1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 5.0:
6 * New native configurations
8 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
9 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
13 * OBSOLETE configurations
15 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
17 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
18 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
19 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
22 * REMOVED configurations
24 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
27 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
32 * All MIPS configurations are multi-arched.
34 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
38 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
40 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
42 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
44 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
45 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
46 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
47 greater level of detail.
49 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
51 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
52 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
53 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
56 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
58 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
59 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
60 machines ``out of the box''.
62 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
63 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
64 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
65 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
66 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
68 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
69 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
70 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
71 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
72 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
74 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
75 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
78 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
81 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
82 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
83 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
84 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
86 * New native configurations
88 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
89 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
93 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
94 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
95 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
96 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
98 * OBSOLETE configurations
100 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
101 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
103 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
106 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
107 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
108 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
109 be permanently REMOVED.
111 * Gould support removed
113 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
115 * New features for SVR4
117 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
118 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
119 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
121 * Many C++ enhancements
123 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
124 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
126 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
128 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
129 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
130 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
131 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
133 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
134 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
136 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
138 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
139 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
140 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
142 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
143 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
145 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
147 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
148 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
149 include ``set remote P-packet''.
151 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
153 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
154 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
155 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
157 * ``apropos'' command added.
159 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
160 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
161 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
165 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
166 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
167 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
168 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
169 enabled by configuring with:
171 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
173 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
175 * New native configurations
177 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
178 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
179 M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
183 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
184 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
185 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
187 * OBSOLETE configurations
189 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
191 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
192 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
193 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
194 be permanently REMOVED.
198 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
199 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
200 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
201 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
202 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
203 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
204 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
209 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
211 * set extension-language
213 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
214 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
215 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
216 set extension-language .c c++
217 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
218 and their associated languages.
220 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
222 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
223 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
224 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
228 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
229 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
231 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
232 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
234 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
235 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
236 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
237 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
238 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
239 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
240 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
241 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
243 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
244 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
245 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
246 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
250 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
251 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
252 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
253 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
254 for xdb and dbx commands.
258 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
259 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
260 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
262 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
263 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
264 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
266 * Debugging across forks
268 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
273 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
274 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
275 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
277 * GDB remote protocol additions
279 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
280 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
281 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
282 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
284 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
285 full 64-bit address. The command
287 set remoteaddresssize 32
289 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
290 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
293 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
294 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
296 maint packet heythere
298 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
299 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
302 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
303 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
304 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
306 * Tracing can collect general expressions
308 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
309 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
310 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
312 * mask-address variable for Mips
314 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
315 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
316 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
318 * Higher serial baud rates
320 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
321 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
322 to achieve all of these rates.)
326 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
327 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
330 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
332 * New native configurations
334 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
335 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
336 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
337 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
338 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
339 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
340 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
344 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
345 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
346 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
347 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
348 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
349 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
350 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
351 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
352 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
353 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
354 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
356 * New debugging protocols
358 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
359 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
360 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
361 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
362 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
363 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
367 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
368 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
373 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
374 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
376 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
378 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
379 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
380 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
382 * Live range splitting
384 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
385 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
386 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
390 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
391 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
395 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
396 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
397 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
402 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
407 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
408 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
409 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
410 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
411 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
412 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
416 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
417 the symbol at the specified address.
421 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
422 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
423 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
424 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
425 file tracepoint.c for more details.
429 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
430 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
431 of most MIPS variants.
435 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
436 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
437 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
441 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
442 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
443 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
444 the possible architectures.
446 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
448 * New native configurations
450 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
451 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
452 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
453 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
454 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
455 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
459 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
460 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
461 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
462 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
463 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
465 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
469 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
470 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
471 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
472 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
473 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
477 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
479 * Windows 95/NT native
481 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
482 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
483 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
484 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
485 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
487 * dont-repeat command
489 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
490 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
491 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
492 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
494 * Send break instead of ^C
496 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
497 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
498 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
500 * Remote protocol timeout
502 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
503 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
504 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
506 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
508 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
509 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
510 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
511 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
512 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
514 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
515 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
516 automatically on hpux10.
518 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
520 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
522 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
524 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
525 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
526 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
527 every character. The default value is 1050.
529 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
531 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
532 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
533 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
534 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
535 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
536 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
538 * Speedups for remote debugging
540 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
541 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
542 and more efficient S-record downloading.
544 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
546 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
547 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
549 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
553 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
554 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
556 * Remote targets use caching
558 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
559 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
560 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
561 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
562 off' turns the the data cache off.
564 * Remote targets may have threads
566 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
567 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
568 gdb/remote.c for details.
572 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
573 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
574 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
575 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
576 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
577 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
578 sequence is something like
580 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
582 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
586 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
587 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
588 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
589 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
590 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
591 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
592 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
593 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
597 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
598 but does simplify configuration and building.
602 GDB now supports hpux10.
604 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
606 * New native configurations
608 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
609 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
610 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
611 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
615 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
616 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
617 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
618 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
621 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
623 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
624 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
625 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
626 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
627 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
629 * Arguments to user-defined commands
631 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
632 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
635 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
637 To execute the command use:
640 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
641 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
642 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
644 * New `if' and `while' commands
646 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
647 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
648 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
649 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
650 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
651 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
652 if the expression is zero.
654 * Fortran source language mode
656 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
657 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
658 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
659 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
662 * Better HPUX support
664 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
665 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
666 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
667 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
668 that behavior do the following before running the program:
674 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
675 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
681 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
682 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
685 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
686 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
688 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
690 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
691 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
692 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
693 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
694 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
695 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
697 * New DOS host serial code
699 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
700 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
703 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
705 * New "complete" command
707 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
708 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
710 * Trailing space optional in prompt
712 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
713 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
715 * Breakpoint hit counts
717 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
718 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
719 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
720 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
721 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
724 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
726 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
727 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
728 arrays actually contain only short strings.
730 * Shared library breakpoints
732 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
733 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
735 * Hardware watchpoints
737 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
738 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
740 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
744 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
745 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
747 * Improved Irix 5 support
749 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
751 * Improved HPPA support
753 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
755 * New native configurations
757 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
758 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
759 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
760 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
764 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
765 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
768 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
770 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
771 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
775 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
776 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
778 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
780 * Irix 5 is now supported
784 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
785 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
786 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
787 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
788 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
791 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
793 * User visible changes:
797 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
798 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
799 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
800 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
801 debugging info for the mips target).
803 * DEC Alpha native support
805 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
806 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
807 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
808 Alpha-specific notes.
810 * Preliminary thread implementation
812 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
814 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
816 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
817 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
820 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
822 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
823 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
824 call methods, ...etc.
826 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
828 * User visible changes:
830 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
831 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
832 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
833 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
835 Filename completion now works.
837 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
838 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
839 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
841 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
842 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
843 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
844 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
845 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
849 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
850 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
853 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
857 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
858 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
859 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
863 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
864 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
865 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
866 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
867 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
871 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
872 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
873 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
875 * New targets supported
877 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
878 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
879 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
880 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
881 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
883 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
884 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
885 GO32 memory extender.
887 * New remote protocols
889 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
891 * New source languages supported
893 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
894 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
895 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
898 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
900 * HP Precision Architecture supported
902 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
903 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
904 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
905 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
906 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
907 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
909 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
911 * Faster and better demangling
913 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
914 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
915 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
916 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
917 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
918 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
921 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
922 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
923 compiler does not actually implement.
925 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
927 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
928 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
929 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
930 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
931 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
932 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
935 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
936 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
938 * Improved configure script
940 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
941 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
942 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
943 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
945 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
946 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
947 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
948 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
949 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
950 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
952 * Documentation improvements
954 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
955 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
956 before submitting changes.
958 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
959 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
960 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
961 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
962 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
964 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
965 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
966 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
967 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
968 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
973 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
974 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
975 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
978 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
979 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
981 * New native hosts supported
983 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
984 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
986 * New targets supported
988 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
990 * New file formats supported
992 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
993 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
997 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
999 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1000 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1002 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1003 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1004 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1006 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1007 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1009 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1010 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1011 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1014 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1015 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1016 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1017 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1018 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1020 * Internal improvements
1022 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1023 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1025 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1026 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1027 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1028 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1029 shared code that handles any of them.
1031 * New command line options
1033 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1037 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1038 General Public License.
1040 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1042 * Host/native/target split
1044 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1045 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1046 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1047 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1048 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1050 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1051 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1052 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1053 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1054 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1055 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1056 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1058 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1059 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1060 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1062 * New hosts supported
1064 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1065 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1066 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1068 * New targets supported
1070 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1071 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1073 * New native hosts supported
1075 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1076 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1077 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1079 * New file formats supported
1081 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1082 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1083 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1087 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1088 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1089 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1091 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1093 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1094 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1095 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1096 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1100 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1101 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1102 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1104 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1108 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1109 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1112 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1113 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1115 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1116 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1117 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1118 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1119 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1120 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1122 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1123 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1124 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1125 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1129 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1130 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1131 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1132 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1133 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1135 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1136 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1137 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1138 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1142 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1143 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1144 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1145 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1146 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1147 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1148 each instruction being stepped through.
1150 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1151 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1153 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1154 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1155 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1156 processor with a serial port.
1160 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1161 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1162 supported, and what files each one uses.
1166 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1167 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1168 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1169 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1171 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1172 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1173 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1174 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1178 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1179 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1180 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1181 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1182 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1183 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1185 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1188 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1190 * Better support for C++ function names
1192 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1193 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1194 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1195 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1196 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1198 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1199 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1200 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1201 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1202 for the list of formats.
1204 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1206 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1207 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1208 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1209 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1210 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1211 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1214 * New 'maintenance' command
1216 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1217 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1218 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1220 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1221 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1222 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1223 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1224 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1225 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1227 The following commands are new:
1229 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1230 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1231 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1233 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1235 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1236 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1237 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1238 read after argv processing.
1240 * New hosts supported
1242 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1244 Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1246 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1247 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1248 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1249 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1250 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1253 * New targets supported
1255 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1257 * More smarts about finding #include files
1259 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1260 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1261 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1262 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1263 the one that contains your sources.
1265 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1266 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1267 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1269 * Interesting infernals change
1271 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1272 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1273 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1274 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1276 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1278 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1279 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1280 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1282 See the ChangeLog for details.
1284 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1286 * New machines supported (host and target)
1288 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1290 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1292 * New malloc package
1294 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1295 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1296 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1297 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1298 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1299 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1303 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1304 'help info proc' for details.
1306 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1308 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1309 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1312 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1314 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1315 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1316 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1317 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1318 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1319 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1321 * Cross byte order fixes
1323 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1324 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1326 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1328 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1329 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1330 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1331 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1332 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1333 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1334 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1335 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1336 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1337 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1339 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1340 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1341 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1342 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1344 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1345 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1346 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1349 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1351 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1352 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1353 shared across multiple host platforms.
1355 * longjmp() handling
1357 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1358 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1359 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1360 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1364 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1365 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1370 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1371 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1372 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1374 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1376 * New machines supported (host and target)
1378 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1380 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1381 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1383 * New machines supported (target)
1385 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1389 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1390 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1391 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1393 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1394 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1395 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1396 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1397 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1400 * New features for SVR4
1402 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1403 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1404 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1406 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1407 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1408 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1410 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1411 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1413 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1415 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1416 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1417 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1418 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1419 same code linked statically.
1423 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1424 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1425 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1426 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1427 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1428 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1432 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1433 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1434 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1437 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1439 * New machines supported (host and target)
1441 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1442 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1443 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1445 * Almost SCO Unix support
1447 We had hoped to support:
1448 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1449 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1450 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1451 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1453 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1455 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1456 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1457 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1458 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1463 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1464 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1465 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1469 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1470 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1471 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1473 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1475 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1476 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1477 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1479 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1480 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1481 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1482 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1485 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1486 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1487 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1488 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1491 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1492 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1495 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1496 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1497 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1500 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1502 * Improved configuration
1504 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1505 Porting BFD is simpler.
1509 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1510 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1511 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1512 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1516 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1518 * New host supported (not target)
1520 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1523 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1525 * Multiple source language support
1527 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1528 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1529 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1530 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1531 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1532 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1536 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1537 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1538 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1539 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1541 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1542 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1543 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1545 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1546 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1550 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1551 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1552 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1553 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1556 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1558 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1559 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1560 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1561 examining core files.
1565 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1568 * New machines supported (host and target)
1570 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1571 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1572 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1574 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1576 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1578 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1580 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1581 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1582 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1584 * New remote interfaces
1590 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1594 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1596 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1597 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1598 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1599 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1600 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1601 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1602 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1603 stub on the target system.
1605 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1607 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1608 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1609 object file types such as a.out and coff.
1611 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1612 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1615 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1617 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1618 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1620 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1621 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1622 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1624 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1625 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1626 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1627 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1629 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1630 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1631 it is already running. Default is ON.
1633 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1634 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1635 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1636 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1639 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1640 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1641 or the value of the environment variable
1644 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1645 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1648 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1649 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1650 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1652 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1653 history expansion will be performed on
1654 command line input. The default is OFF.
1656 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1657 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1658 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1660 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1661 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1662 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1665 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1666 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1667 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1670 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1671 ``set width'' instead.
1673 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1674 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1675 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1676 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1678 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1681 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1684 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1687 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1690 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1692 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1693 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1694 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1698 * Support for Shared Libraries
1700 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1701 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1702 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1703 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1704 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1705 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1706 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1707 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1709 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1710 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1711 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1713 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1718 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1719 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1720 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1721 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1722 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1723 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1725 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1727 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1729 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1730 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1731 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1734 * C++ multiple inheritance
1736 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1739 * C++ exception handling
1741 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1742 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1743 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1746 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1747 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1748 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1750 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1751 current stack frame.
1754 * Minor command changes
1756 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1757 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1758 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1760 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1761 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1762 frames without printing.
1764 * New directory command
1766 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1767 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1768 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1769 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1770 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1772 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1774 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1777 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1778 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1779 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1780 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob