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