merge from gcc
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 5.1:
5
6* New native configurations
7
8x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
9
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10* New targets
11
12Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
13
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14* REMOVED configurations and files
15
16TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 17WDC 65816 w65-*-*
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18PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
19PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
20PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 21Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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22Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
23 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 24SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 25Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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26Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
27ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
e2caac18 28
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29* Changes to command line processing
30
31The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
32for the inferior from gdb's command line.
33
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34* Changes to key bindings
35
36There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
37
34f47bc4 38*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
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39
40* New native configurations
41
42Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
43x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2aa830e4 44MIPS Linux mips*-*-linux*
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45MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
46ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
5769d3cd 47s390 and s390x Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 48
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49* New targets
50
def90278 51Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 52CRIS cris-axis
e23194cb 53UltraSparc running Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 54
17e78a56 55* OBSOLETE configurations and files
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56
57x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 58Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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59Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
60 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
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61TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
62WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 63Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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64PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
65PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
66PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 67SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
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68Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
69ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 70Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 71
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72stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
73kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
74
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75Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
76been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
77configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
78permanently REMOVED.
79
a196c81c 80* REMOVED configurations and files
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81
82Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
83Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
84Pyramid pyramid-*-*
85ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
86Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 87ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 88
6d6b80e5 89* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 90
6d6b80e5 91GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
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92sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
93present.
94
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95* Other news:
96
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97* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
98
99* The MI enabled by default.
100
101The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
102revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
103engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
104using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
105which is now deprecated.
106
107* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
108
109GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
110main features are supported:
111
112 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
113
114 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
115 extension;
116
117 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
118
119 - a Pascal expression parser.
120
121However, some important features are not yet supported.
122
123 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
124
125 - there are some problems with boolean types;
126
127 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
128 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
129
130 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
131
132 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
133
134* Changes in completion.
135
136Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
137to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
138users expect at the shell prompt.
139
140Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
141`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
142program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
143files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
144be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
145considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
146name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
147
148`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
149
150* New platform-independent commands:
151
152It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
153hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
154documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
155
156* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
157
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158Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
159revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
160many threads as your system allows you to have.
161
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162Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
163
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164Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
165multi-threaded programs though.
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166
167* Changes in MIPS configurations.
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168
169Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
170
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171GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
172debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
173supported.)
174
175* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
176
177Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
178breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
179implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
180put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
181and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
182registers.
183
184The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
185debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
186watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
187
188* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
189
190New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
191the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
192
193New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
194display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
195IDT.
196
197New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
198from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
199New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
200a given linear address.
201
202GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
203program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
204which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
205
206DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
207
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208It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
209
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210* Changes in documentation.
211
212All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
213Documentation License.
214
215Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
216manual.
217
218TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
219
220Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
221manual.
222
223The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
224documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
225hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
226
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227* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
228
229The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
230``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
231contents of this file.
232
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233* gdba.el deleted
234
235GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 236
9debab2f 237*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 238
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239* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
240
241Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
242programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
243displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
244greater level of detail.
245
246* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
247
248It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
249bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
250on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
251written.
252
253* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
254
255The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
256necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
257machines ``out of the box''.
258
259The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
260possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
261signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
262would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
263interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
264
265It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
266standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
267even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
268and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
269terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
270
271The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
272enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
273also works.
274
275DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
276GDB.
277
278It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
279directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
280times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
281breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
282
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283* New native configurations
284
285ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 286PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 287
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288* New targets
289
96baa820 290Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
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291x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
292PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
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293TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
294
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295* OBSOLETE configurations
296
297Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
298Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 299Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 300ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 301Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 302
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303Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
304but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
305these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
306be permanently REMOVED.
307
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308* Gould support removed
309
310Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
311
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312* New features for SVR4
313
314On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
315without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
316load symbols from the running process's executable file.
317
318* Many C++ enhancements
319
320C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
321in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
322
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323* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
324
325A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
326sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
327with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
328``|<program> <args>'' vis:
329
330 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
331 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
332
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333* MIPS 64 remote protocol
334
335A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
336expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
337instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
338
339The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
340added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
341
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342* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
343
344The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
345``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
346include ``set remote P-packet''.
347
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348* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
349
350The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
351accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
352``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
353
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354* ``apropos'' command added.
355
356The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
357documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
358try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
359
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360* New MI interface
361
362A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
363interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
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364process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
365"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
366enabled by configuring with:
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367
368 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
369
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370*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
371
372* New native configurations
373
374HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
375HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
376M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
377
378* New targets
379
380Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
381Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
382Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
383
384* OBSOLETE configurations
385
386Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
387
388Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
389but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
390these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
391be permanently REMOVED.
392
393* ANSI/ISO C
394
395As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
396buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
397containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
398use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
399available. If this is not true, please report the affected
400configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
401information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
402already.
403
404* Readline 2.2
405
406GDB now uses readline 2.2.
407
408* set extension-language
409
410You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
411languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
412you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
413 set extension-language .c c++
414The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
415and their associated languages.
416
417* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
418
419When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
420you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
421PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
422
423 set processor NAME
424
425sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
426following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
427
428 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
429 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
430 403 IBM PowerPC 403
431 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
432 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
433 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
434 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
435 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
436 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
437 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
438 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
439
440At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
441special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
442registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
443only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
444
445* HP-UX support
446
447Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
448more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
449library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
450support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
451for xdb and dbx commands.
452
453* Catchpoints
454
455HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
456generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
457to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
458
459This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
460argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
461output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
462
463* Debugging across forks
464
465On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
466in the inferior.
467
468* TUI
469
470HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
471it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
472configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
473
474* GDB remote protocol additions
475
476A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
477Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
478fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
479allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
480
481For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
482full 64-bit address. The command
483
484 set remoteaddresssize 32
485
486can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
487the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
488will be discarded.
489
490In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
491command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
492
493 maint packet heythere
494
495sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
496disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
497time.
498
499The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
500target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
501downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
502
503* Tracing can collect general expressions
504
505You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
506further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
507doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
508
509* mask-address variable for Mips
510
511For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
512a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
513of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
514
515* Higher serial baud rates
516
517GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
518230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
519to achieve all of these rates.)
520
521* i960 simulator
522
523The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
524builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
525
526
527*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
528
529* New native configurations
530
531Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
532Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
533Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
534PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
535PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
536Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
537Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
538
539* New targets
540
541Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
542Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
543Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
544Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
545MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
546MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
547MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
548Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
549Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
550Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
551NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
552
553* New debugging protocols
554
555ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
556M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
557DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
558PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
559PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
560Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
561
562* DWARF 2
563
564All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
565format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
566information.
567
568* Java frontend
569
570GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
571only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
572
573* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
574
575For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
576loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
577locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
578
579* Live range splitting
580
581GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
582range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
583more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
584
585* Hurd support
586
587GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
588updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
589
590* ARM Thumb support
591
592GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
593instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
594instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
595accordingly.
596
597* MIPS16 support
598
599GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
600instruction set.
601
602* Overlay support
603
604GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
605linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
606will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
607control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
608additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
609in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
610
611* info symbol
612
613The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
614the symbol at the specified address.
615
616* Trace support
617
618The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
619asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
620extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
621includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
622file tracepoint.c for more details.
623
624* MIPS simulator
625
626Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
627by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
628of most MIPS variants.
629
630* Sparc simulator
631
632Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
633by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
634Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
635
636* set architecture
637
638For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
639basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
640architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
641the possible architectures.
642
643*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
644
645* New native configurations
646
647Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
648M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
649PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
650PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
651PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
652RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
653
654* New targets
655
656ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
657I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
658MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
659MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
660PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
661Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
662Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
663
664* PowerPC simulator
665
666The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
667contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
668PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
669basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
670performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
671
672* Solaris 2.5
673
674GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
675
676* Windows 95/NT native
677
678GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
679To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
680which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
681Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
682ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
683
684* dont-repeat command
685
686If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
687command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
688useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
689extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
690
691* Send break instead of ^C
692
693The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
694rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
695GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
696
697* Remote protocol timeout
698
699The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
700that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
701to read from the target. The default value is 2.
702
703* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
704
705By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
706loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
707stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
708when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
709in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
710
711Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
712/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
713automatically on hpux10.
714
715* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
716
717Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
718
719* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
720
721When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
722may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
723the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
724every character. The default value is 1050.
725
726* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
727
728If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
729a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
730replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
731details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
732remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
733to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
734
735* Speedups for remote debugging
736
737GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
738the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
739and more efficient S-record downloading.
740
741* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
742
743GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
744Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
745
746*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
747
748* Psymtabs for XCOFF
749
750The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
751can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
752
753* Remote targets use caching
754
755Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
756remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
757it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
758debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
759off' turns the the data cache off.
760
761* Remote targets may have threads
762
763The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
764in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
765gdb/remote.c for details.
766
767* NetROM support
768
769If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
770support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
771acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
772write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
773support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
774another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
775sequence is something like
776
777 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
778 load <prog>
779 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
780
781* Macintosh host
782
783GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
784may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
785it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
786available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
787device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
788directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
789scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
790mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
791
792* Autoconf
793
794GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
795but does simplify configuration and building.
796
797* hpux10
798
799GDB now supports hpux10.
800
801*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
802
803* New native configurations
804
805x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
806x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
807NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
808Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
809
810* New targets
811
812A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
813HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
814CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
815PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
816WDC 65816 w65-*-*
817
818* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
819
820GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
821possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
822filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
823the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
824if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
825
826* Arguments to user-defined commands
827
828User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
829Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
830trivial example:
831define adder
832 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
833
834To execute the command use:
835adder 1 2 3
836
837Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
838Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
839use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
840
841* New `if' and `while' commands
842
843This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
844commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
845expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
846execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
847terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
848`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
849if the expression is zero.
850
851* Fortran source language mode
852
853GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
854Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
855variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
856with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
857Fortran compilers.
858
859* Better HPUX support
860
861Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
862running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
863processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
864for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
865that behavior do the following before running the program:
866
867 adb -w a.out
868 __dld_flags?W 0x5
869 control-d
870
871This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
872To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
873
874 adb -w a.out
875 __dld_flags?W 0x4
876 control-d
877
878You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
879the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
880external linkage.
881
882GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
883HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
884
885* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
886
887You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
888commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
889current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
890"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
891associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
892configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
893
894* New DOS host serial code
895
896This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
897no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
898a PC's serial port.
899
900*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
901
902* New "complete" command
903
904This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
905were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
906
907* Trailing space optional in prompt
908
909"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
910allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
911
912* Breakpoint hit counts
913
914"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
915has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
916can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
917to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
918less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
919that breakpoint.
920
921* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
922
923"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
924an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
925arrays actually contain only short strings.
926
927* Shared library breakpoints
928
929In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
930breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
931
932* Hardware watchpoints
933
934There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
935targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
936
937Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
938
939* Annotations
940
941Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
942and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
943
944* Improved Irix 5 support
945
946GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
947
948* Improved HPPA support
949
950GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
951
952* New native configurations
953
954Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
955HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
956Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
957RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
958
959* New targets
960
961OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
962MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
963Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
964
965* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
966
967There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
968This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
969
970* Fixes
971
972As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
973and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
974
975*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
976
977* Irix 5 is now supported
978
979* HPPA support
980
981GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
982to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
983GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
984of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
985can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
986
987
988*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
989
990* User visible changes:
991
992* Remote Debugging
993
994The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
995target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
996debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
997integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
998debugging info for the mips target).
999
1000* DEC Alpha native support
1001
1002GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1003debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1004work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1005Alpha-specific notes.
1006
1007* Preliminary thread implementation
1008
1009GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1010
1011* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1012
1013This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1014to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1015for details).
1016
1017* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1018
1019This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1020mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1021call methods, ...etc.
1022
1023*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1024
1025 * User visible changes:
1026
1027Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1028supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1029other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1030somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1031
1032Filename completion now works.
1033
1034When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1035arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1036addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1037
1038All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1039vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1040should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1041your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1042to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1043
1044 * DEC alpha support
1045
1046This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1047cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1048
1049
1050*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1051
1052 * Testsuite
1053
1054This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1055The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1056via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1057
1058 * C++ demangling
1059
1060'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1061emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1062Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1063disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1064use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1065
1066 * Simulators
1067
1068GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1069So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1070Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1071
1072 * New targets supported
1073
1074H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1075H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1076SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1077Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1078IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1079
1080Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1081version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1082GO32 memory extender.
1083
1084 * New remote protocols
1085
1086MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1087
1088 * New source languages supported
1089
1090This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1091used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1092into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1093
1094
1095*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1096
1097 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1098
1099GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1100version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1101University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1102compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1103format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1104(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1105
1106Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1107
1108 * Faster and better demangling
1109
1110We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1111demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1112character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1113only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1114This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1115increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1116symbol lookups.
1117
1118`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1119from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1120compiler does not actually implement.
1121
1122 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1123
1124In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1125inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1126recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1127very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1128The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1129circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1130fix.
1131
1132The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1133release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1134
1135 * Improved configure script
1136
1137The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1138you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1139host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1140done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1141
1142We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1143version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1144`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1145The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1146only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1147We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1148
1149 * Documentation improvements
1150
1151There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1152produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1153before submitting changes.
1154
1155The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1156M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1157`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1158you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1159a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1160
1161*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1162We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1163been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1164or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1165`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1166around this problem.
1167
1168 * New features
1169
1170GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1171the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1172`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1173the target program.
1174
1175The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1176how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1177
1178 * New native hosts supported
1179
1180HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1181386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1182
1183 * New targets supported
1184
1185AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1186
1187 * New file formats supported
1188
1189BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1190HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1191
1192 * Major bug fixes
1193
1194Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1195
1196We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1197printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1198
1199We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1200for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1201release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1202
1203You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1204will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1205
1206We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1207for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1208especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1209libraries.
1210
1211The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1212information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1213command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1214any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1215when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1216
1217 * Internal improvements
1218
1219GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1220debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1221
1222GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1223Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1224symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1225contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1226shared code that handles any of them.
1227
1228 * New command line options
1229
1230We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1231
1232 * Mmalloc licensing
1233
1234The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1235General Public License.
1236
1237*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1238
1239 * Host/native/target split
1240
1241GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1242hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1243target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1244local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1245ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1246
1247The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1248GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1249is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1250code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1251any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1252built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1253handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1254
1255GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1256It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1257plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1258
1259 * New hosts supported
1260
1261HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1262386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1263386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1264
1265 * New targets supported
1266
1267Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
126868030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1269
1270 * New native hosts supported
1271
1272386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1273 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1274386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1275
1276 * New file formats supported
1277
1278BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1279supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1280format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1281
1282 * New commands
1283
1284`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1285`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1286These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1287
1288`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1289
1290You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1291scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1292prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1293executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1294
1295 * C++ improvements
1296
1297We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1298info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1299symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1300
1301Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1302
1303 * Major bug fixes
1304
1305The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1306fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1307by the compiler.
1308
1309We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1310support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1311
1312John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1313slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1314that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1315purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1316the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1317mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1318
1319Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1320about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1321completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1322we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1323
1324 * AMD 29k support
1325
1326A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1327specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1328calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1329usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1330in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1331
1332We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1333Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1334of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1335resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1336
1337 * Remote interfaces
1338
1339We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1340with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1341message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1342This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1343needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1344breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1345each instruction being stepped through.
1346
1347The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1348registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1349
1350There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1351find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1352Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1353processor with a serial port.
1354
1355 * Configuration
1356
1357Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1358`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1359supported, and what files each one uses.
1360
1361 * Library changes
1362
1363There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1364disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1365Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1366disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1367
1368The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1369Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1370can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1371grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1372
1373 * Documentation
1374
1375The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1376reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1377as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1378encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1379system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1380bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1381
1382And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1383
1384
1385*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1386
1387 * Better support for C++ function names
1388
1389GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1390names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1391(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1392single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1393Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1394
1395GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1396the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1397You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1398lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1399for the list of formats.
1400
1401 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1402
1403Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1404C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1405directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1406can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1407usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1408about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1409this problem.)
1410
1411 * New 'maintenance' command
1412
1413All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1414the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1415can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1416
1417 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1418 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1419 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1420 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1421 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1422 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1423
1424The following commands are new:
1425
1426 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1427 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1428 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1429
1430 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1431
1432We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1433(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1434be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1435read after argv processing.
1436
1437 * New hosts supported
1438
1439Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1440
1441Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1442
1443We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1444is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1445for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1446masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1447fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1448It costs extra.
1449
1450 * New targets supported
1451
1452Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1453
1454 * More smarts about finding #include files
1455
1456GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1457all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1458greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1459especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1460the one that contains your sources.
1461
1462We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1463breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1464try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1465
1466 * Interesting infernals change
1467
1468GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1469section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1470target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1471stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1472
1473 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1474
1475There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1476 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1477 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1478
1479See the ChangeLog for details.
1480
1481*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1482
1483 * New machines supported (host and target)
1484
1485IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1486
1487SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1488
1489 * New malloc package
1490
1491GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1492Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1493capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1494This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1495pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1496more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1497
1498 * info proc
1499
1500The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1501'help info proc' for details.
1502
1503 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1504
1505The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1506Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1507possible.
1508
1509 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1510
1511Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1512support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1513conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1514environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1515that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1516in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1517
1518 * Cross byte order fixes
1519
1520Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1521targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1522
1523 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1524
1525If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1526system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1527`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1528program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1529called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1530Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1531and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1532the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1533option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1534starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1535
1536You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1537the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1538information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1539slower, but makes future operations faster.
1540
1541The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1542build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1543A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1544use is:
1545
1546 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1547
1548The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1549It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1550shared across multiple host platforms.
1551
1552 * longjmp() handling
1553
1554GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1555siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1556all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1557platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1558
1559 * Solaris 2.0
1560
1561Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1562this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1563reading symbols.
1564
1565 * Bug fixes
1566
1567As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1568People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1569crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1570
1571*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1572
1573 * New machines supported (host and target)
1574
1575SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1576 (except core files)
1577BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1578Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1579
1580 * New machines supported (target)
1581
1582AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1583
1584 * C++ support
1585
1586GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1587The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1588per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1589
1590GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1591`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1592extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1593good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1594will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1595released.
1596
1597 * New features for SVR4
1598
1599GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1600shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1601only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1602
1603The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1604on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1605it prints the address mappings of the process.
1606
1607If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1608bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1609
1610 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1611
1612Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1613now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1614skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1615make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1616same code linked statically.
1617
1618 * New Getopt
1619
1620GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1621version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1622continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1623Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1624added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1625future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1626
1627 * Bugs fixed
1628
1629The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1630Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1631See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1632
1633
1634*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1635
1636 * New machines supported (host and target)
1637
1638Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1639NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1640Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1641
1642 * Almost SCO Unix support
1643
1644We had hoped to support:
1645SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1646(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1647that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1648about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1649
1650 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1651
1652GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1653debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1654is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1655send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1656reqired (if any).
1657
1658 * New Readline
1659
1660GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1661is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1662required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1663
1664 * Bugs fixed
1665
1666The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1667Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1668See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1669
1670 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1671
1672GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1673supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1674symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1675
1676Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1677mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1678debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1679mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1680version 2.
1681
1682Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1683really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1684line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1685variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1686situation somewhat.
1687
1688When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1689However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1690methods.
1691
1692We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1693DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1694encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1695
1696
1697*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1698
1699 * Improved configuration
1700
1701Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1702Porting BFD is simpler.
1703
1704 * Stepping improved
1705
1706The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1707of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1708in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1709function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1710
1711 * Bug fixing
1712
1713Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1714
1715 * New host supported (not target)
1716
1717Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1718
1719
1720*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1721
1722 * Multiple source language support
1723
1724GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1725It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1726and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1727language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1728You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1729`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1730
1731 * GDB and Modula-2
1732
1733GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1734currently under development at the State University of New York at
1735Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1736continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1737
1738Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1739debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1740symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1741
1742There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1743in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1744
1745 * set write on/off
1746
1747GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1748a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1749the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1750by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1751effect immediately.
1752
1753 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1754
1755When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1756shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1757The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1758examining core files.
1759
1760 * set listsize
1761
1762You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1763The default is 10.
1764
1765 * New machines supported (host and target)
1766
1767SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1768Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1769Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1770
1771 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1772
1773IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1774
1775 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1776
1777AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1778AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1779Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1780
1781 * New remote interfaces
1782
1783AMD 29000 Adapt
1784AMD 29000 Minimon
1785
1786
1787*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1788
1789 * New Facilities
1790
1791Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1792
1793Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1794target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1795is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1796remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1797remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1798also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1799using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1800stub on the target system.
1801
1802New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1803
1804GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1805library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1806object file types such as a.out and coff.
1807
1808There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1809refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1810
1811
1812 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1813
1814All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1815by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1816
1817For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1818``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1819Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1820
1821What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1822print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1823will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1824all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1825
1826confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1827 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1828 it is already running. Default is ON.
1829
1830editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1831 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1832 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1833 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1834 Default is ON.
1835
1836history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1837 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1838 or the value of the environment variable
1839 GDBHISTFILE.
1840
1841history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1842 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1843 HISTSIZE.
1844
1845history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1846 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1847 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1848
1849history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1850 history expansion will be performed on
1851 command line input. The default is OFF.
1852
1853radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1854 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1855 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1856
1857height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1858 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1859 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1860 variable TERM.
1861
1862width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1863 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1864 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1865 variable TERM.
1866
1867Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1868``set width'' instead.
1869
1870print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1871 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1872 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1873 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1874
1875print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1876 is OFF.
1877
1878print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1879 "raw" form if off.
1880
1881print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1882 like instructions.
1883
1884print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1885
1886
1887 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1888
1889The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1890new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1891are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1892window.
1893
1894
1895 * Support for Shared Libraries
1896
1897GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1898Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1899before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1900happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1901At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1902from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1903shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1904It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1905
1906sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1907 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1908 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1909
1910info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1911
1912
1913 * Watchpoints
1914
1915A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1916expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1917tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1918quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1919problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1920more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1921
1922watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1923
1924info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1925
1926delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1927disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1928enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1929
1930
1931 * C++ multiple inheritance
1932
1933When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1934for C++ programs.
1935
1936 * C++ exception handling
1937
1938Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1939ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1940the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1941handler's context).
1942
1943catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1944 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1945 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1946
1947info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1948 current stack frame.
1949
1950
1951 * Minor command changes
1952
1953The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1954command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1955is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1956
1957The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1958at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1959frames without printing.
1960
1961 * New directory command
1962
1963'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1964The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1965about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1966with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1967find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1968
1969 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1970
1971For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1972for more details.
1973
1974GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1975two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1976Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1977where the program that you are debugging will run.
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