Revert previous change. Not obvious.
[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 5.3:
5
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6* MIPS $fp behavior changed
7
8The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
9the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
10context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
11address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
12The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
13
299ffc64 14*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 15
b9d14705 16* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 17
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18Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
19the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
20arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
21powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 22
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23* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
24
25GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
26and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
27they expand.
28
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29The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
30invocations in expression, and shows the result.
31
32The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
33macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
34
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35Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
36information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
37your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
38information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
39
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40* Multi-arched targets.
41
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42DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
43DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 44NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 45National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
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46Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
47Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 48
cd9bfe15 49* New targets.
e33ce519 50
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51Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
52
e33ce519 53
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54* New native configurations
55
56Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 57SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 58MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 59UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 60
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61* OBSOLETE configurations and files
62
63Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
64been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
65configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
66permanently REMOVED.
67
92eb23c5 68Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 69OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 70IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 71Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 72Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 73Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
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74i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
75i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
76i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
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77HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
78 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
79 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 80I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 81
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82* OBSOLETE languages
83
84CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
85
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86* REMOVED configurations and files
87
88AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
89A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
90AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
91AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
92AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
93
94testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
95
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96* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
97
98This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
99commands. The default is 1024.
100
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101* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
102
103Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
104
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105* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
106
107These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
108to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
109from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 110
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111* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
112
113The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
114including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
115of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
116
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117*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
118
119* New targets.
120
121Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
122
123* Bug fixes
124
125gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
126mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
127Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
128
129gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
130dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
131Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
132
133Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
134Surprisingly enough, it works now.
135By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
136
137i386 hardware watchpoint support:
138avoid misses on second run for some targets.
139By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
140
37057839 141*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 142
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143* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
144
145This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
146really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
147In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
148target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
149This can be a significant performance improvement on some
150(notably embedded) targets.
151
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152* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
153
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154This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
155process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
156GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
157hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 158
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159* New command line option
160
161GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
162
163* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
164
165There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
166command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
167a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
168be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
169open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
170issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
171a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
172it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
173GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
174is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
175
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176* Changes in ARM configurations.
177
178Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
179configuration is fully multi-arch.
180
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181* New native configurations
182
fe419ffc 183ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 184x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 185AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 186Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 187
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188* New targets
189
190Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
191
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192* OBSOLETE configurations and files
193
194Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
195been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
196configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
197permanently REMOVED.
198
199AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
200A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
201AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
202AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
203AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
204
b4ceaee6 205testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 206
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207* REMOVED configurations and files
208
209TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 210WDC 65816 w65-*-*
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211PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
212PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
213PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 214Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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215Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
216 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 217SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 218Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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219Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
220ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 221Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 222
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223* Changes to command line processing
224
225The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
226for the inferior from gdb's command line.
227
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228* Changes to key bindings
229
230There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
231
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232*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
233
234Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
235
236Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
237corrupted.
238
239Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
240
241Numerous documentation fixes.
242
243Numerous testsuite fixes.
244
34f47bc4 245*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
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246
247* New native configurations
248
249Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
250x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 251MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
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252MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
253ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 254s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 255
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256* New targets
257
def90278 258Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 259CRIS cris-axis
55241689 260UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 261
17e78a56 262* OBSOLETE configurations and files
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263
264x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 265Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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266Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
267 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
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268TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
269WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 270Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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271PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
272PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
273PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 274SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
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275Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
276ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 277Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 278
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279stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
280kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
281
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282Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
283been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
284configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
285permanently REMOVED.
286
a196c81c 287* REMOVED configurations and files
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288
289Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
290Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
291Pyramid pyramid-*-*
292ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
293Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 294ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 295
6d6b80e5 296* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 297
6d6b80e5 298GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
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299sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
300present.
301
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302* Other news:
303
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304* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
305
306* The MI enabled by default.
307
308The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
309revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
310engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
311using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
312which is now deprecated.
313
314* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
315
316GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
317main features are supported:
318
319 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
320
321 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
322 extension;
323
324 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
325
326 - a Pascal expression parser.
327
328However, some important features are not yet supported.
329
330 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
331
332 - there are some problems with boolean types;
333
334 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
335 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
336
337 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
338
339 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
340
341* Changes in completion.
342
343Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
344to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
345users expect at the shell prompt.
346
347Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
348`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
349program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
350files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
351be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
352considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
353name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
354
355`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
356
357* New platform-independent commands:
358
359It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
360hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
361documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
362
363* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
364
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365Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
366revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
367many threads as your system allows you to have.
368
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369Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
370
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371Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
372multi-threaded programs though.
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373
374* Changes in MIPS configurations.
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375
376Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
377
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378GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
379debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
380supported.)
381
382* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
383
384Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
385breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
386implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
387put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
388and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
389registers.
390
391The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
392debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
393watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
394
395* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
396
397New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
398the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
399
400New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
401display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
402IDT.
403
404New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
405from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
406New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
407a given linear address.
408
409GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
410program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
411which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
412
413DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
414
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415It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
416
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417* Changes in documentation.
418
419All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
420Documentation License.
421
422Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
423manual.
424
425TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
426
427Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
428manual.
429
430The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
431documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
432hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
433
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434* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
435
436The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
437``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
438contents of this file.
439
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440* gdba.el deleted
441
442GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 443
9debab2f 444*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 445
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446* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
447
448Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
449programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
450displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
451greater level of detail.
452
453* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
454
455It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
456bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
457on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
458written.
459
460* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
461
462The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
463necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
464machines ``out of the box''.
465
466The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
467possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
468signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
469would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
470interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
471
472It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
473standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
474even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
475and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
476terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
477
478The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
479enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
480also works.
481
482DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
483GDB.
484
485It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
486directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
487times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
488breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
489
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490* New native configurations
491
492ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 493PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 494
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495* New targets
496
96baa820 497Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
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498x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
499PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
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500TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
501
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502* OBSOLETE configurations
503
504Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
505Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 506Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 507ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 508Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 509
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510Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
511but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
512these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
513be permanently REMOVED.
514
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515* Gould support removed
516
517Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
518
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519* New features for SVR4
520
521On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
522without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
523load symbols from the running process's executable file.
524
525* Many C++ enhancements
526
527C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
528in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
529
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530* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
531
532A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
533sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
534with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
535``|<program> <args>'' vis:
536
537 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
538 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
539
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540* MIPS 64 remote protocol
541
542A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
543expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
544instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
545
546The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
547added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
548
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549* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
550
551The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
552``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
553include ``set remote P-packet''.
554
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555* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
556
557The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
558accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
559``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
560
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561* ``apropos'' command added.
562
563The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
564documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
565try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
566
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567* New MI interface
568
569A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
570interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
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571process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
572"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
573enabled by configuring with:
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574
575 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
576
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577*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
578
579* New native configurations
580
581HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
582HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 583M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
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584
585* New targets
586
587Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
588Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
589Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
590
591* OBSOLETE configurations
592
593Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
594
595Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
596but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
597these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
598be permanently REMOVED.
599
600* ANSI/ISO C
601
602As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
603buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
604containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
605use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
606available. If this is not true, please report the affected
607configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
608information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
609already.
610
611* Readline 2.2
612
613GDB now uses readline 2.2.
614
615* set extension-language
616
617You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
618languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
619you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
620 set extension-language .c c++
621The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
622and their associated languages.
623
624* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
625
626When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
627you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
628PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
629
630 set processor NAME
631
632sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
633following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
634
635 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
636 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
637 403 IBM PowerPC 403
638 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
639 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
640 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
641 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
642 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
643 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
644 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
645 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
646
647At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
648special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
649registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
650only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
651
652* HP-UX support
653
654Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
655more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
656library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
657support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
658for xdb and dbx commands.
659
660* Catchpoints
661
662HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
663generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
664to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
665
666This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
667argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
668output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
669
670* Debugging across forks
671
672On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
673in the inferior.
674
675* TUI
676
677HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
678it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
679configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
680
681* GDB remote protocol additions
682
683A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
684Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
685fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
686allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
687
688For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
689full 64-bit address. The command
690
691 set remoteaddresssize 32
692
693can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
694the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
695will be discarded.
696
697In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
698command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
699
700 maint packet heythere
701
702sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
703disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
704time.
705
706The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
707target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
708downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
709
710* Tracing can collect general expressions
711
712You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
713further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
714doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
715
716* mask-address variable for Mips
717
718For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
719a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
720of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
721
722* Higher serial baud rates
723
724GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
725230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
726to achieve all of these rates.)
727
728* i960 simulator
729
730The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
731builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
732
733
734*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
735
736* New native configurations
737
738Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
739Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
740Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
741PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
742PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
743Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
744Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
745
746* New targets
747
748Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
749Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
750Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
751Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
752MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
753MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
754MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
755Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
756Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
757Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
758NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
759
760* New debugging protocols
761
762ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
763M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
764DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
765PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
766PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
767Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
768
769* DWARF 2
770
771All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
772format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
773information.
774
775* Java frontend
776
777GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
778only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
779
780* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
781
782For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
783loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
784locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
785
786* Live range splitting
787
788GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
789range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
790more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
791
792* Hurd support
793
794GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
795updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
796
797* ARM Thumb support
798
799GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
800instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
801instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
802accordingly.
803
804* MIPS16 support
805
806GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
807instruction set.
808
809* Overlay support
810
811GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
812linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
813will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
814control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
815additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
816in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
817
818* info symbol
819
820The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
821the symbol at the specified address.
822
823* Trace support
824
825The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
826asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
827extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
828includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
829file tracepoint.c for more details.
830
831* MIPS simulator
832
833Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
834by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
835of most MIPS variants.
836
837* Sparc simulator
838
839Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
840by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
841Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
842
843* set architecture
844
845For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
846basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
847architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
848the possible architectures.
849
850*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
851
852* New native configurations
853
854Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
855M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
856PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
857PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
858PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
859RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
860
861* New targets
862
863ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
864I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
865MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
866MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
867PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
868Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
869Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
870
871* PowerPC simulator
872
873The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
874contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
875PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
876basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
877performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
878
879* Solaris 2.5
880
881GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
882
883* Windows 95/NT native
884
885GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
886To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
887which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
888Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
889ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
890
891* dont-repeat command
892
893If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
894command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
895useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
896extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
897
898* Send break instead of ^C
899
900The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
901rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
902GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
903
904* Remote protocol timeout
905
906The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
907that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
908to read from the target. The default value is 2.
909
910* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
911
912By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
913loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
914stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
915when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
916in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
917
918Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
919/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
920automatically on hpux10.
921
922* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
923
924Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
925
926* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
927
928When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
929may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
930the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
931every character. The default value is 1050.
932
933* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
934
935If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
936a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
937replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
938details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
939remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
940to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
941
942* Speedups for remote debugging
943
944GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
945the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
946and more efficient S-record downloading.
947
948* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
949
950GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
951Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
952
953*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
954
955* Psymtabs for XCOFF
956
957The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
958can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
959
960* Remote targets use caching
961
962Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
963remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
964it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
965debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
966off' turns the the data cache off.
967
968* Remote targets may have threads
969
970The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
971in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
972gdb/remote.c for details.
973
974* NetROM support
975
976If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
977support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
978acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
979write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
980support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
981another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
982sequence is something like
983
984 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
985 load <prog>
986 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
987
988* Macintosh host
989
990GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
991may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
992it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
993available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
994device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
995directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
996scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
997mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
998
999* Autoconf
1000
1001GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1002but does simplify configuration and building.
1003
1004* hpux10
1005
1006GDB now supports hpux10.
1007
1008*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1009
1010* New native configurations
1011
1012x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1013x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1014NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1015Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1016
1017* New targets
1018
1019A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1020HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1021CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1022PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1023WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1024
1025* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1026
1027GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1028possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1029filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1030the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1031if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1032
1033* Arguments to user-defined commands
1034
1035User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1036Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1037trivial example:
1038define adder
1039 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1040
1041To execute the command use:
1042adder 1 2 3
1043
1044Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1045Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1046use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1047
1048* New `if' and `while' commands
1049
1050This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1051commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1052expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1053execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1054terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1055`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1056if the expression is zero.
1057
1058* Fortran source language mode
1059
1060GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1061Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1062variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1063with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1064Fortran compilers.
1065
1066* Better HPUX support
1067
1068Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1069running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1070processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1071for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1072that behavior do the following before running the program:
1073
1074 adb -w a.out
1075 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1076 control-d
1077
1078This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1079To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1080
1081 adb -w a.out
1082 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1083 control-d
1084
1085You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1086the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1087external linkage.
1088
1089GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1090HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1091
1092* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1093
1094You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1095commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1096current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1097"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1098associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1099configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1100
1101* New DOS host serial code
1102
1103This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1104no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1105a PC's serial port.
1106
1107*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1108
1109* New "complete" command
1110
1111This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1112were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1113
1114* Trailing space optional in prompt
1115
1116"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1117allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1118
1119* Breakpoint hit counts
1120
1121"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1122has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1123can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1124to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1125less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1126that breakpoint.
1127
1128* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1129
1130"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1131an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1132arrays actually contain only short strings.
1133
1134* Shared library breakpoints
1135
1136In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1137breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1138
1139* Hardware watchpoints
1140
1141There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1142targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1143
55241689 1144Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1145
1146* Annotations
1147
1148Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1149and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1150
1151* Improved Irix 5 support
1152
1153GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1154
1155* Improved HPPA support
1156
1157GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1158
1159* New native configurations
1160
1161Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1162HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1163Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1164RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1165
1166* New targets
1167
1168OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1169MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1170Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1171
1172* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1173
1174There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1175This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1176
1177* Fixes
1178
1179As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1180and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1181
1182*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1183
1184* Irix 5 is now supported
1185
1186* HPPA support
1187
1188GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1189to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1190GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1191of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1192can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1193
1194
1195*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1196
1197* User visible changes:
1198
1199* Remote Debugging
1200
1201The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1202target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1203debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1204integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1205debugging info for the mips target).
1206
1207* DEC Alpha native support
1208
1209GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1210debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1211work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1212Alpha-specific notes.
1213
1214* Preliminary thread implementation
1215
1216GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1217
1218* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1219
1220This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1221to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1222for details).
1223
1224* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1225
1226This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1227mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1228call methods, ...etc.
1229
1230*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1231
1232 * User visible changes:
1233
1234Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1235supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1236other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1237somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1238
1239Filename completion now works.
1240
1241When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1242arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1243addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1244
1245All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1246vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1247should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1248your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1249to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1250
1251 * DEC alpha support
1252
1253This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1254cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1255
1256
1257*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1258
1259 * Testsuite
1260
1261This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1262The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1263via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1264
1265 * C++ demangling
1266
1267'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1268emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1269Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1270disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1271use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1272
1273 * Simulators
1274
1275GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1276So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1277Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1278
1279 * New targets supported
1280
1281H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1282H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1283SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1284Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1285IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1286
1287Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1288version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1289GO32 memory extender.
1290
1291 * New remote protocols
1292
1293MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1294
1295 * New source languages supported
1296
1297This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1298used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1299into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1300
1301
1302*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1303
1304 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1305
1306GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1307version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1308University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1309compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1310format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1311(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1312
1313Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1314
1315 * Faster and better demangling
1316
1317We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1318demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1319character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1320only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1321This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1322increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1323symbol lookups.
1324
1325`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1326from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1327compiler does not actually implement.
1328
1329 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1330
1331In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1332inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1333recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1334very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1335The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1336circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1337fix.
1338
1339The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1340release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1341
1342 * Improved configure script
1343
1344The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1345you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1346host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1347done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1348
1349We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1350version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1351`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1352The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1353only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1354We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1355
1356 * Documentation improvements
1357
1358There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1359produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1360before submitting changes.
1361
1362The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1363M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1364`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1365you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1366a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1367
1368*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1369We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1370been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1371or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1372`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1373around this problem.
1374
1375 * New features
1376
1377GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1378the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1379`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1380the target program.
1381
1382The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1383how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1384
1385 * New native hosts supported
1386
1387HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1388386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1389
1390 * New targets supported
1391
1392AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1393
1394 * New file formats supported
1395
1396BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1397HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1398
1399 * Major bug fixes
1400
1401Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1402
1403We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1404printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1405
1406We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1407for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1408release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1409
1410You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1411will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1412
1413We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1414for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1415especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1416libraries.
1417
1418The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1419information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1420command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1421any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1422when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1423
1424 * Internal improvements
1425
1426GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1427debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1428
1429GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1430Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1431symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1432contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1433shared code that handles any of them.
1434
1435 * New command line options
1436
1437We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1438
1439 * Mmalloc licensing
1440
1441The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1442General Public License.
1443
1444*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1445
1446 * Host/native/target split
1447
1448GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1449hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1450target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1451local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1452ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1453
1454The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1455GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1456is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1457code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1458any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1459built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1460handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1461
1462GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1463It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1464plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1465
1466 * New hosts supported
1467
1468HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1469386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1470386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1471
1472 * New targets supported
1473
1474Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
147568030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1476
1477 * New native hosts supported
1478
1479386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1480 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1481386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1482
1483 * New file formats supported
1484
1485BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1486supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1487format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1488
1489 * New commands
1490
1491`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1492`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1493These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1494
1495`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1496
1497You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1498scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1499prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1500executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1501
1502 * C++ improvements
1503
1504We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1505info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1506symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1507
1508Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1509
1510 * Major bug fixes
1511
1512The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1513fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1514by the compiler.
1515
1516We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1517support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1518
1519John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1520slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1521that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1522purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1523the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1524mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1525
1526Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1527about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1528completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1529we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1530
1531 * AMD 29k support
1532
1533A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1534specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1535calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1536usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1537in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1538
1539We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1540Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1541of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1542resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1543
1544 * Remote interfaces
1545
1546We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1547with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1548message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1549This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1550needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1551breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1552each instruction being stepped through.
1553
1554The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1555registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1556
1557There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1558find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1559Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1560processor with a serial port.
1561
1562 * Configuration
1563
1564Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1565`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1566supported, and what files each one uses.
1567
1568 * Library changes
1569
1570There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1571disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1572Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1573disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1574
1575The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1576Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1577can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1578grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1579
1580 * Documentation
1581
1582The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1583reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1584as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1585encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1586system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1587bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1588
1589And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1590
1591
1592*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1593
1594 * Better support for C++ function names
1595
1596GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1597names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1598(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1599single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1600Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1601
1602GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1603the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1604You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1605lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1606for the list of formats.
1607
1608 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1609
1610Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1611C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1612directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1613can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1614usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1615about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1616this problem.)
1617
1618 * New 'maintenance' command
1619
1620All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1621the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1622can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1623
1624 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1625 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1626 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1627 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1628 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1629 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1630
1631The following commands are new:
1632
1633 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1634 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1635 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1636
1637 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1638
1639We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1640(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1641be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1642read after argv processing.
1643
1644 * New hosts supported
1645
1646Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1647
55241689 1648GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
1649
1650We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1651is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1652for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1653masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1654fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1655It costs extra.
1656
1657 * New targets supported
1658
1659Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1660
1661 * More smarts about finding #include files
1662
1663GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1664all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1665greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1666especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1667the one that contains your sources.
1668
1669We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1670breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1671try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1672
1673 * Interesting infernals change
1674
1675GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1676section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1677target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1678stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1679
1680 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1681
1682There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1683 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1684 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1685
1686See the ChangeLog for details.
1687
1688*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1689
1690 * New machines supported (host and target)
1691
1692IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1693
1694SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1695
1696 * New malloc package
1697
1698GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1699Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1700capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1701This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1702pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1703more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1704
1705 * info proc
1706
1707The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1708'help info proc' for details.
1709
1710 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1711
1712The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1713Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1714possible.
1715
1716 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1717
1718Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1719support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1720conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1721environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1722that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1723in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1724
1725 * Cross byte order fixes
1726
1727Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1728targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1729
1730 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1731
1732If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1733system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1734`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1735program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1736called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1737Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1738and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1739the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1740option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1741starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1742
1743You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1744the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1745information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1746slower, but makes future operations faster.
1747
1748The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1749build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1750A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1751use is:
1752
1753 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1754
1755The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1756It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1757shared across multiple host platforms.
1758
1759 * longjmp() handling
1760
1761GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1762siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1763all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1764platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1765
1766 * Solaris 2.0
1767
1768Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1769this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1770reading symbols.
1771
1772 * Bug fixes
1773
1774As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1775People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1776crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1777
1778*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1779
1780 * New machines supported (host and target)
1781
1782SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1783 (except core files)
1784BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1785Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1786
1787 * New machines supported (target)
1788
1789AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1790
1791 * C++ support
1792
1793GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1794The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1795per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1796
1797GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1798`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1799extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1800good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1801will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1802released.
1803
1804 * New features for SVR4
1805
1806GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1807shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1808only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1809
1810The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1811on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1812it prints the address mappings of the process.
1813
1814If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1815bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1816
1817 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1818
1819Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1820now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1821skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1822make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1823same code linked statically.
1824
1825 * New Getopt
1826
1827GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1828version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1829continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1830Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1831added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1832future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1833
1834 * Bugs fixed
1835
1836The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1837Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1838See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1839
1840
1841*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1842
1843 * New machines supported (host and target)
1844
1845Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1846NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1847Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1848
1849 * Almost SCO Unix support
1850
1851We had hoped to support:
1852SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1853(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1854that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1855about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1856
1857 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1858
1859GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1860debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1861is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1862send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1863reqired (if any).
1864
1865 * New Readline
1866
1867GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1868is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1869required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1870
1871 * Bugs fixed
1872
1873The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1874Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1875See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1876
1877 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1878
1879GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1880supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1881symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1882
1883Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1884mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1885debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1886mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1887version 2.
1888
1889Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1890really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1891line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1892variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1893situation somewhat.
1894
1895When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1896However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1897methods.
1898
1899We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1900DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1901encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1902
1903
1904*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1905
1906 * Improved configuration
1907
1908Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1909Porting BFD is simpler.
1910
1911 * Stepping improved
1912
1913The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1914of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1915in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1916function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1917
1918 * Bug fixing
1919
1920Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1921
1922 * New host supported (not target)
1923
1924Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1925
1926
1927*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1928
1929 * Multiple source language support
1930
1931GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1932It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1933and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1934language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1935You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1936`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1937
1938 * GDB and Modula-2
1939
1940GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1941currently under development at the State University of New York at
1942Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1943continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1944
1945Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1946debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1947symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1948
1949There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1950in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1951
1952 * set write on/off
1953
1954GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1955a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1956the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1957by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1958effect immediately.
1959
1960 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1961
1962When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1963shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1964The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1965examining core files.
1966
1967 * set listsize
1968
1969You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1970The default is 10.
1971
1972 * New machines supported (host and target)
1973
1974SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1975Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1976Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1977
1978 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1979
1980IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1981
1982 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1983
1984AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1985AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1986Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1987
1988 * New remote interfaces
1989
1990AMD 29000 Adapt
1991AMD 29000 Minimon
1992
1993
1994*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1995
1996 * New Facilities
1997
1998Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1999
2000Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2001target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2002is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2003remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2004remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2005also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2006using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2007stub on the target system.
2008
2009New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2010
2011GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2012library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2013object file types such as a.out and coff.
2014
2015There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2016refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2017
2018
2019 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2020
2021All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2022by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2023
2024For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2025``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2026Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2027
2028What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2029print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2030will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2031all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2032
2033confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2034 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2035 it is already running. Default is ON.
2036
2037editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2038 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2039 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2040 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2041 Default is ON.
2042
2043history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2044 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2045 or the value of the environment variable
2046 GDBHISTFILE.
2047
2048history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2049 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2050 HISTSIZE.
2051
2052history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2053 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2054 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2055
2056history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2057 history expansion will be performed on
2058 command line input. The default is OFF.
2059
2060radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2061 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2062 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2063
2064height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2065 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2066 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2067 variable TERM.
2068
2069width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2070 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2071 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2072 variable TERM.
2073
2074Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2075``set width'' instead.
2076
2077print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2078 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2079 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2080 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2081
2082print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2083 is OFF.
2084
2085print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2086 "raw" form if off.
2087
2088print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2089 like instructions.
2090
2091print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2092
2093
2094 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2095
2096The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2097new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2098are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2099window.
2100
2101
2102 * Support for Shared Libraries
2103
2104GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2105Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2106before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2107happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2108At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2109from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2110shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2111It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2112
2113sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2114 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2115 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2116
2117info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2118
2119
2120 * Watchpoints
2121
2122A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2123expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2124tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2125quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2126problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2127more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2128
2129watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2130
2131info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2132
2133delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2134disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2135enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2136
2137
2138 * C++ multiple inheritance
2139
2140When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2141for C++ programs.
2142
2143 * C++ exception handling
2144
2145Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2146ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2147the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2148handler's context).
2149
2150catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2151 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2152 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2153
2154info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2155 current stack frame.
2156
2157
2158 * Minor command changes
2159
2160The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2161command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2162is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2163
2164The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2165at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2166frames without printing.
2167
2168 * New directory command
2169
2170'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2171The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2172about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2173with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2174find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2175
2176 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2177
2178For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2179for more details.
2180
2181GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2182two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2183Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2184where the program that you are debugging will run.
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