Document i386 XML target features.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 7.0
5
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6* New targets
7
8Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 9Renesas RX rx-*-elf
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10
11* New Simulators
12
13Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 14Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 15
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16* Multi-program debugging.
17
18 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
19 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
20 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
21 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
22 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
23 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
24 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
25 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
26
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27* New tracing features
28
29 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
30
31 ** Trace state variables
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32
33 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
34 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
35 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
36 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
37 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
38 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
39 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
40 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
41 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
42 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 43
d5551862 44 ** Fast tracepoints
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45
46 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
47 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
48 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
49 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
50 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
51 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
52 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
53 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
54 the regular trace command.
55
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56 ** Disconnected tracing
57
58 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
59 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
60 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
61 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
62 connection is lost unexpectedly.
63
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64 ** Trace files
65
66 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
67 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
68 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
69 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
70 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
71 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
72 <name>".
73
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74* Changed commands
75
76disassemble
77 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
78 the arguments to be comma-separated.
79
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80info variables
81 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
82 which only declare a variable are not shown.
83
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84source
85 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
86 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
87 support.
88
89 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
90 "set script-extension" (see below).
91
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92* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
93
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94record save [<FILENAME>]
95 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
96 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
97
98record restore <FILENAME>
99 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
100 earlier time, for replay debugging.
101
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102add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
103 Add a new inferior.
104
105clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
106 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
107 inferior has loaded.
108
109remove-inferior ID
110 Remove an inferior.
111
112maint info program-spaces
113 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
114
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115set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
116show remote interrupt-sequence
117 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
118 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
119 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
120 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
121 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
122
123set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
124show remote interrupt-on-connect
125 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
126 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
127 Linux kernel.
128
129set remotebreak [on | off]
130show remotebreak
131Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
132
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133tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
134 Create or modify a trace state variable.
135
136info tvariables
137 List trace state variables and their values.
138
139delete tvariable $NAME ...
140 Delete one or more trace state variables.
141
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142teval EXPR, ...
143 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
144 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
145
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146ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
147 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
148
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149* New expression syntax
150
151 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
152 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
153
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154* New options
155
156set follow-exec-mode new|same
157show follow-exec-mode
158 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
159 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
160 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
161
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162set default-collect EXPR, ...
163show default-collect
164 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
165 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
166 such as registers or a critical global variable.
167
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168set disconnected-tracing
169show disconnected-tracing
170 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
171 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
172 upon disconnection.
173
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174set script-extension off|soft|strict
175show script-extension
176 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
177 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
178 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
179 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
180 evaluation failed.
181 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
182
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183set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
184show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
185 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
186 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
187 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
188 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
189 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
190 is on.
191
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192* New remote packets
193
194QTDV
195 Define a trace state variable.
196
197qTV
198 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
199
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200QTDisconnected
201 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
202
203qTfP, qTsP
204 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
205
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206* Bug fixes
207
208Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
209
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210Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
211much more reliable. In particular:
212 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
213 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
214 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
215 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
216 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
217 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
218 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
219 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
220 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
221 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
222 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
223 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
224 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
225 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
226 non-threaded programs.
227
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228PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
229This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
230libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
231executable program.
232
abc7453d 233*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 234
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235* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
236dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
237them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
238for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
239"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
240
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241* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
242breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
243or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
244the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
245for tracepoint actions.
246
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247* "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
248in hex as well as in symbolic form."
249
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250* Process record and replay
251
252 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
253 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
254 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
255 execute commands.
256
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257* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
258step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
259set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
260reverse execution.
261
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262* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
263feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
2642.6.28 or later.
265
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266* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
267target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
268char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
269literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
270U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
271`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
272system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
273the installation instructions for more information.
274
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275* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
276remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
277with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
278the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
279
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280* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
281and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
282
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283* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
284now complete on file names.
285
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286* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
287completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
288For instance, consider:
289
290 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
291 # struct example variable;
292 (gdb) p variable.
293
294If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
295completions will be "f1" and "f2".
296
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297* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
298the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
299
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300* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
301operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
302macros.
303
47a3467a 304* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
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305the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
306implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
307
308* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
309registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
310can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
311and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 312
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313* New remote packets
314
315qSearch:memory:
316 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
317
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318QStartNoAckMode
319 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
320 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
321 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
322
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323vKill
324 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
325 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
326
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327qXfer:osdata:read
328 Obtains additional operating system information
329
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330qXfer:siginfo:read
331qXfer:siginfo:write
332 Read or write additional signal information.
333
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334* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
335
336 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
337 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
338 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
339
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340* The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
341source+assembly.
342
c055b101 343* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 344DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
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345
346* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
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347and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
348`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 349
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350* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
351with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
352
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353* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
354
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355* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
356
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357* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
358which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
359
1fddbabb 360* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 361list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 362
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363* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
364conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
365have also been fixed.
366
bfb8797a 367* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
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368From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
369are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 370
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371* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
372example, given:
373
374 template<typename T> class C { };
375 C<char const *> c;
376
377GDB will now correctly handle all of:
378
379 ptype C<char const *>
380 ptype C<char const*>
381 ptype C<const char *>
382 ptype C<const char*>
383
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384* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
385
386 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
387 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
388
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389 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
390 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
391 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
392
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393 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
394 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
395
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396 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
397 gdbserver.
398
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399 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
400 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
401
402 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
403 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
404 as appropriate.
405
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406* Python scripting
407
408 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
409 available is determined at configure time.
410
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411 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
412
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413* Ada tasking support
414
415 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
416 been introduced:
417
418 info tasks
419 Print the list of Ada tasks.
420 info task N
421 Print detailed information about task number N.
422 task
423 Print the task number of the current task.
424 task N
425 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
426
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427* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
428add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
429
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430* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
431
432 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
433 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
434 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
435 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
436 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
437 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
438 below.
439
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440* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
441"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
442information.
443
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444* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
445to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
446architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
447See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
448more information.
449
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450* Multi-architecture debugging.
451
452 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
453 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
454 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
455 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
456 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
457
458* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
459use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
460Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
461powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
462--enable-targets configure option.
463
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464* Non-stop mode debugging.
465
466 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
467 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
468 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
469 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
470 section in the user manual for more information.
471
472 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
473 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
474 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
475 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
476 extensions on linux targets.
477
d7713ae0 478* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 479
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480catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
481 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
482 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
483 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
484 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
485 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
486 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
487 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
488 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
489
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490find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
491 val1 [, val2, ...]
492 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
493
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494maint set python print-stack
495maint show python print-stack
496 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
497
498python [CODE]
499 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
500
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501macro define
502macro list
503macro undef
504 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
505 interactively.
506
507info os processes
508 Show operating system information about processes.
509
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510info inferiors
511 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
512
513inferior NUM
514 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
515
516detach inferior NUM
517 Detach from inferior number NUM.
518
519kill inferior NUM
520 Kill inferior number NUM.
521
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522* New options
523
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524set spu stop-on-load
525show spu stop-on-load
526 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
527
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528set spu auto-flush-cache
529show spu auto-flush-cache
530 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
531 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
532
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533set sh calling-convention
534show sh calling-convention
535 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
536
e0a3ce09 537set debug timestamp
75feb17d 538show debug timestamp
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539 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
540
541set disassemble-next-line
542show disassemble-next-line
543 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
544 the debuggee stops.
545
546set remote noack-packet
547show remote noack-packet
548 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
549 under "New remote packets."
550
551set remote query-attached-packet
552show remote query-attached-packet
553 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
554
555set remote read-siginfo-object
556show remote read-siginfo-object
557 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
558 packet.
559
560set remote write-siginfo-object
561show remote write-siginfo-object
562 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
563 packet.
564
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565set remote reverse-continue
566show remote reverse-continue
567 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
568
569set remote reverse-step
570show remote reverse-step
571 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
572
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573set displaced-stepping
574show displaced-stepping
575 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
576 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
577 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
578
579set debug displaced
580show debug displaced
581 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
582
583maint set internal-error
584maint show internal-error
585 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
586
587maint set internal-warning
588maint show internal-warning
589 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 590
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591set exec-wrapper
592show exec-wrapper
593unset exec-wrapper
594 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 595
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596set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
597show multiple-symbols
598 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
599 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
600 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
601
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602set breakpoint always-inserted
603show breakpoint always-inserted
604 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
605 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
606 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
607
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608set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
609show arm fallback-mode
610set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
611show arm force-mode
612 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
613 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
614 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
615 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
616
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617set disable-randomization
618show disable-randomization
619 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
620 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
621 multiple debugging sessions.
622
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623set non-stop
624show non-stop
625 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
626 a breakpoint.
627
b3eb342c 628set target-async
d7713ae0 629show target-async
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630 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
631 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
632 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
633 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
634
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635set target-wide-charset
636show target-wide-charset
637 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
638 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
639
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640set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
641show tcp auto-retry
642set tcp connect-timeout
643show tcp connect-timeout
644 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
645 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
646 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
647
17a37d48
PP
648set libthread-db-search-path
649show libthread-db-search-path
650 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
651 libthread_db.
652
d4db2f36
PA
653set schedule-multiple (on|off)
654show schedule-multiple
655 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
656 the current process.
657
4e5d721f
DE
658set stack-cache
659show stack-cache
660 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
661 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
662 affecting correctness.
663
910c5da8
JB
664set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
665show interactive-mode
666 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
667 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
668 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
669 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
670 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
671
2277426b
PA
672* Removed commands
673
674info forks
675 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
676 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
677 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
678 command.
679
680fork NUM
681 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
682 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
683 alias for the `fork' command.
684
685process PID
686 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
687 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
688 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
689
690delete fork NUM
691 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
692 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
693 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
694 fork' command.
695
696detach fork NUM
697 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
698 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
699 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
700 fork' command.
701
a80b95ba
TG
702* New native configurations
703
704x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
705
b8bfd3ed
JB
706x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
707
75a2d5e7
TT
708* New targets
709
c28c63d8 710Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 711x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 712x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 713S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 714
6de3146c
PA
715* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
716 (mingw32ce) debugging.
717
d5cbbe6e
JB
718* Removed commands
719
720catch load
721catch unload
722 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
723
75feb17d 724*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 725
af5ca30d
NH
726* New native configurations
727
728NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 729Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
730
731* New targets
732
733NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 734Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 735
7a404eba
PA
736* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
737
738 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
739 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
740 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
741 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
742
430ebac9
PA
743* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
744(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
745
fe6fbf8b 746* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 747is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
748
749* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
750including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
751and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 752
10665d76
JB
753* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
754accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
755more than one contiguous range of addresses.
756
7cc46491
DJ
757* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
758
d71340b8
DJ
759* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
760registers on PowerPC targets.
761
523c4513
DJ
762* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
763targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
764
a6b151f1
DJ
765* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
766commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
767
2d717e4f
DJ
768* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
769extended-remote mode.
770
24a836bd 771* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
772The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
773error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
774The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 775
d0c678e6
UW
776* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
777building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
778target architectures.
779
d64a946d
TJB
780* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
781Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
782now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
783stored in two consecutive float registers.
784
ee163bf5
VP
785* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
786breakpoints now.
787
b93b6ca7 788* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
789Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
790include:
b93b6ca7
JB
791 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
792 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
793 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
794 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
795 of an assignment
796 - Improved command completion in Ada
797 - Several bug fixes
798
d001be7a
DJ
799* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
800process.
801
a6b151f1
DJ
802* New commands
803
6d53d0af
JB
804set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
805show print frame-arguments
806 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
807 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
808
a6b151f1
DJ
809remote put
810remote get
811remote delete
812 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
813
814* New MI commands
815
816-target-file-put
817-target-file-get
818-target-file-delete
819 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
820
821* New remote packets
822
823vFile:open:
824vFile:close:
825vFile:pread:
826vFile:pwrite:
827vFile:unlink:
828 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 829
2d717e4f
DJ
830vAttach
831 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
832 mode.
833
834vRun
835 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
836
8d5f9c6f 837*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 838
19d378fc
MS
839* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
840bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
841Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
842
3a40aaa0
UW
843* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
844symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
845-Bsymbolic linker option.
846
a6ec25f2
BW
847* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
848recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
849is not supported.
850
6dd09645
JB
851* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
852frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
853
c9bb8148
DJ
854* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
85532-bit or 64-bit register values.
856
0d5de010
DJ
857* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
858
23181151
DJ
859* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
860target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
861a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
862
ea37ba09
DJ
863* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
864automatically displayed as character or string data.
865
866* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
867arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
868as strings.
e1f48ead 869
123dc839
DJ
870* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
871for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 872only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 873
05a4558a
DJ
874* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
875iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 876
7c963485
PA
877* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
878ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
879has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
880
b18be20d
DJ
881* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
882
0ca420ce
UW
883* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
884
31d99776
DJ
885* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
886layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
887segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
888
a4642986
MR
889* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
890immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
891
cfa9d6d9
DJ
892* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
893"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
894packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
895where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
896Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
897
898* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
899(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
900
901* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
902according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 903
c9bb8148
DJ
904* New commands
905
23776285
MR
906set remoteflow
907show remoteflow
908 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
909 when debugging using remote targets.
910
c9bb8148
DJ
911set mem inaccessible-by-default
912show mem inaccessible-by-default
913 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
914 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
915 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
916 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
917 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
918
919set breakpoint auto-hw
920show breakpoint auto-hw
921 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
922 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
923 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
924 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
925 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
926 including "next" and "finish".
927
0e420bd8
JB
928catch exception
929catch exception unhandled
930 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
931
932catch assert
933 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
934
f822c95b
DJ
935set sysroot
936show sysroot
937 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
938 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
939 an alias to "set sysroot".
940
83cc5c53
UW
941info spu
942 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
943 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
944 architecture.
945
bd372731
MK
946* New native configurations
947
948OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
949
23181151
DJ
950set tdesc filename
951unset tdesc filename
952show tdesc filename
953 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
954 not query the target for its built-in description.
955
c9bb8148
DJ
956* New targets
957
54fe9172 958OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 959MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 960Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 961
6dd09645
JB
962* New remote packets
963
964QPassSignals:
965 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
966 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
967
23181151
DJ
968qXfer:features:read:
969 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
970 features.
6dd09645 971
83cc5c53
UW
972qXfer:spu:read:
973qXfer:spu:write:
974 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
975 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
976
cfa9d6d9
DJ
977qXfer:libraries:read:
978 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
979 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
980 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
981 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
982
483367ee
DJ
983* Removed targets
984
985Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
986
d08950c4
UW
987alpha*-*-osf1*
988alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 989d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
990hppa*-*-hiux*
991i[34567]86-ncr-*
992i[34567]86-*-dgux*
993i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
994i[34567]86-*-netware*
995i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
996i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
997i[34567]86-*-sco*
998i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
999i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1000i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1001i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1002i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1003i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1004i[34567]86-*-isc*
1005m68*-cisco*-*
1006m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 1007mips*-*-pe
483367ee 1008rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 1009sh*-*-pe
483367ee 1010
7ce59000
DJ
1011* Other removed features
1012
1013target abug
1014target cpu32bug
1015target est
1016target rom68k
1017
1018 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1019
ea35711c
DJ
1020target hms
1021target e7000
1022target sh3
1023target sh3e
1024
1025 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1026 H8/300.
1027
1028target ocd
1029
1030 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1031 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1032 interfaces.
1033
7ce59000
DJ
1034DWARF 1 support
1035
1036 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1037 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1038
54d61198
DJ
1039Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1040
1041 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1042 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1043 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1044 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1045
ea35711c
DJ
1046MIPS ".pdr" sections
1047
1048 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1049 in debugging information.
1050
1051Scheme support
1052
1053 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1054 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1055
1a69e1e4
DJ
1056set mips stack-arg-size
1057set mips saved-gpreg-size
1058
1059 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1060
6dd09645 1061*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 1062
ca3bf3bd
DJ
1063* New targets
1064
1065Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 1066Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 1067
6aec2e11
DJ
1068* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1069(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1070running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1071
1072* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1073Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1074supported.
1075
17218d91
DJ
1076* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1077broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1078
9ebce043
DJ
1079* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1080stub provides the required support.
1081
7d3d3ece
DJ
1082* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1083longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1084
4f8253f3
JB
1085* New commands
1086
1087set substitute-path
1088unset substitute-path
1089show substitute-path
1090 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1091 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1092 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1093 between compilation and debugging.
1094
9fa66fd7
AS
1095set trace-commands
1096show trace-commands
1097 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1098 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1099 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1100
1f5befc1
DJ
1101* REMOVED features
1102
1103The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1104
2ec3381a
DJ
1105Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1106an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1107
3d00d119
DJ
1108The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1109
be2a5f71
DJ
1110* New remote packets
1111
1112qSupported:
1113 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1114 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1115 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1116 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1117 target.
1118
0876f84a
DJ
1119qXfer:auxv:read:
1120 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1121 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1122
9ebce043
DJ
1123qXfer:memory-map:read:
1124 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1125 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1126
1127vFlashErase:
1128vFlashWrite:
1129vFlashDone:
1130 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1131
0876f84a
DJ
1132* Removed remote packets
1133
1134qPart:auxv:read:
1135 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1136 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1137
e374b601 1138*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 1139
96309189
MS
1140* New targets
1141
1142Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1143
1144Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1145
53e5f3cf
AS
1146* New commands
1147
1148init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1149 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1150
ac264b3b
MS
1151The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1152
1153checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1154
1155restart <n> Return the program state to a
1156 previously saved state.
1157
1158info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1159
1160delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1161
1162set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1163 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1164
1165info forks List forks of the user program that
1166 are available to be debugged.
1167
1168fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1169 forks of the user program that are
1170 available to be debugged.
1171
1172delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1173 that are available to be debugged (and
1174 kill the forked process).
1175
1176detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1177 that are available to be debugged (and
1178 allow the process to continue).
1179
3950dc3f
NS
1180* New architecture
1181
1182Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1183
0ea3f30e
DJ
1184* Improved Windows host support
1185
1186GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1187native console support, and remote communications using either
1188network sockets or serial ports.
1189
f79daebb
GM
1190* Improved Modula-2 language support
1191
1192GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1193basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1194pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1195printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1196written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1197GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1198
acab6ab2
MM
1199* REMOVED features
1200
1201The ARM rdi-share module.
1202
f4267320
DJ
1203The Netware NLM debug server.
1204
53e5f3cf 1205*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 1206
e0ecbda1
MK
1207* New native configurations
1208
02a677ac 1209OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
1210OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1211
d64a6579
KB
1212* New targets
1213
1214Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1215
b33a6190
AS
1216* New command line options
1217
1218--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1219--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1220 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1221--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1222 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1223 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1224 with the --command (-x) option.
1225
11dced61
AC
1226* Deprecated commands removed
1227
1228The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1229removed:
1230
1231 Command Replacement
1232 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1233 othernames set arm disassembler
1234 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1235 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1236 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1237 regs info registers
1238
6fe85783
MK
1239* New BSD user-level threads support
1240
1241It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1242library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1243configurations are:
1244
1245FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1246FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1247OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1248
1249Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1250are not yet supported.
1251
5260ca71
MS
1252* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1253(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1254
e84ecc99
AC
1255* REMOVED configurations and files
1256
1257VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 1258Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 1259National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 1260
31e35378
JB
1261* New "set print array-indexes" command
1262
1263After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1264when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1265behavior.
1266
e85e5c83
MK
1267* VAX floating point support
1268
1269GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1270
d91e9901
AS
1271* User-defined command support
1272
1273In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1274to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1275section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1276
f2cb65ca
MC
1277*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1278
f47b1503
AS
1279* New command line option
1280
1281GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1282debugging.
1283
f2cb65ca
MC
1284* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1285
1286GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1287information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1288by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1289proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1290to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 1291
d08c0230
AC
1292* Internationalization
1293
1294When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1295internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1296continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1297
117ea3cf
PH
1298* Ada
1299
1300Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1301implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1302into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1303
d08c0230
AC
1304* New native configurations
1305
1306GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1307
1308* Remote 'p' packet
1309
1310GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1311packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1312
1313* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1314
1315GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1316The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1317features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1318i386 application).
1319
1320GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1321compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1322continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1323configurations:
1324
1325hppa-*-hpux
1326ia64-*-aix
1327mips-*-irix*
1328*-*-lynx
1329mips-*-linux-gnu
1330sds protocol
1331xdr protocol
1332powerpc bdm protocol
1333
1334Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1335made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1336
1337* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1338
1339Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1340been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1341configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1342permanently REMOVED.
1343
1344h8300-*-*
1345mcore-*-*
1346mn10300-*-*
1347ns32k-*-*
1348sh64-*-*
1349v850-*-*
1350
ebb7c577
AC
1351*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1352
1353* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1354
1355When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1356heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1357been fixed.
1358
1359* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1360
1361When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1362fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1363IRIX long double values).
1364
1365* VAX and "next"
1366
1367A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1368command. This problem has been fixed.
1369
860660cb 1370*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 1371
0dea2468
AC
1372* Fix for ``many threads''
1373
1374On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1375rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1376error message:
1377
1378 ptrace: No such process.
1379 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1380
1381This problem has been fixed.
1382
2c07db7a
AC
1383* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1384
1385Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1386GDB to dump core).
1387
c23968a2
JB
1388* New ``start'' command.
1389
1390This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1391
71009278
MK
1392* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1393
1394Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1395live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1396platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1397
1398FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1399FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1400NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1401NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1402NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1403OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1404OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1405OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1406OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1407
3c0b7db2
AC
1408* Signal trampoline code overhauled
1409
1410Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1411These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1412of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1413call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1414signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1415
73cc75f3
AC
1416Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1417features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1418include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 1419
7243600a
BF
1420* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1421
6f606e1c
MK
1422* New native configurations
1423
97dc871c 1424GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 1425OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
1426OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1427OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 1428OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1429NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 1430OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1431
a1b461bf
AC
1432* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1433
1434GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1435The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1436including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1437migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1438compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1439work, was also included.
1440
1441GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1442module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1443
1444h8300-*-*
1445mcore-*-*
1446mn10300-*-*
1447ns32k-*-*
1448sh64-*-*
1449v850-*-*
1450xstormy16-*-*
1451
1452Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1453made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1454
3c7012f5
AC
1455* REMOVED configurations and files
1456
1457Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1458Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1459Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1460Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1461Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1462AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1463Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1464decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1465riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1466sonymips mips-sony-*
1467sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1468
e5fe55f7
AC
1469*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1470
1471* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1472
1473The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1474GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1475command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1476program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1477with GDB".
1478
1479* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1480
1481Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1482libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1483cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1484GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1485shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1486the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1487are created.
1488
1489Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1490
1491* Fixed ISO-C build problems
1492
1493The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1494non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1495compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1496
1497* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1498
1499Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1500wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1501
1502* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1503
1504The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1505permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1506systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1507
1508* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1509
1510Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1511has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1512
1513* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1514
1515GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1516its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1517panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1518
1519* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1520
1521When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1522by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1523not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1524
faae5abe 1525*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 1526
9175c9a3
MC
1527* Removed --with-mmalloc
1528
1529Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1530conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1531
3cc87ec0
MK
1532* Changes in AMD64 configurations
1533
1534The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1535the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1536and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1537you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1538
f0424ef6
MK
1539* Revised SPARC target
1540
1541The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1542FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
1543support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1544from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1545(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 1546
59659be2
ILT
1547* New C++ demangler
1548
1549GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1550names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1551with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1552programs.
1553
9e08b29b
DJ
1554* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1555
1556GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1557arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1558encountered these.
1559
8dfe8985
DC
1560* C++ nested types and namespaces
1561
1562GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1563improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1564is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1565Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1566namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1567"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1568frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1569if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1570GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1571
cced5e27
MK
1572* New native configurations
1573
1574NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 1575OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 1576OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
1577OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1578OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 1579
b4b4b794
KI
1580* New debugging protocols
1581
1582M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1583
7989c619
AC
1584* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1585
1586The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1587and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1588tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1589
5994185b
AC
1590* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1591
1592Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1593been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1594configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1595permanently REMOVED.
1596
1597Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1598Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1599Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1600Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1601Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1602AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1603Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
1604decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1605riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1606sonymips mips-sony-*
1607sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 1608
0ddabb4c
AC
1609* REMOVED configurations and files
1610
1611SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1612SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
1613Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1614Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1615H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1616HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1617HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1618HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1619PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 1620386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
1621Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1622 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1623 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
1624SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1625SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
1626Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1627Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 1628
c7f1390e
DJ
1629*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1630
1fe43d45
AC
1631* Objective-C
1632
1633Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1634integrated into GDB.
1635
e6beb428
AC
1636* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1637
1638DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1639information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1640By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1641backtraces.
1642
1643The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1644have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1645DWARF 2 CFI support.
1646
1647* Hosted file I/O.
1648
1649GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1650file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1651remote protocol documentation for details.
1652
1653* All targets using the new architecture framework.
1654
1655All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1656architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1657to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1658ppc32 on ppc64).
1659
1660* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1661
1662GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1663per-thread variables.
1664
1665* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1666
1667GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1668GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1669
1670* Separate debug info.
1671
1672GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1673automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1674of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1675system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1676and optional debug files.
1677
1678* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1679
1680DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1681describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1682debugger.
1683
1684GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1685for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1686
1687* Java
1688
1689A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1690Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1691considered "useable".
1692
85f8f974
DJ
1693* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1694
1695The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1696commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1697kernel.
1698
0fac0b41
DJ
1699* GDB supports logging output to a file
1700
1701There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1702used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 1703
6ad8ae5c
DJ
1704* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1705
1706The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1707disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1708command.
1709
e286caf2 1710* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
1711
1712The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1713registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1714
d28f9cdf
DJ
1715* Profiling support
1716
1717A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1718be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1719session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1720"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1721data, for more informative profiling results.
1722
da0f9dcd
AC
1723* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1724
1725The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1726option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 1727"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
1728
1729Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1730removed.
1731
fb9b6b35
JJ
1732Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1733Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1734Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1735 in a subsequent -var-update.
1736
954a4db8
MK
1737* New native configurations.
1738
1739FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1740
6760f9e6
JB
1741* Multi-arched targets.
1742
b4263afa 1743HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 1744Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 1745
1b831c93
AC
1746* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1747
1748Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1749been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1750configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1751permanently REMOVED.
1752
8b0e5691 1753Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 1754Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 1755H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
1756HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1757HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1758HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 1759PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
1760Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1761 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1762 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
1763Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1764Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 1765
5835abe7
NC
1766* REMOVED configurations and files
1767
1768V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
1769Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1770IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1771i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1772i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1773i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1774HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1775 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1776 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1777Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1778Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1779Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1780OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1781I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 1782
a094c6fb
AC
1783* MIPS $fp behavior changed
1784
1785The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1786the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1787context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1788address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1789The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1790
299ffc64 1791*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 1792
46248966
AC
1793* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1794
1795When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1796`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1797in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1798library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1799shared libs like mad''.
1800
b9d14705 1801* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 1802
b9d14705
DJ
1803Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1804the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1805arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1806powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 1807
e0e9281e
JB
1808* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1809
1810GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1811and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1812they expand.
1813
dd73b9bb
AC
1814The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1815invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1816
1817The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1818macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1819
e0e9281e
JB
1820Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1821information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1822your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1823information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1824
2250ee0c
CV
1825* Multi-arched targets.
1826
6e3ba3b8
JT
1827DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1828DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 1829NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 1830National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
1831Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1832Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 1833
cd9bfe15 1834* New targets.
e33ce519 1835
456f8b9d
DB
1836Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1837
e33ce519 1838
da8ca43d
JT
1839* New native configurations
1840
1841Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 1842SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 1843MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 1844UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 1845
cd9bfe15
AC
1846* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1847
1848Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1849been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1850configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1851permanently REMOVED.
1852
92eb23c5 1853Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 1854OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 1855IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 1856Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 1857Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 1858Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
1859i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1860i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1861i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
1862HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1863 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1864 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 1865I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 1866
db034ac5
AC
1867* OBSOLETE languages
1868
1869CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1870
cd9bfe15
AC
1871* REMOVED configurations and files
1872
1873AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1874A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1875AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1876AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1877AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1878
1879testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1880
20f01a46
DH
1881* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1882
1883This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1884commands. The default is 1024.
1885
a5941fbf
MK
1886* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1887
1888Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1889
89743e04
MS
1890* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1891
1892These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1893to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1894from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 1895
9fb14e79
JB
1896* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1897
1898The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1899including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1900of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1901
2037aebb
AC
1902*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1903
1904* New targets.
1905
1906Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
1907
1908* Bug fixes
1909
1910gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1911mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1912Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1913
1914gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1915dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1916Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1917
1918Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1919Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1920By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1921
1922i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1923avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1924By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1925
37057839 1926*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 1927
1a703748
MS
1928* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1929
1930This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1931really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1932In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1933target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1934This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1935(notably embedded) targets.
1936
cefd4ef5
MS
1937* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1938
55241689
AC
1939This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1940process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1941GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1942hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 1943
352ed7b4
MS
1944* New command line option
1945
1946GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1947
1948* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1949
1950There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1951command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1952a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1953be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1954open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1955issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1956a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1957it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1958GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1959is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1960
fe419ffc
RE
1961* Changes in ARM configurations.
1962
1963Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1964configuration is fully multi-arch.
1965
eb7cedd9
MK
1966* New native configurations
1967
fe419ffc 1968ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 1969x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 1970AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 1971Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 1972
c9f63e6b
CV
1973* New targets
1974
1975Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1976
9b4ff276
AC
1977* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1978
1979Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1980been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1981configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1982permanently REMOVED.
1983
1984AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1985A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1986AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1987AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1988AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1989
b4ceaee6 1990testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 1991
e2caac18
AC
1992* REMOVED configurations and files
1993
1994TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 1995WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
1996PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1997PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1998PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 1999Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
2000Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2001 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 2002SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 2003Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
2004Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2005ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 2006Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 2007
c2a727fa
TT
2008* Changes to command line processing
2009
2010The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2011for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2012
467d8519
TT
2013* Changes to key bindings
2014
2015There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2016
7072a954
AC
2017*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2018
2019Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2020
2021Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2022corrupted.
2023
2024Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2025
2026Numerous documentation fixes.
2027
2028Numerous testsuite fixes.
2029
34f47bc4 2030*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
2031
2032* New native configurations
2033
2034Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2035x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 2036MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
2037MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2038ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 2039s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 2040
bf64bfd6
AC
2041* New targets
2042
def90278 2043Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 2044CRIS cris-axis
55241689 2045UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 2046
17e78a56 2047* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
2048
2049x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 2050Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
2051Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2052 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
2053TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2054WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 2055Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
2056PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2057PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2058PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 2059SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
2060Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2061ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 2062Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 2063
17e78a56
AC
2064stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2065kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2066
7fcca85b
AC
2067Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2068been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2069configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2070permanently REMOVED.
2071
a196c81c 2072* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
2073
2074Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2075Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2076Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2077ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2078Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 2079ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 2080
6d6b80e5 2081* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 2082
6d6b80e5 2083GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
2084sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2085present.
2086
bf64bfd6
AC
2087* Other news:
2088
e23194cb
EZ
2089* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2090
2091* The MI enabled by default.
2092
2093The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2094revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2095engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2096using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2097which is now deprecated.
2098
2099* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2100
2101GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2102main features are supported:
2103
2104 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2105
2106 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2107 extension;
2108
2109 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2110
2111 - a Pascal expression parser.
2112
2113However, some important features are not yet supported.
2114
2115 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2116
2117 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2118
2119 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2120 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2121
2122 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2123
2124 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2125
2126* Changes in completion.
2127
2128Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2129to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2130users expect at the shell prompt.
2131
2132Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2133`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2134program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2135files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2136be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2137considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2138name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2139
2140`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2141
2142* New platform-independent commands:
2143
2144It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2145hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2146documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2147
2148* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2149
d7275149
MK
2150Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2151revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2152many threads as your system allows you to have.
2153
e23194cb
EZ
2154Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2155
d7275149
MK
2156Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2157multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
2158
2159* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
2160
2161Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2162
e23194cb
EZ
2163GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2164debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2165supported.)
2166
2167* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2168
2169Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2170breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2171implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2172put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2173and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2174registers.
2175
2176The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2177debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2178watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2179
2180* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2181
2182New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2183the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2184
2185New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2186display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2187IDT.
2188
2189New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2190from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2191New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2192a given linear address.
2193
2194GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2195program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2196which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2197
2198DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2199
6c56c069
EZ
2200It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2201
e23194cb
EZ
2202* Changes in documentation.
2203
2204All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2205Documentation License.
2206
2207Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2208manual.
2209
2210TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2211
2212Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2213manual.
2214
2215The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2216documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2217hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2218
5d6640b1
AC
2219* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2220
2221The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2222``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2223contents of this file.
2224
1a1d8446
AC
2225* gdba.el deleted
2226
2227GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 2228
9debab2f 2229*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 2230
c63ce875
EZ
2231* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2232
2233Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2234programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2235displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2236greater level of detail.
2237
2238* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2239
2240It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2241bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2242on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2243written.
2244
2245* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2246
2247The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2248necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2249machines ``out of the box''.
2250
2251The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2252possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2253signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2254would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2255interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2256
2257It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2258standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2259even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2260and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2261terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2262
2263The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2264enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2265also works.
2266
2267DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2268GDB.
2269
2270It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2271directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2272times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2273breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2274
ed9a39eb
JM
2275* New native configurations
2276
2277ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 2278PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 2279
7a292a7a
SS
2280* New targets
2281
96baa820 2282Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
2283x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2284PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
2285TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2286
085dd6e6
JM
2287* OBSOLETE configurations
2288
2289Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2290Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 2291Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 2292ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 2293Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 2294
9debab2f
AC
2295Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2296but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2297these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2298be permanently REMOVED.
2299
5330533d
SS
2300* Gould support removed
2301
2302Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2303
bc9e5bbf
AC
2304* New features for SVR4
2305
2306On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2307without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2308load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2309
2310* Many C++ enhancements
2311
2312C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2313in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2314
adf40b2e
JM
2315* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2316
2317A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2318sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2319with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2320``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2321
2322 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2323 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2324
43e526b9
JM
2325* MIPS 64 remote protocol
2326
2327A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2328expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2329instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2330
2331The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2332added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2333
96baa820
JM
2334* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2335
2336The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2337``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2338include ``set remote P-packet''.
2339
11cf8741
JM
2340* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2341
2342The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2343accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2344``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2345
7876dd43
DB
2346* ``apropos'' command added.
2347
2348The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2349documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2350try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2351
bc9e5bbf
AC
2352* New MI interface
2353
2354A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2355interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
2356process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2357"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2358enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
2359
2360 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2361
c906108c
SS
2362*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2363
2364* New native configurations
2365
2366HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2367HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 2368M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
2369
2370* New targets
2371
2372Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2373Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2374Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2375
2376* OBSOLETE configurations
2377
2378Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2379
2380Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2381but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2382these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2383be permanently REMOVED.
2384
2385* ANSI/ISO C
2386
2387As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2388buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2389containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2390use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2391available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2392configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2393information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2394already.
2395
2396* Readline 2.2
2397
2398GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2399
2400* set extension-language
2401
2402You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2403languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2404you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2405 set extension-language .c c++
2406The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2407and their associated languages.
2408
2409* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2410
2411When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2412you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2413PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2414
2415 set processor NAME
2416
2417sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2418following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2419
2420 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2421 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2422 403 IBM PowerPC 403
2423 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2424 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2425 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2426 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2427 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2428 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2429 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2430 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2431
2432At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2433special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2434registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2435only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2436
2437* HP-UX support
2438
2439Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2440more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2441library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2442support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2443for xdb and dbx commands.
2444
2445* Catchpoints
2446
2447HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2448generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2449to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2450
2451This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2452argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2453output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2454
2455* Debugging across forks
2456
2457On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2458in the inferior.
2459
2460* TUI
2461
2462HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2463it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2464configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2465
2466* GDB remote protocol additions
2467
2468A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2469Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2470fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2471allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2472
2473For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2474full 64-bit address. The command
2475
2476 set remoteaddresssize 32
2477
2478can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2479the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2480will be discarded.
2481
2482In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2483command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2484
2485 maint packet heythere
2486
2487sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2488disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2489time.
2490
2491The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2492target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2493downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2494
2495* Tracing can collect general expressions
2496
2497You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2498further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2499doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2500
2501* mask-address variable for Mips
2502
2503For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2504a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2505of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2506
2507* Higher serial baud rates
2508
2509GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2510230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2511to achieve all of these rates.)
2512
2513* i960 simulator
2514
2515The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2516builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2517
2518
2519*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2520
2521* New native configurations
2522
2523Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2524Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2525Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2526PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2527PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2528Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2529Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2530
2531* New targets
2532
2533Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2534Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2535Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2536Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2537MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2538MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2539MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2540Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2541Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2542Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2543NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2544
2545* New debugging protocols
2546
2547ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2548M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2549DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2550PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2551PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2552Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2553
2554* DWARF 2
2555
2556All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2557format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2558information.
2559
2560* Java frontend
2561
2562GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2563only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2564
2565* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2566
2567For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2568loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2569locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2570
2571* Live range splitting
2572
2573GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2574range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2575more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2576
2577* Hurd support
2578
2579GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2580updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2581
2582* ARM Thumb support
2583
2584GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2585instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2586instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2587accordingly.
2588
2589* MIPS16 support
2590
2591GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2592instruction set.
2593
2594* Overlay support
2595
2596GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2597linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2598will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2599control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2600additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2601in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2602
2603* info symbol
2604
2605The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2606the symbol at the specified address.
2607
2608* Trace support
2609
2610The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2611asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2612extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2613includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2614file tracepoint.c for more details.
2615
2616* MIPS simulator
2617
2618Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2619by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2620of most MIPS variants.
2621
2622* Sparc simulator
2623
2624Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2625by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2626Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2627
2628* set architecture
2629
2630For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2631basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2632architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2633the possible architectures.
2634
2635*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2636
2637* New native configurations
2638
2639Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2640M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2641PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2642PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2643PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2644RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2645
2646* New targets
2647
2648ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2649I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2650MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2651MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2652PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2653Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
2654Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2655
2656* PowerPC simulator
2657
2658The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2659contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2660PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2661basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2662performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2663
2664* Solaris 2.5
2665
2666GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2667
2668* Windows 95/NT native
2669
2670GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2671To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2672which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2673Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2674ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2675
2676* dont-repeat command
2677
2678If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2679command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2680useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2681extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2682
2683* Send break instead of ^C
2684
2685The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2686rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2687GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2688
2689* Remote protocol timeout
2690
2691The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2692that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2693to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2694
2695* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2696
2697By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2698loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2699stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2700when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2701in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2702
2703Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2704/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2705automatically on hpux10.
2706
2707* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2708
2709Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2710
2711* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2712
2713When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2714may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2715the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2716every character. The default value is 1050.
2717
2718* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2719
2720If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2721a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2722replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2723details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2724remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2725to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2726
2727* Speedups for remote debugging
2728
2729GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2730the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2731and more efficient S-record downloading.
2732
2733* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2734
2735GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2736Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2737
2738*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2739
2740* Psymtabs for XCOFF
2741
2742The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2743can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2744
2745* Remote targets use caching
2746
2747Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2748remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2749it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2750debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2751off' turns the the data cache off.
2752
2753* Remote targets may have threads
2754
2755The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2756in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2757gdb/remote.c for details.
2758
2759* NetROM support
2760
2761If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2762support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2763acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2764write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2765support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2766another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2767sequence is something like
2768
2769 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2770 load <prog>
2771 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2772
2773* Macintosh host
2774
2775GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2776may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2777it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2778available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2779device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2780directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2781scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2782mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2783
2784* Autoconf
2785
2786GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2787but does simplify configuration and building.
2788
2789* hpux10
2790
2791GDB now supports hpux10.
2792
2793*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2794
2795* New native configurations
2796
2797x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2798x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2799NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2800Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2801
2802* New targets
2803
2804A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2805HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2806CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2807PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2808WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2809
2810* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2811
2812GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2813possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2814filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2815the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2816if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2817
2818* Arguments to user-defined commands
2819
2820User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2821Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2822trivial example:
2823define adder
2824 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2825
2826To execute the command use:
2827adder 1 2 3
2828
2829Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2830Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2831use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2832
2833* New `if' and `while' commands
2834
2835This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2836commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2837expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2838execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2839terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2840`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2841if the expression is zero.
2842
2843* Fortran source language mode
2844
2845GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2846Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2847variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2848with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2849Fortran compilers.
2850
2851* Better HPUX support
2852
2853Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2854running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2855processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2856for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2857that behavior do the following before running the program:
2858
2859 adb -w a.out
2860 __dld_flags?W 0x5
2861 control-d
2862
2863This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2864To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2865
2866 adb -w a.out
2867 __dld_flags?W 0x4
2868 control-d
2869
2870You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2871the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2872external linkage.
2873
2874GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2875HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2876
2877* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2878
2879You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2880commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2881current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2882"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2883associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2884configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2885
2886* New DOS host serial code
2887
2888This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2889no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2890a PC's serial port.
2891
2892*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2893
2894* New "complete" command
2895
2896This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2897were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2898
2899* Trailing space optional in prompt
2900
2901"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2902allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2903
2904* Breakpoint hit counts
2905
2906"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2907has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2908can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2909to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2910less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2911that breakpoint.
2912
2913* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2914
2915"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2916an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2917arrays actually contain only short strings.
2918
2919* Shared library breakpoints
2920
2921In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2922breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2923
2924* Hardware watchpoints
2925
2926There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2927targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2928
55241689 2929Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
2930
2931* Annotations
2932
2933Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2934and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2935
2936* Improved Irix 5 support
2937
2938GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2939
2940* Improved HPPA support
2941
2942GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2943
2944* New native configurations
2945
2946Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2947HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2948Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2949RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2950
2951* New targets
2952
2953OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2954MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2955Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
2956
2957* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2958
2959There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2960This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2961
2962* Fixes
2963
2964As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2965and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2966
2967*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2968
2969* Irix 5 is now supported
2970
2971* HPPA support
2972
2973GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2974to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2975GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2976of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2977can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2978
2979
2980*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2981
2982* User visible changes:
2983
2984* Remote Debugging
2985
2986The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2987target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2988debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2989integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2990debugging info for the mips target).
2991
2992* DEC Alpha native support
2993
2994GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2995debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2996work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2997Alpha-specific notes.
2998
2999* Preliminary thread implementation
3000
3001GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3002
3003* LynxOS native and target support for 386
3004
3005This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3006to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3007for details).
3008
3009* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3010
3011This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3012mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3013call methods, ...etc.
3014
3015*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3016
3017 * User visible changes:
3018
3019Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3020supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3021other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3022somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3023
3024Filename completion now works.
3025
3026When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3027arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3028addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3029
3030All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3031vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3032should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3033your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3034to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3035
3036 * DEC alpha support
3037
3038This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3039cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3040
3041
3042*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3043
3044 * Testsuite
3045
3046This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3047The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3048via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3049
3050 * C++ demangling
3051
3052'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3053emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3054Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3055disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3056use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3057
3058 * Simulators
3059
3060GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3061So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3062Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3063
3064 * New targets supported
3065
3066H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3067H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3068SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3069Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3070IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3071
3072Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3073version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3074GO32 memory extender.
3075
3076 * New remote protocols
3077
3078MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3079
3080 * New source languages supported
3081
3082This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3083used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3084into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3085
3086
3087*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3088
3089 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3090
3091GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3092version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3093University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3094compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3095format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3096(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3097
3098Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3099
3100 * Faster and better demangling
3101
3102We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3103demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3104character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3105only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3106This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3107increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3108symbol lookups.
3109
3110`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3111from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3112compiler does not actually implement.
3113
3114 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3115
3116In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3117inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3118recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3119very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3120The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3121circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3122fix.
3123
3124The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3125release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3126
3127 * Improved configure script
3128
3129The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3130you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3131host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3132done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3133
3134We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3135version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3136`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3137The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3138only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3139We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3140
3141 * Documentation improvements
3142
3143There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3144produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3145before submitting changes.
3146
3147The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3148M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3149`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3150you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3151a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3152
3153*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3154We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3155been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3156or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3157`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3158around this problem.
3159
3160 * New features
3161
3162GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3163the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3164`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3165the target program.
3166
3167The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3168how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3169
3170 * New native hosts supported
3171
3172HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3173386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3174
3175 * New targets supported
3176
3177AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3178
3179 * New file formats supported
3180
3181BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3182HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3183
3184 * Major bug fixes
3185
3186Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3187
3188We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3189printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3190
3191We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3192for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3193release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3194
3195You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3196will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3197
3198We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3199for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3200especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3201libraries.
3202
3203The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3204information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3205command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3206any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3207when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3208
3209 * Internal improvements
3210
3211GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3212debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3213
3214GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3215Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3216symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3217contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3218shared code that handles any of them.
3219
3220 * New command line options
3221
3222We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3223
3224 * Mmalloc licensing
3225
3226The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3227General Public License.
3228
3229*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3230
3231 * Host/native/target split
3232
3233GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3234hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3235target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3236local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3237ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3238
3239The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3240GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3241is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3242code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3243any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3244built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3245handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3246
3247GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3248It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3249plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3250
3251 * New hosts supported
3252
3253HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3254386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3255386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3256
3257 * New targets supported
3258
3259Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
326068030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3261
3262 * New native hosts supported
3263
3264386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3265 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3266386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3267
3268 * New file formats supported
3269
3270BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3271supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3272format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3273
3274 * New commands
3275
3276`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3277`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3278These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3279
3280`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3281
3282You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3283scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3284prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3285executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3286
3287 * C++ improvements
3288
3289We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3290info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3291symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3292
3293Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3294
3295 * Major bug fixes
3296
3297The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3298fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3299by the compiler.
3300
3301We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3302support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3303
3304John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3305slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3306that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3307purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3308the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3309mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3310
3311Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3312about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3313completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3314we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3315
3316 * AMD 29k support
3317
3318A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3319specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3320calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3321usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3322in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3323
3324We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3325Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3326of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3327resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3328
3329 * Remote interfaces
3330
3331We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3332with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3333message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3334This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3335needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3336breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3337each instruction being stepped through.
3338
3339The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3340registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3341
3342There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3343find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3344Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3345processor with a serial port.
3346
3347 * Configuration
3348
3349Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3350`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3351supported, and what files each one uses.
3352
3353 * Library changes
3354
3355There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3356disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3357Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3358disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3359
3360The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3361Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3362can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3363grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3364
3365 * Documentation
3366
3367The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3368reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3369as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3370encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3371system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3372bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3373
3374And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3375
3376
3377*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3378
3379 * Better support for C++ function names
3380
3381GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3382names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3383(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3384single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3385Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3386
3387GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3388the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3389You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3390lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3391for the list of formats.
3392
3393 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3394
3395Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3396C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3397directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3398can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3399usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3400about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3401this problem.)
3402
3403 * New 'maintenance' command
3404
3405All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3406the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3407can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3408
3409 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3410 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3411 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3412 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3413 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3414 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3415
3416The following commands are new:
3417
3418 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3419 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3420 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3421
3422 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3423
3424We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3425(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3426be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3427read after argv processing.
3428
3429 * New hosts supported
3430
3431Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3432
55241689 3433GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
3434
3435We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3436is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3437for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3438masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3439fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3440It costs extra.
3441
3442 * New targets supported
3443
3444Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3445
3446 * More smarts about finding #include files
3447
3448GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3449all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3450greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3451especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3452the one that contains your sources.
3453
3454We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3455breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3456try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3457
3458 * Interesting infernals change
3459
3460GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3461section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3462target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3463stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3464
3465 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3466
3467There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3468 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3469 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3470
3471See the ChangeLog for details.
3472
3473*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3474
3475 * New machines supported (host and target)
3476
3477IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3478
3479SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3480
3481 * New malloc package
3482
3483GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3484Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3485capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3486This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3487pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3488more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3489
3490 * info proc
3491
3492The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3493'help info proc' for details.
3494
3495 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3496
3497The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3498Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3499possible.
3500
3501 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3502
3503Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3504support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3505conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3506environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3507that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3508in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3509
3510 * Cross byte order fixes
3511
3512Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3513targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3514
3515 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3516
3517If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3518system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3519`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3520program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3521called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3522Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3523and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3524the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3525option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3526starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3527
3528You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3529the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3530information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3531slower, but makes future operations faster.
3532
3533The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3534build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3535A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3536use is:
3537
3538 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3539
3540The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3541It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3542shared across multiple host platforms.
3543
3544 * longjmp() handling
3545
3546GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3547siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3548all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3549platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3550
3551 * Solaris 2.0
3552
3553Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3554this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3555reading symbols.
3556
3557 * Bug fixes
3558
3559As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3560People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3561crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3562
3563*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3564
3565 * New machines supported (host and target)
3566
3567SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3568 (except core files)
3569BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3570Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3571
3572 * New machines supported (target)
3573
3574AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3575
3576 * C++ support
3577
3578GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3579The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3580per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3581
3582GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3583`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3584extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3585good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3586will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3587released.
3588
3589 * New features for SVR4
3590
3591GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3592shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3593only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3594
3595The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3596on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3597it prints the address mappings of the process.
3598
3599If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3600bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3601
3602 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3603
3604Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3605now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3606skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3607make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3608same code linked statically.
3609
3610 * New Getopt
3611
3612GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3613version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3614continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3615Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3616added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3617future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3618
3619 * Bugs fixed
3620
3621The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3622Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3623See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3624
3625
3626*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3627
3628 * New machines supported (host and target)
3629
3630Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3631NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3632Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3633
3634 * Almost SCO Unix support
3635
3636We had hoped to support:
3637SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3638(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3639that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3640about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3641
3642 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3643
3644GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3645debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3646is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3647send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3648reqired (if any).
3649
3650 * New Readline
3651
3652GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3653is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3654required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3655
3656 * Bugs fixed
3657
3658The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3659Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3660See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3661
3662 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3663
3664GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3665supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3666symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3667
3668Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3669mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3670debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3671mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3672version 2.
3673
3674Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3675really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3676line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3677variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3678situation somewhat.
3679
3680When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3681However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3682methods.
3683
3684We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3685DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3686encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3687
3688
3689*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3690
3691 * Improved configuration
3692
3693Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3694Porting BFD is simpler.
3695
3696 * Stepping improved
3697
3698The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3699of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3700in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3701function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3702
3703 * Bug fixing
3704
3705Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3706
3707 * New host supported (not target)
3708
3709Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3710
3711
3712*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3713
3714 * Multiple source language support
3715
3716GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3717It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3718and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3719language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3720You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3721`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3722
3723 * GDB and Modula-2
3724
3725GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3726currently under development at the State University of New York at
3727Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3728continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3729
3730Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3731debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3732symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3733
3734There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3735in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3736
3737 * set write on/off
3738
3739GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3740a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3741the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3742by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3743effect immediately.
3744
3745 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3746
3747When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3748shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3749The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3750examining core files.
3751
3752 * set listsize
3753
3754You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3755The default is 10.
3756
3757 * New machines supported (host and target)
3758
3759SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3760Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3761Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3762
3763 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3764
3765IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3766
3767 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3768
3769AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3770AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3771Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3772
3773 * New remote interfaces
3774
3775AMD 29000 Adapt
3776AMD 29000 Minimon
3777
3778
3779*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3780
3781 * New Facilities
3782
3783Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3784
3785Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3786target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3787is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3788remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3789remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3790also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3791using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3792stub on the target system.
3793
3794New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3795
3796GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3797library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3798object file types such as a.out and coff.
3799
3800There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3801refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3802
3803
3804 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3805
3806All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3807by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3808
3809For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3810``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3811Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3812
3813What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3814print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3815will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3816all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3817
3818confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3819 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3820 it is already running. Default is ON.
3821
3822editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3823 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3824 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3825 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3826 Default is ON.
3827
3828history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3829 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3830 or the value of the environment variable
3831 GDBHISTFILE.
3832
3833history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3834 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3835 HISTSIZE.
3836
3837history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3838 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3839 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3840
3841history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3842 history expansion will be performed on
3843 command line input. The default is OFF.
3844
3845radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3846 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3847 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3848
3849height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3850 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3851 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3852 variable TERM.
3853
3854width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3855 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3856 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3857 variable TERM.
3858
3859Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3860``set width'' instead.
3861
3862print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3863 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3864 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3865 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3866
3867print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3868 is OFF.
3869
3870print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3871 "raw" form if off.
3872
3873print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3874 like instructions.
3875
3876print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3877
3878
3879 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3880
3881The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3882new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3883are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3884window.
3885
3886
3887 * Support for Shared Libraries
3888
3889GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3890Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3891before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3892happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3893At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3894from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3895shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3896It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3897
3898sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3899 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3900 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3901
3902info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3903
3904
3905 * Watchpoints
3906
3907A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3908expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3909tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3910quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3911problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3912more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3913
3914watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3915
3916info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3917
3918delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3919disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3920enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3921
3922
3923 * C++ multiple inheritance
3924
3925When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3926for C++ programs.
3927
3928 * C++ exception handling
3929
3930Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3931ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3932the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3933handler's context).
3934
3935catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3936 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3937 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3938
3939info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3940 current stack frame.
3941
3942
3943 * Minor command changes
3944
3945The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3946command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3947is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3948
3949The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3950at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3951frames without printing.
3952
3953 * New directory command
3954
3955'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3956The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3957about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3958with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3959find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3960
3961 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3962
3963For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3964for more details.
3965
3966GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3967two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3968Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3969where the program that you are debugging will run.
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