2003-12-01 Michael Chastain <mec.gnu@mindspring.com>
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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c906108c
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.0:
5
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6* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
7
8GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
9arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
10encountered these.
11
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12* New native configurations
13
14NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
15
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16* New debugging protocols
17
18M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
19
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20* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
21
22The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
23and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
24tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
25
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26* OBSOLETE configurations and files
27
28Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
29been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
30configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
31permanently REMOVED.
32
33Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
34Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
35Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
36Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
37Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
38AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
39Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
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40decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
41riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
42sonymips mips-sony-*
43sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 44
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45* REMOVED configurations and files
46
47SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
48SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
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49Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
50Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
51H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
52HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
53HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
54HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
55PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
56Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
57 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
58 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
59Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
60Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 61
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62*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
63
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64* Objective-C
65
66Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
67integrated into GDB.
68
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69* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
70
71DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
72information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
73By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
74backtraces.
75
76The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
77have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
78DWARF 2 CFI support.
79
80* Hosted file I/O.
81
82GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
83file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
84remote protocol documentation for details.
85
86* All targets using the new architecture framework.
87
88All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
89architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
90to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
91ppc32 on ppc64).
92
93* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
94
95GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
96per-thread variables.
97
98* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
99
100GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
101GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
102
103* Separate debug info.
104
105GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
106automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
107of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
108system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
109and optional debug files.
110
111* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
112
113DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
114describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
115debugger.
116
117GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
118for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
119
120* Java
121
122A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
123Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
124considered "useable".
125
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126* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
127
128The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
129commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
130kernel.
131
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132* GDB supports logging output to a file
133
134There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
135used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 136
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137* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
138
139The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
140disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
141command.
142
e286caf2 143* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
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144
145The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
146registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
147
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148* Profiling support
149
150A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
151be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
152session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
153"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
154data, for more informative profiling results.
155
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156* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
157
158The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
159option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 160"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
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161
162Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
163removed.
164
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165Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
166Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
167Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
168 in a subsequent -var-update.
169
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170* New native configurations.
171
172FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
173
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174* Multi-arched targets.
175
b4263afa 176HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 177Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 178
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179* OBSOLETE configurations and files
180
181Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
182been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
183configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
184permanently REMOVED.
185
8b0e5691 186Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 187Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 188H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
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189HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
190HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
191HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 192PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
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193Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
194 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
195 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
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196Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
197Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 198
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199* REMOVED configurations and files
200
201V850EA ISA
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202Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
203IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
204i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
205i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
206i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
207HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
208 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
209 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
210Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
211Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
212Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
213OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
214I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 215
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216* MIPS $fp behavior changed
217
218The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
219the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
220context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
221address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
222The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
223
299ffc64 224*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 225
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226* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
227
228When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
229`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
230in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
231library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
232shared libs like mad''.
233
b9d14705 234* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 235
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236Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
237the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
238arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
239powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 240
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241* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
242
243GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
244and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
245they expand.
246
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247The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
248invocations in expression, and shows the result.
249
250The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
251macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
252
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253Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
254information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
255your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
256information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
257
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258* Multi-arched targets.
259
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260DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
261DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 262NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 263National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
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264Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
265Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 266
cd9bfe15 267* New targets.
e33ce519 268
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269Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
270
e33ce519 271
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272* New native configurations
273
274Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 275SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 276MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 277UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 278
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279* OBSOLETE configurations and files
280
281Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
282been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
283configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
284permanently REMOVED.
285
92eb23c5 286Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 287OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 288IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 289Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 290Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 291Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
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292i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
293i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
294i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
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295HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
296 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
297 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 298I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 299
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300* OBSOLETE languages
301
302CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
303
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304* REMOVED configurations and files
305
306AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
307A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
308AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
309AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
310AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
311
312testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
313
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314* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
315
316This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
317commands. The default is 1024.
318
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319* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
320
321Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
322
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323* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
324
325These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
326to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
327from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 328
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329* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
330
331The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
332including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
333of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
334
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335*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
336
337* New targets.
338
339Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
340
341* Bug fixes
342
343gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
344mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
345Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
346
347gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
348dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
349Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
350
351Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
352Surprisingly enough, it works now.
353By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
354
355i386 hardware watchpoint support:
356avoid misses on second run for some targets.
357By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
358
37057839 359*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 360
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361* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
362
363This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
364really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
365In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
366target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
367This can be a significant performance improvement on some
368(notably embedded) targets.
369
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370* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
371
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372This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
373process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
374GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
375hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 376
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377* New command line option
378
379GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
380
381* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
382
383There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
384command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
385a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
386be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
387open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
388issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
389a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
390it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
391GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
392is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
393
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394* Changes in ARM configurations.
395
396Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
397configuration is fully multi-arch.
398
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399* New native configurations
400
fe419ffc 401ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 402x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 403AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 404Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 405
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406* New targets
407
408Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
409
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410* OBSOLETE configurations and files
411
412Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
413been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
414configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
415permanently REMOVED.
416
417AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
418A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
419AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
420AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
421AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
422
b4ceaee6 423testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 424
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425* REMOVED configurations and files
426
427TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 428WDC 65816 w65-*-*
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429PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
430PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
431PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 432Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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433Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
434 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 435SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 436Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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437Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
438ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 439Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 440
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441* Changes to command line processing
442
443The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
444for the inferior from gdb's command line.
445
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446* Changes to key bindings
447
448There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
449
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450*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
451
452Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
453
454Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
455corrupted.
456
457Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
458
459Numerous documentation fixes.
460
461Numerous testsuite fixes.
462
34f47bc4 463*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
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464
465* New native configurations
466
467Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
468x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 469MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
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470MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
471ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 472s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 473
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474* New targets
475
def90278 476Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 477CRIS cris-axis
55241689 478UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 479
17e78a56 480* OBSOLETE configurations and files
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481
482x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 483Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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484Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
485 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
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486TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
487WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 488Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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489PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
490PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
491PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 492SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
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493Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
494ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 495Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 496
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497stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
498kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
499
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500Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
501been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
502configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
503permanently REMOVED.
504
a196c81c 505* REMOVED configurations and files
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506
507Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
508Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
509Pyramid pyramid-*-*
510ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
511Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 512ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 513
6d6b80e5 514* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 515
6d6b80e5 516GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
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517sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
518present.
519
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520* Other news:
521
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522* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
523
524* The MI enabled by default.
525
526The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
527revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
528engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
529using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
530which is now deprecated.
531
532* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
533
534GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
535main features are supported:
536
537 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
538
539 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
540 extension;
541
542 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
543
544 - a Pascal expression parser.
545
546However, some important features are not yet supported.
547
548 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
549
550 - there are some problems with boolean types;
551
552 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
553 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
554
555 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
556
557 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
558
559* Changes in completion.
560
561Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
562to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
563users expect at the shell prompt.
564
565Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
566`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
567program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
568files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
569be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
570considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
571name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
572
573`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
574
575* New platform-independent commands:
576
577It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
578hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
579documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
580
581* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
582
d7275149
MK
583Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
584revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
585many threads as your system allows you to have.
586
e23194cb
EZ
587Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
588
d7275149
MK
589Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
590multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
591
592* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
593
594Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
595
e23194cb
EZ
596GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
597debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
598supported.)
599
600* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
601
602Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
603breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
604implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
605put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
606and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
607registers.
608
609The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
610debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
611watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
612
613* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
614
615New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
616the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
617
618New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
619display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
620IDT.
621
622New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
623from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
624New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
625a given linear address.
626
627GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
628program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
629which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
630
631DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
632
6c56c069
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633It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
634
e23194cb
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635* Changes in documentation.
636
637All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
638Documentation License.
639
640Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
641manual.
642
643TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
644
645Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
646manual.
647
648The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
649documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
650hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
651
5d6640b1
AC
652* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
653
654The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
655``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
656contents of this file.
657
1a1d8446
AC
658* gdba.el deleted
659
660GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 661
9debab2f 662*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 663
c63ce875
EZ
664* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
665
666Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
667programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
668displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
669greater level of detail.
670
671* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
672
673It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
674bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
675on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
676written.
677
678* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
679
680The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
681necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
682machines ``out of the box''.
683
684The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
685possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
686signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
687would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
688interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
689
690It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
691standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
692even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
693and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
694terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
695
696The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
697enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
698also works.
699
700DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
701GDB.
702
703It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
704directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
705times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
706breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
707
ed9a39eb
JM
708* New native configurations
709
710ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 711PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 712
7a292a7a
SS
713* New targets
714
96baa820 715Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
716x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
717PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
718TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
719
085dd6e6
JM
720* OBSOLETE configurations
721
722Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
723Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 724Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 725ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 726Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 727
9debab2f
AC
728Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
729but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
730these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
731be permanently REMOVED.
732
5330533d
SS
733* Gould support removed
734
735Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
736
bc9e5bbf
AC
737* New features for SVR4
738
739On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
740without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
741load symbols from the running process's executable file.
742
743* Many C++ enhancements
744
745C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
746in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
747
adf40b2e
JM
748* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
749
750A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
751sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
752with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
753``|<program> <args>'' vis:
754
755 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
756 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
757
43e526b9
JM
758* MIPS 64 remote protocol
759
760A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
761expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
762instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
763
764The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
765added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
766
96baa820
JM
767* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
768
769The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
770``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
771include ``set remote P-packet''.
772
11cf8741
JM
773* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
774
775The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
776accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
777``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
778
7876dd43
DB
779* ``apropos'' command added.
780
781The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
782documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
783try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
784
bc9e5bbf
AC
785* New MI interface
786
787A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
788interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
789process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
790"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
791enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
792
793 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
794
c906108c
SS
795*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
796
797* New native configurations
798
799HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
800HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 801M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
802
803* New targets
804
805Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
806Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
807Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
808
809* OBSOLETE configurations
810
811Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
812
813Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
814but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
815these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
816be permanently REMOVED.
817
818* ANSI/ISO C
819
820As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
821buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
822containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
823use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
824available. If this is not true, please report the affected
825configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
826information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
827already.
828
829* Readline 2.2
830
831GDB now uses readline 2.2.
832
833* set extension-language
834
835You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
836languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
837you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
838 set extension-language .c c++
839The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
840and their associated languages.
841
842* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
843
844When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
845you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
846PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
847
848 set processor NAME
849
850sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
851following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
852
853 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
854 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
855 403 IBM PowerPC 403
856 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
857 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
858 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
859 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
860 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
861 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
862 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
863 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
864
865At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
866special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
867registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
868only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
869
870* HP-UX support
871
872Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
873more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
874library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
875support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
876for xdb and dbx commands.
877
878* Catchpoints
879
880HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
881generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
882to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
883
884This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
885argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
886output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
887
888* Debugging across forks
889
890On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
891in the inferior.
892
893* TUI
894
895HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
896it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
897configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
898
899* GDB remote protocol additions
900
901A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
902Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
903fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
904allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
905
906For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
907full 64-bit address. The command
908
909 set remoteaddresssize 32
910
911can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
912the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
913will be discarded.
914
915In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
916command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
917
918 maint packet heythere
919
920sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
921disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
922time.
923
924The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
925target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
926downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
927
928* Tracing can collect general expressions
929
930You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
931further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
932doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
933
934* mask-address variable for Mips
935
936For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
937a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
938of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
939
940* Higher serial baud rates
941
942GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
943230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
944to achieve all of these rates.)
945
946* i960 simulator
947
948The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
949builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
950
951
952*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
953
954* New native configurations
955
956Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
957Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
958Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
959PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
960PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
961Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
962Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
963
964* New targets
965
966Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
967Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
968Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
969Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
970MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
971MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
972MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
973Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
974Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
975Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
976NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
977
978* New debugging protocols
979
980ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
981M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
982DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
983PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
984PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
985Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
986
987* DWARF 2
988
989All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
990format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
991information.
992
993* Java frontend
994
995GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
996only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
997
998* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
999
1000For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1001loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1002locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1003
1004* Live range splitting
1005
1006GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1007range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1008more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1009
1010* Hurd support
1011
1012GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1013updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1014
1015* ARM Thumb support
1016
1017GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1018instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1019instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1020accordingly.
1021
1022* MIPS16 support
1023
1024GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1025instruction set.
1026
1027* Overlay support
1028
1029GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1030linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1031will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1032control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1033additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1034in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1035
1036* info symbol
1037
1038The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1039the symbol at the specified address.
1040
1041* Trace support
1042
1043The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1044asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1045extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1046includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1047file tracepoint.c for more details.
1048
1049* MIPS simulator
1050
1051Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1052by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1053of most MIPS variants.
1054
1055* Sparc simulator
1056
1057Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1058by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1059Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1060
1061* set architecture
1062
1063For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1064basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1065architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1066the possible architectures.
1067
1068*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1069
1070* New native configurations
1071
1072Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1073M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1074PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1075PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1076PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1077RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1078
1079* New targets
1080
1081ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1082I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1083MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1084MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1085PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1086Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
1087Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1088
1089* PowerPC simulator
1090
1091The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1092contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1093PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1094basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1095performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1096
1097* Solaris 2.5
1098
1099GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1100
1101* Windows 95/NT native
1102
1103GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1104To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1105which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1106Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1107ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1108
1109* dont-repeat command
1110
1111If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1112command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1113useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1114extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1115
1116* Send break instead of ^C
1117
1118The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1119rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1120GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1121
1122* Remote protocol timeout
1123
1124The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1125that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1126to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1127
1128* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1129
1130By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1131loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1132stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1133when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1134in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1135
1136Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1137/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1138automatically on hpux10.
1139
1140* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1141
1142Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1143
1144* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1145
1146When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1147may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1148the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1149every character. The default value is 1050.
1150
1151* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1152
1153If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1154a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1155replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1156details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1157remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1158to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1159
1160* Speedups for remote debugging
1161
1162GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1163the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1164and more efficient S-record downloading.
1165
1166* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1167
1168GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1169Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1170
1171*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1172
1173* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1174
1175The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1176can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1177
1178* Remote targets use caching
1179
1180Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1181remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1182it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1183debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1184off' turns the the data cache off.
1185
1186* Remote targets may have threads
1187
1188The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1189in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1190gdb/remote.c for details.
1191
1192* NetROM support
1193
1194If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1195support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1196acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1197write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1198support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1199another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1200sequence is something like
1201
1202 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1203 load <prog>
1204 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1205
1206* Macintosh host
1207
1208GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1209may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1210it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1211available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1212device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1213directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1214scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1215mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1216
1217* Autoconf
1218
1219GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1220but does simplify configuration and building.
1221
1222* hpux10
1223
1224GDB now supports hpux10.
1225
1226*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1227
1228* New native configurations
1229
1230x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1231x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1232NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1233Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1234
1235* New targets
1236
1237A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1238HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1239CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1240PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1241WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1242
1243* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1244
1245GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1246possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1247filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1248the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1249if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1250
1251* Arguments to user-defined commands
1252
1253User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1254Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1255trivial example:
1256define adder
1257 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1258
1259To execute the command use:
1260adder 1 2 3
1261
1262Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1263Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1264use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1265
1266* New `if' and `while' commands
1267
1268This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1269commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1270expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1271execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1272terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1273`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1274if the expression is zero.
1275
1276* Fortran source language mode
1277
1278GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1279Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1280variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1281with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1282Fortran compilers.
1283
1284* Better HPUX support
1285
1286Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1287running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1288processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1289for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1290that behavior do the following before running the program:
1291
1292 adb -w a.out
1293 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1294 control-d
1295
1296This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1297To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1298
1299 adb -w a.out
1300 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1301 control-d
1302
1303You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1304the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1305external linkage.
1306
1307GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1308HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1309
1310* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1311
1312You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1313commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1314current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1315"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1316associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1317configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1318
1319* New DOS host serial code
1320
1321This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1322no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1323a PC's serial port.
1324
1325*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1326
1327* New "complete" command
1328
1329This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1330were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1331
1332* Trailing space optional in prompt
1333
1334"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1335allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1336
1337* Breakpoint hit counts
1338
1339"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1340has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1341can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1342to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1343less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1344that breakpoint.
1345
1346* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1347
1348"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1349an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1350arrays actually contain only short strings.
1351
1352* Shared library breakpoints
1353
1354In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1355breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1356
1357* Hardware watchpoints
1358
1359There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1360targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1361
55241689 1362Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1363
1364* Annotations
1365
1366Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1367and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1368
1369* Improved Irix 5 support
1370
1371GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1372
1373* Improved HPPA support
1374
1375GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1376
1377* New native configurations
1378
1379Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1380HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1381Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1382RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1383
1384* New targets
1385
1386OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1387MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1388Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1389
1390* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1391
1392There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1393This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1394
1395* Fixes
1396
1397As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1398and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1399
1400*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1401
1402* Irix 5 is now supported
1403
1404* HPPA support
1405
1406GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1407to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1408GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1409of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1410can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1411
1412
1413*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1414
1415* User visible changes:
1416
1417* Remote Debugging
1418
1419The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1420target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1421debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1422integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1423debugging info for the mips target).
1424
1425* DEC Alpha native support
1426
1427GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1428debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1429work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1430Alpha-specific notes.
1431
1432* Preliminary thread implementation
1433
1434GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1435
1436* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1437
1438This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1439to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1440for details).
1441
1442* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1443
1444This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1445mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1446call methods, ...etc.
1447
1448*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1449
1450 * User visible changes:
1451
1452Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1453supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1454other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1455somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1456
1457Filename completion now works.
1458
1459When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1460arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1461addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1462
1463All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1464vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1465should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1466your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1467to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1468
1469 * DEC alpha support
1470
1471This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1472cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1473
1474
1475*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1476
1477 * Testsuite
1478
1479This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1480The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1481via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1482
1483 * C++ demangling
1484
1485'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1486emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1487Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1488disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1489use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1490
1491 * Simulators
1492
1493GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1494So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1495Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1496
1497 * New targets supported
1498
1499H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1500H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1501SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1502Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1503IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1504
1505Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1506version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1507GO32 memory extender.
1508
1509 * New remote protocols
1510
1511MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1512
1513 * New source languages supported
1514
1515This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1516used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1517into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1518
1519
1520*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1521
1522 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1523
1524GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1525version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1526University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1527compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1528format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1529(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1530
1531Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1532
1533 * Faster and better demangling
1534
1535We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1536demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1537character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1538only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1539This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1540increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1541symbol lookups.
1542
1543`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1544from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1545compiler does not actually implement.
1546
1547 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1548
1549In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1550inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1551recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1552very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1553The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1554circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1555fix.
1556
1557The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1558release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1559
1560 * Improved configure script
1561
1562The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1563you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1564host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1565done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1566
1567We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1568version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1569`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1570The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1571only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1572We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1573
1574 * Documentation improvements
1575
1576There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1577produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1578before submitting changes.
1579
1580The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1581M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1582`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1583you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1584a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1585
1586*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1587We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1588been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1589or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1590`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1591around this problem.
1592
1593 * New features
1594
1595GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1596the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1597`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1598the target program.
1599
1600The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1601how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1602
1603 * New native hosts supported
1604
1605HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1606386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1607
1608 * New targets supported
1609
1610AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1611
1612 * New file formats supported
1613
1614BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1615HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1616
1617 * Major bug fixes
1618
1619Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1620
1621We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1622printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1623
1624We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1625for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1626release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1627
1628You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1629will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1630
1631We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1632for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1633especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1634libraries.
1635
1636The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1637information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1638command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1639any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1640when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1641
1642 * Internal improvements
1643
1644GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1645debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1646
1647GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1648Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1649symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1650contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1651shared code that handles any of them.
1652
1653 * New command line options
1654
1655We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1656
1657 * Mmalloc licensing
1658
1659The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1660General Public License.
1661
1662*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1663
1664 * Host/native/target split
1665
1666GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1667hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1668target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1669local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1670ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1671
1672The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1673GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1674is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1675code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1676any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1677built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1678handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1679
1680GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1681It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1682plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1683
1684 * New hosts supported
1685
1686HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1687386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1688386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1689
1690 * New targets supported
1691
1692Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
169368030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1694
1695 * New native hosts supported
1696
1697386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1698 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1699386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1700
1701 * New file formats supported
1702
1703BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1704supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1705format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1706
1707 * New commands
1708
1709`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1710`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1711These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1712
1713`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1714
1715You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1716scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1717prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1718executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1719
1720 * C++ improvements
1721
1722We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1723info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1724symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1725
1726Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1727
1728 * Major bug fixes
1729
1730The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1731fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1732by the compiler.
1733
1734We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1735support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1736
1737John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1738slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1739that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1740purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1741the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1742mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1743
1744Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1745about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1746completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1747we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1748
1749 * AMD 29k support
1750
1751A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1752specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1753calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1754usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1755in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1756
1757We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1758Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1759of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1760resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1761
1762 * Remote interfaces
1763
1764We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1765with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1766message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1767This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1768needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1769breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1770each instruction being stepped through.
1771
1772The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1773registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1774
1775There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1776find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1777Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1778processor with a serial port.
1779
1780 * Configuration
1781
1782Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1783`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1784supported, and what files each one uses.
1785
1786 * Library changes
1787
1788There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1789disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1790Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1791disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1792
1793The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1794Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1795can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1796grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1797
1798 * Documentation
1799
1800The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1801reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1802as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1803encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1804system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1805bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1806
1807And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1808
1809
1810*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1811
1812 * Better support for C++ function names
1813
1814GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1815names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1816(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1817single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1818Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1819
1820GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1821the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1822You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1823lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1824for the list of formats.
1825
1826 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1827
1828Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1829C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1830directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1831can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1832usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1833about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1834this problem.)
1835
1836 * New 'maintenance' command
1837
1838All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1839the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1840can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1841
1842 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1843 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1844 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1845 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1846 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1847 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1848
1849The following commands are new:
1850
1851 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1852 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1853 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1854
1855 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1856
1857We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1858(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1859be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1860read after argv processing.
1861
1862 * New hosts supported
1863
1864Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1865
55241689 1866GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
1867
1868We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1869is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1870for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1871masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1872fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1873It costs extra.
1874
1875 * New targets supported
1876
1877Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1878
1879 * More smarts about finding #include files
1880
1881GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1882all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1883greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1884especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1885the one that contains your sources.
1886
1887We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1888breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1889try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1890
1891 * Interesting infernals change
1892
1893GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1894section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1895target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1896stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1897
1898 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1899
1900There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1901 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1902 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1903
1904See the ChangeLog for details.
1905
1906*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1907
1908 * New machines supported (host and target)
1909
1910IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1911
1912SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1913
1914 * New malloc package
1915
1916GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1917Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1918capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1919This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1920pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1921more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1922
1923 * info proc
1924
1925The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1926'help info proc' for details.
1927
1928 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1929
1930The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1931Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1932possible.
1933
1934 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1935
1936Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1937support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1938conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1939environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1940that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1941in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1942
1943 * Cross byte order fixes
1944
1945Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1946targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1947
1948 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1949
1950If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1951system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1952`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1953program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1954called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1955Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1956and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1957the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1958option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1959starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1960
1961You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1962the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1963information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1964slower, but makes future operations faster.
1965
1966The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1967build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1968A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1969use is:
1970
1971 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1972
1973The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1974It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1975shared across multiple host platforms.
1976
1977 * longjmp() handling
1978
1979GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1980siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1981all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1982platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1983
1984 * Solaris 2.0
1985
1986Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1987this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1988reading symbols.
1989
1990 * Bug fixes
1991
1992As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1993People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1994crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1995
1996*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1997
1998 * New machines supported (host and target)
1999
2000SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2001 (except core files)
2002BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2003Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2004
2005 * New machines supported (target)
2006
2007AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2008
2009 * C++ support
2010
2011GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2012The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2013per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2014
2015GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2016`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2017extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2018good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2019will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2020released.
2021
2022 * New features for SVR4
2023
2024GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2025shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2026only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2027
2028The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2029on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2030it prints the address mappings of the process.
2031
2032If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2033bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2034
2035 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2036
2037Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2038now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2039skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2040make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2041same code linked statically.
2042
2043 * New Getopt
2044
2045GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2046version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2047continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2048Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2049added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2050future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2051
2052 * Bugs fixed
2053
2054The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2055Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2056See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2057
2058
2059*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2060
2061 * New machines supported (host and target)
2062
2063Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2064NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2065Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2066
2067 * Almost SCO Unix support
2068
2069We had hoped to support:
2070SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2071(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2072that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2073about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2074
2075 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2076
2077GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2078debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2079is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2080send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2081reqired (if any).
2082
2083 * New Readline
2084
2085GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2086is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2087required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2088
2089 * Bugs fixed
2090
2091The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2092Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2093See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2094
2095 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2096
2097GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2098supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2099symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2100
2101Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2102mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2103debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2104mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2105version 2.
2106
2107Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2108really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2109line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2110variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2111situation somewhat.
2112
2113When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2114However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2115methods.
2116
2117We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2118DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2119encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2120
2121
2122*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2123
2124 * Improved configuration
2125
2126Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2127Porting BFD is simpler.
2128
2129 * Stepping improved
2130
2131The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2132of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2133in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2134function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2135
2136 * Bug fixing
2137
2138Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2139
2140 * New host supported (not target)
2141
2142Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2143
2144
2145*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2146
2147 * Multiple source language support
2148
2149GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2150It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2151and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2152language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2153You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2154`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2155
2156 * GDB and Modula-2
2157
2158GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2159currently under development at the State University of New York at
2160Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2161continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2162
2163Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2164debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2165symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2166
2167There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2168in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2169
2170 * set write on/off
2171
2172GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2173a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2174the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2175by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2176effect immediately.
2177
2178 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2179
2180When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2181shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2182The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2183examining core files.
2184
2185 * set listsize
2186
2187You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2188The default is 10.
2189
2190 * New machines supported (host and target)
2191
2192SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2193Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2194Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2195
2196 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2197
2198IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2199
2200 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2201
2202AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2203AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2204Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2205
2206 * New remote interfaces
2207
2208AMD 29000 Adapt
2209AMD 29000 Minimon
2210
2211
2212*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2213
2214 * New Facilities
2215
2216Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2217
2218Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2219target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2220is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2221remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2222remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2223also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2224using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2225stub on the target system.
2226
2227New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2228
2229GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2230library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2231object file types such as a.out and coff.
2232
2233There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2234refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2235
2236
2237 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2238
2239All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2240by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2241
2242For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2243``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2244Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2245
2246What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2247print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2248will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2249all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2250
2251confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2252 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2253 it is already running. Default is ON.
2254
2255editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2256 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2257 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2258 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2259 Default is ON.
2260
2261history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2262 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2263 or the value of the environment variable
2264 GDBHISTFILE.
2265
2266history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2267 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2268 HISTSIZE.
2269
2270history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2271 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2272 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2273
2274history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2275 history expansion will be performed on
2276 command line input. The default is OFF.
2277
2278radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2279 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2280 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2281
2282height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2283 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2284 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2285 variable TERM.
2286
2287width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2288 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2289 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2290 variable TERM.
2291
2292Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2293``set width'' instead.
2294
2295print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2296 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2297 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2298 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2299
2300print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2301 is OFF.
2302
2303print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2304 "raw" form if off.
2305
2306print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2307 like instructions.
2308
2309print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2310
2311
2312 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2313
2314The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2315new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2316are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2317window.
2318
2319
2320 * Support for Shared Libraries
2321
2322GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2323Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2324before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2325happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2326At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2327from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2328shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2329It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2330
2331sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2332 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2333 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2334
2335info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2336
2337
2338 * Watchpoints
2339
2340A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2341expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2342tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2343quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2344problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2345more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2346
2347watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2348
2349info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2350
2351delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2352disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2353enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2354
2355
2356 * C++ multiple inheritance
2357
2358When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2359for C++ programs.
2360
2361 * C++ exception handling
2362
2363Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2364ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2365the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2366handler's context).
2367
2368catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2369 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2370 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2371
2372info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2373 current stack frame.
2374
2375
2376 * Minor command changes
2377
2378The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2379command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2380is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2381
2382The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2383at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2384frames without printing.
2385
2386 * New directory command
2387
2388'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2389The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2390about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2391with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2392find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2393
2394 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2395
2396For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2397for more details.
2398
2399GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2400two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2401Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2402where the program that you are debugging will run.
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