What has changed in GDB?
(Organized release by release)
-*** Changes since GDB-4.17:
+*** Changes since GDB-4.18:
+
+* New features
+
+On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
+without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
+load symbols from the running process's executable file.
+
+* New native configurations
+
+ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
+
+* New targets
+
+Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
+x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
+PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
+TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
+
+* OBSOLETE configurations
+
+Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
+Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
+Pyramid pyramid-*-*
+ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
+Tahoe tahoe-*-*
+
+* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
+
+A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
+sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
+with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
+``|<program> <args>'' vis:
+
+ (gdb) set remotedebug 1
+ (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
+
+* MIPS 64 remote protocol
+
+A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
+expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
+instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
+
+The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
+added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
+
+* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
+
+The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
+``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
+include ``set remote P-packet''.
+
+* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
+
+The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
+accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
+``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
+
+*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
* New native configurations
* New targets
Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
+Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
+* OBSOLETE configurations
+
+Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
+
+Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
+but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
+these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
+be permanently REMOVED.
+
+* ANSI/ISO C
+
+As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
+buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
+containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
+use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
+available. If this is not true, please report the affected
+configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
+information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
+already.
+
* Readline 2.2
GDB now uses readline 2.2.
-* HP-UX Support
+* set extension-language
+
+You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
+languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
+you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
+ set extension-language .c c++
+The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
+and their associated languages.
+
+* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
+
+When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
+you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
+PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
+
+ set processor NAME
+
+sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
+following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
+
+ ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
+ rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
+ 403 IBM PowerPC 403
+ 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
+ 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
+ 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
+ 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
+ 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
+ 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
+ 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
+ 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
-Thanks to a major code donation from HP, GDB now has much more
-extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared library
-support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00, support
-for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and compatibility mode for xdb
-commands.
+At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
+special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
+registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
+only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
+
+* HP-UX support
+
+Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
+more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
+library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
+support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
+for xdb and dbx commands.
* Catchpoints
generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
-* Debugging Across Forks
+This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
+argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
+output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
+
+* Debugging across forks
On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
in the inferior.
* TUI
HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
-it, build with --enable-tui.
+it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
+configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
+
+* GDB remote protocol additions
+
+A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
+Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
+fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
+allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
+
+For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
+full 64-bit address. The command
-* GDB Remote protocol
+ set remoteaddresssize 32
-For 64 bit targets, the memory packets ("M" and "m") can now contain a
-full 64 bit address. The class-obscure gdb command:
- set targetaddresssize 32
-can be used to revert to the old behavour. For existing remote stubs
-the change should not be noticed as the additional address information
+can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
+the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
will be discarded.
+In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
+command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
+
+ maint packet heythere
+
+sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
+disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
+time.
+
+The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
+target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
+downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
+
+* Tracing can collect general expressions
+
+You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
+further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
+doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
+
+* mask-address variable for Mips
+
+For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
+a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
+of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
+
+* Higher serial baud rates
+
+GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
+230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
+to achieve all of these rates.)
+
+* i960 simulator
+
+The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
+builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
+
*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
information.
-start-sanitize-java
* Java frontend
GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
-end-sanitize-java
* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blobdiff