- 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 5.0:
+
+* New native configurations
+
+Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
+x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
+MIPS Linux mips*-*-linux*
+MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
+ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
+
+* New targets
+
+Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
+CRIS cris-axis
+UltraSparc running Linux sparc64-*-linux*
+
+* OBSOLETE configurations and files
+
+x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
+Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
+Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
+ ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
+TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
+WDC 65816 w65-*-*
+Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
+PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
+PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
+PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
+SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
+Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
+ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
+Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
+
+stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
+kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
+
+Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
+been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
+configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
+permanently REMOVED.
+
+* REMOVED configurations and files
+
+Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
+Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
+Pyramid pyramid-*-*
+ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
+Tahoe tahoe-*-*
+ser-ocd.c *-*-*
+
+* GDB has been converted to ANS/ISO C.
+
+GDB's source code has been converted to ANS/ISO C. In particular, the
+sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
+present.
+
+* Other news:
+
+* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
+
+* The MI enabled by default.
+
+The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
+revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
+engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
+using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
+which is now deprecated.
+
+* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
+
+GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
+main features are supported:
+
+ - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
+
+ - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
+ extension;
+
+ - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
+
+ - a Pascal expression parser.
+
+However, some important features are not yet supported.
+
+ - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
+
+ - there are some problems with boolean types;
+
+ - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
+ because they conflict with the internal variables format;
+
+ - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
+
+ - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
+
+* Changes in completion.
+
+Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
+to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
+users expect at the shell prompt.
+
+Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
+`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
+program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
+files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
+be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
+considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
+name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
+
+`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
+
+* New platform-independent commands:
+
+It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
+hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
+documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
+
+* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
+
+Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
+
+Support for SSE registers was added.
+
+* Changes in MIPS configurations.
+
+Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
+
+GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
+debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
+supported.)
+
+* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
+
+Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
+breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
+implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
+put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
+and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
+registers.
+
+The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
+debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
+watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
+
+* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
+
+New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
+the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
+
+New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
+display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
+IDT.
+
+New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
+from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
+New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
+a given linear address.
+
+GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
+program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
+which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
+
+DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
+
+It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
+
+* Changes in documentation.
+
+All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
+Documentation License.
+
+Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
+manual.
+
+TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
+
+Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
+manual.
+
+The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
+documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
+hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
+
+* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
+
+The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
+``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
+contents of this file.
+
+* gdba.el deleted
+
+GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
+
+*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
+
+* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
+
+Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
+programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
+displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
+greater level of detail.
+
+* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
+
+It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
+bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
+on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
+written.
+
+* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
+
+The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
+necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
+machines ``out of the box''.
+
+The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
+possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
+signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
+would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
+interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
+
+It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
+standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
+even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
+and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
+terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
+
+The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
+enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
+also works.
+
+DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
+GDB.
+
+It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
+directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
+times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
+breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
+
+* New native configurations
+
+ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
+PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-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-*-*
+
+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.
+
+* Gould support removed
+
+Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
+
+* New features for SVR4
+
+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.
+
+* Many C++ enhancements
+
+C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
+in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
+
+* 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.
+
+* ``apropos'' command added.
+
+The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
+documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
+try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
+
+* New MI interface
+
+A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
+interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
+process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
+"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
+enabled by configuring with:
+
+ .../configure --enable-gdbmi
+
+*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
+
+* New native configurations
+
+HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
+HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
+M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
+
+* 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.
+
+* 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
+
+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
+
+HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
+generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
+to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
+
+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. 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
+
+ set remoteaddresssize 32
+
+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:
+
+* New native configurations
+
+Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
+Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
+Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
+PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
+PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
+Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
+Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
+
+* New targets
+
+Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
+Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
+Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
+Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
+MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
+MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
+MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
+Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
+Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
+Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
+NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
+
+* New debugging protocols
+
+ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
+M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
+DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
+PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
+PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
+Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
+
+* DWARF 2
+
+All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
+format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
+information.
+
+* Java frontend
+
+GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
+only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
+
+* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
+
+For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
+loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
+locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
+
+* Live range splitting
+
+GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
+range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
+more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
+
+* Hurd support
+
+GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
+updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
+
+* ARM Thumb support
+
+GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
+instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
+instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
+accordingly.
+
+* MIPS16 support
+
+GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
+instruction set.
+
+* Overlay support
+
+GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
+linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
+will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
+control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
+additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
+in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
+
+* info symbol
+
+The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
+the symbol at the specified address.
+
+* Trace support
+
+The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
+asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
+extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
+includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
+file tracepoint.c for more details.
+
+* MIPS simulator
+
+Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
+by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
+of most MIPS variants.
+
+* Sparc simulator
+
+Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
+by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
+Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
+
+* set architecture
+
+For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
+basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
+architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
+the possible architectures.
+
+*** 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