2010-03-17 Stan Shebs <stan@codesourcery.com>
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 7.1
5
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6* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
7
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8* X86 general purpose registers
9
10 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
11 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
12 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
13 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
14 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
15
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16* Python scripting
17
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18** The GDB Python API now has access to symbols, symbol tables, and
19 frame's code blocks.
20
21** New methods gdb.target_charset and gdb.target_wide_charset.
f3e9a817 22
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23* New targets
24
25ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
26
bfbf3774 27*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 28
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29* C++ Improvements
30
31 ** Namespace Support
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32
33 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
34 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
35 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
36 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
37 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
38
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39 ** Bug Fixes
40
41 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
42 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
43 qualified name.
44
45 ** Cast Operators
46
47 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
48 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
49
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50* New targets
51
52Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 53Renesas RX rx-*-elf
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54
55* New Simulators
56
57Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 58Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 59
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60* Multi-program debugging.
61
62 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
63 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
64 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
65 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
66 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
67 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
68 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
69 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
70
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71* New tracing features
72
73 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
74
75 ** Trace state variables
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76
77 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
78 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
79 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
80 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
81 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
82 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
83 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
84 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
85 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
86 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 87
d5551862 88 ** Fast tracepoints
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89
90 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
91 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
92 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
93 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
94 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
95 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
96 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
97 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
98 the regular trace command.
99
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100 ** Disconnected tracing
101
102 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
103 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
104 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
105 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
106 connection is lost unexpectedly.
107
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108 ** Trace files
109
110 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
111 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
112 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
113 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
114 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
115 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
116 <name>".
117
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118* Changed commands
119
120disassemble
121 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
122 the arguments to be comma-separated.
123
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124info variables
125 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
126 which only declare a variable are not shown.
127
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128source
129 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
130 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
131 support.
132
133 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
134 "set script-extension" (see below).
135
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136* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
137
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138record save [<FILENAME>]
139 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
140 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
141
142record restore <FILENAME>
143 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
144 earlier time, for replay debugging.
145
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146add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
147 Add a new inferior.
148
149clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
150 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
151 inferior has loaded.
152
153remove-inferior ID
154 Remove an inferior.
155
156maint info program-spaces
157 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
158
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159set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
160show remote interrupt-sequence
161 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
162 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
163 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
164 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
165 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
166
167set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
168show remote interrupt-on-connect
169 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
170 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
171 Linux kernel.
172
173set remotebreak [on | off]
174show remotebreak
175Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
176
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177tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
178 Create or modify a trace state variable.
179
180info tvariables
181 List trace state variables and their values.
182
183delete tvariable $NAME ...
184 Delete one or more trace state variables.
185
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186teval EXPR, ...
187 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
188 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
189
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190ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
191 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
192
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193* New expression syntax
194
195 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
196 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
197
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198* New options
199
200set follow-exec-mode new|same
201show follow-exec-mode
202 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
203 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
204 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
205
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206set default-collect EXPR, ...
207show default-collect
208 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
209 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
210 such as registers or a critical global variable.
211
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212set disconnected-tracing
213show disconnected-tracing
214 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
215 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
216 upon disconnection.
217
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218set script-extension off|soft|strict
219show script-extension
220 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
221 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
222 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
223 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
224 evaluation failed.
225 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
226
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227set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
228show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
229 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
230 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
231 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
232 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
233 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
234 is on.
235
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236* Python API Improvements
237
238 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
239 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
240 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
241
242 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
243 `is_base_class' attribute.
244
245 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
246
247 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
248 evaluate an expression.
249
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250* New remote packets
251
252QTDV
253 Define a trace state variable.
254
255qTV
256 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
257
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258QTDisconnected
259 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
260
261qTfP, qTsP
262 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
263
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264* Bug fixes
265
266Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
267
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268Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
269much more reliable. In particular:
270 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
271 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
272 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
273 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
274 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
275 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
276 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
277 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
278 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
279 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
280 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
281 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
282 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
283 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
284 non-threaded programs.
285
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286PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
287This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
288libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
289executable program.
290
abc7453d 291*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 292
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293* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
294dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
295them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
296for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
297"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
298
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299* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
300breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
301or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
302the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
303for tracepoint actions.
304
e6158f16 305* "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
7280022e 306in hex as well as in symbolic form.
e6158f16 307
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308* Process record and replay
309
310 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
311 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
312 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
313 execute commands.
314
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315* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
316step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
317set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
318reverse execution.
319
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320* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
321feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
3222.6.28 or later.
323
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324* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
325target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
326char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
327literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
328U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
329`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
330system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
331the installation instructions for more information.
332
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333* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
334remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
335with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
336the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
337
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338* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
339and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
340
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341* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
342now complete on file names.
343
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344* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
345completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
346For instance, consider:
347
348 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
349 # struct example variable;
350 (gdb) p variable.
351
352If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
353completions will be "f1" and "f2".
354
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355* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
356the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
357
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358* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
359operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
360macros.
361
47a3467a 362* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
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363the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
364implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
365
366* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
367registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
368can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
369and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 370
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371* New remote packets
372
373qSearch:memory:
374 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
375
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376QStartNoAckMode
377 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
378 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
379 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
380
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381vKill
382 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
383 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
384
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385qXfer:osdata:read
386 Obtains additional operating system information
387
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388qXfer:siginfo:read
389qXfer:siginfo:write
390 Read or write additional signal information.
391
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392* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
393
394 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
395 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
396 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
397
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398* The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
399source+assembly.
400
c055b101 401* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 402DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
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403
404* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
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405and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
406`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 407
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408* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
409with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
410
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411* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
412
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413* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
414
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415* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
416which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
417
1fddbabb 418* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 419list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 420
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421* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
422conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
423have also been fixed.
424
bfb8797a 425* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
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426From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
427are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 428
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429* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
430example, given:
431
432 template<typename T> class C { };
433 C<char const *> c;
434
435GDB will now correctly handle all of:
436
437 ptype C<char const *>
438 ptype C<char const*>
439 ptype C<const char *>
440 ptype C<const char*>
441
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442* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
443
444 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
445 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
446
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447 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
448 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
449 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
450
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451 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
452 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
453
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454 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
455 gdbserver.
456
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457 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
458 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
459
460 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
461 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
462 as appropriate.
463
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464* Python scripting
465
466 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
467 available is determined at configure time.
468
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469 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
470
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471* Ada tasking support
472
473 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
474 been introduced:
475
476 info tasks
477 Print the list of Ada tasks.
478 info task N
479 Print detailed information about task number N.
480 task
481 Print the task number of the current task.
482 task N
483 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
484
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485* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
486add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
487
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488* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
489
490 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
491 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
492 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
493 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
494 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
495 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
496 below.
497
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498* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
499"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
500information.
501
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502* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
503to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
504architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
505See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
506more information.
507
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508* Multi-architecture debugging.
509
510 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
511 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
512 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
513 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
514 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
515
516* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
517use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
518Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
519powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
520--enable-targets configure option.
521
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522* Non-stop mode debugging.
523
524 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
525 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
526 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
527 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
528 section in the user manual for more information.
529
530 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
531 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
532 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
533 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
534 extensions on linux targets.
535
d7713ae0 536* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 537
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538catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
539 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
540 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
541 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
542 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
543 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
544 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
545 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
546 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
547
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548find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
549 val1 [, val2, ...]
550 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
551
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552maint set python print-stack
553maint show python print-stack
554 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
555
556python [CODE]
557 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
558
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559macro define
560macro list
561macro undef
562 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
563 interactively.
564
565info os processes
566 Show operating system information about processes.
567
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568info inferiors
569 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
570
571inferior NUM
572 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
573
574detach inferior NUM
575 Detach from inferior number NUM.
576
577kill inferior NUM
578 Kill inferior number NUM.
579
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580* New options
581
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582set spu stop-on-load
583show spu stop-on-load
584 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
585
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586set spu auto-flush-cache
587show spu auto-flush-cache
588 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
589 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
590
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591set sh calling-convention
592show sh calling-convention
593 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
594
e0a3ce09 595set debug timestamp
75feb17d 596show debug timestamp
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597 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
598
599set disassemble-next-line
600show disassemble-next-line
601 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
602 the debuggee stops.
603
604set remote noack-packet
605show remote noack-packet
606 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
607 under "New remote packets."
608
609set remote query-attached-packet
610show remote query-attached-packet
611 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
612
613set remote read-siginfo-object
614show remote read-siginfo-object
615 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
616 packet.
617
618set remote write-siginfo-object
619show remote write-siginfo-object
620 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
621 packet.
622
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623set remote reverse-continue
624show remote reverse-continue
625 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
626
627set remote reverse-step
628show remote reverse-step
629 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
630
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631set displaced-stepping
632show displaced-stepping
633 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
634 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
635 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
636
637set debug displaced
638show debug displaced
639 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
640
641maint set internal-error
642maint show internal-error
643 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
644
645maint set internal-warning
646maint show internal-warning
647 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 648
ccd213ac
DJ
649set exec-wrapper
650show exec-wrapper
651unset exec-wrapper
652 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 653
aad4b048
JB
654set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
655show multiple-symbols
656 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
657 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
658 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
659
74960c60
VP
660set breakpoint always-inserted
661show breakpoint always-inserted
662 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
663 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
664 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
665
0428b8f5
DJ
666set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
667show arm fallback-mode
668set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
669show arm force-mode
670 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
671 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
672 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
673 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
674
10568435
JK
675set disable-randomization
676show disable-randomization
677 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
678 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
679 multiple debugging sessions.
680
d7713ae0
EZ
681set non-stop
682show non-stop
683 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
684 a breakpoint.
685
b3eb342c 686set target-async
d7713ae0 687show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
688 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
689 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
690 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
691 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
692
6c7a06a3
TT
693set target-wide-charset
694show target-wide-charset
695 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
696 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
697
84603566
SL
698set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
699show tcp auto-retry
700set tcp connect-timeout
701show tcp connect-timeout
702 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
703 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
704 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
705
17a37d48
PP
706set libthread-db-search-path
707show libthread-db-search-path
708 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
709 libthread_db.
710
d4db2f36
PA
711set schedule-multiple (on|off)
712show schedule-multiple
713 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
714 the current process.
715
4e5d721f
DE
716set stack-cache
717show stack-cache
718 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
719 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
720 affecting correctness.
721
910c5da8
JB
722set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
723show interactive-mode
724 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
725 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
726 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
727 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
728 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
729
2277426b
PA
730* Removed commands
731
732info forks
733 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
734 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
735 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
736 command.
737
738fork NUM
739 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
740 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
741 alias for the `fork' command.
742
743process PID
744 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
745 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
746 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
747
748delete fork NUM
749 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
750 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
751 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
752 fork' command.
753
754detach fork NUM
755 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
756 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
757 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
758 fork' command.
759
a80b95ba
TG
760* New native configurations
761
762x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
763
b8bfd3ed
JB
764x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
765
75a2d5e7
TT
766* New targets
767
c28c63d8 768Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 769x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 770x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 771S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 772
6de3146c
PA
773* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
774 (mingw32ce) debugging.
775
d5cbbe6e
JB
776* Removed commands
777
778catch load
779catch unload
780 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
781
75feb17d 782*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 783
af5ca30d
NH
784* New native configurations
785
786NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 787Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
788
789* New targets
790
791NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 792Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 793
7a404eba
PA
794* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
795
796 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
797 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
798 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
799 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
800
430ebac9
PA
801* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
802(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
803
fe6fbf8b 804* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 805is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
806
807* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
808including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
809and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 810
10665d76
JB
811* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
812accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
813more than one contiguous range of addresses.
814
7cc46491
DJ
815* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
816
d71340b8
DJ
817* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
818registers on PowerPC targets.
819
523c4513
DJ
820* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
821targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
822
a6b151f1
DJ
823* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
824commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
825
2d717e4f
DJ
826* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
827extended-remote mode.
828
24a836bd 829* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
830The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
831error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
832The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 833
d0c678e6
UW
834* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
835building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
836target architectures.
837
d64a946d
TJB
838* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
839Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
840now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
841stored in two consecutive float registers.
842
ee163bf5
VP
843* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
844breakpoints now.
845
b93b6ca7 846* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
847Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
848include:
b93b6ca7
JB
849 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
850 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
851 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
852 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
853 of an assignment
854 - Improved command completion in Ada
855 - Several bug fixes
856
d001be7a
DJ
857* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
858process.
859
a6b151f1
DJ
860* New commands
861
6d53d0af
JB
862set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
863show print frame-arguments
864 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
865 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
866
a6b151f1
DJ
867remote put
868remote get
869remote delete
870 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
871
872* New MI commands
873
874-target-file-put
875-target-file-get
876-target-file-delete
877 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
878
879* New remote packets
880
881vFile:open:
882vFile:close:
883vFile:pread:
884vFile:pwrite:
885vFile:unlink:
886 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 887
2d717e4f
DJ
888vAttach
889 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
890 mode.
891
892vRun
893 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
894
8d5f9c6f 895*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 896
19d378fc
MS
897* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
898bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
899Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
900
3a40aaa0
UW
901* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
902symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
903-Bsymbolic linker option.
904
a6ec25f2
BW
905* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
906recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
907is not supported.
908
6dd09645
JB
909* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
910frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
911
c9bb8148
DJ
912* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
91332-bit or 64-bit register values.
914
0d5de010
DJ
915* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
916
23181151
DJ
917* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
918target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
919a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
920
ea37ba09
DJ
921* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
922automatically displayed as character or string data.
923
924* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
925arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
926as strings.
e1f48ead 927
123dc839
DJ
928* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
929for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 930only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 931
05a4558a
DJ
932* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
933iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 934
7c963485
PA
935* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
936ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
937has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
938
b18be20d
DJ
939* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
940
0ca420ce
UW
941* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
942
31d99776
DJ
943* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
944layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
945segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
946
a4642986
MR
947* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
948immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
949
cfa9d6d9
DJ
950* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
951"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
952packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
953where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
954Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
955
956* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
957(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
958
959* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
960according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 961
c9bb8148
DJ
962* New commands
963
23776285
MR
964set remoteflow
965show remoteflow
966 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
967 when debugging using remote targets.
968
c9bb8148
DJ
969set mem inaccessible-by-default
970show mem inaccessible-by-default
971 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
972 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
973 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
974 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
975 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
976
977set breakpoint auto-hw
978show breakpoint auto-hw
979 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
980 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
981 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
982 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
983 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
984 including "next" and "finish".
985
0e420bd8
JB
986catch exception
987catch exception unhandled
988 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
989
990catch assert
991 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
992
f822c95b
DJ
993set sysroot
994show sysroot
995 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
996 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
997 an alias to "set sysroot".
998
83cc5c53
UW
999info spu
1000 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1001 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1002 architecture.
1003
bd372731
MK
1004* New native configurations
1005
1006OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1007
23181151
DJ
1008set tdesc filename
1009unset tdesc filename
1010show tdesc filename
1011 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1012 not query the target for its built-in description.
1013
c9bb8148
DJ
1014* New targets
1015
54fe9172 1016OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 1017MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 1018Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 1019
6dd09645
JB
1020* New remote packets
1021
1022QPassSignals:
1023 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1024 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1025
23181151
DJ
1026qXfer:features:read:
1027 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1028 features.
6dd09645 1029
83cc5c53
UW
1030qXfer:spu:read:
1031qXfer:spu:write:
1032 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1033 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1034
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1035qXfer:libraries:read:
1036 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1037 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1038 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1039 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1040
483367ee
DJ
1041* Removed targets
1042
1043Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1044
d08950c4
UW
1045alpha*-*-osf1*
1046alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 1047d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
1048hppa*-*-hiux*
1049i[34567]86-ncr-*
1050i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1051i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1052i[34567]86-*-netware*
1053i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1054i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1055i[34567]86-*-sco*
1056i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1057i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1058i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1059i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1060i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1061i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1062i[34567]86-*-isc*
1063m68*-cisco*-*
1064m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 1065mips*-*-pe
483367ee 1066rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 1067sh*-*-pe
483367ee 1068
7ce59000
DJ
1069* Other removed features
1070
1071target abug
1072target cpu32bug
1073target est
1074target rom68k
1075
1076 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1077
ea35711c
DJ
1078target hms
1079target e7000
1080target sh3
1081target sh3e
1082
1083 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1084 H8/300.
1085
1086target ocd
1087
1088 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1089 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1090 interfaces.
1091
7ce59000
DJ
1092DWARF 1 support
1093
1094 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1095 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1096
54d61198
DJ
1097Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1098
1099 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1100 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1101 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1102 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1103
ea35711c
DJ
1104MIPS ".pdr" sections
1105
1106 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1107 in debugging information.
1108
1109Scheme support
1110
1111 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1112 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1113
1a69e1e4
DJ
1114set mips stack-arg-size
1115set mips saved-gpreg-size
1116
1117 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1118
6dd09645 1119*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 1120
ca3bf3bd
DJ
1121* New targets
1122
1123Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 1124Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 1125
6aec2e11
DJ
1126* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1127(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1128running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1129
1130* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1131Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1132supported.
1133
17218d91
DJ
1134* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1135broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1136
9ebce043
DJ
1137* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1138stub provides the required support.
1139
7d3d3ece
DJ
1140* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1141longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1142
4f8253f3
JB
1143* New commands
1144
1145set substitute-path
1146unset substitute-path
1147show substitute-path
1148 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1149 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1150 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1151 between compilation and debugging.
1152
9fa66fd7
AS
1153set trace-commands
1154show trace-commands
1155 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1156 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1157 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1158
1f5befc1
DJ
1159* REMOVED features
1160
1161The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1162
2ec3381a
DJ
1163Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1164an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1165
3d00d119
DJ
1166The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1167
be2a5f71
DJ
1168* New remote packets
1169
1170qSupported:
1171 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1172 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1173 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1174 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1175 target.
1176
0876f84a
DJ
1177qXfer:auxv:read:
1178 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1179 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1180
9ebce043
DJ
1181qXfer:memory-map:read:
1182 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1183 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1184
1185vFlashErase:
1186vFlashWrite:
1187vFlashDone:
1188 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1189
0876f84a
DJ
1190* Removed remote packets
1191
1192qPart:auxv:read:
1193 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1194 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1195
e374b601 1196*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 1197
96309189
MS
1198* New targets
1199
1200Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1201
1202Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1203
53e5f3cf
AS
1204* New commands
1205
1206init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1207 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1208
ac264b3b
MS
1209The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1210
1211checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1212
1213restart <n> Return the program state to a
1214 previously saved state.
1215
1216info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1217
1218delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1219
1220set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1221 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1222
1223info forks List forks of the user program that
1224 are available to be debugged.
1225
1226fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1227 forks of the user program that are
1228 available to be debugged.
1229
1230delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1231 that are available to be debugged (and
1232 kill the forked process).
1233
1234detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1235 that are available to be debugged (and
1236 allow the process to continue).
1237
3950dc3f
NS
1238* New architecture
1239
1240Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1241
0ea3f30e
DJ
1242* Improved Windows host support
1243
1244GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1245native console support, and remote communications using either
1246network sockets or serial ports.
1247
f79daebb
GM
1248* Improved Modula-2 language support
1249
1250GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1251basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1252pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1253printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1254written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1255GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1256
acab6ab2
MM
1257* REMOVED features
1258
1259The ARM rdi-share module.
1260
f4267320
DJ
1261The Netware NLM debug server.
1262
53e5f3cf 1263*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 1264
e0ecbda1
MK
1265* New native configurations
1266
02a677ac 1267OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
1268OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1269
d64a6579
KB
1270* New targets
1271
1272Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1273
b33a6190
AS
1274* New command line options
1275
1276--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1277--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1278 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1279--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1280 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1281 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1282 with the --command (-x) option.
1283
11dced61
AC
1284* Deprecated commands removed
1285
1286The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1287removed:
1288
1289 Command Replacement
1290 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1291 othernames set arm disassembler
1292 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1293 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1294 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1295 regs info registers
1296
6fe85783
MK
1297* New BSD user-level threads support
1298
1299It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1300library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1301configurations are:
1302
1303FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1304FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1305OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1306
1307Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1308are not yet supported.
1309
5260ca71
MS
1310* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1311(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1312
e84ecc99
AC
1313* REMOVED configurations and files
1314
1315VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 1316Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 1317National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 1318
31e35378
JB
1319* New "set print array-indexes" command
1320
1321After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1322when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1323behavior.
1324
e85e5c83
MK
1325* VAX floating point support
1326
1327GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1328
d91e9901
AS
1329* User-defined command support
1330
1331In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1332to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1333section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1334
f2cb65ca
MC
1335*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1336
f47b1503
AS
1337* New command line option
1338
1339GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1340debugging.
1341
f2cb65ca
MC
1342* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1343
1344GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1345information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1346by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1347proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1348to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 1349
d08c0230
AC
1350* Internationalization
1351
1352When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1353internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1354continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1355
117ea3cf
PH
1356* Ada
1357
1358Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1359implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1360into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1361
d08c0230
AC
1362* New native configurations
1363
1364GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1365
1366* Remote 'p' packet
1367
1368GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1369packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1370
1371* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1372
1373GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1374The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1375features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1376i386 application).
1377
1378GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1379compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1380continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1381configurations:
1382
1383hppa-*-hpux
1384ia64-*-aix
1385mips-*-irix*
1386*-*-lynx
1387mips-*-linux-gnu
1388sds protocol
1389xdr protocol
1390powerpc bdm protocol
1391
1392Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1393made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1394
1395* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1396
1397Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1398been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1399configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1400permanently REMOVED.
1401
1402h8300-*-*
1403mcore-*-*
1404mn10300-*-*
1405ns32k-*-*
1406sh64-*-*
1407v850-*-*
1408
ebb7c577
AC
1409*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1410
1411* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1412
1413When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1414heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1415been fixed.
1416
1417* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1418
1419When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1420fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1421IRIX long double values).
1422
1423* VAX and "next"
1424
1425A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1426command. This problem has been fixed.
1427
860660cb 1428*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 1429
0dea2468
AC
1430* Fix for ``many threads''
1431
1432On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1433rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1434error message:
1435
1436 ptrace: No such process.
1437 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1438
1439This problem has been fixed.
1440
2c07db7a
AC
1441* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1442
1443Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1444GDB to dump core).
1445
c23968a2
JB
1446* New ``start'' command.
1447
1448This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1449
71009278
MK
1450* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1451
1452Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1453live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1454platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1455
1456FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1457FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1458NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1459NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1460NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1461OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1462OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1463OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1464OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1465
3c0b7db2
AC
1466* Signal trampoline code overhauled
1467
1468Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1469These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1470of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1471call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1472signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1473
73cc75f3
AC
1474Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1475features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1476include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 1477
7243600a
BF
1478* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1479
6f606e1c
MK
1480* New native configurations
1481
97dc871c 1482GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 1483OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
1484OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1485OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 1486OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1487NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 1488OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1489
a1b461bf
AC
1490* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1491
1492GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1493The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1494including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1495migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1496compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1497work, was also included.
1498
1499GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1500module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1501
1502h8300-*-*
1503mcore-*-*
1504mn10300-*-*
1505ns32k-*-*
1506sh64-*-*
1507v850-*-*
1508xstormy16-*-*
1509
1510Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1511made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1512
3c7012f5
AC
1513* REMOVED configurations and files
1514
1515Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1516Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1517Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1518Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1519Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1520AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1521Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1522decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1523riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1524sonymips mips-sony-*
1525sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1526
e5fe55f7
AC
1527*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1528
1529* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1530
1531The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1532GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1533command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1534program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1535with GDB".
1536
1537* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1538
1539Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1540libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1541cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1542GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1543shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1544the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1545are created.
1546
1547Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1548
1549* Fixed ISO-C build problems
1550
1551The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1552non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1553compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1554
1555* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1556
1557Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1558wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1559
1560* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1561
1562The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1563permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1564systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1565
1566* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1567
1568Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1569has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1570
1571* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1572
1573GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1574its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1575panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1576
1577* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1578
1579When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1580by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1581not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1582
faae5abe 1583*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 1584
9175c9a3
MC
1585* Removed --with-mmalloc
1586
1587Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1588conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1589
3cc87ec0
MK
1590* Changes in AMD64 configurations
1591
1592The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1593the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1594and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1595you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1596
f0424ef6
MK
1597* Revised SPARC target
1598
1599The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1600FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
1601support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1602from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1603(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 1604
59659be2
ILT
1605* New C++ demangler
1606
1607GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1608names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1609with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1610programs.
1611
9e08b29b
DJ
1612* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1613
1614GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1615arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1616encountered these.
1617
8dfe8985
DC
1618* C++ nested types and namespaces
1619
1620GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1621improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1622is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1623Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1624namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1625"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1626frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1627if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1628GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1629
cced5e27
MK
1630* New native configurations
1631
1632NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 1633OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 1634OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
1635OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1636OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 1637
b4b4b794
KI
1638* New debugging protocols
1639
1640M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1641
7989c619
AC
1642* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1643
1644The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1645and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1646tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1647
5994185b
AC
1648* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1649
1650Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1651been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1652configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1653permanently REMOVED.
1654
1655Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1656Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1657Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1658Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1659Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1660AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1661Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
1662decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1663riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1664sonymips mips-sony-*
1665sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 1666
0ddabb4c
AC
1667* REMOVED configurations and files
1668
1669SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1670SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
1671Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1672Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1673H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1674HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1675HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1676HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1677PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 1678386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
1679Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1680 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1681 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
1682SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1683SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
1684Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1685Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 1686
c7f1390e
DJ
1687*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1688
1fe43d45
AC
1689* Objective-C
1690
1691Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1692integrated into GDB.
1693
e6beb428
AC
1694* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1695
1696DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1697information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1698By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1699backtraces.
1700
1701The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1702have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1703DWARF 2 CFI support.
1704
1705* Hosted file I/O.
1706
1707GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1708file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1709remote protocol documentation for details.
1710
1711* All targets using the new architecture framework.
1712
1713All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1714architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1715to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1716ppc32 on ppc64).
1717
1718* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1719
1720GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1721per-thread variables.
1722
1723* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1724
1725GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1726GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1727
1728* Separate debug info.
1729
1730GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1731automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1732of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1733system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1734and optional debug files.
1735
1736* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1737
1738DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1739describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1740debugger.
1741
1742GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1743for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1744
1745* Java
1746
1747A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1748Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1749considered "useable".
1750
85f8f974
DJ
1751* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1752
1753The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1754commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1755kernel.
1756
0fac0b41
DJ
1757* GDB supports logging output to a file
1758
1759There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1760used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 1761
6ad8ae5c
DJ
1762* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1763
1764The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1765disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1766command.
1767
e286caf2 1768* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
1769
1770The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1771registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1772
d28f9cdf
DJ
1773* Profiling support
1774
1775A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1776be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1777session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1778"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1779data, for more informative profiling results.
1780
da0f9dcd
AC
1781* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1782
1783The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1784option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 1785"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
1786
1787Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1788removed.
1789
fb9b6b35
JJ
1790Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1791Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1792Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1793 in a subsequent -var-update.
1794
954a4db8
MK
1795* New native configurations.
1796
1797FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1798
6760f9e6
JB
1799* Multi-arched targets.
1800
b4263afa 1801HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 1802Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 1803
1b831c93
AC
1804* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1805
1806Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1807been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1808configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1809permanently REMOVED.
1810
8b0e5691 1811Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 1812Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 1813H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
1814HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1815HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1816HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 1817PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
1818Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1819 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1820 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
1821Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1822Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 1823
5835abe7
NC
1824* REMOVED configurations and files
1825
1826V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
1827Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1828IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1829i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1830i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1831i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1832HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1833 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1834 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1835Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1836Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1837Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1838OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1839I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 1840
a094c6fb
AC
1841* MIPS $fp behavior changed
1842
1843The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1844the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1845context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1846address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1847The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1848
299ffc64 1849*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 1850
46248966
AC
1851* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1852
1853When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1854`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1855in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1856library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1857shared libs like mad''.
1858
b9d14705 1859* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 1860
b9d14705
DJ
1861Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1862the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1863arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1864powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 1865
e0e9281e
JB
1866* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1867
1868GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1869and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1870they expand.
1871
dd73b9bb
AC
1872The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1873invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1874
1875The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1876macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1877
e0e9281e
JB
1878Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1879information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1880your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1881information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1882
2250ee0c
CV
1883* Multi-arched targets.
1884
6e3ba3b8
JT
1885DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1886DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 1887NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 1888National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
1889Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1890Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 1891
cd9bfe15 1892* New targets.
e33ce519 1893
456f8b9d
DB
1894Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1895
e33ce519 1896
da8ca43d
JT
1897* New native configurations
1898
1899Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 1900SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 1901MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 1902UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 1903
cd9bfe15
AC
1904* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1905
1906Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1907been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1908configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1909permanently REMOVED.
1910
92eb23c5 1911Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 1912OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 1913IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 1914Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 1915Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 1916Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
1917i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1918i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1919i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
1920HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1921 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1922 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 1923I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 1924
db034ac5
AC
1925* OBSOLETE languages
1926
1927CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1928
cd9bfe15
AC
1929* REMOVED configurations and files
1930
1931AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1932A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1933AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1934AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1935AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1936
1937testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1938
20f01a46
DH
1939* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1940
1941This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1942commands. The default is 1024.
1943
a5941fbf
MK
1944* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1945
1946Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1947
89743e04
MS
1948* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1949
1950These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1951to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1952from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 1953
9fb14e79
JB
1954* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1955
1956The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1957including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1958of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1959
2037aebb
AC
1960*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1961
1962* New targets.
1963
1964Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
1965
1966* Bug fixes
1967
1968gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1969mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1970Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1971
1972gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1973dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1974Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1975
1976Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1977Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1978By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1979
1980i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1981avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1982By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1983
37057839 1984*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 1985
1a703748
MS
1986* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1987
1988This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1989really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1990In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1991target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1992This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1993(notably embedded) targets.
1994
cefd4ef5
MS
1995* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1996
55241689
AC
1997This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1998process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1999GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2000hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 2001
352ed7b4
MS
2002* New command line option
2003
2004GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2005
2006* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2007
2008There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2009command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2010a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2011be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2012open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2013issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2014a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2015it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2016GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2017is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2018
fe419ffc
RE
2019* Changes in ARM configurations.
2020
2021Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2022configuration is fully multi-arch.
2023
eb7cedd9
MK
2024* New native configurations
2025
fe419ffc 2026ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 2027x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 2028AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 2029Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 2030
c9f63e6b
CV
2031* New targets
2032
2033Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2034
9b4ff276
AC
2035* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2036
2037Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2038been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2039configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2040permanently REMOVED.
2041
2042AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2043A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2044AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2045AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2046AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2047
b4ceaee6 2048testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 2049
e2caac18
AC
2050* REMOVED configurations and files
2051
2052TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 2053WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
2054PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2055PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2056PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 2057Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
2058Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2059 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 2060SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 2061Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
2062Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2063ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 2064Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 2065
c2a727fa
TT
2066* Changes to command line processing
2067
2068The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2069for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2070
467d8519
TT
2071* Changes to key bindings
2072
2073There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2074
7072a954
AC
2075*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2076
2077Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2078
2079Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2080corrupted.
2081
2082Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2083
2084Numerous documentation fixes.
2085
2086Numerous testsuite fixes.
2087
34f47bc4 2088*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
2089
2090* New native configurations
2091
2092Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2093x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 2094MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
2095MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2096ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 2097s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 2098
bf64bfd6
AC
2099* New targets
2100
def90278 2101Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 2102CRIS cris-axis
55241689 2103UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 2104
17e78a56 2105* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
2106
2107x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 2108Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
2109Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2110 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
2111TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2112WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 2113Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
2114PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2115PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2116PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 2117SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
2118Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2119ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 2120Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 2121
17e78a56
AC
2122stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2123kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2124
7fcca85b
AC
2125Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2126been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2127configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2128permanently REMOVED.
2129
a196c81c 2130* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
2131
2132Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2133Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2134Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2135ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2136Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 2137ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 2138
6d6b80e5 2139* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 2140
6d6b80e5 2141GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
2142sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2143present.
2144
bf64bfd6
AC
2145* Other news:
2146
e23194cb
EZ
2147* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2148
2149* The MI enabled by default.
2150
2151The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2152revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2153engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2154using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2155which is now deprecated.
2156
2157* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2158
2159GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2160main features are supported:
2161
2162 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2163
2164 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2165 extension;
2166
2167 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2168
2169 - a Pascal expression parser.
2170
2171However, some important features are not yet supported.
2172
2173 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2174
2175 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2176
2177 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2178 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2179
2180 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2181
2182 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2183
2184* Changes in completion.
2185
2186Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2187to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2188users expect at the shell prompt.
2189
2190Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2191`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2192program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2193files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2194be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2195considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2196name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2197
2198`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2199
2200* New platform-independent commands:
2201
2202It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2203hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2204documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2205
2206* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2207
d7275149
MK
2208Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2209revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2210many threads as your system allows you to have.
2211
e23194cb
EZ
2212Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2213
d7275149
MK
2214Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2215multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
2216
2217* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
2218
2219Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2220
e23194cb
EZ
2221GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2222debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2223supported.)
2224
2225* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2226
2227Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2228breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2229implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2230put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2231and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2232registers.
2233
2234The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2235debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2236watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2237
2238* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2239
2240New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2241the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2242
2243New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2244display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2245IDT.
2246
2247New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2248from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2249New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2250a given linear address.
2251
2252GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2253program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2254which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2255
2256DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2257
6c56c069
EZ
2258It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2259
e23194cb
EZ
2260* Changes in documentation.
2261
2262All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2263Documentation License.
2264
2265Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2266manual.
2267
2268TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2269
2270Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2271manual.
2272
2273The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2274documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2275hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2276
5d6640b1
AC
2277* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2278
2279The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2280``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2281contents of this file.
2282
1a1d8446
AC
2283* gdba.el deleted
2284
2285GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 2286
9debab2f 2287*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 2288
c63ce875
EZ
2289* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2290
2291Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2292programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2293displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2294greater level of detail.
2295
2296* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2297
2298It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2299bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2300on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2301written.
2302
2303* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2304
2305The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2306necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2307machines ``out of the box''.
2308
2309The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2310possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2311signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2312would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2313interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2314
2315It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2316standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2317even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2318and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2319terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2320
2321The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2322enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2323also works.
2324
2325DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2326GDB.
2327
2328It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2329directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2330times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2331breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2332
ed9a39eb
JM
2333* New native configurations
2334
2335ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 2336PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 2337
7a292a7a
SS
2338* New targets
2339
96baa820 2340Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
2341x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2342PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
2343TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2344
085dd6e6
JM
2345* OBSOLETE configurations
2346
2347Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2348Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 2349Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 2350ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 2351Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 2352
9debab2f
AC
2353Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2354but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2355these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2356be permanently REMOVED.
2357
5330533d
SS
2358* Gould support removed
2359
2360Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2361
bc9e5bbf
AC
2362* New features for SVR4
2363
2364On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2365without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2366load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2367
2368* Many C++ enhancements
2369
2370C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2371in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2372
adf40b2e
JM
2373* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2374
2375A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2376sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2377with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2378``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2379
2380 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2381 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2382
43e526b9
JM
2383* MIPS 64 remote protocol
2384
2385A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2386expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2387instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2388
2389The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2390added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2391
96baa820
JM
2392* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2393
2394The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2395``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2396include ``set remote P-packet''.
2397
11cf8741
JM
2398* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2399
2400The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2401accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2402``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2403
7876dd43
DB
2404* ``apropos'' command added.
2405
2406The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2407documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2408try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2409
bc9e5bbf
AC
2410* New MI interface
2411
2412A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2413interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
2414process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2415"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2416enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
2417
2418 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2419
c906108c
SS
2420*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2421
2422* New native configurations
2423
2424HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2425HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 2426M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
2427
2428* New targets
2429
2430Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2431Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2432Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2433
2434* OBSOLETE configurations
2435
2436Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2437
2438Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2439but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2440these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2441be permanently REMOVED.
2442
2443* ANSI/ISO C
2444
2445As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2446buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2447containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2448use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2449available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2450configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2451information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2452already.
2453
2454* Readline 2.2
2455
2456GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2457
2458* set extension-language
2459
2460You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2461languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2462you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2463 set extension-language .c c++
2464The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2465and their associated languages.
2466
2467* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2468
2469When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2470you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2471PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2472
2473 set processor NAME
2474
2475sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2476following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2477
2478 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2479 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2480 403 IBM PowerPC 403
2481 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2482 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2483 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2484 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2485 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2486 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2487 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2488 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2489
2490At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2491special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2492registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2493only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2494
2495* HP-UX support
2496
2497Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2498more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2499library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2500support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2501for xdb and dbx commands.
2502
2503* Catchpoints
2504
2505HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2506generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2507to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2508
2509This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2510argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2511output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2512
2513* Debugging across forks
2514
2515On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2516in the inferior.
2517
2518* TUI
2519
2520HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2521it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2522configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2523
2524* GDB remote protocol additions
2525
2526A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2527Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2528fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2529allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2530
2531For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2532full 64-bit address. The command
2533
2534 set remoteaddresssize 32
2535
2536can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2537the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2538will be discarded.
2539
2540In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2541command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2542
2543 maint packet heythere
2544
2545sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2546disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2547time.
2548
2549The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2550target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2551downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2552
2553* Tracing can collect general expressions
2554
2555You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2556further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2557doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2558
2559* mask-address variable for Mips
2560
2561For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2562a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2563of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2564
2565* Higher serial baud rates
2566
2567GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2568230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2569to achieve all of these rates.)
2570
2571* i960 simulator
2572
2573The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2574builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2575
2576
2577*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2578
2579* New native configurations
2580
2581Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2582Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2583Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2584PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2585PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2586Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2587Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2588
2589* New targets
2590
2591Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2592Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2593Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2594Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2595MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2596MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2597MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2598Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2599Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2600Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2601NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2602
2603* New debugging protocols
2604
2605ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2606M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2607DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2608PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2609PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2610Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2611
2612* DWARF 2
2613
2614All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2615format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2616information.
2617
2618* Java frontend
2619
2620GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2621only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2622
2623* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2624
2625For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2626loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2627locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2628
2629* Live range splitting
2630
2631GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2632range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2633more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2634
2635* Hurd support
2636
2637GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2638updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2639
2640* ARM Thumb support
2641
2642GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2643instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2644instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2645accordingly.
2646
2647* MIPS16 support
2648
2649GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2650instruction set.
2651
2652* Overlay support
2653
2654GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2655linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2656will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2657control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2658additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2659in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2660
2661* info symbol
2662
2663The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2664the symbol at the specified address.
2665
2666* Trace support
2667
2668The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2669asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2670extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2671includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2672file tracepoint.c for more details.
2673
2674* MIPS simulator
2675
2676Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2677by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2678of most MIPS variants.
2679
2680* Sparc simulator
2681
2682Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2683by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2684Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2685
2686* set architecture
2687
2688For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2689basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2690architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2691the possible architectures.
2692
2693*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2694
2695* New native configurations
2696
2697Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2698M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2699PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2700PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2701PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2702RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2703
2704* New targets
2705
2706ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2707I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2708MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2709MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2710PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2711Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
2712Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2713
2714* PowerPC simulator
2715
2716The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2717contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2718PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2719basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2720performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2721
2722* Solaris 2.5
2723
2724GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2725
2726* Windows 95/NT native
2727
2728GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2729To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2730which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2731Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2732ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2733
2734* dont-repeat command
2735
2736If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2737command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2738useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2739extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2740
2741* Send break instead of ^C
2742
2743The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2744rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2745GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2746
2747* Remote protocol timeout
2748
2749The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2750that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2751to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2752
2753* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2754
2755By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2756loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2757stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2758when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2759in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2760
2761Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2762/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2763automatically on hpux10.
2764
2765* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2766
2767Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2768
2769* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2770
2771When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2772may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2773the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2774every character. The default value is 1050.
2775
2776* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2777
2778If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2779a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2780replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2781details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2782remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2783to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2784
2785* Speedups for remote debugging
2786
2787GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2788the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2789and more efficient S-record downloading.
2790
2791* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2792
2793GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2794Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2795
2796*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2797
2798* Psymtabs for XCOFF
2799
2800The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2801can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2802
2803* Remote targets use caching
2804
2805Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2806remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2807it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2808debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2809off' turns the the data cache off.
2810
2811* Remote targets may have threads
2812
2813The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2814in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2815gdb/remote.c for details.
2816
2817* NetROM support
2818
2819If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2820support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2821acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2822write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2823support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2824another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2825sequence is something like
2826
2827 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2828 load <prog>
2829 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2830
2831* Macintosh host
2832
2833GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2834may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2835it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2836available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2837device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2838directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2839scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2840mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2841
2842* Autoconf
2843
2844GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2845but does simplify configuration and building.
2846
2847* hpux10
2848
2849GDB now supports hpux10.
2850
2851*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2852
2853* New native configurations
2854
2855x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2856x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2857NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2858Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2859
2860* New targets
2861
2862A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2863HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2864CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2865PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2866WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2867
2868* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2869
2870GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2871possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2872filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2873the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2874if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2875
2876* Arguments to user-defined commands
2877
2878User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2879Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2880trivial example:
2881define adder
2882 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2883
2884To execute the command use:
2885adder 1 2 3
2886
2887Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2888Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2889use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2890
2891* New `if' and `while' commands
2892
2893This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2894commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2895expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2896execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2897terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2898`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2899if the expression is zero.
2900
2901* Fortran source language mode
2902
2903GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2904Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2905variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2906with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2907Fortran compilers.
2908
2909* Better HPUX support
2910
2911Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2912running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2913processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2914for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2915that behavior do the following before running the program:
2916
2917 adb -w a.out
2918 __dld_flags?W 0x5
2919 control-d
2920
2921This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2922To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2923
2924 adb -w a.out
2925 __dld_flags?W 0x4
2926 control-d
2927
2928You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2929the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2930external linkage.
2931
2932GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2933HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2934
2935* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2936
2937You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2938commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2939current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2940"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2941associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2942configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2943
2944* New DOS host serial code
2945
2946This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2947no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2948a PC's serial port.
2949
2950*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2951
2952* New "complete" command
2953
2954This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2955were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2956
2957* Trailing space optional in prompt
2958
2959"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2960allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2961
2962* Breakpoint hit counts
2963
2964"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2965has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2966can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2967to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2968less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2969that breakpoint.
2970
2971* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2972
2973"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2974an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2975arrays actually contain only short strings.
2976
2977* Shared library breakpoints
2978
2979In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2980breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2981
2982* Hardware watchpoints
2983
2984There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2985targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2986
55241689 2987Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
2988
2989* Annotations
2990
2991Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2992and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2993
2994* Improved Irix 5 support
2995
2996GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2997
2998* Improved HPPA support
2999
3000GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3001
3002* New native configurations
3003
3004Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3005HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3006Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3007RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3008
3009* New targets
3010
3011OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3012MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3013Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3014
3015* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3016
3017There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3018This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3019
3020* Fixes
3021
3022As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3023and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3024
3025*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3026
3027* Irix 5 is now supported
3028
3029* HPPA support
3030
3031GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3032to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3033GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3034of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3035can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3036
3037
3038*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3039
3040* User visible changes:
3041
3042* Remote Debugging
3043
3044The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3045target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3046debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3047integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3048debugging info for the mips target).
3049
3050* DEC Alpha native support
3051
3052GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3053debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3054work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3055Alpha-specific notes.
3056
3057* Preliminary thread implementation
3058
3059GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3060
3061* LynxOS native and target support for 386
3062
3063This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3064to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3065for details).
3066
3067* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3068
3069This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3070mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3071call methods, ...etc.
3072
3073*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3074
3075 * User visible changes:
3076
3077Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3078supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3079other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3080somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3081
3082Filename completion now works.
3083
3084When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3085arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3086addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3087
3088All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3089vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3090should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3091your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3092to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3093
3094 * DEC alpha support
3095
3096This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3097cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3098
3099
3100*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3101
3102 * Testsuite
3103
3104This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3105The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3106via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3107
3108 * C++ demangling
3109
3110'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3111emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3112Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3113disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3114use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3115
3116 * Simulators
3117
3118GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3119So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3120Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3121
3122 * New targets supported
3123
3124H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3125H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3126SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3127Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3128IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3129
3130Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3131version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3132GO32 memory extender.
3133
3134 * New remote protocols
3135
3136MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3137
3138 * New source languages supported
3139
3140This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3141used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3142into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3143
3144
3145*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3146
3147 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3148
3149GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3150version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3151University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3152compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3153format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3154(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3155
3156Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3157
3158 * Faster and better demangling
3159
3160We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3161demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3162character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3163only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3164This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3165increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3166symbol lookups.
3167
3168`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3169from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3170compiler does not actually implement.
3171
3172 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3173
3174In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3175inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3176recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3177very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3178The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3179circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3180fix.
3181
3182The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3183release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3184
3185 * Improved configure script
3186
3187The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3188you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3189host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3190done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3191
3192We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3193version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3194`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3195The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3196only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3197We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3198
3199 * Documentation improvements
3200
3201There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3202produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3203before submitting changes.
3204
3205The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3206M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3207`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3208you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3209a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3210
3211*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3212We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3213been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3214or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3215`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3216around this problem.
3217
3218 * New features
3219
3220GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3221the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3222`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3223the target program.
3224
3225The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3226how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3227
3228 * New native hosts supported
3229
3230HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3231386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3232
3233 * New targets supported
3234
3235AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3236
3237 * New file formats supported
3238
3239BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3240HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3241
3242 * Major bug fixes
3243
3244Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3245
3246We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3247printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3248
3249We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3250for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3251release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3252
3253You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3254will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3255
3256We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3257for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3258especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3259libraries.
3260
3261The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3262information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3263command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3264any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3265when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3266
3267 * Internal improvements
3268
3269GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3270debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3271
3272GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3273Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3274symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3275contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3276shared code that handles any of them.
3277
3278 * New command line options
3279
3280We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3281
3282 * Mmalloc licensing
3283
3284The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3285General Public License.
3286
3287*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3288
3289 * Host/native/target split
3290
3291GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3292hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3293target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3294local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3295ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3296
3297The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3298GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3299is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3300code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3301any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3302built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3303handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3304
3305GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3306It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3307plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3308
3309 * New hosts supported
3310
3311HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3312386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3313386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3314
3315 * New targets supported
3316
3317Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
331868030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3319
3320 * New native hosts supported
3321
3322386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3323 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3324386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3325
3326 * New file formats supported
3327
3328BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3329supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3330format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3331
3332 * New commands
3333
3334`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3335`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3336These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3337
3338`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3339
3340You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3341scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3342prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3343executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3344
3345 * C++ improvements
3346
3347We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3348info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3349symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3350
3351Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3352
3353 * Major bug fixes
3354
3355The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3356fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3357by the compiler.
3358
3359We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3360support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3361
3362John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3363slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3364that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3365purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3366the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3367mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3368
3369Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3370about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3371completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3372we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3373
3374 * AMD 29k support
3375
3376A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3377specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3378calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3379usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3380in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3381
3382We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3383Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3384of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3385resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3386
3387 * Remote interfaces
3388
3389We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3390with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3391message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3392This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3393needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3394breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3395each instruction being stepped through.
3396
3397The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3398registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3399
3400There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3401find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3402Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3403processor with a serial port.
3404
3405 * Configuration
3406
3407Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3408`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3409supported, and what files each one uses.
3410
3411 * Library changes
3412
3413There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3414disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3415Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3416disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3417
3418The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3419Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3420can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3421grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3422
3423 * Documentation
3424
3425The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3426reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3427as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3428encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3429system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3430bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3431
3432And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3433
3434
3435*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3436
3437 * Better support for C++ function names
3438
3439GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3440names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3441(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3442single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3443Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3444
3445GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3446the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3447You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3448lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3449for the list of formats.
3450
3451 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3452
3453Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3454C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3455directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3456can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3457usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3458about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3459this problem.)
3460
3461 * New 'maintenance' command
3462
3463All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3464the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3465can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3466
3467 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3468 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3469 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3470 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3471 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3472 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3473
3474The following commands are new:
3475
3476 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3477 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3478 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3479
3480 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3481
3482We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3483(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3484be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3485read after argv processing.
3486
3487 * New hosts supported
3488
3489Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3490
55241689 3491GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
3492
3493We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3494is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3495for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3496masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3497fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3498It costs extra.
3499
3500 * New targets supported
3501
3502Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3503
3504 * More smarts about finding #include files
3505
3506GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3507all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3508greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3509especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3510the one that contains your sources.
3511
3512We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3513breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3514try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3515
3516 * Interesting infernals change
3517
3518GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3519section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3520target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3521stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3522
3523 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3524
3525There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3526 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3527 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3528
3529See the ChangeLog for details.
3530
3531*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3532
3533 * New machines supported (host and target)
3534
3535IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3536
3537SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3538
3539 * New malloc package
3540
3541GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3542Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3543capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3544This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3545pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3546more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3547
3548 * info proc
3549
3550The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3551'help info proc' for details.
3552
3553 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3554
3555The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3556Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3557possible.
3558
3559 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3560
3561Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3562support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3563conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3564environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3565that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3566in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3567
3568 * Cross byte order fixes
3569
3570Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3571targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3572
3573 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3574
3575If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3576system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3577`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3578program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3579called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3580Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3581and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3582the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3583option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3584starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3585
3586You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3587the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3588information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3589slower, but makes future operations faster.
3590
3591The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3592build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3593A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3594use is:
3595
3596 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3597
3598The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3599It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3600shared across multiple host platforms.
3601
3602 * longjmp() handling
3603
3604GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3605siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3606all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3607platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3608
3609 * Solaris 2.0
3610
3611Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3612this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3613reading symbols.
3614
3615 * Bug fixes
3616
3617As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3618People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3619crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3620
3621*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3622
3623 * New machines supported (host and target)
3624
3625SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3626 (except core files)
3627BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3628Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3629
3630 * New machines supported (target)
3631
3632AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3633
3634 * C++ support
3635
3636GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3637The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3638per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3639
3640GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3641`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3642extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3643good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3644will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3645released.
3646
3647 * New features for SVR4
3648
3649GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3650shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3651only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3652
3653The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3654on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3655it prints the address mappings of the process.
3656
3657If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3658bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3659
3660 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3661
3662Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3663now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3664skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3665make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3666same code linked statically.
3667
3668 * New Getopt
3669
3670GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3671version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3672continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3673Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3674added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3675future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3676
3677 * Bugs fixed
3678
3679The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3680Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3681See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3682
3683
3684*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3685
3686 * New machines supported (host and target)
3687
3688Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3689NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3690Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3691
3692 * Almost SCO Unix support
3693
3694We had hoped to support:
3695SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3696(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3697that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3698about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3699
3700 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3701
3702GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3703debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3704is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3705send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3706reqired (if any).
3707
3708 * New Readline
3709
3710GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3711is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3712required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3713
3714 * Bugs fixed
3715
3716The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3717Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3718See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3719
3720 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3721
3722GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3723supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3724symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3725
3726Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3727mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3728debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3729mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3730version 2.
3731
3732Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3733really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3734line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3735variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3736situation somewhat.
3737
3738When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3739However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3740methods.
3741
3742We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3743DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3744encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3745
3746
3747*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3748
3749 * Improved configuration
3750
3751Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3752Porting BFD is simpler.
3753
3754 * Stepping improved
3755
3756The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3757of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3758in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3759function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3760
3761 * Bug fixing
3762
3763Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3764
3765 * New host supported (not target)
3766
3767Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3768
3769
3770*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3771
3772 * Multiple source language support
3773
3774GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3775It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3776and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3777language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3778You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3779`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3780
3781 * GDB and Modula-2
3782
3783GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3784currently under development at the State University of New York at
3785Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3786continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3787
3788Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3789debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3790symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3791
3792There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3793in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3794
3795 * set write on/off
3796
3797GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3798a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3799the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3800by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3801effect immediately.
3802
3803 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3804
3805When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3806shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3807The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3808examining core files.
3809
3810 * set listsize
3811
3812You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3813The default is 10.
3814
3815 * New machines supported (host and target)
3816
3817SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3818Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3819Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3820
3821 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3822
3823IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3824
3825 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3826
3827AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3828AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3829Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3830
3831 * New remote interfaces
3832
3833AMD 29000 Adapt
3834AMD 29000 Minimon
3835
3836
3837*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3838
3839 * New Facilities
3840
3841Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3842
3843Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3844target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3845is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3846remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3847remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3848also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3849using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3850stub on the target system.
3851
3852New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3853
3854GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3855library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3856object file types such as a.out and coff.
3857
3858There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3859refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3860
3861
3862 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3863
3864All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3865by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3866
3867For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3868``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3869Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3870
3871What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3872print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3873will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3874all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3875
3876confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3877 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3878 it is already running. Default is ON.
3879
3880editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3881 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3882 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3883 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3884 Default is ON.
3885
3886history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3887 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3888 or the value of the environment variable
3889 GDBHISTFILE.
3890
3891history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3892 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3893 HISTSIZE.
3894
3895history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3896 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3897 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3898
3899history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3900 history expansion will be performed on
3901 command line input. The default is OFF.
3902
3903radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3904 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3905 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3906
3907height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3908 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3909 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3910 variable TERM.
3911
3912width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3913 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3914 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3915 variable TERM.
3916
3917Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3918``set width'' instead.
3919
3920print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3921 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3922 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3923 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3924
3925print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3926 is OFF.
3927
3928print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3929 "raw" form if off.
3930
3931print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3932 like instructions.
3933
3934print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3935
3936
3937 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3938
3939The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3940new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3941are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3942window.
3943
3944
3945 * Support for Shared Libraries
3946
3947GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3948Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3949before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3950happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3951At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3952from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3953shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3954It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3955
3956sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3957 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3958 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3959
3960info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3961
3962
3963 * Watchpoints
3964
3965A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3966expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3967tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3968quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3969problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3970more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3971
3972watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3973
3974info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3975
3976delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3977disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3978enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3979
3980
3981 * C++ multiple inheritance
3982
3983When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3984for C++ programs.
3985
3986 * C++ exception handling
3987
3988Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3989ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3990the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3991handler's context).
3992
3993catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3994 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3995 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3996
3997info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3998 current stack frame.
3999
4000
4001 * Minor command changes
4002
4003The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4004command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4005is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4006
4007The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4008at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4009frames without printing.
4010
4011 * New directory command
4012
4013'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4014The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4015about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4016with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4017find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4018
4019 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4020
4021For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4022for more details.
4023
4024GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4025two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4026Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4027where the program that you are debugging will run.
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