directory command
3680
3681 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3682 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3683 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3684 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3685 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3686
3687 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3688
3689 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3690 for more details.
3691
3692 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3693 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3694 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3695 where the program that you are debugging will run.
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