1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 5.0:
6 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
8 * New native configurations
10 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
11 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
15 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
17 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
18 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
19 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
20 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
21 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
23 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
24 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
25 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
26 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
28 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
29 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
31 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
32 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
33 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
36 * REMOVED configurations
38 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
41 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
46 * All MIPS configurations are multi-arched.
48 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
52 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
54 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
56 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
58 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
59 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
60 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
61 greater level of detail.
63 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
65 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
66 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
67 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
70 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
72 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
73 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
74 machines ``out of the box''.
76 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
77 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
78 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
79 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
80 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
82 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
83 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
84 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
85 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
86 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
88 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
89 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
92 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
95 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
96 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
97 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
98 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
100 * New native configurations
102 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
103 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
107 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
108 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
109 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
110 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
112 * OBSOLETE configurations
114 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
115 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
117 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
120 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
121 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
122 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
123 be permanently REMOVED.
125 * Gould support removed
127 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
129 * New features for SVR4
131 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
132 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
133 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
135 * Many C++ enhancements
137 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
138 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
140 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
142 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
143 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
144 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
145 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
147 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
148 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
150 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
152 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
153 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
154 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
156 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
157 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
159 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
161 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
162 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
163 include ``set remote P-packet''.
165 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
167 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
168 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
169 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
171 * ``apropos'' command added.
173 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
174 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
175 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
179 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
180 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
181 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
182 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
183 enabled by configuring with:
185 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
187 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
189 * New native configurations
191 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
192 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
193 M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
197 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
198 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
199 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
201 * OBSOLETE configurations
203 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
205 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
206 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
207 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
208 be permanently REMOVED.
212 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
213 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
214 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
215 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
216 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
217 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
218 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
223 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
225 * set extension-language
227 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
228 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
229 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
230 set extension-language .c c++
231 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
232 and their associated languages.
234 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
236 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
237 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
238 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
242 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
243 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
245 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
246 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
248 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
249 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
250 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
251 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
252 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
253 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
254 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
255 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
257 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
258 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
259 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
260 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
264 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
265 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
266 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
267 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
268 for xdb and dbx commands.
272 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
273 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
274 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
276 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
277 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
278 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
280 * Debugging across forks
282 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
287 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
288 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
289 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
291 * GDB remote protocol additions
293 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
294 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
295 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
296 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
298 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
299 full 64-bit address. The command
301 set remoteaddresssize 32
303 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
304 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
307 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
308 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
310 maint packet heythere
312 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
313 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
316 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
317 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
318 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
320 * Tracing can collect general expressions
322 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
323 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
324 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
326 * mask-address variable for Mips
328 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
329 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
330 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
332 * Higher serial baud rates
334 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
335 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
336 to achieve all of these rates.)
340 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
341 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
344 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
346 * New native configurations
348 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
349 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
350 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
351 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
352 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
353 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
354 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
358 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
359 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
360 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
361 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
362 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
363 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
364 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
365 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
366 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
367 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
368 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
370 * New debugging protocols
372 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
373 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
374 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
375 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
376 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
377 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
381 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
382 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
387 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
388 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
390 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
392 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
393 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
394 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
396 * Live range splitting
398 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
399 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
400 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
404 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
405 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
409 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
410 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
411 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
416 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
421 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
422 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
423 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
424 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
425 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
426 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
430 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
431 the symbol at the specified address.
435 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
436 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
437 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
438 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
439 file tracepoint.c for more details.
443 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
444 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
445 of most MIPS variants.
449 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
450 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
451 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
455 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
456 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
457 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
458 the possible architectures.
460 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
462 * New native configurations
464 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
465 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
466 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
467 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
468 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
469 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
473 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
474 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
475 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
476 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
477 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
479 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
483 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
484 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
485 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
486 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
487 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
491 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
493 * Windows 95/NT native
495 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
496 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
497 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
498 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
499 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
501 * dont-repeat command
503 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
504 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
505 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
506 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
508 * Send break instead of ^C
510 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
511 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
512 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
514 * Remote protocol timeout
516 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
517 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
518 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
520 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
522 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
523 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
524 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
525 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
526 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
528 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
529 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
530 automatically on hpux10.
532 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
534 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
536 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
538 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
539 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
540 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
541 every character. The default value is 1050.
543 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
545 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
546 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
547 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
548 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
549 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
550 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
552 * Speedups for remote debugging
554 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
555 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
556 and more efficient S-record downloading.
558 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
560 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
561 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
563 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
567 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
568 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
570 * Remote targets use caching
572 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
573 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
574 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
575 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
576 off' turns the the data cache off.
578 * Remote targets may have threads
580 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
581 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
582 gdb/remote.c for details.
586 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
587 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
588 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
589 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
590 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
591 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
592 sequence is something like
594 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
596 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
600 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
601 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
602 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
603 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
604 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
605 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
606 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
607 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
611 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
612 but does simplify configuration and building.
616 GDB now supports hpux10.
618 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
620 * New native configurations
622 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
623 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
624 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
625 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
629 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
630 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
631 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
632 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
635 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
637 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
638 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
639 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
640 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
641 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
643 * Arguments to user-defined commands
645 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
646 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
649 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
651 To execute the command use:
654 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
655 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
656 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
658 * New `if' and `while' commands
660 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
661 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
662 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
663 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
664 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
665 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
666 if the expression is zero.
668 * Fortran source language mode
670 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
671 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
672 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
673 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
676 * Better HPUX support
678 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
679 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
680 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
681 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
682 that behavior do the following before running the program:
688 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
689 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
695 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
696 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
699 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
700 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
702 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
704 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
705 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
706 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
707 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
708 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
709 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
711 * New DOS host serial code
713 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
714 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
717 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
719 * New "complete" command
721 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
722 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
724 * Trailing space optional in prompt
726 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
727 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
729 * Breakpoint hit counts
731 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
732 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
733 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
734 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
735 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
738 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
740 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
741 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
742 arrays actually contain only short strings.
744 * Shared library breakpoints
746 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
747 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
749 * Hardware watchpoints
751 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
752 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
754 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
758 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
759 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
761 * Improved Irix 5 support
763 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
765 * Improved HPPA support
767 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
769 * New native configurations
771 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
772 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
773 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
774 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
778 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
779 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
782 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
784 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
785 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
789 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
790 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
792 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
794 * Irix 5 is now supported
798 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
799 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
800 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
801 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
802 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
805 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
807 * User visible changes:
811 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
812 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
813 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
814 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
815 debugging info for the mips target).
817 * DEC Alpha native support
819 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
820 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
821 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
822 Alpha-specific notes.
824 * Preliminary thread implementation
826 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
828 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
830 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
831 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
834 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
836 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
837 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
838 call methods, ...etc.
840 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
842 * User visible changes:
844 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
845 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
846 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
847 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
849 Filename completion now works.
851 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
852 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
853 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
855 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
856 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
857 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
858 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
859 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
863 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
864 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
867 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
871 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
872 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
873 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
877 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
878 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
879 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
880 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
881 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
885 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
886 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
887 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
889 * New targets supported
891 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
892 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
893 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
894 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
895 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
897 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
898 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
899 GO32 memory extender.
901 * New remote protocols
903 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
905 * New source languages supported
907 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
908 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
909 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
912 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
914 * HP Precision Architecture supported
916 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
917 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
918 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
919 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
920 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
921 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
923 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
925 * Faster and better demangling
927 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
928 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
929 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
930 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
931 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
932 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
935 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
936 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
937 compiler does not actually implement.
939 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
941 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
942 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
943 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
944 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
945 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
946 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
949 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
950 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
952 * Improved configure script
954 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
955 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
956 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
957 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
959 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
960 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
961 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
962 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
963 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
964 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
966 * Documentation improvements
968 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
969 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
970 before submitting changes.
972 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
973 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
974 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
975 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
976 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
978 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
979 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
980 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
981 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
982 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
987 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
988 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
989 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
992 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
993 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
995 * New native hosts supported
997 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
998 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1000 * New targets supported
1002 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1004 * New file formats supported
1006 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1007 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1011 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1013 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1014 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1016 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1017 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1018 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1020 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1021 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1023 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1024 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1025 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1028 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1029 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1030 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1031 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1032 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1034 * Internal improvements
1036 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1037 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1039 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1040 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1041 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1042 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1043 shared code that handles any of them.
1045 * New command line options
1047 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1051 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1052 General Public License.
1054 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1056 * Host/native/target split
1058 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1059 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1060 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1061 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1062 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1064 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1065 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1066 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1067 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1068 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1069 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1070 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1072 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1073 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1074 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1076 * New hosts supported
1078 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1079 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1080 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1082 * New targets supported
1084 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1085 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1087 * New native hosts supported
1089 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1090 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1091 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1093 * New file formats supported
1095 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1096 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1097 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1101 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1102 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1103 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1105 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1107 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1108 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1109 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1110 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1114 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1115 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1116 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1118 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1122 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1123 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1126 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1127 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1129 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1130 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1131 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1132 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1133 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1134 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1136 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1137 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1138 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1139 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1143 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1144 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1145 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1146 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1147 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1149 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1150 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1151 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1152 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1156 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1157 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1158 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1159 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1160 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1161 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1162 each instruction being stepped through.
1164 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1165 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1167 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1168 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1169 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1170 processor with a serial port.
1174 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1175 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1176 supported, and what files each one uses.
1180 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1181 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1182 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1183 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1185 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1186 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1187 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1188 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1192 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1193 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1194 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1195 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1196 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1197 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1199 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1202 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1204 * Better support for C++ function names
1206 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1207 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1208 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1209 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1210 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1212 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1213 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1214 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1215 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1216 for the list of formats.
1218 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1220 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1221 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1222 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1223 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1224 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1225 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1228 * New 'maintenance' command
1230 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1231 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1232 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1234 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1235 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1236 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1237 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1238 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1239 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1241 The following commands are new:
1243 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1244 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1245 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1247 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1249 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1250 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1251 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1252 read after argv processing.
1254 * New hosts supported
1256 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1258 Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1260 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1261 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1262 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1263 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1264 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1267 * New targets supported
1269 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1271 * More smarts about finding #include files
1273 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1274 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1275 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1276 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1277 the one that contains your sources.
1279 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1280 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1281 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1283 * Interesting infernals change
1285 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1286 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1287 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1288 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1290 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1292 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1293 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1294 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1296 See the ChangeLog for details.
1298 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1300 * New machines supported (host and target)
1302 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1304 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1306 * New malloc package
1308 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1309 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1310 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1311 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1312 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1313 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1317 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1318 'help info proc' for details.
1320 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1322 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1323 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1326 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1328 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1329 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1330 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1331 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1332 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1333 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1335 * Cross byte order fixes
1337 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1338 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1340 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1342 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1343 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1344 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1345 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1346 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1347 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1348 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1349 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1350 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1351 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1353 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1354 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1355 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1356 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1358 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1359 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1360 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1363 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1365 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1366 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1367 shared across multiple host platforms.
1369 * longjmp() handling
1371 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1372 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1373 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1374 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1378 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1379 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1384 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1385 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1386 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1388 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1390 * New machines supported (host and target)
1392 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1394 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1395 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1397 * New machines supported (target)
1399 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1403 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1404 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1405 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1407 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1408 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1409 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1410 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1411 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1414 * New features for SVR4
1416 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1417 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1418 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1420 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1421 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1422 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1424 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1425 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1427 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1429 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1430 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1431 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1432 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1433 same code linked statically.
1437 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1438 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1439 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1440 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1441 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1442 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1446 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1447 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1448 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1451 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1453 * New machines supported (host and target)
1455 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1456 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1457 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1459 * Almost SCO Unix support
1461 We had hoped to support:
1462 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1463 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1464 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1465 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1467 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1469 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1470 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1471 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1472 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1477 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1478 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1479 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1483 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1484 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1485 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1487 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1489 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1490 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1491 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1493 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1494 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1495 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1496 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1499 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1500 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1501 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1502 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1505 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1506 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1509 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1510 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1511 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1514 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1516 * Improved configuration
1518 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1519 Porting BFD is simpler.
1523 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1524 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1525 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1526 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1530 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1532 * New host supported (not target)
1534 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1537 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1539 * Multiple source language support
1541 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1542 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1543 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1544 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1545 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1546 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1550 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1551 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1552 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1553 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1555 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1556 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1557 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1559 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1560 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1564 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1565 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1566 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1567 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1570 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1572 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1573 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1574 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1575 examining core files.
1579 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1582 * New machines supported (host and target)
1584 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1585 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1586 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1588 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1590 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1592 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1594 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1595 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1596 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1598 * New remote interfaces
1604 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1608 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1610 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1611 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1612 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1613 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1614 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1615 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1616 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1617 stub on the target system.
1619 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1621 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1622 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1623 object file types such as a.out and coff.
1625 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1626 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1629 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1631 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1632 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1634 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1635 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1636 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1638 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1639 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1640 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1641 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1643 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1644 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1645 it is already running. Default is ON.
1647 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1648 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1649 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1650 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1653 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1654 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1655 or the value of the environment variable
1658 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1659 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1662 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1663 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1664 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1666 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1667 history expansion will be performed on
1668 command line input. The default is OFF.
1670 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1671 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1672 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1674 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1675 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1676 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1679 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1680 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1681 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1684 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1685 ``set width'' instead.
1687 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1688 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1689 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1690 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1692 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1695 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1698 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1701 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1704 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1706 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1707 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1708 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1712 * Support for Shared Libraries
1714 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1715 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1716 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1717 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1718 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1719 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1720 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1721 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1723 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1724 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1725 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1727 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1732 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1733 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1734 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1735 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1736 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1737 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1739 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1741 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1743 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1744 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1745 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1748 * C++ multiple inheritance
1750 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1753 * C++ exception handling
1755 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1756 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1757 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1760 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1761 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1762 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1764 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1765 current stack frame.
1768 * Minor command changes
1770 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1771 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1772 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1774 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1775 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1776 frames without printing.
1778 * New directory command
1780 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1781 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1782 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1783 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1784 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1786 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1788 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1791 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1792 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1793 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1794 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob