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[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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c906108c
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
75feb17d
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.8
5
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6* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
7now complete on file names.
8
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9* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
10completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
11For instance, consider:
12
13 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
14 # struct example variable;
15 (gdb) p variable.
16
17If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
18completions will be "f1" and "f2".
19
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20* New remote packets
21
22qSearch:memory:
23 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
24
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25* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
26
27 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
28 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
29 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
30
d14508fe
DE
31* The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
32source+assembly.
33
c055b101 34* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 35DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
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36
37* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
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38and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
39`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 40
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41* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
42with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
43
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44* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
45
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46* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
47which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
48
1fddbabb 49* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 50list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 51
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52* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
53conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
54have also been fixed.
55
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56* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
57
58 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
59 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
60
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61 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
62 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
63 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
64
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65* New commands
66
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67find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
68 val1 [, val2, ...]
69 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
70
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71set print symbol-loading
72show print symbol-loading
73 Control printing of symbol loading messages.
74
e0a3ce09 75set debug timestamp
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76show debug timestamp
77 Display timestamps with GDB debugging output.
78
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79set exec-wrapper
80show exec-wrapper
81unset exec-wrapper
82 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 83
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84set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
85show multiple-symbols
86 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
87 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
88 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
89
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90set breakpoint always-inserted
91show breakpoint always-inserted
92 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
93 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
94 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
95
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96set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
97show arm fallback-mode
98set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
99show arm force-mode
100 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
101 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
102 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
103 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
104
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105set disable-randomization
106show disable-randomization
107 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
108 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
109 multiple debugging sessions.
110
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111* New targets
112
113x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
114
75feb17d 115*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 116
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117* New native configurations
118
119NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 120Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
121
122* New targets
123
124NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 125Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 126
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PA
127* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
128
129 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
130 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
131 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
132 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
133
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134* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
135(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
136
fe6fbf8b 137* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 138is resolved.
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139
140* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
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141including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
142and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 143
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144* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
145accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
146more than one contiguous range of addresses.
147
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148* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
149
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150* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
151registers on PowerPC targets.
152
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153* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
154targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
155
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156* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
157commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
158
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159* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
160extended-remote mode.
161
24a836bd 162* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
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163The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
164error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
165The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 166
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167* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
168building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
169target architectures.
170
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171* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
172Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
173now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
174stored in two consecutive float registers.
175
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176* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
177breakpoints now.
178
b93b6ca7 179* Improved support for debugging Ada
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180Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
181include:
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182 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
183 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
184 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
185 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
186 of an assignment
187 - Improved command completion in Ada
188 - Several bug fixes
189
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190* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
191process.
192
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193* New commands
194
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195set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
196show print frame-arguments
197 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
198 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
199
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200remote put
201remote get
202remote delete
203 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
204
205* New MI commands
206
207-target-file-put
208-target-file-get
209-target-file-delete
210 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
211
212* New remote packets
213
214vFile:open:
215vFile:close:
216vFile:pread:
217vFile:pwrite:
218vFile:unlink:
219 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 220
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221vAttach
222 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
223 mode.
224
225vRun
226 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
227
8d5f9c6f 228*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 229
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230* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
231bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
232Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
233
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UW
234* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
235symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
236-Bsymbolic linker option.
237
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238* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
239recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
240is not supported.
241
6dd09645
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242* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
243frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
244
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245* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
24632-bit or 64-bit register values.
247
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248* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
249
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DJ
250* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
251target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
252a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
253
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254* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
255automatically displayed as character or string data.
256
257* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
258arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
259as strings.
e1f48ead 260
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261* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
262for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 263only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 264
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265* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
266iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 267
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PA
268* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
269ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
270has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
271
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272* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
273
0ca420ce
UW
274* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
275
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276* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
277layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
278segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
279
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280* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
281immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
282
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283* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
284"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
285packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
286where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
287Windows and SymbianOS).
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288
289* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
290(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
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291
292* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
293according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 294
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295* New commands
296
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297set remoteflow
298show remoteflow
299 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
300 when debugging using remote targets.
301
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DJ
302set mem inaccessible-by-default
303show mem inaccessible-by-default
304 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
305 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
306 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
307 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
308 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
309
310set breakpoint auto-hw
311show breakpoint auto-hw
312 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
313 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
314 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
315 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
316 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
317 including "next" and "finish".
318
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319catch exception
320catch exception unhandled
321 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
322
323catch assert
324 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
325
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326set sysroot
327show sysroot
328 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
329 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
330 an alias to "set sysroot".
331
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332info spu
333 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
334 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
335 architecture.
336
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337* New native configurations
338
339OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
340
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341set tdesc filename
342unset tdesc filename
343show tdesc filename
344 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
345 not query the target for its built-in description.
346
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347* New targets
348
54fe9172 349OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 350MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 351Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 352
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353* New remote packets
354
355QPassSignals:
356 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
357 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
358
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359qXfer:features:read:
360 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
361 features.
6dd09645 362
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363qXfer:spu:read:
364qXfer:spu:write:
365 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
366 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
367
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368qXfer:libraries:read:
369 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
370 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
371 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
372 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
373
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374* Removed targets
375
376Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
377
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378alpha*-*-osf1*
379alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 380d10v-*-*
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381hppa*-*-hiux*
382i[34567]86-ncr-*
383i[34567]86-*-dgux*
384i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
385i[34567]86-*-netware*
386i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
387i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
388i[34567]86-*-sco*
389i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
390i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
391i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
392i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
393i[34567]86-*-unixware*
394i[34567]86-*-sysv*
395i[34567]86-*-isc*
396m68*-cisco*-*
397m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 398mips*-*-pe
483367ee 399rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 400sh*-*-pe
483367ee 401
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402* Other removed features
403
404target abug
405target cpu32bug
406target est
407target rom68k
408
409 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
410
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411target hms
412target e7000
413target sh3
414target sh3e
415
416 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
417 H8/300.
418
419target ocd
420
421 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
422 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
423 interfaces.
424
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425DWARF 1 support
426
427 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
428 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
429
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DJ
430Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
431
432 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
433 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
434 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
435 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
436
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DJ
437MIPS ".pdr" sections
438
439 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
440 in debugging information.
441
442Scheme support
443
444 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
445 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
446
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447set mips stack-arg-size
448set mips saved-gpreg-size
449
450 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
451
6dd09645 452*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 453
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454* New targets
455
456Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 457Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 458
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DJ
459* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
460(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
461running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
462
463* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
464Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
465supported.
466
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467* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
468broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
469
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470* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
471stub provides the required support.
472
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473* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
474longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
475
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476* New commands
477
478set substitute-path
479unset substitute-path
480show substitute-path
481 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
482 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
483 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
484 between compilation and debugging.
485
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486set trace-commands
487show trace-commands
488 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
489 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
490 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
491
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492* REMOVED features
493
494The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
495
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496Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
497an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
498
3d00d119
DJ
499The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
500
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501* New remote packets
502
503qSupported:
504 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
505 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
506 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
507 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
508 target.
509
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510qXfer:auxv:read:
511 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
512 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
513
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514qXfer:memory-map:read:
515 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
516 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
517
518vFlashErase:
519vFlashWrite:
520vFlashDone:
521 Erase and program a flash memory device.
522
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523* Removed remote packets
524
525qPart:auxv:read:
526 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
527 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
528
e374b601 529*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 530
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MS
531* New targets
532
533Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
534
535Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
536
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537* New commands
538
539init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
540 only if it doesn't already have a value.
541
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542The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
543
544checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
545
546restart <n> Return the program state to a
547 previously saved state.
548
549info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
550
551delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
552
553set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
554 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
555
556info forks List forks of the user program that
557 are available to be debugged.
558
559fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
560 forks of the user program that are
561 available to be debugged.
562
563delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
564 that are available to be debugged (and
565 kill the forked process).
566
567detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
568 that are available to be debugged (and
569 allow the process to continue).
570
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571* New architecture
572
573Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
574
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575* Improved Windows host support
576
577GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
578native console support, and remote communications using either
579network sockets or serial ports.
580
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581* Improved Modula-2 language support
582
583GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
584basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
585pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
586printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
587written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
588GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
589
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590* REMOVED features
591
592The ARM rdi-share module.
593
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DJ
594The Netware NLM debug server.
595
53e5f3cf 596*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 597
e0ecbda1
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598* New native configurations
599
02a677ac 600OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
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601OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
602
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603* New targets
604
605Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
606
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607* New command line options
608
609--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
610--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
611 the child (debugged) program exited with.
612--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
613 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
614 specified multiple times and in conjunction
615 with the --command (-x) option.
616
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617* Deprecated commands removed
618
619The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
620removed:
621
622 Command Replacement
623 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
624 othernames set arm disassembler
625 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
626 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
627 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
628 regs info registers
629
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630* New BSD user-level threads support
631
632It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
633library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
634configurations are:
635
636FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
637FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
638OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
639
640Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
641are not yet supported.
642
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643* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
644(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
645
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646* REMOVED configurations and files
647
648VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 649Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 650National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 651
31e35378
JB
652* New "set print array-indexes" command
653
654After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
655when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
656behavior.
657
e85e5c83
MK
658* VAX floating point support
659
660GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
661
d91e9901
AS
662* User-defined command support
663
664In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
665to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
666section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
667
f2cb65ca
MC
668*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
669
f47b1503
AS
670* New command line option
671
672GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
673debugging.
674
f2cb65ca
MC
675* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
676
677GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
678information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
679by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
680proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
681to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 682
d08c0230
AC
683* Internationalization
684
685When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
686internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
687continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
688
117ea3cf
PH
689* Ada
690
691Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
692implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
693into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
694
d08c0230
AC
695* New native configurations
696
697GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
698
699* Remote 'p' packet
700
701GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
702packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
703
704* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
705
706GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
707The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
708features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
709i386 application).
710
711GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
712compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
713continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
714configurations:
715
716hppa-*-hpux
717ia64-*-aix
718mips-*-irix*
719*-*-lynx
720mips-*-linux-gnu
721sds protocol
722xdr protocol
723powerpc bdm protocol
724
725Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
726made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
727
728* OBSOLETE configurations and files
729
730Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
731been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
732configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
733permanently REMOVED.
734
735h8300-*-*
736mcore-*-*
737mn10300-*-*
738ns32k-*-*
739sh64-*-*
740v850-*-*
741
ebb7c577
AC
742*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
743
744* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
745
746When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
747heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
748been fixed.
749
750* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
751
752When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
753fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
754IRIX long double values).
755
756* VAX and "next"
757
758A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
759command. This problem has been fixed.
760
860660cb 761*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 762
0dea2468
AC
763* Fix for ``many threads''
764
765On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
766rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
767error message:
768
769 ptrace: No such process.
770 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
771
772This problem has been fixed.
773
2c07db7a
AC
774* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
775
776Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
777GDB to dump core).
778
c23968a2
JB
779* New ``start'' command.
780
781This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
782
71009278
MK
783* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
784
785Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
786live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
787platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
788
789FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
790FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
791NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
792NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
793NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
794OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
795OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
796OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
797OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
798
3c0b7db2
AC
799* Signal trampoline code overhauled
800
801Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
802These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
803of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
804call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
805signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
806
73cc75f3
AC
807Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
808features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
809include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 810
7243600a
BF
811* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
812
6f606e1c
MK
813* New native configurations
814
97dc871c 815GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 816OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
817OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
818OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 819OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 820NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 821OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 822
a1b461bf
AC
823* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
824
825GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
826The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
827including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
828migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
829compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
830work, was also included.
831
832GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
833module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
834
835h8300-*-*
836mcore-*-*
837mn10300-*-*
838ns32k-*-*
839sh64-*-*
840v850-*-*
841xstormy16-*-*
842
843Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
844made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
845
3c7012f5
AC
846* REMOVED configurations and files
847
848Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
849Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
850Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
851Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
852Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
853AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
854Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
855decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
856riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
857sonymips mips-sony-*
858sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
859
e5fe55f7
AC
860*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
861
862* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
863
864The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
865GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
866command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
867program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
868with GDB".
869
870* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
871
872Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
873libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
874cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
875GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
876shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
877the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
878are created.
879
880Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
881
882* Fixed ISO-C build problems
883
884The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
885non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
886compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
887
888* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
889
890Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
891wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
892
893* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
894
895The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
896permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
897systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
898
899* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
900
901Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
902has been updated to use constant array sizes.
903
904* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
905
906GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
907its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
908panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
909
910* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
911
912When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
913by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
914not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
915
faae5abe 916*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 917
9175c9a3
MC
918* Removed --with-mmalloc
919
920Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
921conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
922
3cc87ec0
MK
923* Changes in AMD64 configurations
924
925The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
926the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
927and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
928you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
929
f0424ef6
MK
930* Revised SPARC target
931
932The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
933FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
934support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
935from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
936(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 937
59659be2
ILT
938* New C++ demangler
939
940GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
941names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
942with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
943programs.
944
9e08b29b
DJ
945* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
946
947GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
948arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
949encountered these.
950
8dfe8985
DC
951* C++ nested types and namespaces
952
953GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
954improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
955is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
956Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
957namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
958"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
959frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
960if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
961GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
962
cced5e27
MK
963* New native configurations
964
965NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 966OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 967OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
968OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
969OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 970
b4b4b794
KI
971* New debugging protocols
972
973M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
974
7989c619
AC
975* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
976
977The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
978and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
979tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
980
5994185b
AC
981* OBSOLETE configurations and files
982
983Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
984been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
985configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
986permanently REMOVED.
987
988Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
989Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
990Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
991Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
992Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
993AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
994Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
995decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
996riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
997sonymips mips-sony-*
998sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 999
0ddabb4c
AC
1000* REMOVED configurations and files
1001
1002SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1003SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
1004Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1005Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1006H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1007HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1008HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1009HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1010PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 1011386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
1012Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1013 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1014 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
1015SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1016SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
1017Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1018Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 1019
c7f1390e
DJ
1020*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1021
1fe43d45
AC
1022* Objective-C
1023
1024Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1025integrated into GDB.
1026
e6beb428
AC
1027* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1028
1029DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1030information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1031By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1032backtraces.
1033
1034The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1035have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1036DWARF 2 CFI support.
1037
1038* Hosted file I/O.
1039
1040GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1041file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1042remote protocol documentation for details.
1043
1044* All targets using the new architecture framework.
1045
1046All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1047architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1048to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1049ppc32 on ppc64).
1050
1051* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1052
1053GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1054per-thread variables.
1055
1056* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1057
1058GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1059GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1060
1061* Separate debug info.
1062
1063GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1064automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1065of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1066system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1067and optional debug files.
1068
1069* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1070
1071DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1072describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1073debugger.
1074
1075GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1076for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1077
1078* Java
1079
1080A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1081Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1082considered "useable".
1083
85f8f974
DJ
1084* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1085
1086The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1087commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1088kernel.
1089
0fac0b41
DJ
1090* GDB supports logging output to a file
1091
1092There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1093used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 1094
6ad8ae5c
DJ
1095* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1096
1097The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1098disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1099command.
1100
e286caf2 1101* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
1102
1103The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1104registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1105
d28f9cdf
DJ
1106* Profiling support
1107
1108A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1109be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1110session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1111"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1112data, for more informative profiling results.
1113
da0f9dcd
AC
1114* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1115
1116The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1117option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 1118"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
1119
1120Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1121removed.
1122
fb9b6b35
JJ
1123Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1124Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1125Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1126 in a subsequent -var-update.
1127
954a4db8
MK
1128* New native configurations.
1129
1130FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1131
6760f9e6
JB
1132* Multi-arched targets.
1133
b4263afa 1134HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 1135Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 1136
1b831c93
AC
1137* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1138
1139Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1140been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1141configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1142permanently REMOVED.
1143
8b0e5691 1144Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 1145Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 1146H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
1147HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1148HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1149HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 1150PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
1151Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1152 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1153 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
1154Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1155Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 1156
5835abe7
NC
1157* REMOVED configurations and files
1158
1159V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
1160Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1161IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1162i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1163i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1164i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1165HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1166 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1167 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1168Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1169Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1170Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1171OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1172I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 1173
a094c6fb
AC
1174* MIPS $fp behavior changed
1175
1176The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1177the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1178context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1179address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1180The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1181
299ffc64 1182*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 1183
46248966
AC
1184* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1185
1186When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1187`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1188in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1189library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1190shared libs like mad''.
1191
b9d14705 1192* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 1193
b9d14705
DJ
1194Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1195the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1196arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1197powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 1198
e0e9281e
JB
1199* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1200
1201GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1202and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1203they expand.
1204
dd73b9bb
AC
1205The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1206invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1207
1208The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1209macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1210
e0e9281e
JB
1211Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1212information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1213your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1214information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1215
2250ee0c
CV
1216* Multi-arched targets.
1217
6e3ba3b8
JT
1218DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1219DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 1220NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 1221National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
1222Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1223Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 1224
cd9bfe15 1225* New targets.
e33ce519 1226
456f8b9d
DB
1227Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1228
e33ce519 1229
da8ca43d
JT
1230* New native configurations
1231
1232Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 1233SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 1234MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 1235UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 1236
cd9bfe15
AC
1237* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1238
1239Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1240been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1241configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1242permanently REMOVED.
1243
92eb23c5 1244Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 1245OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 1246IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 1247Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 1248Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 1249Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
1250i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1251i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1252i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
1253HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1254 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1255 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 1256I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 1257
db034ac5
AC
1258* OBSOLETE languages
1259
1260CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1261
cd9bfe15
AC
1262* REMOVED configurations and files
1263
1264AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1265A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1266AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1267AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1268AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1269
1270testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1271
20f01a46
DH
1272* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1273
1274This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1275commands. The default is 1024.
1276
a5941fbf
MK
1277* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1278
1279Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1280
89743e04
MS
1281* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1282
1283These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1284to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1285from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 1286
9fb14e79
JB
1287* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1288
1289The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1290including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1291of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1292
2037aebb
AC
1293*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1294
1295* New targets.
1296
1297Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
1298
1299* Bug fixes
1300
1301gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1302mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1303Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1304
1305gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1306dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1307Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1308
1309Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1310Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1311By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1312
1313i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1314avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1315By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1316
37057839 1317*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 1318
1a703748
MS
1319* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1320
1321This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1322really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1323In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1324target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1325This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1326(notably embedded) targets.
1327
cefd4ef5
MS
1328* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1329
55241689
AC
1330This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1331process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1332GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1333hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 1334
352ed7b4
MS
1335* New command line option
1336
1337GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1338
1339* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1340
1341There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1342command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1343a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1344be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1345open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1346issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1347a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1348it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1349GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1350is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1351
fe419ffc
RE
1352* Changes in ARM configurations.
1353
1354Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1355configuration is fully multi-arch.
1356
eb7cedd9
MK
1357* New native configurations
1358
fe419ffc 1359ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 1360x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 1361AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 1362Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 1363
c9f63e6b
CV
1364* New targets
1365
1366Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1367
9b4ff276
AC
1368* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1369
1370Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1371been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1372configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1373permanently REMOVED.
1374
1375AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1376A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1377AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1378AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1379AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1380
b4ceaee6 1381testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 1382
e2caac18
AC
1383* REMOVED configurations and files
1384
1385TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 1386WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
1387PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1388PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1389PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 1390Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
1391Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1392 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 1393SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 1394Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
1395Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1396ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 1397Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 1398
c2a727fa
TT
1399* Changes to command line processing
1400
1401The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1402for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1403
467d8519
TT
1404* Changes to key bindings
1405
1406There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1407
7072a954
AC
1408*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1409
1410Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1411
1412Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1413corrupted.
1414
1415Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1416
1417Numerous documentation fixes.
1418
1419Numerous testsuite fixes.
1420
34f47bc4 1421*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
1422
1423* New native configurations
1424
1425Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1426x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 1427MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
1428MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1429ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 1430s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 1431
bf64bfd6
AC
1432* New targets
1433
def90278 1434Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 1435CRIS cris-axis
55241689 1436UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 1437
17e78a56 1438* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
1439
1440x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 1441Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
1442Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1443 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
1444TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1445WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 1446Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
1447PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1448PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1449PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 1450SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
1451Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1452ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 1453Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 1454
17e78a56
AC
1455stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1456kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1457
7fcca85b
AC
1458Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1459been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1460configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1461permanently REMOVED.
1462
a196c81c 1463* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
1464
1465Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1466Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1467Pyramid pyramid-*-*
1468ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1469Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 1470ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 1471
6d6b80e5 1472* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 1473
6d6b80e5 1474GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
1475sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1476present.
1477
bf64bfd6
AC
1478* Other news:
1479
e23194cb
EZ
1480* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1481
1482* The MI enabled by default.
1483
1484The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1485revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1486engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1487using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1488which is now deprecated.
1489
1490* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1491
1492GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1493main features are supported:
1494
1495 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1496
1497 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1498 extension;
1499
1500 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1501
1502 - a Pascal expression parser.
1503
1504However, some important features are not yet supported.
1505
1506 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1507
1508 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1509
1510 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1511 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1512
1513 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1514
1515 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1516
1517* Changes in completion.
1518
1519Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1520to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1521users expect at the shell prompt.
1522
1523Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1524`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1525program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1526files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1527be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1528considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1529name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1530
1531`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1532
1533* New platform-independent commands:
1534
1535It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1536hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1537documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1538
1539* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1540
d7275149
MK
1541Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1542revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1543many threads as your system allows you to have.
1544
e23194cb
EZ
1545Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1546
d7275149
MK
1547Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1548multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
1549
1550* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
1551
1552Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1553
e23194cb
EZ
1554GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1555debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1556supported.)
1557
1558* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1559
1560Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1561breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1562implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1563put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1564and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1565registers.
1566
1567The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1568debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1569watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1570
1571* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1572
1573New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1574the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1575
1576New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1577display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1578IDT.
1579
1580New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1581from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1582New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1583a given linear address.
1584
1585GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1586program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1587which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1588
1589DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1590
6c56c069
EZ
1591It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1592
e23194cb
EZ
1593* Changes in documentation.
1594
1595All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1596Documentation License.
1597
1598Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1599manual.
1600
1601TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1602
1603Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1604manual.
1605
1606The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1607documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1608hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1609
5d6640b1
AC
1610* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1611
1612The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1613``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1614contents of this file.
1615
1a1d8446
AC
1616* gdba.el deleted
1617
1618GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 1619
9debab2f 1620*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 1621
c63ce875
EZ
1622* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1623
1624Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1625programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1626displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1627greater level of detail.
1628
1629* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1630
1631It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1632bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1633on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1634written.
1635
1636* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1637
1638The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1639necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1640machines ``out of the box''.
1641
1642The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1643possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1644signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1645would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1646interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1647
1648It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1649standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1650even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1651and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1652terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1653
1654The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1655enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1656also works.
1657
1658DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1659GDB.
1660
1661It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1662directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1663times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1664breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1665
ed9a39eb
JM
1666* New native configurations
1667
1668ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 1669PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 1670
7a292a7a
SS
1671* New targets
1672
96baa820 1673Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
1674x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1675PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
1676TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1677
085dd6e6
JM
1678* OBSOLETE configurations
1679
1680Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1681Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 1682Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 1683ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 1684Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 1685
9debab2f
AC
1686Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1687but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1688these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1689be permanently REMOVED.
1690
5330533d
SS
1691* Gould support removed
1692
1693Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1694
bc9e5bbf
AC
1695* New features for SVR4
1696
1697On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1698without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1699load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1700
1701* Many C++ enhancements
1702
1703C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1704in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1705
adf40b2e
JM
1706* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1707
1708A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1709sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1710with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1711``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1712
1713 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1714 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1715
43e526b9
JM
1716* MIPS 64 remote protocol
1717
1718A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1719expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1720instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1721
1722The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1723added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1724
96baa820
JM
1725* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1726
1727The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1728``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1729include ``set remote P-packet''.
1730
11cf8741
JM
1731* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1732
1733The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1734accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1735``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1736
7876dd43
DB
1737* ``apropos'' command added.
1738
1739The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1740documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1741try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1742
bc9e5bbf
AC
1743* New MI interface
1744
1745A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1746interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
1747process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1748"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1749enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
1750
1751 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1752
c906108c
SS
1753*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1754
1755* New native configurations
1756
1757HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1758HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 1759M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
1760
1761* New targets
1762
1763Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1764Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1765Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1766
1767* OBSOLETE configurations
1768
1769Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1770
1771Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1772but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1773these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1774be permanently REMOVED.
1775
1776* ANSI/ISO C
1777
1778As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1779buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1780containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1781use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1782available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1783configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1784information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1785already.
1786
1787* Readline 2.2
1788
1789GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1790
1791* set extension-language
1792
1793You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1794languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1795you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1796 set extension-language .c c++
1797The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1798and their associated languages.
1799
1800* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1801
1802When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1803you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1804PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1805
1806 set processor NAME
1807
1808sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1809following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1810
1811 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1812 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1813 403 IBM PowerPC 403
1814 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1815 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1816 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1817 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1818 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1819 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1820 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1821 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1822
1823At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1824special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1825registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1826only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1827
1828* HP-UX support
1829
1830Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1831more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1832library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1833support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1834for xdb and dbx commands.
1835
1836* Catchpoints
1837
1838HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1839generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1840to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1841
1842This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1843argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1844output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1845
1846* Debugging across forks
1847
1848On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1849in the inferior.
1850
1851* TUI
1852
1853HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1854it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1855configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1856
1857* GDB remote protocol additions
1858
1859A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1860Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1861fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1862allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1863
1864For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1865full 64-bit address. The command
1866
1867 set remoteaddresssize 32
1868
1869can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1870the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1871will be discarded.
1872
1873In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1874command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1875
1876 maint packet heythere
1877
1878sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1879disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1880time.
1881
1882The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1883target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1884downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1885
1886* Tracing can collect general expressions
1887
1888You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1889further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1890doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1891
1892* mask-address variable for Mips
1893
1894For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1895a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1896of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1897
1898* Higher serial baud rates
1899
1900GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1901230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1902to achieve all of these rates.)
1903
1904* i960 simulator
1905
1906The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1907builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1908
1909
1910*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1911
1912* New native configurations
1913
1914Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1915Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1916Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1917PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1918PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1919Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1920Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1921
1922* New targets
1923
1924Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1925Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1926Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1927Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1928MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1929MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1930MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1931Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1932Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1933Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1934NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1935
1936* New debugging protocols
1937
1938ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1939M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1940DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1941PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1942PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1943Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1944
1945* DWARF 2
1946
1947All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1948format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1949information.
1950
1951* Java frontend
1952
1953GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1954only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1955
1956* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1957
1958For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1959loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1960locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1961
1962* Live range splitting
1963
1964GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1965range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1966more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1967
1968* Hurd support
1969
1970GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1971updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1972
1973* ARM Thumb support
1974
1975GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1976instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1977instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1978accordingly.
1979
1980* MIPS16 support
1981
1982GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1983instruction set.
1984
1985* Overlay support
1986
1987GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1988linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1989will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1990control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1991additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1992in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1993
1994* info symbol
1995
1996The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1997the symbol at the specified address.
1998
1999* Trace support
2000
2001The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2002asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2003extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2004includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2005file tracepoint.c for more details.
2006
2007* MIPS simulator
2008
2009Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2010by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2011of most MIPS variants.
2012
2013* Sparc simulator
2014
2015Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2016by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2017Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2018
2019* set architecture
2020
2021For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2022basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2023architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2024the possible architectures.
2025
2026*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2027
2028* New native configurations
2029
2030Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2031M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2032PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2033PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2034PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2035RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2036
2037* New targets
2038
2039ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2040I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2041MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2042MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2043PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2044Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
2045Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2046
2047* PowerPC simulator
2048
2049The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2050contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2051PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2052basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2053performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2054
2055* Solaris 2.5
2056
2057GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2058
2059* Windows 95/NT native
2060
2061GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2062To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2063which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2064Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2065ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2066
2067* dont-repeat command
2068
2069If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2070command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2071useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2072extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2073
2074* Send break instead of ^C
2075
2076The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2077rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2078GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2079
2080* Remote protocol timeout
2081
2082The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2083that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2084to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2085
2086* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2087
2088By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2089loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2090stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2091when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2092in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2093
2094Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2095/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2096automatically on hpux10.
2097
2098* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2099
2100Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2101
2102* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2103
2104When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2105may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2106the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2107every character. The default value is 1050.
2108
2109* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2110
2111If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2112a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2113replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2114details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2115remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2116to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2117
2118* Speedups for remote debugging
2119
2120GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2121the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2122and more efficient S-record downloading.
2123
2124* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2125
2126GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2127Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2128
2129*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2130
2131* Psymtabs for XCOFF
2132
2133The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2134can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2135
2136* Remote targets use caching
2137
2138Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2139remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2140it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2141debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2142off' turns the the data cache off.
2143
2144* Remote targets may have threads
2145
2146The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2147in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2148gdb/remote.c for details.
2149
2150* NetROM support
2151
2152If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2153support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2154acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2155write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2156support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2157another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2158sequence is something like
2159
2160 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2161 load <prog>
2162 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2163
2164* Macintosh host
2165
2166GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2167may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2168it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2169available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2170device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2171directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2172scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2173mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2174
2175* Autoconf
2176
2177GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2178but does simplify configuration and building.
2179
2180* hpux10
2181
2182GDB now supports hpux10.
2183
2184*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2185
2186* New native configurations
2187
2188x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2189x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2190NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2191Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2192
2193* New targets
2194
2195A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2196HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2197CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2198PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2199WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2200
2201* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2202
2203GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2204possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2205filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2206the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2207if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2208
2209* Arguments to user-defined commands
2210
2211User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2212Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2213trivial example:
2214define adder
2215 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2216
2217To execute the command use:
2218adder 1 2 3
2219
2220Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2221Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2222use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2223
2224* New `if' and `while' commands
2225
2226This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2227commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2228expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2229execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2230terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2231`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2232if the expression is zero.
2233
2234* Fortran source language mode
2235
2236GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2237Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2238variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2239with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2240Fortran compilers.
2241
2242* Better HPUX support
2243
2244Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2245running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2246processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2247for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2248that behavior do the following before running the program:
2249
2250 adb -w a.out
2251 __dld_flags?W 0x5
2252 control-d
2253
2254This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2255To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2256
2257 adb -w a.out
2258 __dld_flags?W 0x4
2259 control-d
2260
2261You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2262the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2263external linkage.
2264
2265GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2266HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2267
2268* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2269
2270You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2271commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2272current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2273"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2274associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2275configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2276
2277* New DOS host serial code
2278
2279This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2280no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2281a PC's serial port.
2282
2283*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2284
2285* New "complete" command
2286
2287This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2288were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2289
2290* Trailing space optional in prompt
2291
2292"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2293allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2294
2295* Breakpoint hit counts
2296
2297"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2298has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2299can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2300to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2301less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2302that breakpoint.
2303
2304* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2305
2306"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2307an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2308arrays actually contain only short strings.
2309
2310* Shared library breakpoints
2311
2312In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2313breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2314
2315* Hardware watchpoints
2316
2317There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2318targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2319
55241689 2320Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
2321
2322* Annotations
2323
2324Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2325and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2326
2327* Improved Irix 5 support
2328
2329GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2330
2331* Improved HPPA support
2332
2333GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2334
2335* New native configurations
2336
2337Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2338HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2339Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2340RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2341
2342* New targets
2343
2344OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2345MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2346Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
2347
2348* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2349
2350There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2351This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2352
2353* Fixes
2354
2355As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2356and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2357
2358*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2359
2360* Irix 5 is now supported
2361
2362* HPPA support
2363
2364GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2365to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2366GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2367of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2368can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2369
2370
2371*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2372
2373* User visible changes:
2374
2375* Remote Debugging
2376
2377The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2378target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2379debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2380integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2381debugging info for the mips target).
2382
2383* DEC Alpha native support
2384
2385GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2386debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2387work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2388Alpha-specific notes.
2389
2390* Preliminary thread implementation
2391
2392GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2393
2394* LynxOS native and target support for 386
2395
2396This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2397to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2398for details).
2399
2400* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2401
2402This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2403mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2404call methods, ...etc.
2405
2406*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2407
2408 * User visible changes:
2409
2410Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2411supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2412other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2413somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2414
2415Filename completion now works.
2416
2417When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2418arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2419addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2420
2421All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2422vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2423should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2424your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2425to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2426
2427 * DEC alpha support
2428
2429This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2430cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2431
2432
2433*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2434
2435 * Testsuite
2436
2437This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2438The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2439via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2440
2441 * C++ demangling
2442
2443'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2444emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2445Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2446disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2447use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2448
2449 * Simulators
2450
2451GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2452So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2453Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2454
2455 * New targets supported
2456
2457H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2458H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2459SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2460Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2461IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2462
2463Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2464version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2465GO32 memory extender.
2466
2467 * New remote protocols
2468
2469MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2470
2471 * New source languages supported
2472
2473This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2474used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2475into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2476
2477
2478*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2479
2480 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2481
2482GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2483version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2484University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2485compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2486format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2487(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2488
2489Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2490
2491 * Faster and better demangling
2492
2493We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2494demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2495character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2496only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2497This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2498increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2499symbol lookups.
2500
2501`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2502from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2503compiler does not actually implement.
2504
2505 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2506
2507In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2508inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2509recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2510very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2511The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2512circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2513fix.
2514
2515The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2516release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2517
2518 * Improved configure script
2519
2520The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2521you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2522host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2523done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2524
2525We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2526version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2527`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2528The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2529only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2530We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2531
2532 * Documentation improvements
2533
2534There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2535produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2536before submitting changes.
2537
2538The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2539M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2540`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2541you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2542a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2543
2544*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2545We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2546been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2547or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2548`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2549around this problem.
2550
2551 * New features
2552
2553GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2554the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2555`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2556the target program.
2557
2558The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2559how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2560
2561 * New native hosts supported
2562
2563HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2564386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2565
2566 * New targets supported
2567
2568AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2569
2570 * New file formats supported
2571
2572BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2573HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2574
2575 * Major bug fixes
2576
2577Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2578
2579We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2580printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2581
2582We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2583for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2584release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2585
2586You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2587will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2588
2589We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2590for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2591especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2592libraries.
2593
2594The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2595information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2596command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2597any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2598when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2599
2600 * Internal improvements
2601
2602GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2603debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2604
2605GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2606Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2607symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2608contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2609shared code that handles any of them.
2610
2611 * New command line options
2612
2613We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2614
2615 * Mmalloc licensing
2616
2617The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2618General Public License.
2619
2620*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2621
2622 * Host/native/target split
2623
2624GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2625hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2626target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2627local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2628ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2629
2630The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2631GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2632is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2633code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2634any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2635built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2636handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2637
2638GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2639It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2640plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2641
2642 * New hosts supported
2643
2644HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2645386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2646386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2647
2648 * New targets supported
2649
2650Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
265168030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2652
2653 * New native hosts supported
2654
2655386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2656 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2657386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2658
2659 * New file formats supported
2660
2661BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2662supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2663format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2664
2665 * New commands
2666
2667`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2668`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2669These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2670
2671`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2672
2673You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2674scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2675prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2676executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2677
2678 * C++ improvements
2679
2680We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2681info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2682symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2683
2684Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2685
2686 * Major bug fixes
2687
2688The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2689fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2690by the compiler.
2691
2692We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2693support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2694
2695John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2696slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2697that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2698purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2699the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2700mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2701
2702Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2703about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2704completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2705we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2706
2707 * AMD 29k support
2708
2709A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2710specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2711calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2712usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2713in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2714
2715We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2716Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2717of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2718resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2719
2720 * Remote interfaces
2721
2722We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2723with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2724message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2725This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2726needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2727breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2728each instruction being stepped through.
2729
2730The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2731registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2732
2733There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2734find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2735Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2736processor with a serial port.
2737
2738 * Configuration
2739
2740Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2741`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2742supported, and what files each one uses.
2743
2744 * Library changes
2745
2746There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2747disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2748Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2749disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2750
2751The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2752Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2753can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2754grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2755
2756 * Documentation
2757
2758The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2759reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2760as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2761encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2762system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2763bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2764
2765And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2766
2767
2768*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2769
2770 * Better support for C++ function names
2771
2772GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2773names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2774(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2775single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2776Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2777
2778GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2779the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2780You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2781lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2782for the list of formats.
2783
2784 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2785
2786Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2787C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2788directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2789can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2790usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2791about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2792this problem.)
2793
2794 * New 'maintenance' command
2795
2796All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2797the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2798can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2799
2800 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2801 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2802 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2803 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2804 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2805 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2806
2807The following commands are new:
2808
2809 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2810 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2811 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2812
2813 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2814
2815We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2816(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2817be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2818read after argv processing.
2819
2820 * New hosts supported
2821
2822Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2823
55241689 2824GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
2825
2826We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2827is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2828for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2829masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2830fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2831It costs extra.
2832
2833 * New targets supported
2834
2835Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2836
2837 * More smarts about finding #include files
2838
2839GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2840all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2841greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2842especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2843the one that contains your sources.
2844
2845We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2846breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2847try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2848
2849 * Interesting infernals change
2850
2851GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2852section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2853target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2854stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2855
2856 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2857
2858There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2859 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2860 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2861
2862See the ChangeLog for details.
2863
2864*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2865
2866 * New machines supported (host and target)
2867
2868IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2869
2870SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2871
2872 * New malloc package
2873
2874GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2875Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2876capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2877This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2878pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2879more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2880
2881 * info proc
2882
2883The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2884'help info proc' for details.
2885
2886 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2887
2888The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2889Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2890possible.
2891
2892 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2893
2894Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2895support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2896conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2897environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2898that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2899in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2900
2901 * Cross byte order fixes
2902
2903Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2904targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2905
2906 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2907
2908If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2909system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2910`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2911program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2912called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2913Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2914and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2915the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2916option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2917starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2918
2919You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2920the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2921information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2922slower, but makes future operations faster.
2923
2924The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2925build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2926A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2927use is:
2928
2929 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2930
2931The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2932It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2933shared across multiple host platforms.
2934
2935 * longjmp() handling
2936
2937GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2938siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2939all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2940platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2941
2942 * Solaris 2.0
2943
2944Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2945this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2946reading symbols.
2947
2948 * Bug fixes
2949
2950As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2951People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2952crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2953
2954*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2955
2956 * New machines supported (host and target)
2957
2958SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2959 (except core files)
2960BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2961Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2962
2963 * New machines supported (target)
2964
2965AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2966
2967 * C++ support
2968
2969GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2970The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2971per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2972
2973GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2974`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2975extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2976good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2977will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2978released.
2979
2980 * New features for SVR4
2981
2982GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2983shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2984only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2985
2986The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2987on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2988it prints the address mappings of the process.
2989
2990If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2991bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2992
2993 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2994
2995Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2996now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2997skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2998make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2999same code linked statically.
3000
3001 * New Getopt
3002
3003GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3004version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3005continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3006Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3007added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3008future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3009
3010 * Bugs fixed
3011
3012The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3013Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3014See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3015
3016
3017*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3018
3019 * New machines supported (host and target)
3020
3021Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3022NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3023Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3024
3025 * Almost SCO Unix support
3026
3027We had hoped to support:
3028SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3029(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3030that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3031about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3032
3033 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3034
3035GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3036debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3037is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3038send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3039reqired (if any).
3040
3041 * New Readline
3042
3043GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3044is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3045required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3046
3047 * Bugs fixed
3048
3049The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3050Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3051See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3052
3053 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3054
3055GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3056supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3057symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3058
3059Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3060mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3061debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3062mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3063version 2.
3064
3065Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3066really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3067line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3068variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3069situation somewhat.
3070
3071When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3072However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3073methods.
3074
3075We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3076DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3077encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3078
3079
3080*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3081
3082 * Improved configuration
3083
3084Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3085Porting BFD is simpler.
3086
3087 * Stepping improved
3088
3089The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3090of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3091in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3092function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3093
3094 * Bug fixing
3095
3096Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3097
3098 * New host supported (not target)
3099
3100Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3101
3102
3103*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3104
3105 * Multiple source language support
3106
3107GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3108It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3109and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3110language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3111You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3112`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3113
3114 * GDB and Modula-2
3115
3116GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3117currently under development at the State University of New York at
3118Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3119continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3120
3121Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3122debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3123symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3124
3125There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3126in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3127
3128 * set write on/off
3129
3130GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3131a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3132the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3133by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3134effect immediately.
3135
3136 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3137
3138When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3139shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3140The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3141examining core files.
3142
3143 * set listsize
3144
3145You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3146The default is 10.
3147
3148 * New machines supported (host and target)
3149
3150SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3151Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3152Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3153
3154 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3155
3156IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3157
3158 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3159
3160AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3161AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3162Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3163
3164 * New remote interfaces
3165
3166AMD 29000 Adapt
3167AMD 29000 Minimon
3168
3169
3170*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3171
3172 * New Facilities
3173
3174Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3175
3176Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3177target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3178is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3179remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3180remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3181also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3182using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3183stub on the target system.
3184
3185New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3186
3187GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3188library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3189object file types such as a.out and coff.
3190
3191There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3192refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3193
3194
3195 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3196
3197All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3198by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3199
3200For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3201``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3202Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3203
3204What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3205print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3206will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3207all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3208
3209confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3210 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3211 it is already running. Default is ON.
3212
3213editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3214 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3215 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3216 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3217 Default is ON.
3218
3219history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3220 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3221 or the value of the environment variable
3222 GDBHISTFILE.
3223
3224history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3225 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3226 HISTSIZE.
3227
3228history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3229 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3230 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3231
3232history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3233 history expansion will be performed on
3234 command line input. The default is OFF.
3235
3236radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3237 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3238 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3239
3240height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3241 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3242 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3243 variable TERM.
3244
3245width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3246 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3247 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3248 variable TERM.
3249
3250Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3251``set width'' instead.
3252
3253print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3254 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3255 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3256 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3257
3258print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3259 is OFF.
3260
3261print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3262 "raw" form if off.
3263
3264print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3265 like instructions.
3266
3267print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3268
3269
3270 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3271
3272The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3273new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3274are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3275window.
3276
3277
3278 * Support for Shared Libraries
3279
3280GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3281Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3282before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3283happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3284At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3285from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3286shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3287It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3288
3289sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3290 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3291 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3292
3293info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3294
3295
3296 * Watchpoints
3297
3298A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3299expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3300tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3301quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3302problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3303more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3304
3305watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3306
3307info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3308
3309delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3310disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3311enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3312
3313
3314 * C++ multiple inheritance
3315
3316When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3317for C++ programs.
3318
3319 * C++ exception handling
3320
3321Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3322ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3323the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3324handler's context).
3325
3326catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3327 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3328 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3329
3330info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3331 current stack frame.
3332
3333
3334 * Minor command changes
3335
3336The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3337command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3338is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3339
3340The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3341at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3342frames without printing.
3343
3344 * New directory command
3345
3346'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3347The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3348about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3349with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3350find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3351
3352 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3353
3354For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3355for more details.
3356
3357GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3358two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3359Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3360where the program that you are debugging will run.
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