* xtensa-modules.c: Remove comment indicating that this is a
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 5.3:
5
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6* d10v `regs' command deprecated
7
8The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
9registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
10
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11* Profiling support
12
13A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
14be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
15session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
16"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
17data, for more informative profiling results.
18
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19* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
20
21The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
22option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 23"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
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24
25Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
26removed.
27
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28Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
29Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
30Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
31 in a subsequent -var-update.
32
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33* OBSOLETE configurations and files
34
35Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
36been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
37configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
38permanently REMOVED.
39
05d57f6f 40Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
8b0e5691 41Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 42Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 43H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
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44HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
45HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
46HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
fd2299bd 47
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48* REMOVED configurations and files
49
50V850EA ISA
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51Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
52IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
53i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
54i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
55i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
56HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
57 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
58 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
59Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
60Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
61Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
62OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
63I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 64
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65* MIPS $fp behavior changed
66
67The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
68the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
69context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
70address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
71The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
72
299ffc64 73*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 74
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75* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
76
77When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
78`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
79in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
80library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
81shared libs like mad''.
82
b9d14705 83* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 84
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85Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
86the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
87arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
88powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 89
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90* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
91
92GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
93and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
94they expand.
95
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96The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
97invocations in expression, and shows the result.
98
99The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
100macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
101
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102Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
103information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
104your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
105information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
106
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107* Multi-arched targets.
108
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109DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
110DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 111NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 112National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
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113Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
114Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 115
cd9bfe15 116* New targets.
e33ce519 117
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118Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
119
e33ce519 120
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121* New native configurations
122
123Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 124SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 125MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 126UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 127
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128* OBSOLETE configurations and files
129
130Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
131been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
132configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
133permanently REMOVED.
134
92eb23c5 135Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 136OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 137IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 138Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 139Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 140Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
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141i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
142i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
143i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
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144HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
145 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
146 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 147I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 148
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149* OBSOLETE languages
150
151CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
152
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153* REMOVED configurations and files
154
155AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
156A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
157AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
158AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
159AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
160
161testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
162
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163* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
164
165This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
166commands. The default is 1024.
167
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168* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
169
170Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
171
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172* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
173
174These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
175to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
176from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 177
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178* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
179
180The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
181including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
182of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
183
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184*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
185
186* New targets.
187
188Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
189
190* Bug fixes
191
192gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
193mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
194Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
195
196gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
197dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
198Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
199
200Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
201Surprisingly enough, it works now.
202By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
203
204i386 hardware watchpoint support:
205avoid misses on second run for some targets.
206By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
207
37057839 208*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 209
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210* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
211
212This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
213really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
214In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
215target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
216This can be a significant performance improvement on some
217(notably embedded) targets.
218
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219* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
220
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221This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
222process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
223GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
224hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 225
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226* New command line option
227
228GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
229
230* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
231
232There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
233command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
234a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
235be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
236open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
237issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
238a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
239it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
240GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
241is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
242
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243* Changes in ARM configurations.
244
245Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
246configuration is fully multi-arch.
247
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248* New native configurations
249
fe419ffc 250ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 251x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 252AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 253Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 254
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255* New targets
256
257Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
258
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259* OBSOLETE configurations and files
260
261Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
262been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
263configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
264permanently REMOVED.
265
266AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
267A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
268AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
269AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
270AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
271
b4ceaee6 272testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 273
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274* REMOVED configurations and files
275
276TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 277WDC 65816 w65-*-*
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278PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
279PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
280PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 281Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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282Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
283 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 284SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 285Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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286Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
287ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 288Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 289
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290* Changes to command line processing
291
292The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
293for the inferior from gdb's command line.
294
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295* Changes to key bindings
296
297There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
298
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299*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
300
301Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
302
303Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
304corrupted.
305
306Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
307
308Numerous documentation fixes.
309
310Numerous testsuite fixes.
311
34f47bc4 312*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
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313
314* New native configurations
315
316Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
317x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 318MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
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319MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
320ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 321s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 322
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323* New targets
324
def90278 325Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 326CRIS cris-axis
55241689 327UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 328
17e78a56 329* OBSOLETE configurations and files
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330
331x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 332Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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333Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
334 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
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335TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
336WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 337Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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338PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
339PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
340PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 341SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
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342Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
343ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 344Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 345
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346stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
347kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
348
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349Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
350been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
351configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
352permanently REMOVED.
353
a196c81c 354* REMOVED configurations and files
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355
356Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
357Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
358Pyramid pyramid-*-*
359ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
360Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 361ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 362
6d6b80e5 363* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 364
6d6b80e5 365GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
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366sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
367present.
368
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369* Other news:
370
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371* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
372
373* The MI enabled by default.
374
375The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
376revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
377engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
378using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
379which is now deprecated.
380
381* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
382
383GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
384main features are supported:
385
386 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
387
388 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
389 extension;
390
391 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
392
393 - a Pascal expression parser.
394
395However, some important features are not yet supported.
396
397 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
398
399 - there are some problems with boolean types;
400
401 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
402 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
403
404 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
405
406 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
407
408* Changes in completion.
409
410Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
411to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
412users expect at the shell prompt.
413
414Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
415`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
416program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
417files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
418be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
419considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
420name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
421
422`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
423
424* New platform-independent commands:
425
426It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
427hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
428documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
429
430* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
431
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432Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
433revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
434many threads as your system allows you to have.
435
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436Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
437
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438Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
439multi-threaded programs though.
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440
441* Changes in MIPS configurations.
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442
443Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
444
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445GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
446debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
447supported.)
448
449* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
450
451Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
452breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
453implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
454put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
455and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
456registers.
457
458The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
459debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
460watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
461
462* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
463
464New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
465the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
466
467New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
468display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
469IDT.
470
471New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
472from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
473New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
474a given linear address.
475
476GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
477program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
478which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
479
480DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
481
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482It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
483
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484* Changes in documentation.
485
486All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
487Documentation License.
488
489Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
490manual.
491
492TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
493
494Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
495manual.
496
497The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
498documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
499hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
500
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501* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
502
503The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
504``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
505contents of this file.
506
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507* gdba.el deleted
508
509GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 510
9debab2f 511*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 512
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513* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
514
515Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
516programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
517displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
518greater level of detail.
519
520* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
521
522It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
523bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
524on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
525written.
526
527* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
528
529The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
530necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
531machines ``out of the box''.
532
533The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
534possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
535signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
536would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
537interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
538
539It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
540standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
541even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
542and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
543terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
544
545The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
546enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
547also works.
548
549DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
550GDB.
551
552It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
553directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
554times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
555breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
556
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557* New native configurations
558
559ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 560PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 561
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562* New targets
563
96baa820 564Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
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565x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
566PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
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567TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
568
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569* OBSOLETE configurations
570
571Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
572Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 573Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 574ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 575Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 576
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577Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
578but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
579these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
580be permanently REMOVED.
581
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582* Gould support removed
583
584Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
585
bc9e5bbf
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586* New features for SVR4
587
588On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
589without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
590load symbols from the running process's executable file.
591
592* Many C++ enhancements
593
594C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
595in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
596
adf40b2e
JM
597* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
598
599A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
600sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
601with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
602``|<program> <args>'' vis:
603
604 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
605 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
606
43e526b9
JM
607* MIPS 64 remote protocol
608
609A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
610expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
611instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
612
613The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
614added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
615
96baa820
JM
616* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
617
618The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
619``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
620include ``set remote P-packet''.
621
11cf8741
JM
622* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
623
624The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
625accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
626``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
627
7876dd43
DB
628* ``apropos'' command added.
629
630The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
631documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
632try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
633
bc9e5bbf
AC
634* New MI interface
635
636A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
637interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
638process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
639"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
640enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
641
642 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
643
c906108c
SS
644*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
645
646* New native configurations
647
648HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
649HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 650M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
651
652* New targets
653
654Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
655Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
656Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
657
658* OBSOLETE configurations
659
660Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
661
662Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
663but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
664these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
665be permanently REMOVED.
666
667* ANSI/ISO C
668
669As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
670buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
671containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
672use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
673available. If this is not true, please report the affected
674configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
675information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
676already.
677
678* Readline 2.2
679
680GDB now uses readline 2.2.
681
682* set extension-language
683
684You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
685languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
686you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
687 set extension-language .c c++
688The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
689and their associated languages.
690
691* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
692
693When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
694you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
695PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
696
697 set processor NAME
698
699sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
700following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
701
702 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
703 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
704 403 IBM PowerPC 403
705 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
706 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
707 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
708 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
709 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
710 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
711 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
712 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
713
714At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
715special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
716registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
717only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
718
719* HP-UX support
720
721Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
722more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
723library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
724support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
725for xdb and dbx commands.
726
727* Catchpoints
728
729HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
730generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
731to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
732
733This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
734argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
735output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
736
737* Debugging across forks
738
739On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
740in the inferior.
741
742* TUI
743
744HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
745it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
746configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
747
748* GDB remote protocol additions
749
750A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
751Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
752fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
753allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
754
755For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
756full 64-bit address. The command
757
758 set remoteaddresssize 32
759
760can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
761the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
762will be discarded.
763
764In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
765command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
766
767 maint packet heythere
768
769sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
770disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
771time.
772
773The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
774target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
775downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
776
777* Tracing can collect general expressions
778
779You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
780further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
781doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
782
783* mask-address variable for Mips
784
785For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
786a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
787of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
788
789* Higher serial baud rates
790
791GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
792230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
793to achieve all of these rates.)
794
795* i960 simulator
796
797The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
798builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
799
800
801*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
802
803* New native configurations
804
805Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
806Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
807Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
808PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
809PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
810Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
811Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
812
813* New targets
814
815Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
816Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
817Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
818Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
819MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
820MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
821MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
822Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
823Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
824Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
825NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
826
827* New debugging protocols
828
829ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
830M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
831DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
832PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
833PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
834Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
835
836* DWARF 2
837
838All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
839format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
840information.
841
842* Java frontend
843
844GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
845only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
846
847* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
848
849For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
850loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
851locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
852
853* Live range splitting
854
855GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
856range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
857more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
858
859* Hurd support
860
861GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
862updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
863
864* ARM Thumb support
865
866GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
867instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
868instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
869accordingly.
870
871* MIPS16 support
872
873GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
874instruction set.
875
876* Overlay support
877
878GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
879linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
880will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
881control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
882additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
883in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
884
885* info symbol
886
887The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
888the symbol at the specified address.
889
890* Trace support
891
892The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
893asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
894extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
895includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
896file tracepoint.c for more details.
897
898* MIPS simulator
899
900Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
901by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
902of most MIPS variants.
903
904* Sparc simulator
905
906Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
907by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
908Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
909
910* set architecture
911
912For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
913basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
914architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
915the possible architectures.
916
917*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
918
919* New native configurations
920
921Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
922M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
923PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
924PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
925PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
926RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
927
928* New targets
929
930ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
931I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
932MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
933MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
934PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
935Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
936Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
937
938* PowerPC simulator
939
940The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
941contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
942PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
943basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
944performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
945
946* Solaris 2.5
947
948GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
949
950* Windows 95/NT native
951
952GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
953To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
954which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
955Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
956ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
957
958* dont-repeat command
959
960If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
961command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
962useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
963extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
964
965* Send break instead of ^C
966
967The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
968rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
969GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
970
971* Remote protocol timeout
972
973The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
974that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
975to read from the target. The default value is 2.
976
977* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
978
979By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
980loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
981stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
982when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
983in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
984
985Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
986/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
987automatically on hpux10.
988
989* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
990
991Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
992
993* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
994
995When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
996may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
997the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
998every character. The default value is 1050.
999
1000* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1001
1002If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1003a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1004replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1005details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1006remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1007to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1008
1009* Speedups for remote debugging
1010
1011GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1012the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1013and more efficient S-record downloading.
1014
1015* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1016
1017GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1018Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1019
1020*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1021
1022* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1023
1024The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1025can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1026
1027* Remote targets use caching
1028
1029Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1030remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1031it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1032debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1033off' turns the the data cache off.
1034
1035* Remote targets may have threads
1036
1037The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1038in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1039gdb/remote.c for details.
1040
1041* NetROM support
1042
1043If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1044support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1045acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1046write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1047support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1048another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1049sequence is something like
1050
1051 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1052 load <prog>
1053 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1054
1055* Macintosh host
1056
1057GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1058may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1059it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1060available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1061device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1062directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1063scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1064mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1065
1066* Autoconf
1067
1068GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1069but does simplify configuration and building.
1070
1071* hpux10
1072
1073GDB now supports hpux10.
1074
1075*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1076
1077* New native configurations
1078
1079x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1080x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1081NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1082Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1083
1084* New targets
1085
1086A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1087HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1088CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1089PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1090WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1091
1092* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1093
1094GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1095possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1096filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1097the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1098if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1099
1100* Arguments to user-defined commands
1101
1102User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1103Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1104trivial example:
1105define adder
1106 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1107
1108To execute the command use:
1109adder 1 2 3
1110
1111Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1112Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1113use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1114
1115* New `if' and `while' commands
1116
1117This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1118commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1119expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1120execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1121terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1122`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1123if the expression is zero.
1124
1125* Fortran source language mode
1126
1127GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1128Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1129variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1130with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1131Fortran compilers.
1132
1133* Better HPUX support
1134
1135Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1136running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1137processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1138for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1139that behavior do the following before running the program:
1140
1141 adb -w a.out
1142 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1143 control-d
1144
1145This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1146To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1147
1148 adb -w a.out
1149 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1150 control-d
1151
1152You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1153the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1154external linkage.
1155
1156GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1157HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1158
1159* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1160
1161You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1162commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1163current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1164"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1165associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1166configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1167
1168* New DOS host serial code
1169
1170This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1171no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1172a PC's serial port.
1173
1174*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1175
1176* New "complete" command
1177
1178This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1179were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1180
1181* Trailing space optional in prompt
1182
1183"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1184allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1185
1186* Breakpoint hit counts
1187
1188"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1189has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1190can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1191to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1192less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1193that breakpoint.
1194
1195* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1196
1197"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1198an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1199arrays actually contain only short strings.
1200
1201* Shared library breakpoints
1202
1203In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1204breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1205
1206* Hardware watchpoints
1207
1208There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1209targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1210
55241689 1211Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1212
1213* Annotations
1214
1215Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1216and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1217
1218* Improved Irix 5 support
1219
1220GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1221
1222* Improved HPPA support
1223
1224GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1225
1226* New native configurations
1227
1228Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1229HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1230Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1231RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1232
1233* New targets
1234
1235OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1236MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1237Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1238
1239* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1240
1241There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1242This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1243
1244* Fixes
1245
1246As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1247and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1248
1249*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1250
1251* Irix 5 is now supported
1252
1253* HPPA support
1254
1255GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1256to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1257GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1258of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1259can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1260
1261
1262*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1263
1264* User visible changes:
1265
1266* Remote Debugging
1267
1268The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1269target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1270debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1271integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1272debugging info for the mips target).
1273
1274* DEC Alpha native support
1275
1276GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1277debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1278work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1279Alpha-specific notes.
1280
1281* Preliminary thread implementation
1282
1283GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1284
1285* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1286
1287This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1288to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1289for details).
1290
1291* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1292
1293This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1294mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1295call methods, ...etc.
1296
1297*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1298
1299 * User visible changes:
1300
1301Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1302supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1303other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1304somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1305
1306Filename completion now works.
1307
1308When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1309arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1310addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1311
1312All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1313vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1314should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1315your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1316to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1317
1318 * DEC alpha support
1319
1320This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1321cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1322
1323
1324*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1325
1326 * Testsuite
1327
1328This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1329The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1330via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1331
1332 * C++ demangling
1333
1334'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1335emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1336Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1337disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1338use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1339
1340 * Simulators
1341
1342GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1343So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1344Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1345
1346 * New targets supported
1347
1348H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1349H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1350SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1351Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1352IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1353
1354Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1355version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1356GO32 memory extender.
1357
1358 * New remote protocols
1359
1360MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1361
1362 * New source languages supported
1363
1364This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1365used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1366into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1367
1368
1369*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1370
1371 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1372
1373GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1374version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1375University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1376compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1377format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1378(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1379
1380Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1381
1382 * Faster and better demangling
1383
1384We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1385demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1386character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1387only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1388This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1389increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1390symbol lookups.
1391
1392`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1393from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1394compiler does not actually implement.
1395
1396 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1397
1398In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1399inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1400recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1401very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1402The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1403circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1404fix.
1405
1406The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1407release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1408
1409 * Improved configure script
1410
1411The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1412you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1413host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1414done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1415
1416We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1417version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1418`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1419The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1420only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1421We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1422
1423 * Documentation improvements
1424
1425There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1426produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1427before submitting changes.
1428
1429The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1430M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1431`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1432you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1433a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1434
1435*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1436We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1437been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1438or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1439`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1440around this problem.
1441
1442 * New features
1443
1444GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1445the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1446`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1447the target program.
1448
1449The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1450how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1451
1452 * New native hosts supported
1453
1454HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1455386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1456
1457 * New targets supported
1458
1459AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1460
1461 * New file formats supported
1462
1463BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1464HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1465
1466 * Major bug fixes
1467
1468Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1469
1470We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1471printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1472
1473We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1474for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1475release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1476
1477You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1478will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1479
1480We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1481for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1482especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1483libraries.
1484
1485The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1486information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1487command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1488any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1489when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1490
1491 * Internal improvements
1492
1493GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1494debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1495
1496GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1497Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1498symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1499contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1500shared code that handles any of them.
1501
1502 * New command line options
1503
1504We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1505
1506 * Mmalloc licensing
1507
1508The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1509General Public License.
1510
1511*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1512
1513 * Host/native/target split
1514
1515GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1516hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1517target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1518local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1519ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1520
1521The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1522GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1523is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1524code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1525any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1526built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1527handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1528
1529GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1530It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1531plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1532
1533 * New hosts supported
1534
1535HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1536386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1537386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1538
1539 * New targets supported
1540
1541Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
154268030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1543
1544 * New native hosts supported
1545
1546386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1547 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1548386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1549
1550 * New file formats supported
1551
1552BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1553supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1554format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1555
1556 * New commands
1557
1558`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1559`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1560These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1561
1562`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1563
1564You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1565scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1566prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1567executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1568
1569 * C++ improvements
1570
1571We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1572info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1573symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1574
1575Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1576
1577 * Major bug fixes
1578
1579The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1580fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1581by the compiler.
1582
1583We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1584support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1585
1586John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1587slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1588that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1589purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1590the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1591mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1592
1593Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1594about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1595completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1596we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1597
1598 * AMD 29k support
1599
1600A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1601specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1602calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1603usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1604in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1605
1606We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1607Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1608of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1609resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1610
1611 * Remote interfaces
1612
1613We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1614with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1615message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1616This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1617needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1618breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1619each instruction being stepped through.
1620
1621The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1622registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1623
1624There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1625find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1626Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1627processor with a serial port.
1628
1629 * Configuration
1630
1631Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1632`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1633supported, and what files each one uses.
1634
1635 * Library changes
1636
1637There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1638disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1639Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1640disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1641
1642The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1643Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1644can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1645grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1646
1647 * Documentation
1648
1649The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1650reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1651as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1652encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1653system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1654bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1655
1656And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1657
1658
1659*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1660
1661 * Better support for C++ function names
1662
1663GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1664names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1665(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1666single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1667Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1668
1669GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1670the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1671You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1672lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1673for the list of formats.
1674
1675 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1676
1677Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1678C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1679directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1680can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1681usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1682about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1683this problem.)
1684
1685 * New 'maintenance' command
1686
1687All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1688the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1689can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1690
1691 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1692 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1693 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1694 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1695 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1696 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1697
1698The following commands are new:
1699
1700 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1701 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1702 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1703
1704 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1705
1706We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1707(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1708be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1709read after argv processing.
1710
1711 * New hosts supported
1712
1713Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1714
55241689 1715GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
1716
1717We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1718is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1719for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1720masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1721fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1722It costs extra.
1723
1724 * New targets supported
1725
1726Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1727
1728 * More smarts about finding #include files
1729
1730GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1731all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1732greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1733especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1734the one that contains your sources.
1735
1736We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1737breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1738try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1739
1740 * Interesting infernals change
1741
1742GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1743section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1744target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1745stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1746
1747 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1748
1749There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1750 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1751 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1752
1753See the ChangeLog for details.
1754
1755*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1756
1757 * New machines supported (host and target)
1758
1759IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1760
1761SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1762
1763 * New malloc package
1764
1765GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1766Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1767capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1768This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1769pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1770more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1771
1772 * info proc
1773
1774The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1775'help info proc' for details.
1776
1777 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1778
1779The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1780Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1781possible.
1782
1783 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1784
1785Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1786support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1787conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1788environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1789that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1790in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1791
1792 * Cross byte order fixes
1793
1794Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1795targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1796
1797 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1798
1799If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1800system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1801`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1802program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1803called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1804Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1805and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1806the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1807option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1808starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1809
1810You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1811the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1812information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1813slower, but makes future operations faster.
1814
1815The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1816build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1817A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1818use is:
1819
1820 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1821
1822The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1823It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1824shared across multiple host platforms.
1825
1826 * longjmp() handling
1827
1828GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1829siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1830all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1831platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1832
1833 * Solaris 2.0
1834
1835Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1836this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1837reading symbols.
1838
1839 * Bug fixes
1840
1841As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1842People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1843crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1844
1845*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1846
1847 * New machines supported (host and target)
1848
1849SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1850 (except core files)
1851BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1852Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1853
1854 * New machines supported (target)
1855
1856AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1857
1858 * C++ support
1859
1860GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1861The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1862per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1863
1864GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1865`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1866extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1867good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1868will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1869released.
1870
1871 * New features for SVR4
1872
1873GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1874shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1875only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1876
1877The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1878on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1879it prints the address mappings of the process.
1880
1881If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1882bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1883
1884 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1885
1886Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1887now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1888skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1889make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1890same code linked statically.
1891
1892 * New Getopt
1893
1894GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1895version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1896continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1897Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1898added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1899future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1900
1901 * Bugs fixed
1902
1903The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1904Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1905See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1906
1907
1908*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1909
1910 * New machines supported (host and target)
1911
1912Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1913NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1914Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1915
1916 * Almost SCO Unix support
1917
1918We had hoped to support:
1919SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1920(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1921that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1922about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1923
1924 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1925
1926GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1927debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1928is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1929send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1930reqired (if any).
1931
1932 * New Readline
1933
1934GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1935is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1936required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1937
1938 * Bugs fixed
1939
1940The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1941Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1942See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1943
1944 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1945
1946GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1947supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1948symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1949
1950Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1951mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1952debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1953mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1954version 2.
1955
1956Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1957really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1958line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1959variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1960situation somewhat.
1961
1962When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1963However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1964methods.
1965
1966We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1967DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1968encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1969
1970
1971*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1972
1973 * Improved configuration
1974
1975Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1976Porting BFD is simpler.
1977
1978 * Stepping improved
1979
1980The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1981of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1982in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1983function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1984
1985 * Bug fixing
1986
1987Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1988
1989 * New host supported (not target)
1990
1991Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1992
1993
1994*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1995
1996 * Multiple source language support
1997
1998GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1999It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2000and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2001language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2002You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2003`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2004
2005 * GDB and Modula-2
2006
2007GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2008currently under development at the State University of New York at
2009Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2010continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2011
2012Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2013debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2014symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2015
2016There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2017in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2018
2019 * set write on/off
2020
2021GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2022a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2023the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2024by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2025effect immediately.
2026
2027 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2028
2029When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2030shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2031The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2032examining core files.
2033
2034 * set listsize
2035
2036You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2037The default is 10.
2038
2039 * New machines supported (host and target)
2040
2041SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2042Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2043Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2044
2045 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2046
2047IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2048
2049 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2050
2051AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2052AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2053Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2054
2055 * New remote interfaces
2056
2057AMD 29000 Adapt
2058AMD 29000 Minimon
2059
2060
2061*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2062
2063 * New Facilities
2064
2065Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2066
2067Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2068target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2069is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2070remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2071remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2072also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2073using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2074stub on the target system.
2075
2076New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2077
2078GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2079library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2080object file types such as a.out and coff.
2081
2082There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2083refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2084
2085
2086 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2087
2088All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2089by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2090
2091For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2092``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2093Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2094
2095What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2096print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2097will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2098all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2099
2100confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2101 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2102 it is already running. Default is ON.
2103
2104editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2105 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2106 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2107 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2108 Default is ON.
2109
2110history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2111 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2112 or the value of the environment variable
2113 GDBHISTFILE.
2114
2115history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2116 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2117 HISTSIZE.
2118
2119history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2120 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2121 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2122
2123history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2124 history expansion will be performed on
2125 command line input. The default is OFF.
2126
2127radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2128 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2129 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2130
2131height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2132 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2133 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2134 variable TERM.
2135
2136width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2137 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2138 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2139 variable TERM.
2140
2141Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2142``set width'' instead.
2143
2144print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2145 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2146 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2147 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2148
2149print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2150 is OFF.
2151
2152print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2153 "raw" form if off.
2154
2155print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2156 like instructions.
2157
2158print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2159
2160
2161 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2162
2163The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2164new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2165are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2166window.
2167
2168
2169 * Support for Shared Libraries
2170
2171GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2172Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2173before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2174happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2175At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2176from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2177shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2178It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2179
2180sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2181 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2182 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2183
2184info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2185
2186
2187 * Watchpoints
2188
2189A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2190expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2191tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2192quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2193problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2194more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2195
2196watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2197
2198info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2199
2200delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2201disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2202enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2203
2204
2205 * C++ multiple inheritance
2206
2207When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2208for C++ programs.
2209
2210 * C++ exception handling
2211
2212Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2213ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2214the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2215handler's context).
2216
2217catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2218 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2219 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2220
2221info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2222 current stack frame.
2223
2224
2225 * Minor command changes
2226
2227The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2228command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2229is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2230
2231The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2232at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2233frames without printing.
2234
2235 * New directory command
2236
2237'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2238The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2239about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2240with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2241find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2242
2243 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2244
2245For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2246for more details.
2247
2248GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2249two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2250Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2251where the program that you are debugging will run.
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