* main.c: Remove windows.h use.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
CommitLineData
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 5.0:
5
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6* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
7
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8* New native configurations
9
10Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
11x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
12
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13* New targets
14
17e78a56 15* OBSOLETE configurations and files
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16
17x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 18Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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19Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
20 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
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21TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
22WDC 65816 w65-*-*
bf64bfd6 23
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24stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
25kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
26
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27Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
28been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
29configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
30permanently REMOVED.
31
32* REMOVED configurations
33
34Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
35Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
36Pyramid pyramid-*-*
37ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
38Tahoe tahoe-*-*
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39
40* Other news:
41
42* All MIPS configurations are multi-arched.
43
44Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
45
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46* gdba.el deleted
47
48GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 49
9debab2f 50*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 51
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52* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
53
54Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
55programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
56displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
57greater level of detail.
58
59* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
60
61It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
62bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
63on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
64written.
65
66* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
67
68The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
69necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
70machines ``out of the box''.
71
72The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
73possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
74signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
75would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
76interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
77
78It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
79standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
80even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
81and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
82terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
83
84The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
85enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
86also works.
87
88DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
89GDB.
90
91It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
92directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
93times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
94breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
95
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96* New native configurations
97
98ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 99PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 100
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101* New targets
102
96baa820 103Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
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104x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
105PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
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106TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
107
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108* OBSOLETE configurations
109
110Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
111Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 112Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 113ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 114Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 115
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116Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
117but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
118these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
119be permanently REMOVED.
120
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121* Gould support removed
122
123Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
124
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125* New features for SVR4
126
127On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
128without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
129load symbols from the running process's executable file.
130
131* Many C++ enhancements
132
133C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
134in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
135
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136* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
137
138A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
139sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
140with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
141``|<program> <args>'' vis:
142
143 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
144 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
145
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146* MIPS 64 remote protocol
147
148A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
149expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
150instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
151
152The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
153added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
154
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155* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
156
157The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
158``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
159include ``set remote P-packet''.
160
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161* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
162
163The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
164accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
165``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
166
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167* ``apropos'' command added.
168
169The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
170documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
171try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
172
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173* New MI interface
174
175A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
176interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
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177process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
178"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
179enabled by configuring with:
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180
181 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
182
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183*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
184
185* New native configurations
186
187HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
188HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
189M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
190
191* New targets
192
193Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
194Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
195Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
196
197* OBSOLETE configurations
198
199Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
200
201Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
202but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
203these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
204be permanently REMOVED.
205
206* ANSI/ISO C
207
208As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
209buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
210containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
211use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
212available. If this is not true, please report the affected
213configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
214information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
215already.
216
217* Readline 2.2
218
219GDB now uses readline 2.2.
220
221* set extension-language
222
223You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
224languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
225you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
226 set extension-language .c c++
227The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
228and their associated languages.
229
230* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
231
232When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
233you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
234PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
235
236 set processor NAME
237
238sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
239following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
240
241 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
242 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
243 403 IBM PowerPC 403
244 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
245 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
246 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
247 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
248 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
249 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
250 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
251 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
252
253At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
254special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
255registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
256only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
257
258* HP-UX support
259
260Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
261more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
262library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
263support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
264for xdb and dbx commands.
265
266* Catchpoints
267
268HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
269generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
270to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
271
272This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
273argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
274output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
275
276* Debugging across forks
277
278On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
279in the inferior.
280
281* TUI
282
283HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
284it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
285configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
286
287* GDB remote protocol additions
288
289A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
290Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
291fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
292allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
293
294For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
295full 64-bit address. The command
296
297 set remoteaddresssize 32
298
299can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
300the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
301will be discarded.
302
303In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
304command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
305
306 maint packet heythere
307
308sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
309disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
310time.
311
312The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
313target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
314downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
315
316* Tracing can collect general expressions
317
318You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
319further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
320doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
321
322* mask-address variable for Mips
323
324For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
325a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
326of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
327
328* Higher serial baud rates
329
330GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
331230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
332to achieve all of these rates.)
333
334* i960 simulator
335
336The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
337builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
338
339
340*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
341
342* New native configurations
343
344Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
345Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
346Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
347PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
348PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
349Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
350Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
351
352* New targets
353
354Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
355Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
356Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
357Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
358MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
359MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
360MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
361Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
362Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
363Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
364NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
365
366* New debugging protocols
367
368ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
369M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
370DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
371PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
372PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
373Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
374
375* DWARF 2
376
377All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
378format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
379information.
380
381* Java frontend
382
383GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
384only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
385
386* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
387
388For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
389loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
390locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
391
392* Live range splitting
393
394GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
395range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
396more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
397
398* Hurd support
399
400GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
401updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
402
403* ARM Thumb support
404
405GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
406instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
407instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
408accordingly.
409
410* MIPS16 support
411
412GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
413instruction set.
414
415* Overlay support
416
417GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
418linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
419will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
420control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
421additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
422in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
423
424* info symbol
425
426The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
427the symbol at the specified address.
428
429* Trace support
430
431The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
432asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
433extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
434includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
435file tracepoint.c for more details.
436
437* MIPS simulator
438
439Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
440by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
441of most MIPS variants.
442
443* Sparc simulator
444
445Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
446by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
447Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
448
449* set architecture
450
451For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
452basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
453architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
454the possible architectures.
455
456*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
457
458* New native configurations
459
460Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
461M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
462PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
463PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
464PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
465RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
466
467* New targets
468
469ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
470I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
471MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
472MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
473PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
474Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
475Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
476
477* PowerPC simulator
478
479The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
480contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
481PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
482basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
483performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
484
485* Solaris 2.5
486
487GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
488
489* Windows 95/NT native
490
491GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
492To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
493which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
494Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
495ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
496
497* dont-repeat command
498
499If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
500command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
501useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
502extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
503
504* Send break instead of ^C
505
506The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
507rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
508GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
509
510* Remote protocol timeout
511
512The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
513that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
514to read from the target. The default value is 2.
515
516* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
517
518By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
519loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
520stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
521when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
522in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
523
524Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
525/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
526automatically on hpux10.
527
528* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
529
530Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
531
532* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
533
534When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
535may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
536the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
537every character. The default value is 1050.
538
539* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
540
541If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
542a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
543replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
544details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
545remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
546to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
547
548* Speedups for remote debugging
549
550GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
551the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
552and more efficient S-record downloading.
553
554* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
555
556GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
557Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
558
559*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
560
561* Psymtabs for XCOFF
562
563The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
564can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
565
566* Remote targets use caching
567
568Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
569remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
570it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
571debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
572off' turns the the data cache off.
573
574* Remote targets may have threads
575
576The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
577in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
578gdb/remote.c for details.
579
580* NetROM support
581
582If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
583support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
584acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
585write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
586support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
587another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
588sequence is something like
589
590 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
591 load <prog>
592 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
593
594* Macintosh host
595
596GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
597may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
598it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
599available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
600device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
601directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
602scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
603mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
604
605* Autoconf
606
607GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
608but does simplify configuration and building.
609
610* hpux10
611
612GDB now supports hpux10.
613
614*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
615
616* New native configurations
617
618x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
619x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
620NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
621Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
622
623* New targets
624
625A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
626HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
627CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
628PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
629WDC 65816 w65-*-*
630
631* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
632
633GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
634possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
635filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
636the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
637if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
638
639* Arguments to user-defined commands
640
641User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
642Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
643trivial example:
644define adder
645 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
646
647To execute the command use:
648adder 1 2 3
649
650Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
651Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
652use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
653
654* New `if' and `while' commands
655
656This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
657commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
658expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
659execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
660terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
661`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
662if the expression is zero.
663
664* Fortran source language mode
665
666GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
667Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
668variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
669with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
670Fortran compilers.
671
672* Better HPUX support
673
674Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
675running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
676processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
677for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
678that behavior do the following before running the program:
679
680 adb -w a.out
681 __dld_flags?W 0x5
682 control-d
683
684This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
685To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
686
687 adb -w a.out
688 __dld_flags?W 0x4
689 control-d
690
691You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
692the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
693external linkage.
694
695GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
696HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
697
698* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
699
700You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
701commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
702current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
703"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
704associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
705configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
706
707* New DOS host serial code
708
709This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
710no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
711a PC's serial port.
712
713*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
714
715* New "complete" command
716
717This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
718were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
719
720* Trailing space optional in prompt
721
722"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
723allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
724
725* Breakpoint hit counts
726
727"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
728has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
729can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
730to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
731less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
732that breakpoint.
733
734* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
735
736"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
737an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
738arrays actually contain only short strings.
739
740* Shared library breakpoints
741
742In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
743breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
744
745* Hardware watchpoints
746
747There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
748targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
749
750Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
751
752* Annotations
753
754Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
755and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
756
757* Improved Irix 5 support
758
759GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
760
761* Improved HPPA support
762
763GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
764
765* New native configurations
766
767Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
768HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
769Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
770RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
771
772* New targets
773
774OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
775MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
776Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
777
778* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
779
780There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
781This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
782
783* Fixes
784
785As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
786and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
787
788*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
789
790* Irix 5 is now supported
791
792* HPPA support
793
794GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
795to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
796GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
797of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
798can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
799
800
801*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
802
803* User visible changes:
804
805* Remote Debugging
806
807The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
808target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
809debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
810integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
811debugging info for the mips target).
812
813* DEC Alpha native support
814
815GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
816debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
817work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
818Alpha-specific notes.
819
820* Preliminary thread implementation
821
822GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
823
824* LynxOS native and target support for 386
825
826This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
827to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
828for details).
829
830* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
831
832This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
833mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
834call methods, ...etc.
835
836*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
837
838 * User visible changes:
839
840Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
841supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
842other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
843somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
844
845Filename completion now works.
846
847When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
848arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
849addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
850
851All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
852vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
853should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
854your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
855to be on the far side of a thin network line.
856
857 * DEC alpha support
858
859This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
860cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
861
862
863*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
864
865 * Testsuite
866
867This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
868The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
869via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
870
871 * C++ demangling
872
873'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
874emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
875Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
876disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
877use gdb with AT&T cfront.
878
879 * Simulators
880
881GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
882So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
883Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
884
885 * New targets supported
886
887H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
888H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
889SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
890Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
891IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
892
893Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
894version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
895GO32 memory extender.
896
897 * New remote protocols
898
899MIPS remote debugging protocol.
900
901 * New source languages supported
902
903This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
904used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
905into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
906
907
908*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
909
910 * HP Precision Architecture supported
911
912GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
913version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
914University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
915compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
916format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
917(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
918
919Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
920
921 * Faster and better demangling
922
923We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
924demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
925character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
926only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
927This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
928increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
929symbol lookups.
930
931`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
932from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
933compiler does not actually implement.
934
935 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
936
937In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
938inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
939recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
940very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
941The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
942circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
943fix.
944
945The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
946release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
947
948 * Improved configure script
949
950The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
951you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
952host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
953done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
954
955We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
956version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
957`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
958The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
959only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
960We hope to make this the default in a future release.
961
962 * Documentation improvements
963
964There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
965produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
966before submitting changes.
967
968The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
969M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
970`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
971you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
972a future texinfo-X.Y release.
973
974*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
975We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
976been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
977or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
978`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
979around this problem.
980
981 * New features
982
983GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
984the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
985`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
986the target program.
987
988The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
989how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
990
991 * New native hosts supported
992
993HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
994386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
995
996 * New targets supported
997
998AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
999
1000 * New file formats supported
1001
1002BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1003HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1004
1005 * Major bug fixes
1006
1007Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1008
1009We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1010printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1011
1012We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1013for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1014release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1015
1016You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1017will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1018
1019We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1020for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1021especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1022libraries.
1023
1024The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1025information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1026command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1027any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1028when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1029
1030 * Internal improvements
1031
1032GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1033debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1034
1035GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1036Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1037symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1038contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1039shared code that handles any of them.
1040
1041 * New command line options
1042
1043We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1044
1045 * Mmalloc licensing
1046
1047The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1048General Public License.
1049
1050*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1051
1052 * Host/native/target split
1053
1054GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1055hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1056target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1057local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1058ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1059
1060The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1061GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1062is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1063code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1064any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1065built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1066handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1067
1068GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1069It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1070plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1071
1072 * New hosts supported
1073
1074HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1075386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1076386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1077
1078 * New targets supported
1079
1080Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
108168030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1082
1083 * New native hosts supported
1084
1085386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1086 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1087386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1088
1089 * New file formats supported
1090
1091BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1092supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1093format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1094
1095 * New commands
1096
1097`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1098`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1099These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1100
1101`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1102
1103You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1104scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1105prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1106executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1107
1108 * C++ improvements
1109
1110We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1111info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1112symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1113
1114Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1115
1116 * Major bug fixes
1117
1118The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1119fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1120by the compiler.
1121
1122We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1123support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1124
1125John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1126slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1127that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1128purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1129the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1130mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1131
1132Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1133about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1134completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1135we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1136
1137 * AMD 29k support
1138
1139A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1140specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1141calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1142usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1143in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1144
1145We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1146Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1147of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1148resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1149
1150 * Remote interfaces
1151
1152We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1153with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1154message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1155This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1156needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1157breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1158each instruction being stepped through.
1159
1160The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1161registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1162
1163There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1164find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1165Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1166processor with a serial port.
1167
1168 * Configuration
1169
1170Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1171`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1172supported, and what files each one uses.
1173
1174 * Library changes
1175
1176There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1177disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1178Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1179disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1180
1181The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1182Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1183can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1184grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1185
1186 * Documentation
1187
1188The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1189reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1190as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1191encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1192system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1193bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1194
1195And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1196
1197
1198*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1199
1200 * Better support for C++ function names
1201
1202GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1203names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1204(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1205single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1206Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1207
1208GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1209the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1210You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1211lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1212for the list of formats.
1213
1214 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1215
1216Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1217C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1218directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1219can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1220usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1221about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1222this problem.)
1223
1224 * New 'maintenance' command
1225
1226All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1227the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1228can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1229
1230 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1231 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1232 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1233 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1234 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1235 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1236
1237The following commands are new:
1238
1239 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1240 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1241 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1242
1243 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1244
1245We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1246(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1247be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1248read after argv processing.
1249
1250 * New hosts supported
1251
1252Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1253
1254Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1255
1256We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1257is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1258for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1259masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1260fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1261It costs extra.
1262
1263 * New targets supported
1264
1265Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1266
1267 * More smarts about finding #include files
1268
1269GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1270all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1271greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1272especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1273the one that contains your sources.
1274
1275We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1276breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1277try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1278
1279 * Interesting infernals change
1280
1281GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1282section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1283target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1284stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1285
1286 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1287
1288There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1289 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1290 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1291
1292See the ChangeLog for details.
1293
1294*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1295
1296 * New machines supported (host and target)
1297
1298IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1299
1300SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1301
1302 * New malloc package
1303
1304GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1305Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1306capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1307This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1308pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1309more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1310
1311 * info proc
1312
1313The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1314'help info proc' for details.
1315
1316 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1317
1318The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1319Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1320possible.
1321
1322 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1323
1324Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1325support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1326conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1327environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1328that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1329in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1330
1331 * Cross byte order fixes
1332
1333Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1334targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1335
1336 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1337
1338If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1339system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1340`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1341program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1342called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1343Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1344and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1345the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1346option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1347starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1348
1349You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1350the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1351information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1352slower, but makes future operations faster.
1353
1354The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1355build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1356A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1357use is:
1358
1359 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1360
1361The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1362It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1363shared across multiple host platforms.
1364
1365 * longjmp() handling
1366
1367GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1368siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1369all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1370platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1371
1372 * Solaris 2.0
1373
1374Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1375this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1376reading symbols.
1377
1378 * Bug fixes
1379
1380As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1381People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1382crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1383
1384*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1385
1386 * New machines supported (host and target)
1387
1388SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1389 (except core files)
1390BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1391Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1392
1393 * New machines supported (target)
1394
1395AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1396
1397 * C++ support
1398
1399GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1400The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1401per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1402
1403GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1404`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1405extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1406good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1407will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1408released.
1409
1410 * New features for SVR4
1411
1412GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1413shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1414only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1415
1416The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1417on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1418it prints the address mappings of the process.
1419
1420If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1421bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1422
1423 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1424
1425Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1426now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1427skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1428make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1429same code linked statically.
1430
1431 * New Getopt
1432
1433GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1434version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1435continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1436Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1437added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1438future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1439
1440 * Bugs fixed
1441
1442The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1443Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1444See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1445
1446
1447*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1448
1449 * New machines supported (host and target)
1450
1451Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1452NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1453Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1454
1455 * Almost SCO Unix support
1456
1457We had hoped to support:
1458SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1459(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1460that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1461about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1462
1463 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1464
1465GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1466debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1467is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1468send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1469reqired (if any).
1470
1471 * New Readline
1472
1473GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1474is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1475required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1476
1477 * Bugs fixed
1478
1479The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1480Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1481See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1482
1483 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1484
1485GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1486supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1487symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1488
1489Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1490mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1491debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1492mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1493version 2.
1494
1495Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1496really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1497line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1498variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1499situation somewhat.
1500
1501When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1502However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1503methods.
1504
1505We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1506DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1507encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1508
1509
1510*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1511
1512 * Improved configuration
1513
1514Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1515Porting BFD is simpler.
1516
1517 * Stepping improved
1518
1519The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1520of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1521in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1522function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1523
1524 * Bug fixing
1525
1526Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1527
1528 * New host supported (not target)
1529
1530Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1531
1532
1533*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1534
1535 * Multiple source language support
1536
1537GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1538It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1539and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1540language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1541You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1542`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1543
1544 * GDB and Modula-2
1545
1546GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1547currently under development at the State University of New York at
1548Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1549continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1550
1551Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1552debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1553symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1554
1555There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1556in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1557
1558 * set write on/off
1559
1560GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1561a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1562the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1563by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1564effect immediately.
1565
1566 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1567
1568When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1569shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1570The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1571examining core files.
1572
1573 * set listsize
1574
1575You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1576The default is 10.
1577
1578 * New machines supported (host and target)
1579
1580SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1581Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1582Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1583
1584 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1585
1586IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1587
1588 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1589
1590AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1591AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1592Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1593
1594 * New remote interfaces
1595
1596AMD 29000 Adapt
1597AMD 29000 Minimon
1598
1599
1600*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1601
1602 * New Facilities
1603
1604Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1605
1606Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1607target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1608is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1609remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1610remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1611also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1612using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1613stub on the target system.
1614
1615New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1616
1617GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1618library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1619object file types such as a.out and coff.
1620
1621There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1622refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1623
1624
1625 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1626
1627All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1628by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1629
1630For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1631``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1632Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1633
1634What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1635print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1636will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1637all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1638
1639confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1640 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1641 it is already running. Default is ON.
1642
1643editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1644 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1645 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1646 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1647 Default is ON.
1648
1649history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1650 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1651 or the value of the environment variable
1652 GDBHISTFILE.
1653
1654history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1655 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1656 HISTSIZE.
1657
1658history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1659 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1660 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1661
1662history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1663 history expansion will be performed on
1664 command line input. The default is OFF.
1665
1666radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1667 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1668 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1669
1670height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1671 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1672 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1673 variable TERM.
1674
1675width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1676 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1677 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1678 variable TERM.
1679
1680Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1681``set width'' instead.
1682
1683print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1684 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1685 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1686 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1687
1688print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1689 is OFF.
1690
1691print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1692 "raw" form if off.
1693
1694print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1695 like instructions.
1696
1697print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1698
1699
1700 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1701
1702The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1703new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1704are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1705window.
1706
1707
1708 * Support for Shared Libraries
1709
1710GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1711Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1712before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1713happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1714At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1715from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1716shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1717It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1718
1719sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1720 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1721 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1722
1723info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1724
1725
1726 * Watchpoints
1727
1728A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1729expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1730tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1731quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1732problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1733more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1734
1735watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1736
1737info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1738
1739delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1740disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1741enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1742
1743
1744 * C++ multiple inheritance
1745
1746When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1747for C++ programs.
1748
1749 * C++ exception handling
1750
1751Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1752ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1753the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1754handler's context).
1755
1756catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1757 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1758 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1759
1760info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1761 current stack frame.
1762
1763
1764 * Minor command changes
1765
1766The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1767command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1768is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1769
1770The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1771at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1772frames without printing.
1773
1774 * New directory command
1775
1776'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1777The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1778about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1779with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1780find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1781
1782 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1783
1784For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1785for more details.
1786
1787GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1788two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1789Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1790where the program that you are debugging will run.
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