- What has changed since GDB-3.5?
- (Organized release by release)
+ What has changed in GDB?
+ (Organized release by release)
-* User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
-Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg0.
-A trivial example:
+*** Changes since GDB-4.16:
+
+* New native configurations
+
+Alpha Linux alpha-*-linux*
+
+* New targets
+
+M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
+
+*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
+
+* New native configurations
+
+Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
+M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
+PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
+PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
+PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
+RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
+
+* New targets
+
+ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
+I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
+MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
+MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
+PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
+Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
+Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
+
+* PowerPC simulator
+
+The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
+contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
+PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
+basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
+performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
+
+* Solaris 2.5
+
+GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
+
+* Windows 95/NT native
+
+GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
+To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
+which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
+Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
+ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
+
+* dont-repeat command
+
+If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
+command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
+useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
+extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
+
+* Send break instead of ^C
+
+The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
+rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
+GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
+
+* Remote protocol timeout
+
+The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
+that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
+to read from the target. The default value is 2.
+
+* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
+
+By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
+loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
+stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
+when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
+in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
+
+Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
+/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
+automatically on hpux10.
+
+* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
+
+Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
+
+* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
+
+When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
+may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
+the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
+every character. The default value is 1050.
+
+* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
+
+If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
+a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
+replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
+details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
+remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
+to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
+
+* Speedups for remote debugging
+
+GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
+the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
+and more efficient S-record downloading.
+
+* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
+
+GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
+Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
+
+*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
+
+* Psymtabs for XCOFF
+
+The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
+can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
+
+* Remote targets use caching
+
+Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
+remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
+it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
+debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
+off' turns the the data cache off.
+
+* Remote targets may have threads
+
+The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
+in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
+gdb/remote.c for details.
+
+* NetROM support
+
+If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
+support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
+acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
+write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
+support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
+another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
+sequence is something like
+
+ target nrom <netrom-hostname>
+ load <prog>
+ target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
+
+* Macintosh host
+
+GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
+may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
+it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
+available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
+device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
+directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
+scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
+mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
+
+* Autoconf
+
+GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
+but does simplify configuration and building.
+
+* hpux10
+
+GDB now supports hpux10.
+
+*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
+
+* New native configurations
+
+x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
+x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
+NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
+Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
+
+* New targets
+
+A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
+HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
+CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
+PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
+WDC 65816 w65-*-*
+
+* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
+
+GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
+possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
+filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
+the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
+if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
+
+* Arguments to user-defined commands
+
+User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
+Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
+trivial example:
define adder
print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
-* New "if" and "while" commands. This makes it possible to write
-somewhat more sophisticated user-defined commands.
+* New `if' and `while' commands
+
+This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
+commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
+expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
+execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
+terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
+`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
+if the expression is zero.
+
+* Fortran source language mode
+
+GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
+Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
+variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
+with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
+Fortran compilers.
+
+* Better HPUX support
+
+Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
+running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
+processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
+for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
+that behavior do the following before running the program:
+
+ adb -w a.out
+ __dld_flags?W 0x5
+ control-d
+
+This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
+To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
+
+ adb -w a.out
+ __dld_flags?W 0x4
+ control-d
+
+You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
+the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
+external linkage.
+
+GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
+HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
+
+* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
+
+You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
+commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
+current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
+"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
+associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
+configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
-* Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
-running hpux9 or later. See the GDB manual for the few minor problems
-and potential workarounds.
+* New DOS host serial code
-* GDB can now read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on HPPAs
-(sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
+This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
+no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
+a PC's serial port.
*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blobdiff