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*
27 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
29 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
30 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
32 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
33 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
34 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
37 * REMOVED configurations
39 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
42 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
47 * All MIPS configurations are multi-arched.
49 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
53 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
55 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
57 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
59 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
60 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
61 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
62 greater level of detail.
64 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
66 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
67 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
68 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
71 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
73 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
74 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
75 machines ``out of the box''.
77 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
78 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
79 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
80 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
81 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
83 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
84 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
85 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
86 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
87 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
89 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
90 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
93 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
96 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
97 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
98 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
99 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
101 * New native configurations
103 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
104 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
108 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
109 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
110 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
111 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
113 * OBSOLETE configurations
115 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
116 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
118 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
121 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
122 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
123 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
124 be permanently REMOVED.
126 * Gould support removed
128 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
130 * New features for SVR4
132 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
133 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
134 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
136 * Many C++ enhancements
138 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
139 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
141 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
143 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
144 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
145 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
146 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
148 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
149 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
151 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
153 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
154 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
155 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
157 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
158 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
160 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
162 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
163 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
164 include ``set remote P-packet''.
166 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
168 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
169 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
170 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
172 * ``apropos'' command added.
174 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
175 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
176 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
180 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
181 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
182 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
183 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
184 enabled by configuring with:
186 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
188 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
190 * New native configurations
192 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
193 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
194 M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
198 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
199 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
200 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
202 * OBSOLETE configurations
204 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
206 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
207 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
208 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
209 be permanently REMOVED.
213 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
214 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
215 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
216 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
217 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
218 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
219 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
224 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
226 * set extension-language
228 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
229 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
230 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
231 set extension-language .c c++
232 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
233 and their associated languages.
235 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
237 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
238 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
239 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
243 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
244 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
246 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
247 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
249 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
250 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
251 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
252 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
253 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
254 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
255 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
256 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
258 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
259 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
260 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
261 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
265 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
266 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
267 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
268 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
269 for xdb and dbx commands.
273 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
274 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
275 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
277 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
278 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
279 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
281 * Debugging across forks
283 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
288 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
289 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
290 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
292 * GDB remote protocol additions
294 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
295 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
296 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
297 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
299 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
300 full 64-bit address. The command
302 set remoteaddresssize 32
304 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
305 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
308 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
309 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
311 maint packet heythere
313 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
314 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
317 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
318 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
319 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
321 * Tracing can collect general expressions
323 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
324 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
325 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
327 * mask-address variable for Mips
329 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
330 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
331 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
333 * Higher serial baud rates
335 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
336 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
337 to achieve all of these rates.)
341 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
342 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
345 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
347 * New native configurations
349 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
350 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
351 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
352 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
353 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
354 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
355 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
359 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
360 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
361 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
362 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
363 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
364 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
365 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
366 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
367 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
368 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
369 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
371 * New debugging protocols
373 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
374 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
375 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
376 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
377 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
378 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
382 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
383 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
388 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
389 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
391 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
393 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
394 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
395 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
397 * Live range splitting
399 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
400 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
401 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
405 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
406 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
410 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
411 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
412 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
417 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
422 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
423 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
424 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
425 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
426 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
427 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
431 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
432 the symbol at the specified address.
436 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
437 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
438 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
439 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
440 file tracepoint.c for more details.
444 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
445 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
446 of most MIPS variants.
450 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
451 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
452 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
456 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
457 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
458 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
459 the possible architectures.
461 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
463 * New native configurations
465 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
466 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
467 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
468 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
469 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
470 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
474 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
475 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
476 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
477 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
478 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
480 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
484 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
485 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
486 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
487 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
488 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
492 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
494 * Windows 95/NT native
496 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
497 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
498 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
499 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
500 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
502 * dont-repeat command
504 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
505 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
506 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
507 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
509 * Send break instead of ^C
511 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
512 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
513 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
515 * Remote protocol timeout
517 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
518 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
519 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
521 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
523 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
524 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
525 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
526 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
527 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
529 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
530 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
531 automatically on hpux10.
533 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
535 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
537 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
539 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
540 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
541 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
542 every character. The default value is 1050.
544 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
546 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
547 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
548 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
549 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
550 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
551 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
553 * Speedups for remote debugging
555 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
556 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
557 and more efficient S-record downloading.
559 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
561 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
562 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
564 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
568 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
569 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
571 * Remote targets use caching
573 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
574 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
575 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
576 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
577 off' turns the the data cache off.
579 * Remote targets may have threads
581 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
582 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
583 gdb/remote.c for details.
587 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
588 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
589 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
590 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
591 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
592 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
593 sequence is something like
595 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
597 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
601 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
602 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
603 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
604 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
605 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
606 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
607 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
608 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
612 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
613 but does simplify configuration and building.
617 GDB now supports hpux10.
619 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
621 * New native configurations
623 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
624 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
625 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
626 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
630 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
631 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
632 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
633 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
636 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
638 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
639 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
640 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
641 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
642 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
644 * Arguments to user-defined commands
646 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
647 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
650 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
652 To execute the command use:
655 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
656 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
657 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
659 * New `if' and `while' commands
661 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
662 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
663 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
664 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
665 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
666 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
667 if the expression is zero.
669 * Fortran source language mode
671 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
672 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
673 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
674 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
677 * Better HPUX support
679 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
680 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
681 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
682 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
683 that behavior do the following before running the program:
689 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
690 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
696 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
697 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
700 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
701 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
703 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
705 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
706 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
707 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
708 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
709 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
710 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
712 * New DOS host serial code
714 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
715 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
718 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
720 * New "complete" command
722 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
723 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
725 * Trailing space optional in prompt
727 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
728 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
730 * Breakpoint hit counts
732 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
733 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
734 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
735 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
736 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
739 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
741 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
742 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
743 arrays actually contain only short strings.
745 * Shared library breakpoints
747 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
748 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
750 * Hardware watchpoints
752 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
753 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
755 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
759 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
760 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
762 * Improved Irix 5 support
764 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
766 * Improved HPPA support
768 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
770 * New native configurations
772 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
773 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
774 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
775 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
779 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
780 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
783 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
785 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
786 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
790 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
791 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
793 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
795 * Irix 5 is now supported
799 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
800 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
801 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
802 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
803 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
806 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
808 * User visible changes:
812 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
813 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
814 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
815 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
816 debugging info for the mips target).
818 * DEC Alpha native support
820 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
821 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
822 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
823 Alpha-specific notes.
825 * Preliminary thread implementation
827 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
829 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
831 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
832 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
835 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
837 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
838 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
839 call methods, ...etc.
841 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
843 * User visible changes:
845 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
846 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
847 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
848 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
850 Filename completion now works.
852 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
853 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
854 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
856 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
857 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
858 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
859 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
860 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
864 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
865 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
868 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
872 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
873 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
874 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
878 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
879 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
880 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
881 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
882 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
886 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
887 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
888 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
890 * New targets supported
892 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
893 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
894 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
895 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
896 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
898 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
899 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
900 GO32 memory extender.
902 * New remote protocols
904 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
906 * New source languages supported
908 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
909 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
910 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
913 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
915 * HP Precision Architecture supported
917 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
918 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
919 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
920 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
921 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
922 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
924 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
926 * Faster and better demangling
928 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
929 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
930 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
931 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
932 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
933 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
936 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
937 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
938 compiler does not actually implement.
940 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
942 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
943 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
944 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
945 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
946 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
947 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
950 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
951 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
953 * Improved configure script
955 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
956 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
957 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
958 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
960 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
961 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
962 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
963 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
964 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
965 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
967 * Documentation improvements
969 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
970 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
971 before submitting changes.
973 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
974 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
975 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
976 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
977 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
979 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
980 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
981 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
982 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
983 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
988 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
989 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
990 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
993 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
994 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
996 * New native hosts supported
998 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
999 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1001 * New targets supported
1003 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1005 * New file formats supported
1007 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1008 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1012 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1014 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1015 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1017 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1018 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1019 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1021 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1022 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1024 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1025 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1026 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1029 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1030 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1031 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1032 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1033 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1035 * Internal improvements
1037 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1038 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1040 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1041 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1042 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1043 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1044 shared code that handles any of them.
1046 * New command line options
1048 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1052 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1053 General Public License.
1055 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1057 * Host/native/target split
1059 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1060 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1061 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1062 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1063 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1065 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1066 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1067 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1068 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1069 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1070 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1071 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1073 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1074 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1075 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1077 * New hosts supported
1079 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1080 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1081 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1083 * New targets supported
1085 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1086 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1088 * New native hosts supported
1090 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1091 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1092 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1094 * New file formats supported
1096 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1097 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1098 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1102 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1103 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1104 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1106 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1108 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1109 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1110 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1111 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1115 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1116 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1117 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1119 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1123 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1124 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1127 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1128 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1130 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1131 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1132 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1133 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1134 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1135 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1137 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1138 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1139 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1140 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1144 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1145 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1146 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1147 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1148 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1150 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1151 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1152 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1153 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1157 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1158 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1159 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1160 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1161 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1162 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1163 each instruction being stepped through.
1165 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1166 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1168 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1169 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1170 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1171 processor with a serial port.
1175 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1176 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1177 supported, and what files each one uses.
1181 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1182 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1183 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1184 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1186 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1187 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1188 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1189 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1193 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1194 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1195 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1196 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1197 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1198 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1200 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1203 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1205 * Better support for C++ function names
1207 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1208 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1209 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1210 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1211 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1213 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1214 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1215 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1216 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1217 for the list of formats.
1219 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1221 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1222 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1223 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1224 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1225 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1226 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1229 * New 'maintenance' command
1231 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1232 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1233 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1235 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1236 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1237 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1238 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1239 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1240 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1242 The following commands are new:
1244 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1245 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1246 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1248 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1250 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1251 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1252 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1253 read after argv processing.
1255 * New hosts supported
1257 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1259 Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1261 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1262 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1263 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1264 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1265 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1268 * New targets supported
1270 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1272 * More smarts about finding #include files
1274 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1275 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1276 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1277 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1278 the one that contains your sources.
1280 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1281 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1282 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1284 * Interesting infernals change
1286 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1287 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1288 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1289 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1291 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1293 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1294 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1295 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1297 See the ChangeLog for details.
1299 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1301 * New machines supported (host and target)
1303 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1305 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1307 * New malloc package
1309 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1310 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1311 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1312 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1313 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1314 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1318 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1319 'help info proc' for details.
1321 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1323 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1324 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1327 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1329 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1330 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1331 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1332 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1333 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1334 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1336 * Cross byte order fixes
1338 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1339 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1341 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1343 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1344 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1345 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1346 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1347 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1348 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1349 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1350 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1351 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1352 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1354 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1355 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1356 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1357 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1359 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1360 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1361 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1364 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1366 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1367 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1368 shared across multiple host platforms.
1370 * longjmp() handling
1372 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1373 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1374 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1375 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1379 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1380 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1385 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1386 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1387 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1389 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1391 * New machines supported (host and target)
1393 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1395 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1396 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1398 * New machines supported (target)
1400 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1404 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1405 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1406 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1408 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1409 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1410 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1411 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1412 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1415 * New features for SVR4
1417 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1418 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1419 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1421 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1422 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1423 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1425 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1426 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1428 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1430 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1431 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1432 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1433 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1434 same code linked statically.
1438 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1439 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1440 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1441 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1442 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1443 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1447 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1448 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1449 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1452 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1454 * New machines supported (host and target)
1456 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1457 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1458 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1460 * Almost SCO Unix support
1462 We had hoped to support:
1463 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1464 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1465 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1466 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1468 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1470 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1471 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1472 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1473 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1478 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1479 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1480 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1484 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1485 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1486 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1488 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1490 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1491 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1492 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1494 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1495 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1496 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1497 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1500 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1501 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1502 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1503 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1506 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1507 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1510 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1511 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1512 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1515 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1517 * Improved configuration
1519 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1520 Porting BFD is simpler.
1524 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1525 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1526 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1527 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1531 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1533 * New host supported (not target)
1535 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1538 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1540 * Multiple source language support
1542 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1543 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1544 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1545 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1546 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1547 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1551 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1552 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1553 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1554 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1556 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1557 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1558 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1560 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1561 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1565 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1566 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1567 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1568 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1571 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1573 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1574 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1575 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1576 examining core files.
1580 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1583 * New machines supported (host and target)
1585 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1586 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1587 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1589 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1591 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1593 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1595 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1596 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1597 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1599 * New remote interfaces
1605 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1609 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1611 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1612 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1613 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1614 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1615 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1616 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1617 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1618 stub on the target system.
1620 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1622 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1623 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1624 object file types such as a.out and coff.
1626 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1627 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1630 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1632 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1633 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1635 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1636 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1637 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1639 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1640 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1641 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1642 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1644 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1645 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1646 it is already running. Default is ON.
1648 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1649 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1650 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1651 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1654 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1655 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1656 or the value of the environment variable
1659 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1660 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1663 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1664 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1665 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1667 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1668 history expansion will be performed on
1669 command line input. The default is OFF.
1671 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1672 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1673 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1675 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1676 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1677 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1680 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1681 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1682 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1685 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1686 ``set width'' instead.
1688 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1689 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1690 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1691 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1693 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1696 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1699 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1702 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1705 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1707 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1708 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1709 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1713 * Support for Shared Libraries
1715 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1716 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1717 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1718 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1719 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1720 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1721 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1722 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1724 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1725 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1726 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1728 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1733 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1734 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1735 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1736 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1737 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1738 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1740 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1742 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1744 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1745 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1746 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1749 * C++ multiple inheritance
1751 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1754 * C++ exception handling
1756 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1757 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1758 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1761 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1762 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1763 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1765 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1766 current stack frame.
1769 * Minor command changes
1771 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1772 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1773 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1775 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1776 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1777 frames without printing.
1779 * New directory command
1781 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1782 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1783 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1784 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1785 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1787 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1789 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1792 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1793 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1794 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1795 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob