(Releasing GDB, Coding): Fix typos.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
CommitLineData
c906108c
SS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
37057839
AC
4*** Changes since GDB 5.2:
5
20f01a46
DH
6* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
7
8This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
9commands. The default is 1024.
10
a5941fbf
MK
11* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
12
13Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
14
89743e04
MS
15* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
16
17These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
18to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
19from a file into memory (restore).
37057839
AC
20
21*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 22
1a703748
MS
23* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
24
25This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
26really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
27In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
28target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
29This can be a significant performance improvement on some
30(notably embedded) targets.
31
cefd4ef5
MS
32* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
33
55241689
AC
34This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
35process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
36GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
37hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 38
352ed7b4
MS
39* New command line option
40
41GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
42
43* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
44
45There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
46command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
47a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
48be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
49open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
50issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
51a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
52it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
53GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
54is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
55
fe419ffc
RE
56* Changes in ARM configurations.
57
58Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
59configuration is fully multi-arch.
60
eb7cedd9
MK
61* New native configurations
62
fe419ffc 63ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 64x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 65AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 66Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 67
c9f63e6b
CV
68* New targets
69
70Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
71
9b4ff276
AC
72* OBSOLETE configurations and files
73
74Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
75been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
76configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
77permanently REMOVED.
78
79AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
80A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
81AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
82AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
83AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
84
b4ceaee6 85testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 86
e2caac18
AC
87* REMOVED configurations and files
88
89TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 90WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
91PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
92PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
93PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 94Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
95Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
96 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 97SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 98Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
99Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
100ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 101Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 102
c2a727fa
TT
103* Changes to command line processing
104
105The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
106for the inferior from gdb's command line.
107
467d8519
TT
108* Changes to key bindings
109
110There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
111
7072a954
AC
112*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
113
114Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
115
116Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
117corrupted.
118
119Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
120
121Numerous documentation fixes.
122
123Numerous testsuite fixes.
124
34f47bc4 125*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
126
127* New native configurations
128
129Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
130x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 131MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
132MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
133ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 134s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 135
bf64bfd6
AC
136* New targets
137
def90278 138Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 139CRIS cris-axis
55241689 140UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 141
17e78a56 142* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
143
144x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 145Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
146Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
147 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
148TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
149WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 150Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
151PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
152PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
153PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 154SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
155Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
156ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 157Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 158
17e78a56
AC
159stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
160kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
161
7fcca85b
AC
162Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
163been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
164configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
165permanently REMOVED.
166
a196c81c 167* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
168
169Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
170Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
171Pyramid pyramid-*-*
172ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
173Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 174ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 175
6d6b80e5 176* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 177
6d6b80e5 178GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
179sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
180present.
181
bf64bfd6
AC
182* Other news:
183
e23194cb
EZ
184* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
185
186* The MI enabled by default.
187
188The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
189revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
190engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
191using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
192which is now deprecated.
193
194* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
195
196GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
197main features are supported:
198
199 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
200
201 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
202 extension;
203
204 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
205
206 - a Pascal expression parser.
207
208However, some important features are not yet supported.
209
210 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
211
212 - there are some problems with boolean types;
213
214 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
215 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
216
217 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
218
219 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
220
221* Changes in completion.
222
223Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
224to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
225users expect at the shell prompt.
226
227Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
228`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
229program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
230files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
231be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
232considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
233name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
234
235`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
236
237* New platform-independent commands:
238
239It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
240hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
241documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
242
243* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
244
d7275149
MK
245Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
246revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
247many threads as your system allows you to have.
248
e23194cb
EZ
249Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
250
d7275149
MK
251Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
252multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
253
254* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
255
256Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
257
e23194cb
EZ
258GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
259debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
260supported.)
261
262* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
263
264Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
265breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
266implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
267put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
268and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
269registers.
270
271The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
272debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
273watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
274
275* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
276
277New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
278the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
279
280New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
281display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
282IDT.
283
284New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
285from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
286New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
287a given linear address.
288
289GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
290program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
291which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
292
293DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
294
6c56c069
EZ
295It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
296
e23194cb
EZ
297* Changes in documentation.
298
299All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
300Documentation License.
301
302Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
303manual.
304
305TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
306
307Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
308manual.
309
310The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
311documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
312hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
313
5d6640b1
AC
314* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
315
316The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
317``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
318contents of this file.
319
1a1d8446
AC
320* gdba.el deleted
321
322GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 323
9debab2f 324*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 325
c63ce875
EZ
326* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
327
328Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
329programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
330displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
331greater level of detail.
332
333* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
334
335It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
336bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
337on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
338written.
339
340* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
341
342The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
343necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
344machines ``out of the box''.
345
346The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
347possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
348signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
349would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
350interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
351
352It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
353standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
354even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
355and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
356terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
357
358The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
359enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
360also works.
361
362DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
363GDB.
364
365It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
366directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
367times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
368breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
369
ed9a39eb
JM
370* New native configurations
371
372ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 373PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 374
7a292a7a
SS
375* New targets
376
96baa820 377Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
378x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
379PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
380TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
381
085dd6e6
JM
382* OBSOLETE configurations
383
384Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
385Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 386Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 387ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 388Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 389
9debab2f
AC
390Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
391but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
392these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
393be permanently REMOVED.
394
5330533d
SS
395* Gould support removed
396
397Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
398
bc9e5bbf
AC
399* New features for SVR4
400
401On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
402without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
403load symbols from the running process's executable file.
404
405* Many C++ enhancements
406
407C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
408in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
409
adf40b2e
JM
410* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
411
412A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
413sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
414with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
415``|<program> <args>'' vis:
416
417 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
418 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
419
43e526b9
JM
420* MIPS 64 remote protocol
421
422A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
423expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
424instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
425
426The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
427added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
428
96baa820
JM
429* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
430
431The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
432``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
433include ``set remote P-packet''.
434
11cf8741
JM
435* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
436
437The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
438accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
439``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
440
7876dd43
DB
441* ``apropos'' command added.
442
443The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
444documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
445try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
446
bc9e5bbf
AC
447* New MI interface
448
449A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
450interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
451process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
452"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
453enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
454
455 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
456
c906108c
SS
457*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
458
459* New native configurations
460
461HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
462HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 463M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
464
465* New targets
466
467Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
468Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
469Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
470
471* OBSOLETE configurations
472
473Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
474
475Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
476but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
477these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
478be permanently REMOVED.
479
480* ANSI/ISO C
481
482As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
483buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
484containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
485use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
486available. If this is not true, please report the affected
487configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
488information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
489already.
490
491* Readline 2.2
492
493GDB now uses readline 2.2.
494
495* set extension-language
496
497You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
498languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
499you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
500 set extension-language .c c++
501The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
502and their associated languages.
503
504* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
505
506When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
507you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
508PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
509
510 set processor NAME
511
512sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
513following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
514
515 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
516 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
517 403 IBM PowerPC 403
518 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
519 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
520 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
521 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
522 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
523 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
524 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
525 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
526
527At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
528special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
529registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
530only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
531
532* HP-UX support
533
534Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
535more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
536library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
537support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
538for xdb and dbx commands.
539
540* Catchpoints
541
542HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
543generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
544to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
545
546This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
547argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
548output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
549
550* Debugging across forks
551
552On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
553in the inferior.
554
555* TUI
556
557HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
558it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
559configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
560
561* GDB remote protocol additions
562
563A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
564Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
565fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
566allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
567
568For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
569full 64-bit address. The command
570
571 set remoteaddresssize 32
572
573can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
574the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
575will be discarded.
576
577In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
578command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
579
580 maint packet heythere
581
582sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
583disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
584time.
585
586The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
587target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
588downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
589
590* Tracing can collect general expressions
591
592You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
593further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
594doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
595
596* mask-address variable for Mips
597
598For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
599a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
600of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
601
602* Higher serial baud rates
603
604GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
605230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
606to achieve all of these rates.)
607
608* i960 simulator
609
610The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
611builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
612
613
614*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
615
616* New native configurations
617
618Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
619Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
620Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
621PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
622PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
623Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
624Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
625
626* New targets
627
628Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
629Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
630Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
631Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
632MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
633MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
634MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
635Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
636Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
637Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
638NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
639
640* New debugging protocols
641
642ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
643M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
644DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
645PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
646PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
647Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
648
649* DWARF 2
650
651All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
652format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
653information.
654
655* Java frontend
656
657GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
658only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
659
660* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
661
662For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
663loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
664locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
665
666* Live range splitting
667
668GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
669range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
670more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
671
672* Hurd support
673
674GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
675updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
676
677* ARM Thumb support
678
679GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
680instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
681instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
682accordingly.
683
684* MIPS16 support
685
686GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
687instruction set.
688
689* Overlay support
690
691GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
692linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
693will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
694control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
695additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
696in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
697
698* info symbol
699
700The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
701the symbol at the specified address.
702
703* Trace support
704
705The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
706asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
707extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
708includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
709file tracepoint.c for more details.
710
711* MIPS simulator
712
713Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
714by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
715of most MIPS variants.
716
717* Sparc simulator
718
719Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
720by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
721Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
722
723* set architecture
724
725For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
726basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
727architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
728the possible architectures.
729
730*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
731
732* New native configurations
733
734Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
735M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
736PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
737PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
738PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
739RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
740
741* New targets
742
743ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
744I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
745MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
746MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
747PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
748Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
749Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
750
751* PowerPC simulator
752
753The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
754contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
755PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
756basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
757performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
758
759* Solaris 2.5
760
761GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
762
763* Windows 95/NT native
764
765GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
766To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
767which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
768Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
769ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
770
771* dont-repeat command
772
773If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
774command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
775useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
776extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
777
778* Send break instead of ^C
779
780The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
781rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
782GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
783
784* Remote protocol timeout
785
786The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
787that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
788to read from the target. The default value is 2.
789
790* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
791
792By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
793loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
794stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
795when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
796in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
797
798Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
799/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
800automatically on hpux10.
801
802* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
803
804Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
805
806* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
807
808When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
809may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
810the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
811every character. The default value is 1050.
812
813* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
814
815If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
816a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
817replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
818details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
819remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
820to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
821
822* Speedups for remote debugging
823
824GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
825the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
826and more efficient S-record downloading.
827
828* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
829
830GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
831Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
832
833*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
834
835* Psymtabs for XCOFF
836
837The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
838can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
839
840* Remote targets use caching
841
842Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
843remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
844it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
845debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
846off' turns the the data cache off.
847
848* Remote targets may have threads
849
850The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
851in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
852gdb/remote.c for details.
853
854* NetROM support
855
856If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
857support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
858acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
859write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
860support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
861another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
862sequence is something like
863
864 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
865 load <prog>
866 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
867
868* Macintosh host
869
870GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
871may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
872it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
873available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
874device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
875directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
876scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
877mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
878
879* Autoconf
880
881GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
882but does simplify configuration and building.
883
884* hpux10
885
886GDB now supports hpux10.
887
888*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
889
890* New native configurations
891
892x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
893x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
894NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
895Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
896
897* New targets
898
899A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
900HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
901CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
902PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
903WDC 65816 w65-*-*
904
905* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
906
907GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
908possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
909filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
910the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
911if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
912
913* Arguments to user-defined commands
914
915User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
916Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
917trivial example:
918define adder
919 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
920
921To execute the command use:
922adder 1 2 3
923
924Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
925Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
926use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
927
928* New `if' and `while' commands
929
930This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
931commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
932expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
933execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
934terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
935`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
936if the expression is zero.
937
938* Fortran source language mode
939
940GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
941Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
942variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
943with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
944Fortran compilers.
945
946* Better HPUX support
947
948Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
949running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
950processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
951for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
952that behavior do the following before running the program:
953
954 adb -w a.out
955 __dld_flags?W 0x5
956 control-d
957
958This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
959To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
960
961 adb -w a.out
962 __dld_flags?W 0x4
963 control-d
964
965You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
966the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
967external linkage.
968
969GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
970HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
971
972* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
973
974You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
975commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
976current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
977"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
978associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
979configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
980
981* New DOS host serial code
982
983This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
984no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
985a PC's serial port.
986
987*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
988
989* New "complete" command
990
991This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
992were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
993
994* Trailing space optional in prompt
995
996"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
997allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
998
999* Breakpoint hit counts
1000
1001"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1002has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1003can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1004to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1005less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1006that breakpoint.
1007
1008* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1009
1010"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1011an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1012arrays actually contain only short strings.
1013
1014* Shared library breakpoints
1015
1016In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1017breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1018
1019* Hardware watchpoints
1020
1021There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1022targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1023
55241689 1024Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1025
1026* Annotations
1027
1028Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1029and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1030
1031* Improved Irix 5 support
1032
1033GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1034
1035* Improved HPPA support
1036
1037GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1038
1039* New native configurations
1040
1041Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1042HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1043Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1044RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1045
1046* New targets
1047
1048OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1049MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1050Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1051
1052* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1053
1054There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1055This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1056
1057* Fixes
1058
1059As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1060and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1061
1062*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1063
1064* Irix 5 is now supported
1065
1066* HPPA support
1067
1068GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1069to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1070GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1071of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1072can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1073
1074
1075*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1076
1077* User visible changes:
1078
1079* Remote Debugging
1080
1081The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1082target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1083debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1084integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1085debugging info for the mips target).
1086
1087* DEC Alpha native support
1088
1089GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1090debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1091work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1092Alpha-specific notes.
1093
1094* Preliminary thread implementation
1095
1096GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1097
1098* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1099
1100This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1101to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1102for details).
1103
1104* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1105
1106This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1107mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1108call methods, ...etc.
1109
1110*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1111
1112 * User visible changes:
1113
1114Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1115supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1116other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1117somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1118
1119Filename completion now works.
1120
1121When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1122arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1123addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1124
1125All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1126vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1127should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1128your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1129to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1130
1131 * DEC alpha support
1132
1133This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1134cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1135
1136
1137*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1138
1139 * Testsuite
1140
1141This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1142The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1143via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1144
1145 * C++ demangling
1146
1147'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1148emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1149Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1150disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1151use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1152
1153 * Simulators
1154
1155GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1156So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1157Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1158
1159 * New targets supported
1160
1161H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1162H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1163SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1164Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1165IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1166
1167Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1168version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1169GO32 memory extender.
1170
1171 * New remote protocols
1172
1173MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1174
1175 * New source languages supported
1176
1177This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1178used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1179into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1180
1181
1182*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1183
1184 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1185
1186GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1187version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1188University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1189compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1190format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1191(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1192
1193Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1194
1195 * Faster and better demangling
1196
1197We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1198demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1199character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1200only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1201This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1202increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1203symbol lookups.
1204
1205`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1206from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1207compiler does not actually implement.
1208
1209 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1210
1211In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1212inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1213recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1214very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1215The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1216circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1217fix.
1218
1219The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1220release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1221
1222 * Improved configure script
1223
1224The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1225you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1226host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1227done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1228
1229We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1230version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1231`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1232The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1233only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1234We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1235
1236 * Documentation improvements
1237
1238There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1239produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1240before submitting changes.
1241
1242The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1243M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1244`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1245you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1246a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1247
1248*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1249We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1250been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1251or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1252`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1253around this problem.
1254
1255 * New features
1256
1257GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1258the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1259`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1260the target program.
1261
1262The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1263how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1264
1265 * New native hosts supported
1266
1267HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1268386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1269
1270 * New targets supported
1271
1272AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1273
1274 * New file formats supported
1275
1276BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1277HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1278
1279 * Major bug fixes
1280
1281Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1282
1283We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1284printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1285
1286We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1287for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1288release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1289
1290You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1291will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1292
1293We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1294for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1295especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1296libraries.
1297
1298The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1299information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1300command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1301any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1302when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1303
1304 * Internal improvements
1305
1306GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1307debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1308
1309GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1310Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1311symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1312contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1313shared code that handles any of them.
1314
1315 * New command line options
1316
1317We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1318
1319 * Mmalloc licensing
1320
1321The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1322General Public License.
1323
1324*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1325
1326 * Host/native/target split
1327
1328GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1329hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1330target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1331local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1332ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1333
1334The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1335GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1336is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1337code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1338any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1339built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1340handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1341
1342GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1343It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1344plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1345
1346 * New hosts supported
1347
1348HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1349386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1350386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1351
1352 * New targets supported
1353
1354Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
135568030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1356
1357 * New native hosts supported
1358
1359386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1360 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1361386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1362
1363 * New file formats supported
1364
1365BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1366supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1367format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1368
1369 * New commands
1370
1371`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1372`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1373These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1374
1375`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1376
1377You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1378scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1379prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1380executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1381
1382 * C++ improvements
1383
1384We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1385info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1386symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1387
1388Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1389
1390 * Major bug fixes
1391
1392The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1393fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1394by the compiler.
1395
1396We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1397support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1398
1399John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1400slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1401that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1402purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1403the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1404mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1405
1406Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1407about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1408completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1409we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1410
1411 * AMD 29k support
1412
1413A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1414specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1415calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1416usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1417in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1418
1419We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1420Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1421of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1422resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1423
1424 * Remote interfaces
1425
1426We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1427with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1428message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1429This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1430needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1431breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1432each instruction being stepped through.
1433
1434The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1435registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1436
1437There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1438find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1439Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1440processor with a serial port.
1441
1442 * Configuration
1443
1444Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1445`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1446supported, and what files each one uses.
1447
1448 * Library changes
1449
1450There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1451disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1452Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1453disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1454
1455The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1456Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1457can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1458grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1459
1460 * Documentation
1461
1462The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1463reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1464as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1465encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1466system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1467bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1468
1469And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1470
1471
1472*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1473
1474 * Better support for C++ function names
1475
1476GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1477names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1478(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1479single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1480Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1481
1482GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1483the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1484You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1485lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1486for the list of formats.
1487
1488 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1489
1490Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1491C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1492directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1493can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1494usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1495about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1496this problem.)
1497
1498 * New 'maintenance' command
1499
1500All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1501the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1502can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1503
1504 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1505 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1506 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1507 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1508 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1509 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1510
1511The following commands are new:
1512
1513 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1514 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1515 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1516
1517 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1518
1519We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1520(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1521be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1522read after argv processing.
1523
1524 * New hosts supported
1525
1526Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1527
55241689 1528GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
1529
1530We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1531is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1532for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1533masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1534fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1535It costs extra.
1536
1537 * New targets supported
1538
1539Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1540
1541 * More smarts about finding #include files
1542
1543GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1544all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1545greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1546especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1547the one that contains your sources.
1548
1549We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1550breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1551try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1552
1553 * Interesting infernals change
1554
1555GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1556section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1557target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1558stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1559
1560 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1561
1562There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1563 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1564 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1565
1566See the ChangeLog for details.
1567
1568*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1569
1570 * New machines supported (host and target)
1571
1572IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1573
1574SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1575
1576 * New malloc package
1577
1578GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1579Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1580capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1581This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1582pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1583more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1584
1585 * info proc
1586
1587The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1588'help info proc' for details.
1589
1590 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1591
1592The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1593Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1594possible.
1595
1596 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1597
1598Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1599support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1600conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1601environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1602that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1603in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1604
1605 * Cross byte order fixes
1606
1607Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1608targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1609
1610 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1611
1612If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1613system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1614`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1615program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1616called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1617Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1618and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1619the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1620option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1621starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1622
1623You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1624the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1625information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1626slower, but makes future operations faster.
1627
1628The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1629build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1630A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1631use is:
1632
1633 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1634
1635The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1636It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1637shared across multiple host platforms.
1638
1639 * longjmp() handling
1640
1641GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1642siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1643all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1644platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1645
1646 * Solaris 2.0
1647
1648Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1649this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1650reading symbols.
1651
1652 * Bug fixes
1653
1654As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1655People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1656crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1657
1658*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1659
1660 * New machines supported (host and target)
1661
1662SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1663 (except core files)
1664BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1665Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1666
1667 * New machines supported (target)
1668
1669AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1670
1671 * C++ support
1672
1673GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1674The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1675per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1676
1677GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1678`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1679extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1680good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1681will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1682released.
1683
1684 * New features for SVR4
1685
1686GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1687shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1688only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1689
1690The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1691on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1692it prints the address mappings of the process.
1693
1694If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1695bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1696
1697 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1698
1699Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1700now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1701skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1702make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1703same code linked statically.
1704
1705 * New Getopt
1706
1707GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1708version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1709continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1710Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1711added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1712future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1713
1714 * Bugs fixed
1715
1716The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1717Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1718See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1719
1720
1721*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1722
1723 * New machines supported (host and target)
1724
1725Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1726NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1727Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1728
1729 * Almost SCO Unix support
1730
1731We had hoped to support:
1732SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1733(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1734that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1735about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1736
1737 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1738
1739GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1740debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1741is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1742send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1743reqired (if any).
1744
1745 * New Readline
1746
1747GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1748is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1749required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1750
1751 * Bugs fixed
1752
1753The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1754Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1755See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1756
1757 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1758
1759GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1760supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1761symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1762
1763Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1764mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1765debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1766mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1767version 2.
1768
1769Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1770really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1771line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1772variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1773situation somewhat.
1774
1775When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1776However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1777methods.
1778
1779We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1780DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1781encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1782
1783
1784*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1785
1786 * Improved configuration
1787
1788Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1789Porting BFD is simpler.
1790
1791 * Stepping improved
1792
1793The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1794of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1795in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1796function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1797
1798 * Bug fixing
1799
1800Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1801
1802 * New host supported (not target)
1803
1804Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1805
1806
1807*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1808
1809 * Multiple source language support
1810
1811GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1812It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1813and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1814language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1815You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1816`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1817
1818 * GDB and Modula-2
1819
1820GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1821currently under development at the State University of New York at
1822Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1823continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1824
1825Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1826debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1827symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1828
1829There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1830in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1831
1832 * set write on/off
1833
1834GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1835a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1836the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1837by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1838effect immediately.
1839
1840 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1841
1842When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1843shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1844The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1845examining core files.
1846
1847 * set listsize
1848
1849You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1850The default is 10.
1851
1852 * New machines supported (host and target)
1853
1854SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1855Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1856Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1857
1858 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1859
1860IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1861
1862 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1863
1864AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1865AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1866Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1867
1868 * New remote interfaces
1869
1870AMD 29000 Adapt
1871AMD 29000 Minimon
1872
1873
1874*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1875
1876 * New Facilities
1877
1878Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1879
1880Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1881target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1882is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1883remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1884remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1885also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1886using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1887stub on the target system.
1888
1889New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1890
1891GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1892library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1893object file types such as a.out and coff.
1894
1895There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1896refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1897
1898
1899 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1900
1901All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1902by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1903
1904For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1905``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1906Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1907
1908What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1909print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1910will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1911all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1912
1913confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1914 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1915 it is already running. Default is ON.
1916
1917editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1918 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1919 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1920 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1921 Default is ON.
1922
1923history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1924 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1925 or the value of the environment variable
1926 GDBHISTFILE.
1927
1928history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1929 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1930 HISTSIZE.
1931
1932history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1933 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1934 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1935
1936history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1937 history expansion will be performed on
1938 command line input. The default is OFF.
1939
1940radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1941 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1942 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1943
1944height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1945 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1946 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1947 variable TERM.
1948
1949width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1950 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1951 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1952 variable TERM.
1953
1954Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1955``set width'' instead.
1956
1957print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1958 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1959 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1960 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1961
1962print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1963 is OFF.
1964
1965print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1966 "raw" form if off.
1967
1968print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1969 like instructions.
1970
1971print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1972
1973
1974 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1975
1976The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1977new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1978are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1979window.
1980
1981
1982 * Support for Shared Libraries
1983
1984GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1985Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1986before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1987happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1988At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1989from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1990shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1991It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1992
1993sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1994 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1995 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1996
1997info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1998
1999
2000 * Watchpoints
2001
2002A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2003expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2004tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2005quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2006problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2007more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2008
2009watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2010
2011info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2012
2013delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2014disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2015enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2016
2017
2018 * C++ multiple inheritance
2019
2020When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2021for C++ programs.
2022
2023 * C++ exception handling
2024
2025Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2026ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2027the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2028handler's context).
2029
2030catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2031 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2032 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2033
2034info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2035 current stack frame.
2036
2037
2038 * Minor command changes
2039
2040The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2041command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2042is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2043
2044The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2045at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2046frames without printing.
2047
2048 * New directory command
2049
2050'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2051The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2052about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2053with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2054find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2055
2056 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2057
2058For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2059for more details.
2060
2061GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2062two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2063Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2064where the program that you are debugging will run.
This page took 0.217447 seconds and 4 git commands to generate.