* Makefile.in (i386nbsd-tdep.o): Add $(arch_utils_h),
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
CommitLineData
c906108c
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
37057839
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4*** Changes since GDB 5.2:
5
b9d14705 6* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 7
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8Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
9the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
10arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
11powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 12
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13* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
14
15GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
16and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
17they expand.
18
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19The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
20invocations in expression, and shows the result.
21
22The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
23macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
24
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25Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
26information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
27your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
28information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
29
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30* Multi-arched targets.
31
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32DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
33DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 34NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 35National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
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36Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
37Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 38
cd9bfe15 39* New targets.
e33ce519 40
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41Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
42
e33ce519 43
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44* New native configurations
45
46Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 47SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 48MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 49UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 50
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51* OBSOLETE configurations and files
52
53Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
54been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
55configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
56permanently REMOVED.
57
92eb23c5 58Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 59OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 60IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 61Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 62Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 63Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
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64i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
65i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
66i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
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67HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
68 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
69 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 70I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 71
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72* OBSOLETE languages
73
74CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
75
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76* REMOVED configurations and files
77
78AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
79A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
80AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
81AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
82AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
83
84testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
85
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86* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
87
88This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
89commands. The default is 1024.
90
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91* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
92
93Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
94
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95* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
96
97These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
98to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
99from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 100
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101* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
102
103The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
104including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
105of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
106
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107*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
108
109* New targets.
110
111Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
112
113* Bug fixes
114
115gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
116mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
117Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
118
119gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
120dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
121Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
122
123Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
124Surprisingly enough, it works now.
125By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
126
127i386 hardware watchpoint support:
128avoid misses on second run for some targets.
129By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
130
37057839 131*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 132
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133* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
134
135This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
136really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
137In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
138target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
139This can be a significant performance improvement on some
140(notably embedded) targets.
141
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142* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
143
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144This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
145process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
146GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
147hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 148
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149* New command line option
150
151GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
152
153* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
154
155There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
156command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
157a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
158be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
159open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
160issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
161a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
162it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
163GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
164is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
165
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166* Changes in ARM configurations.
167
168Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
169configuration is fully multi-arch.
170
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171* New native configurations
172
fe419ffc 173ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 174x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 175AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 176Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 177
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178* New targets
179
180Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
181
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182* OBSOLETE configurations and files
183
184Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
185been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
186configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
187permanently REMOVED.
188
189AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
190A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
191AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
192AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
193AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
194
b4ceaee6 195testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 196
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197* REMOVED configurations and files
198
199TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 200WDC 65816 w65-*-*
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201PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
202PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
203PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 204Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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205Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
206 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 207SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 208Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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209Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
210ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 211Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 212
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213* Changes to command line processing
214
215The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
216for the inferior from gdb's command line.
217
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218* Changes to key bindings
219
220There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
221
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222*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
223
224Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
225
226Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
227corrupted.
228
229Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
230
231Numerous documentation fixes.
232
233Numerous testsuite fixes.
234
34f47bc4 235*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
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236
237* New native configurations
238
239Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
240x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 241MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
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242MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
243ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 244s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 245
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246* New targets
247
def90278 248Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 249CRIS cris-axis
55241689 250UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 251
17e78a56 252* OBSOLETE configurations and files
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253
254x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 255Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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256Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
257 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
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258TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
259WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 260Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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261PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
262PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
263PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 264SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
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265Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
266ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 267Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 268
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269stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
270kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
271
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272Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
273been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
274configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
275permanently REMOVED.
276
a196c81c 277* REMOVED configurations and files
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278
279Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
280Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
281Pyramid pyramid-*-*
282ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
283Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 284ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 285
6d6b80e5 286* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 287
6d6b80e5 288GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
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289sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
290present.
291
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292* Other news:
293
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294* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
295
296* The MI enabled by default.
297
298The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
299revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
300engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
301using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
302which is now deprecated.
303
304* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
305
306GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
307main features are supported:
308
309 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
310
311 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
312 extension;
313
314 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
315
316 - a Pascal expression parser.
317
318However, some important features are not yet supported.
319
320 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
321
322 - there are some problems with boolean types;
323
324 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
325 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
326
327 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
328
329 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
330
331* Changes in completion.
332
333Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
334to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
335users expect at the shell prompt.
336
337Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
338`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
339program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
340files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
341be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
342considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
343name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
344
345`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
346
347* New platform-independent commands:
348
349It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
350hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
351documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
352
353* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
354
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355Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
356revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
357many threads as your system allows you to have.
358
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359Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
360
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361Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
362multi-threaded programs though.
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363
364* Changes in MIPS configurations.
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365
366Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
367
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368GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
369debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
370supported.)
371
372* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
373
374Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
375breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
376implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
377put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
378and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
379registers.
380
381The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
382debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
383watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
384
385* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
386
387New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
388the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
389
390New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
391display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
392IDT.
393
394New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
395from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
396New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
397a given linear address.
398
399GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
400program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
401which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
402
403DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
404
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405It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
406
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407* Changes in documentation.
408
409All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
410Documentation License.
411
412Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
413manual.
414
415TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
416
417Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
418manual.
419
420The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
421documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
422hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
423
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AC
424* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
425
426The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
427``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
428contents of this file.
429
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AC
430* gdba.el deleted
431
432GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 433
9debab2f 434*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 435
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436* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
437
438Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
439programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
440displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
441greater level of detail.
442
443* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
444
445It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
446bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
447on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
448written.
449
450* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
451
452The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
453necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
454machines ``out of the box''.
455
456The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
457possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
458signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
459would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
460interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
461
462It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
463standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
464even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
465and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
466terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
467
468The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
469enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
470also works.
471
472DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
473GDB.
474
475It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
476directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
477times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
478breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
479
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480* New native configurations
481
482ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 483PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 484
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485* New targets
486
96baa820 487Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
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488x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
489PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
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490TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
491
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492* OBSOLETE configurations
493
494Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
495Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 496Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 497ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 498Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 499
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500Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
501but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
502these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
503be permanently REMOVED.
504
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505* Gould support removed
506
507Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
508
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509* New features for SVR4
510
511On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
512without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
513load symbols from the running process's executable file.
514
515* Many C++ enhancements
516
517C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
518in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
519
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520* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
521
522A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
523sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
524with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
525``|<program> <args>'' vis:
526
527 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
528 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
529
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530* MIPS 64 remote protocol
531
532A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
533expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
534instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
535
536The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
537added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
538
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539* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
540
541The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
542``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
543include ``set remote P-packet''.
544
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545* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
546
547The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
548accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
549``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
550
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551* ``apropos'' command added.
552
553The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
554documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
555try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
556
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557* New MI interface
558
559A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
560interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
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561process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
562"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
563enabled by configuring with:
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564
565 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
566
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567*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
568
569* New native configurations
570
571HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
572HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 573M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
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574
575* New targets
576
577Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
578Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
579Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
580
581* OBSOLETE configurations
582
583Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
584
585Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
586but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
587these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
588be permanently REMOVED.
589
590* ANSI/ISO C
591
592As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
593buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
594containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
595use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
596available. If this is not true, please report the affected
597configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
598information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
599already.
600
601* Readline 2.2
602
603GDB now uses readline 2.2.
604
605* set extension-language
606
607You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
608languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
609you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
610 set extension-language .c c++
611The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
612and their associated languages.
613
614* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
615
616When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
617you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
618PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
619
620 set processor NAME
621
622sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
623following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
624
625 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
626 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
627 403 IBM PowerPC 403
628 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
629 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
630 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
631 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
632 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
633 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
634 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
635 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
636
637At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
638special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
639registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
640only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
641
642* HP-UX support
643
644Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
645more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
646library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
647support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
648for xdb and dbx commands.
649
650* Catchpoints
651
652HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
653generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
654to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
655
656This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
657argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
658output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
659
660* Debugging across forks
661
662On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
663in the inferior.
664
665* TUI
666
667HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
668it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
669configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
670
671* GDB remote protocol additions
672
673A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
674Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
675fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
676allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
677
678For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
679full 64-bit address. The command
680
681 set remoteaddresssize 32
682
683can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
684the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
685will be discarded.
686
687In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
688command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
689
690 maint packet heythere
691
692sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
693disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
694time.
695
696The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
697target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
698downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
699
700* Tracing can collect general expressions
701
702You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
703further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
704doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
705
706* mask-address variable for Mips
707
708For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
709a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
710of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
711
712* Higher serial baud rates
713
714GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
715230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
716to achieve all of these rates.)
717
718* i960 simulator
719
720The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
721builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
722
723
724*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
725
726* New native configurations
727
728Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
729Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
730Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
731PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
732PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
733Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
734Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
735
736* New targets
737
738Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
739Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
740Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
741Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
742MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
743MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
744MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
745Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
746Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
747Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
748NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
749
750* New debugging protocols
751
752ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
753M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
754DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
755PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
756PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
757Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
758
759* DWARF 2
760
761All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
762format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
763information.
764
765* Java frontend
766
767GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
768only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
769
770* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
771
772For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
773loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
774locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
775
776* Live range splitting
777
778GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
779range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
780more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
781
782* Hurd support
783
784GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
785updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
786
787* ARM Thumb support
788
789GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
790instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
791instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
792accordingly.
793
794* MIPS16 support
795
796GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
797instruction set.
798
799* Overlay support
800
801GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
802linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
803will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
804control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
805additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
806in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
807
808* info symbol
809
810The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
811the symbol at the specified address.
812
813* Trace support
814
815The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
816asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
817extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
818includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
819file tracepoint.c for more details.
820
821* MIPS simulator
822
823Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
824by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
825of most MIPS variants.
826
827* Sparc simulator
828
829Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
830by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
831Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
832
833* set architecture
834
835For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
836basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
837architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
838the possible architectures.
839
840*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
841
842* New native configurations
843
844Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
845M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
846PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
847PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
848PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
849RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
850
851* New targets
852
853ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
854I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
855MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
856MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
857PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
858Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
859Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
860
861* PowerPC simulator
862
863The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
864contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
865PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
866basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
867performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
868
869* Solaris 2.5
870
871GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
872
873* Windows 95/NT native
874
875GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
876To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
877which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
878Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
879ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
880
881* dont-repeat command
882
883If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
884command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
885useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
886extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
887
888* Send break instead of ^C
889
890The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
891rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
892GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
893
894* Remote protocol timeout
895
896The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
897that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
898to read from the target. The default value is 2.
899
900* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
901
902By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
903loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
904stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
905when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
906in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
907
908Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
909/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
910automatically on hpux10.
911
912* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
913
914Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
915
916* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
917
918When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
919may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
920the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
921every character. The default value is 1050.
922
923* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
924
925If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
926a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
927replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
928details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
929remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
930to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
931
932* Speedups for remote debugging
933
934GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
935the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
936and more efficient S-record downloading.
937
938* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
939
940GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
941Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
942
943*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
944
945* Psymtabs for XCOFF
946
947The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
948can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
949
950* Remote targets use caching
951
952Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
953remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
954it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
955debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
956off' turns the the data cache off.
957
958* Remote targets may have threads
959
960The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
961in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
962gdb/remote.c for details.
963
964* NetROM support
965
966If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
967support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
968acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
969write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
970support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
971another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
972sequence is something like
973
974 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
975 load <prog>
976 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
977
978* Macintosh host
979
980GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
981may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
982it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
983available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
984device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
985directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
986scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
987mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
988
989* Autoconf
990
991GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
992but does simplify configuration and building.
993
994* hpux10
995
996GDB now supports hpux10.
997
998*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
999
1000* New native configurations
1001
1002x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1003x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1004NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1005Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1006
1007* New targets
1008
1009A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1010HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1011CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1012PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1013WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1014
1015* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1016
1017GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1018possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1019filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1020the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1021if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1022
1023* Arguments to user-defined commands
1024
1025User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1026Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1027trivial example:
1028define adder
1029 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1030
1031To execute the command use:
1032adder 1 2 3
1033
1034Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1035Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1036use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1037
1038* New `if' and `while' commands
1039
1040This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1041commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1042expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1043execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1044terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1045`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1046if the expression is zero.
1047
1048* Fortran source language mode
1049
1050GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1051Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1052variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1053with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1054Fortran compilers.
1055
1056* Better HPUX support
1057
1058Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1059running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1060processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1061for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1062that behavior do the following before running the program:
1063
1064 adb -w a.out
1065 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1066 control-d
1067
1068This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1069To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1070
1071 adb -w a.out
1072 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1073 control-d
1074
1075You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1076the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1077external linkage.
1078
1079GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1080HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1081
1082* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1083
1084You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1085commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1086current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1087"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1088associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1089configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1090
1091* New DOS host serial code
1092
1093This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1094no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1095a PC's serial port.
1096
1097*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1098
1099* New "complete" command
1100
1101This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1102were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1103
1104* Trailing space optional in prompt
1105
1106"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1107allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1108
1109* Breakpoint hit counts
1110
1111"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1112has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1113can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1114to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1115less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1116that breakpoint.
1117
1118* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1119
1120"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1121an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1122arrays actually contain only short strings.
1123
1124* Shared library breakpoints
1125
1126In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1127breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1128
1129* Hardware watchpoints
1130
1131There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1132targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1133
55241689 1134Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1135
1136* Annotations
1137
1138Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1139and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1140
1141* Improved Irix 5 support
1142
1143GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1144
1145* Improved HPPA support
1146
1147GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1148
1149* New native configurations
1150
1151Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1152HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1153Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1154RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1155
1156* New targets
1157
1158OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1159MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1160Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1161
1162* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1163
1164There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1165This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1166
1167* Fixes
1168
1169As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1170and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1171
1172*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1173
1174* Irix 5 is now supported
1175
1176* HPPA support
1177
1178GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1179to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1180GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1181of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1182can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1183
1184
1185*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1186
1187* User visible changes:
1188
1189* Remote Debugging
1190
1191The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1192target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1193debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1194integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1195debugging info for the mips target).
1196
1197* DEC Alpha native support
1198
1199GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1200debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1201work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1202Alpha-specific notes.
1203
1204* Preliminary thread implementation
1205
1206GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1207
1208* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1209
1210This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1211to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1212for details).
1213
1214* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1215
1216This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1217mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1218call methods, ...etc.
1219
1220*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1221
1222 * User visible changes:
1223
1224Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1225supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1226other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1227somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1228
1229Filename completion now works.
1230
1231When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1232arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1233addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1234
1235All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1236vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1237should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1238your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1239to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1240
1241 * DEC alpha support
1242
1243This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1244cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1245
1246
1247*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1248
1249 * Testsuite
1250
1251This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1252The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1253via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1254
1255 * C++ demangling
1256
1257'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1258emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1259Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1260disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1261use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1262
1263 * Simulators
1264
1265GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1266So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1267Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1268
1269 * New targets supported
1270
1271H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1272H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1273SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1274Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1275IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1276
1277Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1278version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1279GO32 memory extender.
1280
1281 * New remote protocols
1282
1283MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1284
1285 * New source languages supported
1286
1287This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1288used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1289into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1290
1291
1292*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1293
1294 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1295
1296GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1297version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1298University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1299compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1300format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1301(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1302
1303Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1304
1305 * Faster and better demangling
1306
1307We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1308demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1309character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1310only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1311This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1312increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1313symbol lookups.
1314
1315`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1316from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1317compiler does not actually implement.
1318
1319 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1320
1321In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1322inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1323recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1324very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1325The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1326circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1327fix.
1328
1329The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1330release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1331
1332 * Improved configure script
1333
1334The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1335you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1336host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1337done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1338
1339We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1340version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1341`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1342The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1343only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1344We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1345
1346 * Documentation improvements
1347
1348There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1349produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1350before submitting changes.
1351
1352The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1353M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1354`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1355you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1356a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1357
1358*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1359We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1360been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1361or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1362`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1363around this problem.
1364
1365 * New features
1366
1367GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1368the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1369`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1370the target program.
1371
1372The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1373how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1374
1375 * New native hosts supported
1376
1377HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1378386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1379
1380 * New targets supported
1381
1382AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1383
1384 * New file formats supported
1385
1386BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1387HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1388
1389 * Major bug fixes
1390
1391Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1392
1393We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1394printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1395
1396We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1397for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1398release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1399
1400You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1401will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1402
1403We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1404for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1405especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1406libraries.
1407
1408The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1409information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1410command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1411any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1412when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1413
1414 * Internal improvements
1415
1416GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1417debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1418
1419GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1420Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1421symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1422contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1423shared code that handles any of them.
1424
1425 * New command line options
1426
1427We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1428
1429 * Mmalloc licensing
1430
1431The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1432General Public License.
1433
1434*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1435
1436 * Host/native/target split
1437
1438GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1439hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1440target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1441local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1442ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1443
1444The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1445GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1446is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1447code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1448any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1449built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1450handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1451
1452GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1453It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1454plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1455
1456 * New hosts supported
1457
1458HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1459386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1460386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1461
1462 * New targets supported
1463
1464Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
146568030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1466
1467 * New native hosts supported
1468
1469386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1470 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1471386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1472
1473 * New file formats supported
1474
1475BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1476supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1477format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1478
1479 * New commands
1480
1481`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1482`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1483These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1484
1485`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1486
1487You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1488scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1489prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1490executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1491
1492 * C++ improvements
1493
1494We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1495info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1496symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1497
1498Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1499
1500 * Major bug fixes
1501
1502The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1503fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1504by the compiler.
1505
1506We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1507support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1508
1509John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1510slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1511that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1512purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1513the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1514mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1515
1516Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1517about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1518completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1519we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1520
1521 * AMD 29k support
1522
1523A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1524specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1525calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1526usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1527in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1528
1529We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1530Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1531of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1532resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1533
1534 * Remote interfaces
1535
1536We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1537with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1538message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1539This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1540needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1541breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1542each instruction being stepped through.
1543
1544The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1545registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1546
1547There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1548find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1549Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1550processor with a serial port.
1551
1552 * Configuration
1553
1554Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1555`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1556supported, and what files each one uses.
1557
1558 * Library changes
1559
1560There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1561disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1562Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1563disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1564
1565The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1566Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1567can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1568grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1569
1570 * Documentation
1571
1572The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1573reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1574as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1575encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1576system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1577bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1578
1579And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1580
1581
1582*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1583
1584 * Better support for C++ function names
1585
1586GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1587names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1588(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1589single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1590Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1591
1592GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1593the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1594You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1595lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1596for the list of formats.
1597
1598 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1599
1600Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1601C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1602directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1603can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1604usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1605about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1606this problem.)
1607
1608 * New 'maintenance' command
1609
1610All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1611the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1612can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1613
1614 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1615 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1616 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1617 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1618 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1619 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1620
1621The following commands are new:
1622
1623 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1624 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1625 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1626
1627 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1628
1629We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1630(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1631be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1632read after argv processing.
1633
1634 * New hosts supported
1635
1636Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1637
55241689 1638GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
1639
1640We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1641is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1642for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1643masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1644fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1645It costs extra.
1646
1647 * New targets supported
1648
1649Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1650
1651 * More smarts about finding #include files
1652
1653GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1654all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1655greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1656especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1657the one that contains your sources.
1658
1659We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1660breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1661try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1662
1663 * Interesting infernals change
1664
1665GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1666section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1667target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1668stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1669
1670 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1671
1672There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1673 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1674 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1675
1676See the ChangeLog for details.
1677
1678*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1679
1680 * New machines supported (host and target)
1681
1682IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1683
1684SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1685
1686 * New malloc package
1687
1688GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1689Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1690capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1691This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1692pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1693more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1694
1695 * info proc
1696
1697The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1698'help info proc' for details.
1699
1700 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1701
1702The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1703Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1704possible.
1705
1706 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1707
1708Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1709support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1710conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1711environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1712that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1713in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1714
1715 * Cross byte order fixes
1716
1717Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1718targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1719
1720 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1721
1722If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1723system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1724`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1725program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1726called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1727Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1728and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1729the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1730option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1731starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1732
1733You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1734the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1735information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1736slower, but makes future operations faster.
1737
1738The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1739build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1740A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1741use is:
1742
1743 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1744
1745The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1746It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1747shared across multiple host platforms.
1748
1749 * longjmp() handling
1750
1751GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1752siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1753all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1754platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1755
1756 * Solaris 2.0
1757
1758Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1759this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1760reading symbols.
1761
1762 * Bug fixes
1763
1764As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1765People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1766crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1767
1768*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1769
1770 * New machines supported (host and target)
1771
1772SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1773 (except core files)
1774BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1775Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1776
1777 * New machines supported (target)
1778
1779AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1780
1781 * C++ support
1782
1783GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1784The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1785per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1786
1787GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1788`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1789extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1790good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1791will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1792released.
1793
1794 * New features for SVR4
1795
1796GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1797shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1798only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1799
1800The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1801on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1802it prints the address mappings of the process.
1803
1804If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1805bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1806
1807 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1808
1809Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1810now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1811skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1812make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1813same code linked statically.
1814
1815 * New Getopt
1816
1817GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1818version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1819continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1820Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1821added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1822future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1823
1824 * Bugs fixed
1825
1826The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1827Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1828See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1829
1830
1831*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1832
1833 * New machines supported (host and target)
1834
1835Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1836NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1837Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1838
1839 * Almost SCO Unix support
1840
1841We had hoped to support:
1842SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1843(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1844that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1845about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1846
1847 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1848
1849GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1850debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1851is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1852send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1853reqired (if any).
1854
1855 * New Readline
1856
1857GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1858is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1859required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1860
1861 * Bugs fixed
1862
1863The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1864Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1865See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1866
1867 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1868
1869GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1870supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1871symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1872
1873Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1874mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1875debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1876mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1877version 2.
1878
1879Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1880really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1881line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1882variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1883situation somewhat.
1884
1885When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1886However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1887methods.
1888
1889We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1890DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1891encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1892
1893
1894*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1895
1896 * Improved configuration
1897
1898Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1899Porting BFD is simpler.
1900
1901 * Stepping improved
1902
1903The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1904of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1905in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1906function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1907
1908 * Bug fixing
1909
1910Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1911
1912 * New host supported (not target)
1913
1914Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1915
1916
1917*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1918
1919 * Multiple source language support
1920
1921GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1922It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1923and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1924language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1925You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1926`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1927
1928 * GDB and Modula-2
1929
1930GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1931currently under development at the State University of New York at
1932Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1933continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1934
1935Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1936debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1937symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1938
1939There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1940in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1941
1942 * set write on/off
1943
1944GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1945a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1946the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1947by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1948effect immediately.
1949
1950 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1951
1952When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1953shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1954The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1955examining core files.
1956
1957 * set listsize
1958
1959You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1960The default is 10.
1961
1962 * New machines supported (host and target)
1963
1964SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1965Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1966Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1967
1968 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1969
1970IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1971
1972 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1973
1974AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1975AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1976Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1977
1978 * New remote interfaces
1979
1980AMD 29000 Adapt
1981AMD 29000 Minimon
1982
1983
1984*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1985
1986 * New Facilities
1987
1988Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1989
1990Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1991target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1992is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1993remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1994remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1995also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1996using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1997stub on the target system.
1998
1999New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2000
2001GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2002library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2003object file types such as a.out and coff.
2004
2005There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2006refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2007
2008
2009 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2010
2011All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2012by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2013
2014For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2015``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2016Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2017
2018What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2019print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2020will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2021all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2022
2023confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2024 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2025 it is already running. Default is ON.
2026
2027editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2028 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2029 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2030 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2031 Default is ON.
2032
2033history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2034 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2035 or the value of the environment variable
2036 GDBHISTFILE.
2037
2038history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2039 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2040 HISTSIZE.
2041
2042history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2043 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2044 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2045
2046history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2047 history expansion will be performed on
2048 command line input. The default is OFF.
2049
2050radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2051 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2052 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2053
2054height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2055 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2056 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2057 variable TERM.
2058
2059width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2060 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2061 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2062 variable TERM.
2063
2064Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2065``set width'' instead.
2066
2067print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2068 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2069 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2070 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2071
2072print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2073 is OFF.
2074
2075print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2076 "raw" form if off.
2077
2078print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2079 like instructions.
2080
2081print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2082
2083
2084 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2085
2086The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2087new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2088are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2089window.
2090
2091
2092 * Support for Shared Libraries
2093
2094GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2095Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2096before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2097happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2098At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2099from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2100shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2101It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2102
2103sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2104 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2105 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2106
2107info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2108
2109
2110 * Watchpoints
2111
2112A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2113expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2114tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2115quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2116problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2117more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2118
2119watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2120
2121info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2122
2123delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2124disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2125enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2126
2127
2128 * C++ multiple inheritance
2129
2130When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2131for C++ programs.
2132
2133 * C++ exception handling
2134
2135Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2136ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2137the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2138handler's context).
2139
2140catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2141 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2142 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2143
2144info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2145 current stack frame.
2146
2147
2148 * Minor command changes
2149
2150The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2151command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2152is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2153
2154The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2155at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2156frames without printing.
2157
2158 * New directory command
2159
2160'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2161The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2162about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2163with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2164find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2165
2166 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2167
2168For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2169for more details.
2170
2171GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2172two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2173Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2174where the program that you are debugging will run.
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