Change SOFTWARE_SINGLE_STEP_P into SOFTWARE_SINGLE_STEP_P().
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 5.0:
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
15* OBSOLETE configurations
16
17x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 18Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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20Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
21been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
22configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
23permanently REMOVED.
24
25* REMOVED configurations
26
27Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
28Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
29Pyramid pyramid-*-*
30ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
31Tahoe tahoe-*-*
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32
33* Other news:
34
35* All MIPS configurations are multi-arched.
36
37Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
38
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39* gdba.el deleted
40
41GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 42
9debab2f 43*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 44
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45* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
46
47Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
48programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
49displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
50greater level of detail.
51
52* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
53
54It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
55bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
56on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
57written.
58
59* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
60
61The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
62necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
63machines ``out of the box''.
64
65The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
66possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
67signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
68would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
69interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
70
71It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
72standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
73even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
74and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
75terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
76
77The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
78enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
79also works.
80
81DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
82GDB.
83
84It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
85directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
86times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
87breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
88
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89* New native configurations
90
91ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 92PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 93
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94* New targets
95
96baa820 96Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
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97x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
98PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
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99TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
100
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101* OBSOLETE configurations
102
103Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
104Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 105Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 106ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 107Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 108
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109Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
110but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
111these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
112be permanently REMOVED.
113
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114* Gould support removed
115
116Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
117
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118* New features for SVR4
119
120On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
121without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
122load symbols from the running process's executable file.
123
124* Many C++ enhancements
125
126C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
127in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
128
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129* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
130
131A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
132sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
133with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
134``|<program> <args>'' vis:
135
136 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
137 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
138
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139* MIPS 64 remote protocol
140
141A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
142expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
143instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
144
145The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
146added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
147
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148* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
149
150The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
151``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
152include ``set remote P-packet''.
153
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154* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
155
156The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
157accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
158``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
159
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160* ``apropos'' command added.
161
162The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
163documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
164try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
165
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166* New MI interface
167
168A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
169interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
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170process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
171"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
172enabled by configuring with:
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173
174 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
175
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176*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
177
178* New native configurations
179
180HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
181HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
182M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
183
184* New targets
185
186Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
187Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
188Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
189
190* OBSOLETE configurations
191
192Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
193
194Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
195but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
196these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
197be permanently REMOVED.
198
199* ANSI/ISO C
200
201As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
202buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
203containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
204use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
205available. If this is not true, please report the affected
206configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
207information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
208already.
209
210* Readline 2.2
211
212GDB now uses readline 2.2.
213
214* set extension-language
215
216You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
217languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
218you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
219 set extension-language .c c++
220The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
221and their associated languages.
222
223* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
224
225When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
226you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
227PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
228
229 set processor NAME
230
231sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
232following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
233
234 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
235 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
236 403 IBM PowerPC 403
237 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
238 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
239 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
240 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
241 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
242 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
243 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
244 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
245
246At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
247special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
248registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
249only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
250
251* HP-UX support
252
253Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
254more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
255library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
256support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
257for xdb and dbx commands.
258
259* Catchpoints
260
261HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
262generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
263to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
264
265This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
266argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
267output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
268
269* Debugging across forks
270
271On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
272in the inferior.
273
274* TUI
275
276HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
277it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
278configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
279
280* GDB remote protocol additions
281
282A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
283Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
284fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
285allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
286
287For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
288full 64-bit address. The command
289
290 set remoteaddresssize 32
291
292can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
293the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
294will be discarded.
295
296In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
297command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
298
299 maint packet heythere
300
301sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
302disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
303time.
304
305The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
306target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
307downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
308
309* Tracing can collect general expressions
310
311You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
312further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
313doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
314
315* mask-address variable for Mips
316
317For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
318a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
319of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
320
321* Higher serial baud rates
322
323GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
324230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
325to achieve all of these rates.)
326
327* i960 simulator
328
329The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
330builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
331
332
333*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
334
335* New native configurations
336
337Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
338Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
339Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
340PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
341PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
342Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
343Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
344
345* New targets
346
347Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
348Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
349Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
350Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
351MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
352MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
353MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
354Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
355Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
356Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
357NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
358
359* New debugging protocols
360
361ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
362M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
363DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
364PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
365PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
366Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
367
368* DWARF 2
369
370All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
371format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
372information.
373
374* Java frontend
375
376GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
377only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
378
379* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
380
381For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
382loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
383locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
384
385* Live range splitting
386
387GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
388range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
389more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
390
391* Hurd support
392
393GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
394updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
395
396* ARM Thumb support
397
398GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
399instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
400instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
401accordingly.
402
403* MIPS16 support
404
405GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
406instruction set.
407
408* Overlay support
409
410GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
411linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
412will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
413control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
414additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
415in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
416
417* info symbol
418
419The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
420the symbol at the specified address.
421
422* Trace support
423
424The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
425asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
426extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
427includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
428file tracepoint.c for more details.
429
430* MIPS simulator
431
432Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
433by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
434of most MIPS variants.
435
436* Sparc simulator
437
438Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
439by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
440Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
441
442* set architecture
443
444For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
445basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
446architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
447the possible architectures.
448
449*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
450
451* New native configurations
452
453Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
454M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
455PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
456PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
457PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
458RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
459
460* New targets
461
462ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
463I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
464MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
465MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
466PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
467Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
468Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
469
470* PowerPC simulator
471
472The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
473contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
474PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
475basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
476performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
477
478* Solaris 2.5
479
480GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
481
482* Windows 95/NT native
483
484GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
485To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
486which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
487Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
488ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
489
490* dont-repeat command
491
492If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
493command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
494useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
495extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
496
497* Send break instead of ^C
498
499The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
500rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
501GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
502
503* Remote protocol timeout
504
505The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
506that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
507to read from the target. The default value is 2.
508
509* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
510
511By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
512loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
513stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
514when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
515in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
516
517Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
518/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
519automatically on hpux10.
520
521* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
522
523Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
524
525* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
526
527When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
528may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
529the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
530every character. The default value is 1050.
531
532* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
533
534If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
535a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
536replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
537details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
538remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
539to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
540
541* Speedups for remote debugging
542
543GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
544the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
545and more efficient S-record downloading.
546
547* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
548
549GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
550Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
551
552*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
553
554* Psymtabs for XCOFF
555
556The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
557can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
558
559* Remote targets use caching
560
561Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
562remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
563it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
564debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
565off' turns the the data cache off.
566
567* Remote targets may have threads
568
569The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
570in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
571gdb/remote.c for details.
572
573* NetROM support
574
575If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
576support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
577acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
578write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
579support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
580another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
581sequence is something like
582
583 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
584 load <prog>
585 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
586
587* Macintosh host
588
589GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
590may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
591it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
592available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
593device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
594directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
595scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
596mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
597
598* Autoconf
599
600GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
601but does simplify configuration and building.
602
603* hpux10
604
605GDB now supports hpux10.
606
607*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
608
609* New native configurations
610
611x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
612x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
613NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
614Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
615
616* New targets
617
618A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
619HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
620CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
621PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
622WDC 65816 w65-*-*
623
624* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
625
626GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
627possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
628filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
629the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
630if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
631
632* Arguments to user-defined commands
633
634User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
635Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
636trivial example:
637define adder
638 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
639
640To execute the command use:
641adder 1 2 3
642
643Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
644Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
645use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
646
647* New `if' and `while' commands
648
649This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
650commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
651expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
652execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
653terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
654`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
655if the expression is zero.
656
657* Fortran source language mode
658
659GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
660Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
661variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
662with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
663Fortran compilers.
664
665* Better HPUX support
666
667Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
668running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
669processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
670for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
671that behavior do the following before running the program:
672
673 adb -w a.out
674 __dld_flags?W 0x5
675 control-d
676
677This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
678To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
679
680 adb -w a.out
681 __dld_flags?W 0x4
682 control-d
683
684You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
685the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
686external linkage.
687
688GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
689HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
690
691* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
692
693You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
694commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
695current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
696"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
697associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
698configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
699
700* New DOS host serial code
701
702This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
703no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
704a PC's serial port.
705
706*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
707
708* New "complete" command
709
710This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
711were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
712
713* Trailing space optional in prompt
714
715"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
716allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
717
718* Breakpoint hit counts
719
720"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
721has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
722can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
723to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
724less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
725that breakpoint.
726
727* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
728
729"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
730an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
731arrays actually contain only short strings.
732
733* Shared library breakpoints
734
735In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
736breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
737
738* Hardware watchpoints
739
740There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
741targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
742
743Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
744
745* Annotations
746
747Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
748and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
749
750* Improved Irix 5 support
751
752GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
753
754* Improved HPPA support
755
756GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
757
758* New native configurations
759
760Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
761HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
762Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
763RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
764
765* New targets
766
767OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
768MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
769Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
770
771* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
772
773There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
774This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
775
776* Fixes
777
778As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
779and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
780
781*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
782
783* Irix 5 is now supported
784
785* HPPA support
786
787GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
788to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
789GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
790of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
791can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
792
793
794*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
795
796* User visible changes:
797
798* Remote Debugging
799
800The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
801target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
802debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
803integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
804debugging info for the mips target).
805
806* DEC Alpha native support
807
808GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
809debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
810work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
811Alpha-specific notes.
812
813* Preliminary thread implementation
814
815GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
816
817* LynxOS native and target support for 386
818
819This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
820to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
821for details).
822
823* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
824
825This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
826mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
827call methods, ...etc.
828
829*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
830
831 * User visible changes:
832
833Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
834supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
835other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
836somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
837
838Filename completion now works.
839
840When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
841arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
842addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
843
844All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
845vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
846should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
847your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
848to be on the far side of a thin network line.
849
850 * DEC alpha support
851
852This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
853cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
854
855
856*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
857
858 * Testsuite
859
860This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
861The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
862via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
863
864 * C++ demangling
865
866'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
867emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
868Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
869disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
870use gdb with AT&T cfront.
871
872 * Simulators
873
874GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
875So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
876Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
877
878 * New targets supported
879
880H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
881H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
882SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
883Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
884IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
885
886Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
887version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
888GO32 memory extender.
889
890 * New remote protocols
891
892MIPS remote debugging protocol.
893
894 * New source languages supported
895
896This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
897used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
898into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
899
900
901*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
902
903 * HP Precision Architecture supported
904
905GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
906version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
907University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
908compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
909format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
910(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
911
912Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
913
914 * Faster and better demangling
915
916We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
917demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
918character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
919only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
920This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
921increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
922symbol lookups.
923
924`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
925from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
926compiler does not actually implement.
927
928 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
929
930In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
931inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
932recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
933very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
934The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
935circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
936fix.
937
938The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
939release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
940
941 * Improved configure script
942
943The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
944you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
945host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
946done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
947
948We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
949version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
950`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
951The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
952only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
953We hope to make this the default in a future release.
954
955 * Documentation improvements
956
957There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
958produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
959before submitting changes.
960
961The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
962M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
963`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
964you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
965a future texinfo-X.Y release.
966
967*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
968We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
969been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
970or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
971`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
972around this problem.
973
974 * New features
975
976GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
977the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
978`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
979the target program.
980
981The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
982how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
983
984 * New native hosts supported
985
986HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
987386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
988
989 * New targets supported
990
991AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
992
993 * New file formats supported
994
995BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
996HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
997
998 * Major bug fixes
999
1000Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1001
1002We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1003printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1004
1005We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1006for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1007release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1008
1009You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1010will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1011
1012We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1013for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1014especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1015libraries.
1016
1017The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1018information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1019command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1020any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1021when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1022
1023 * Internal improvements
1024
1025GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1026debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1027
1028GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1029Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1030symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1031contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1032shared code that handles any of them.
1033
1034 * New command line options
1035
1036We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1037
1038 * Mmalloc licensing
1039
1040The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1041General Public License.
1042
1043*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1044
1045 * Host/native/target split
1046
1047GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1048hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1049target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1050local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1051ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1052
1053The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1054GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1055is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1056code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1057any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1058built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1059handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1060
1061GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1062It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1063plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1064
1065 * New hosts supported
1066
1067HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1068386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1069386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1070
1071 * New targets supported
1072
1073Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
107468030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1075
1076 * New native hosts supported
1077
1078386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1079 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1080386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1081
1082 * New file formats supported
1083
1084BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1085supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1086format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1087
1088 * New commands
1089
1090`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1091`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1092These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1093
1094`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1095
1096You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1097scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1098prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1099executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1100
1101 * C++ improvements
1102
1103We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1104info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1105symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1106
1107Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1108
1109 * Major bug fixes
1110
1111The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1112fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1113by the compiler.
1114
1115We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1116support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1117
1118John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1119slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1120that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1121purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1122the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1123mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1124
1125Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1126about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1127completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1128we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1129
1130 * AMD 29k support
1131
1132A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1133specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1134calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1135usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1136in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1137
1138We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1139Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1140of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1141resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1142
1143 * Remote interfaces
1144
1145We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1146with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1147message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1148This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1149needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1150breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1151each instruction being stepped through.
1152
1153The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1154registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1155
1156There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1157find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1158Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1159processor with a serial port.
1160
1161 * Configuration
1162
1163Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1164`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1165supported, and what files each one uses.
1166
1167 * Library changes
1168
1169There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1170disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1171Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1172disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1173
1174The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1175Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1176can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1177grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1178
1179 * Documentation
1180
1181The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1182reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1183as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1184encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1185system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1186bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1187
1188And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1189
1190
1191*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1192
1193 * Better support for C++ function names
1194
1195GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1196names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1197(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1198single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1199Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1200
1201GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1202the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1203You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1204lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1205for the list of formats.
1206
1207 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1208
1209Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1210C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1211directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1212can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1213usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1214about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1215this problem.)
1216
1217 * New 'maintenance' command
1218
1219All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1220the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1221can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1222
1223 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1224 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1225 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1226 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1227 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1228 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1229
1230The following commands are new:
1231
1232 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1233 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1234 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1235
1236 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1237
1238We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1239(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1240be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1241read after argv processing.
1242
1243 * New hosts supported
1244
1245Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1246
1247Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1248
1249We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1250is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1251for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1252masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1253fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1254It costs extra.
1255
1256 * New targets supported
1257
1258Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1259
1260 * More smarts about finding #include files
1261
1262GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1263all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1264greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1265especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1266the one that contains your sources.
1267
1268We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1269breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1270try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1271
1272 * Interesting infernals change
1273
1274GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1275section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1276target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1277stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1278
1279 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1280
1281There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1282 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1283 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1284
1285See the ChangeLog for details.
1286
1287*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1288
1289 * New machines supported (host and target)
1290
1291IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1292
1293SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1294
1295 * New malloc package
1296
1297GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1298Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1299capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1300This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1301pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1302more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1303
1304 * info proc
1305
1306The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1307'help info proc' for details.
1308
1309 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1310
1311The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1312Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1313possible.
1314
1315 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1316
1317Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1318support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1319conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1320environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1321that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1322in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1323
1324 * Cross byte order fixes
1325
1326Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1327targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1328
1329 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1330
1331If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1332system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1333`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1334program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1335called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1336Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1337and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1338the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1339option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1340starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1341
1342You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1343the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1344information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1345slower, but makes future operations faster.
1346
1347The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1348build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1349A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1350use is:
1351
1352 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1353
1354The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1355It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1356shared across multiple host platforms.
1357
1358 * longjmp() handling
1359
1360GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1361siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1362all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1363platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1364
1365 * Solaris 2.0
1366
1367Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1368this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1369reading symbols.
1370
1371 * Bug fixes
1372
1373As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1374People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1375crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1376
1377*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1378
1379 * New machines supported (host and target)
1380
1381SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1382 (except core files)
1383BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1384Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1385
1386 * New machines supported (target)
1387
1388AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1389
1390 * C++ support
1391
1392GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1393The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1394per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1395
1396GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1397`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1398extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1399good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1400will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1401released.
1402
1403 * New features for SVR4
1404
1405GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1406shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1407only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1408
1409The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1410on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1411it prints the address mappings of the process.
1412
1413If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1414bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1415
1416 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1417
1418Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1419now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1420skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1421make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1422same code linked statically.
1423
1424 * New Getopt
1425
1426GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1427version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1428continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1429Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1430added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1431future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1432
1433 * Bugs fixed
1434
1435The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1436Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1437See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1438
1439
1440*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1441
1442 * New machines supported (host and target)
1443
1444Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1445NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1446Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1447
1448 * Almost SCO Unix support
1449
1450We had hoped to support:
1451SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1452(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1453that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1454about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1455
1456 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1457
1458GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1459debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1460is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1461send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1462reqired (if any).
1463
1464 * New Readline
1465
1466GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1467is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1468required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1469
1470 * Bugs fixed
1471
1472The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1473Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1474See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1475
1476 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1477
1478GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1479supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1480symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1481
1482Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1483mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1484debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1485mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1486version 2.
1487
1488Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1489really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1490line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1491variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1492situation somewhat.
1493
1494When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1495However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1496methods.
1497
1498We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1499DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1500encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1501
1502
1503*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1504
1505 * Improved configuration
1506
1507Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1508Porting BFD is simpler.
1509
1510 * Stepping improved
1511
1512The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1513of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1514in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1515function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1516
1517 * Bug fixing
1518
1519Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1520
1521 * New host supported (not target)
1522
1523Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1524
1525
1526*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1527
1528 * Multiple source language support
1529
1530GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1531It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1532and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1533language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1534You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1535`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1536
1537 * GDB and Modula-2
1538
1539GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1540currently under development at the State University of New York at
1541Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1542continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1543
1544Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1545debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1546symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1547
1548There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1549in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1550
1551 * set write on/off
1552
1553GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1554a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1555the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1556by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1557effect immediately.
1558
1559 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1560
1561When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1562shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1563The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1564examining core files.
1565
1566 * set listsize
1567
1568You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1569The default is 10.
1570
1571 * New machines supported (host and target)
1572
1573SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1574Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1575Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1576
1577 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1578
1579IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1580
1581 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1582
1583AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1584AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1585Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1586
1587 * New remote interfaces
1588
1589AMD 29000 Adapt
1590AMD 29000 Minimon
1591
1592
1593*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1594
1595 * New Facilities
1596
1597Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1598
1599Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1600target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1601is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1602remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1603remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1604also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1605using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1606stub on the target system.
1607
1608New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1609
1610GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1611library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1612object file types such as a.out and coff.
1613
1614There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1615refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1616
1617
1618 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1619
1620All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1621by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1622
1623For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1624``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1625Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1626
1627What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1628print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1629will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1630all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1631
1632confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1633 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1634 it is already running. Default is ON.
1635
1636editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1637 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1638 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1639 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1640 Default is ON.
1641
1642history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1643 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1644 or the value of the environment variable
1645 GDBHISTFILE.
1646
1647history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1648 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1649 HISTSIZE.
1650
1651history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1652 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1653 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1654
1655history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1656 history expansion will be performed on
1657 command line input. The default is OFF.
1658
1659radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1660 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1661 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1662
1663height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1664 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1665 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1666 variable TERM.
1667
1668width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1669 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1670 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1671 variable TERM.
1672
1673Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1674``set width'' instead.
1675
1676print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1677 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1678 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1679 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1680
1681print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1682 is OFF.
1683
1684print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1685 "raw" form if off.
1686
1687print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1688 like instructions.
1689
1690print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1691
1692
1693 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1694
1695The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1696new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1697are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1698window.
1699
1700
1701 * Support for Shared Libraries
1702
1703GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1704Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1705before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1706happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1707At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1708from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1709shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1710It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1711
1712sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1713 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1714 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1715
1716info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1717
1718
1719 * Watchpoints
1720
1721A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1722expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1723tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1724quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1725problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1726more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1727
1728watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1729
1730info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1731
1732delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1733disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1734enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1735
1736
1737 * C++ multiple inheritance
1738
1739When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1740for C++ programs.
1741
1742 * C++ exception handling
1743
1744Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1745ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1746the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1747handler's context).
1748
1749catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1750 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1751 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1752
1753info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1754 current stack frame.
1755
1756
1757 * Minor command changes
1758
1759The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1760command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1761is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1762
1763The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1764at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1765frames without printing.
1766
1767 * New directory command
1768
1769'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1770The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1771about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1772with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1773find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1774
1775 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1776
1777For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1778for more details.
1779
1780GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1781two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1782Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1783where the program that you are debugging will run.
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