1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB-4.18:
6 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
8 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
9 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
10 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
11 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
13 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
14 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
18 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
20 * OBSOLETE configurations
22 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
26 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
28 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
29 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
30 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
32 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
33 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
35 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
37 * New native configurations
39 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
40 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
41 M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
45 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
46 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
47 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
49 * OBSOLETE configurations
51 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
53 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
54 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
55 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
56 be permanently REMOVED.
60 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
61 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
62 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
63 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
64 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
65 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
66 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
71 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
73 * set extension-language
75 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
76 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
77 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
78 set extension-language .c c++
79 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
80 and their associated languages.
82 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
84 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
85 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
86 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
90 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
91 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
93 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
94 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
96 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
97 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
98 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
99 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
100 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
101 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
102 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
103 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
105 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
106 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
107 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
108 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
112 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
113 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
114 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
115 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
116 for xdb and dbx commands.
120 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
121 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
122 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
124 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
125 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
126 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
128 * Debugging across forks
130 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
135 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
136 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
137 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
139 * GDB remote protocol additions
141 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
142 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
143 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
144 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
146 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
147 full 64-bit address. The command
149 set remoteaddresssize 32
151 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
152 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
155 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
156 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
158 maint packet heythere
160 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
161 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
164 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
165 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
166 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
168 * Tracing can collect general expressions
170 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
171 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
172 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
174 * mask-address variable for Mips
176 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
177 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
178 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
180 * Higher serial baud rates
182 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
183 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
184 to achieve all of these rates.)
188 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
189 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
192 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
194 * New native configurations
196 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
197 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
198 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
199 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
200 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
201 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
202 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
206 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
207 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
208 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
209 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
210 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
211 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
212 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
213 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
214 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
215 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
216 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
218 * New debugging protocols
220 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
221 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
222 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
223 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
224 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
225 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
229 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
230 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
235 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
236 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
238 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
240 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
241 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
242 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
244 * Live range splitting
246 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
247 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
248 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
252 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
253 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
257 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
258 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
259 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
264 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
269 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
270 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
271 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
272 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
273 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
274 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
278 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
279 the symbol at the specified address.
283 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
284 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
285 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
286 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
287 file tracepoint.c for more details.
291 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
292 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
293 of most MIPS variants.
297 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
298 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
299 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
303 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
304 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
305 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
306 the possible architectures.
308 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
310 * New native configurations
312 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
313 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
314 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
315 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
316 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
317 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
321 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
322 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
323 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
324 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
325 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
327 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
331 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
332 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
333 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
334 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
335 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
339 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
341 * Windows 95/NT native
343 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
344 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
345 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
346 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
347 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
349 * dont-repeat command
351 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
352 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
353 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
354 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
356 * Send break instead of ^C
358 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
359 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
360 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
362 * Remote protocol timeout
364 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
365 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
366 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
368 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
370 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
371 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
372 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
373 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
374 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
376 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
377 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
378 automatically on hpux10.
380 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
382 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
384 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
386 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
387 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
388 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
389 every character. The default value is 1050.
391 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
393 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
394 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
395 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
396 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
397 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
398 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
400 * Speedups for remote debugging
402 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
403 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
404 and more efficient S-record downloading.
406 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
408 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
409 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
411 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
415 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
416 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
418 * Remote targets use caching
420 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
421 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
422 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
423 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
424 off' turns the the data cache off.
426 * Remote targets may have threads
428 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
429 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
430 gdb/remote.c for details.
434 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
435 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
436 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
437 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
438 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
439 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
440 sequence is something like
442 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
444 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
448 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
449 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
450 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
451 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
452 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
453 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
454 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
455 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
459 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
460 but does simplify configuration and building.
464 GDB now supports hpux10.
466 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
468 * New native configurations
470 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
471 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
472 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
473 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
477 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
478 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
479 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
480 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
483 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
485 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
486 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
487 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
488 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
489 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
491 * Arguments to user-defined commands
493 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
494 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
497 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
499 To execute the command use:
502 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
503 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
504 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
506 * New `if' and `while' commands
508 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
509 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
510 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
511 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
512 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
513 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
514 if the expression is zero.
516 * Fortran source language mode
518 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
519 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
520 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
521 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
524 * Better HPUX support
526 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
527 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
528 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
529 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
530 that behavior do the following before running the program:
536 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
537 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
543 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
544 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
547 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
548 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
550 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
552 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
553 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
554 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
555 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
556 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
557 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
559 * New DOS host serial code
561 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
562 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
565 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
567 * New "complete" command
569 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
570 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
572 * Trailing space optional in prompt
574 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
575 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
577 * Breakpoint hit counts
579 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
580 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
581 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
582 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
583 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
586 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
588 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
589 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
590 arrays actually contain only short strings.
592 * Shared library breakpoints
594 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
595 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
597 * Hardware watchpoints
599 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
600 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
602 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
606 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
607 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
609 * Improved Irix 5 support
611 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
613 * Improved HPPA support
615 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
617 * New native configurations
619 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
620 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
621 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
622 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
626 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
627 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
630 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
632 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
633 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
637 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
638 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
640 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
642 * Irix 5 is now supported
646 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
647 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
648 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
649 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
650 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
653 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
655 * User visible changes:
659 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
660 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
661 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
662 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
663 debugging info for the mips target).
665 * DEC Alpha native support
667 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
668 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
669 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
670 Alpha-specific notes.
672 * Preliminary thread implementation
674 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
676 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
678 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
679 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
682 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
684 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
685 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
686 call methods, ...etc.
688 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
690 * User visible changes:
692 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
693 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
694 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
695 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
697 Filename completion now works.
699 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
700 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
701 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
703 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
704 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
705 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
706 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
707 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
711 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
712 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
715 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
719 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
720 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
721 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
725 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
726 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
727 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
728 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
729 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
733 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
734 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
735 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
737 * New targets supported
739 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
740 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
741 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
742 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
743 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
745 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
746 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
747 GO32 memory extender.
749 * New remote protocols
751 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
753 * New source languages supported
755 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
756 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
757 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
760 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
762 * HP Precision Architecture supported
764 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
765 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
766 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
767 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
768 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
769 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
771 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
773 * Faster and better demangling
775 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
776 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
777 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
778 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
779 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
780 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
783 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
784 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
785 compiler does not actually implement.
787 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
789 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
790 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
791 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
792 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
793 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
794 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
797 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
798 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
800 * Improved configure script
802 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
803 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
804 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
805 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
807 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
808 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
809 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
810 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
811 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
812 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
814 * Documentation improvements
816 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
817 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
818 before submitting changes.
820 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
821 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
822 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
823 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
824 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
826 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
827 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
828 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
829 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
830 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
835 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
836 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
837 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
840 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
841 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
843 * New native hosts supported
845 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
846 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
848 * New targets supported
850 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
852 * New file formats supported
854 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
855 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
859 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
861 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
862 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
864 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
865 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
866 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
868 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
869 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
871 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
872 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
873 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
876 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
877 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
878 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
879 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
880 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
882 * Internal improvements
884 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
885 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
887 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
888 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
889 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
890 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
891 shared code that handles any of them.
893 * New command line options
895 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
899 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
900 General Public License.
902 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
904 * Host/native/target split
906 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
907 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
908 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
909 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
910 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
912 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
913 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
914 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
915 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
916 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
917 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
918 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
920 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
921 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
922 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
924 * New hosts supported
926 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
927 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
928 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
930 * New targets supported
932 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
933 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
935 * New native hosts supported
937 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
938 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
939 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
941 * New file formats supported
943 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
944 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
945 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
949 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
950 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
951 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
953 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
955 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
956 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
957 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
958 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
962 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
963 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
964 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
966 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
970 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
971 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
974 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
975 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
977 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
978 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
979 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
980 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
981 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
982 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
984 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
985 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
986 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
987 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
991 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
992 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
993 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
994 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
995 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
997 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
998 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
999 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1000 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1004 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1005 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1006 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1007 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1008 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1009 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1010 each instruction being stepped through.
1012 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1013 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1015 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1016 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1017 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1018 processor with a serial port.
1022 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1023 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1024 supported, and what files each one uses.
1028 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1029 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1030 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1031 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1033 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1034 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1035 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1036 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1040 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1041 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1042 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1043 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1044 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1045 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1047 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1050 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1052 * Better support for C++ function names
1054 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1055 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1056 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1057 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1058 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1060 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1061 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1062 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1063 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1064 for the list of formats.
1066 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1068 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1069 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1070 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1071 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1072 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1073 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1076 * New 'maintenance' command
1078 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1079 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1080 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1082 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1083 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1084 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1085 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1086 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1087 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1089 The following commands are new:
1091 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1092 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1093 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1095 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1097 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1098 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1099 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1100 read after argv processing.
1102 * New hosts supported
1104 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1106 Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1108 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1109 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1110 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1111 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1112 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1115 * New targets supported
1117 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1119 * More smarts about finding #include files
1121 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1122 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1123 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1124 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1125 the one that contains your sources.
1127 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1128 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1129 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1131 * Interesting infernals change
1133 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1134 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1135 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1136 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1138 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1140 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1141 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1142 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1144 See the ChangeLog for details.
1146 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1148 * New machines supported (host and target)
1150 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1152 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1154 * New malloc package
1156 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1157 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1158 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1159 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1160 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1161 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1165 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1166 'help info proc' for details.
1168 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1170 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1171 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1174 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1176 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1177 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1178 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1179 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1180 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1181 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1183 * Cross byte order fixes
1185 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1186 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1188 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1190 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1191 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1192 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1193 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1194 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1195 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1196 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1197 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1198 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1199 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1201 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1202 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1203 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1204 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1206 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1207 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1208 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1211 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1213 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1214 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1215 shared across multiple host platforms.
1217 * longjmp() handling
1219 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1220 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1221 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1222 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1226 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1227 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1232 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1233 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1234 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1236 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1238 * New machines supported (host and target)
1240 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1242 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1243 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1245 * New machines supported (target)
1247 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1251 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1252 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1253 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1255 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1256 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1257 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1258 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1259 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1262 * New features for SVR4
1264 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1265 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1266 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1268 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1269 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1270 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1272 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1273 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1275 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1277 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1278 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1279 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1280 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1281 same code linked statically.
1285 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1286 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1287 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1288 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1289 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1290 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1294 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1295 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1296 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1299 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1301 * New machines supported (host and target)
1303 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1304 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1305 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1307 * Almost SCO Unix support
1309 We had hoped to support:
1310 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1311 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1312 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1313 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1315 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1317 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1318 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1319 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1320 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1325 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1326 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1327 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1331 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1332 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1333 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1335 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1337 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1338 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1339 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1341 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1342 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1343 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1344 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1347 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1348 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1349 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1350 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1353 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1354 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1357 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1358 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1359 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1362 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1364 * Improved configuration
1366 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1367 Porting BFD is simpler.
1371 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1372 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1373 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1374 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1378 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1380 * New host supported (not target)
1382 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1385 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1387 * Multiple source language support
1389 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1390 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1391 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1392 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1393 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1394 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1398 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1399 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1400 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1401 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1403 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1404 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1405 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1407 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1408 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1412 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1413 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1414 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1415 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1418 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1420 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1421 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1422 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1423 examining core files.
1427 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1430 * New machines supported (host and target)
1432 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1433 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1434 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1436 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1438 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1440 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1442 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1443 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1444 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1446 * New remote interfaces
1452 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1456 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1458 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1459 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1460 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1461 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1462 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1463 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1464 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1465 stub on the target system.
1467 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1469 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1470 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1471 object file types such as a.out and coff.
1473 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1474 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1477 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1479 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1480 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1482 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1483 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1484 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1486 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1487 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1488 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1489 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1491 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1492 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1493 it is already running. Default is ON.
1495 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1496 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1497 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1498 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1501 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1502 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1503 or the value of the environment variable
1506 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1507 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1510 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1511 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1512 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1514 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1515 history expansion will be performed on
1516 command line input. The default is OFF.
1518 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1519 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1520 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1522 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1523 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1524 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1527 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1528 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1529 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1532 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1533 ``set width'' instead.
1535 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1536 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1537 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1538 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1540 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1543 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1546 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1549 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1552 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1554 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1555 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1556 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1560 * Support for Shared Libraries
1562 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1563 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1564 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1565 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1566 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1567 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1568 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1569 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1571 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1572 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1573 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1575 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1580 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1581 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1582 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1583 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1584 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1585 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1587 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1589 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1591 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1592 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1593 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1596 * C++ multiple inheritance
1598 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1601 * C++ exception handling
1603 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1604 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1605 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1608 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1609 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1610 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1612 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1613 current stack frame.
1616 * Minor command changes
1618 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1619 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1620 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1622 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1623 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1624 frames without printing.
1626 * New directory command
1628 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1629 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1630 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1631 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1632 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1634 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1636 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1639 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1640 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1641 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1642 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob