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[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 7.1
5
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6* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
7
8 - GDBserver now support tracepoints. The feature is currently
9 supported by the i386-linux and amd64-linux builds.
10
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11* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
12 it understands register description.
13
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14* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
15
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16* X86 general purpose registers
17
18 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
19 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
20 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
21 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
22 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
23
95a42b64 24* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
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25 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
26 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
27 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
28 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
29 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 30
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31* Python scripting
32
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33** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
34 tables, and frame's code blocks.
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35
36** New methods gdb.target_charset and gdb.target_wide_charset.
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38* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
39there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
40tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
41regular breakpoints.
42
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43* New targets
44
45ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
46
bfbf3774 47*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 48
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49* C++ Improvements
50
51 ** Namespace Support
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52
53 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
54 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
55 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
56 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
57 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
58
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59 ** Bug Fixes
60
61 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
62 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
63 qualified name.
64
65 ** Cast Operators
66
67 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
68 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
69
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70* New targets
71
72Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 73Renesas RX rx-*-elf
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74
75* New Simulators
76
77Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 78Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 79
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80* Multi-program debugging.
81
82 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
83 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
84 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
85 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
86 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
87 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
88 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
89 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
90
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91* New tracing features
92
93 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
94
95 ** Trace state variables
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96
97 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
98 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
99 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
100 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
101 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
102 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
103 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
104 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
105 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
106 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 107
d5551862 108 ** Fast tracepoints
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109
110 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
111 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
112 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
113 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
114 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
115 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
116 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
117 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
118 the regular trace command.
119
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120 ** Disconnected tracing
121
122 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
123 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
124 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
125 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
126 connection is lost unexpectedly.
127
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128 ** Trace files
129
130 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
131 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
132 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
133 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
134 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
135 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
136 <name>".
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137
138 ** Circular trace buffer
139
140 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
141 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
142 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
143 not be available for all target agents.
144
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145* Changed commands
146
147disassemble
148 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
149 the arguments to be comma-separated.
150
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151info variables
152 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
153 which only declare a variable are not shown.
154
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155source
156 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
157 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
158 support.
159
160 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
161 "set script-extension" (see below).
162
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163* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
164
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165record save [<FILENAME>]
166 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
167 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
168
169record restore <FILENAME>
170 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
171 earlier time, for replay debugging.
172
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173add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
174 Add a new inferior.
175
176clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
177 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
178 inferior has loaded.
179
180remove-inferior ID
181 Remove an inferior.
182
183maint info program-spaces
184 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
185
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186set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
187show remote interrupt-sequence
188 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
189 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
190 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
191 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
192 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
193
194set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
195show remote interrupt-on-connect
196 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
197 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
198 Linux kernel.
199
200set remotebreak [on | off]
201show remotebreak
202Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
203
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204tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
205 Create or modify a trace state variable.
206
207info tvariables
208 List trace state variables and their values.
209
210delete tvariable $NAME ...
211 Delete one or more trace state variables.
212
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213teval EXPR, ...
214 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
215 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
216
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217ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
218 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
219
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220* New expression syntax
221
222 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
223 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
224
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225* New options
226
227set follow-exec-mode new|same
228show follow-exec-mode
229 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
230 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
231 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
232
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233set default-collect EXPR, ...
234show default-collect
235 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
236 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
237 such as registers or a critical global variable.
238
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239set disconnected-tracing
240show disconnected-tracing
241 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
242 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
243 upon disconnection.
244
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245set circular-trace-buffer
246show circular-trace-buffer
247 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
248 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
249 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
250 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
251
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252set script-extension off|soft|strict
253show script-extension
254 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
255 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
256 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
257 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
258 evaluation failed.
259 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
260
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261set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
262show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
263 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
264 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
265 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
266 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
267 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
268 is on.
269
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270* Python API Improvements
271
272 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
273 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
274 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
275
276 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
277 `is_base_class' attribute.
278
279 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
280
281 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
282 evaluate an expression.
283
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284* New remote packets
285
286QTDV
287 Define a trace state variable.
288
289qTV
290 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
291
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292QTDisconnected
293 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
294
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295QTBuffer:circular
296 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
297
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298qTfP, qTsP
299 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
300
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301* Bug fixes
302
303Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
304
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305Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
306much more reliable. In particular:
307 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
308 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
309 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
310 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
311 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
312 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
313 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
314 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
315 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
316 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
317 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
318 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
319 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
320 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
321 non-threaded programs.
322
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323PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
324This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
325libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
326executable program.
327
abc7453d 328*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 329
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330* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
331dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
332them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
333for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
334"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
335
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336* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
337breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
338or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
339the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
340for tracepoint actions.
341
e6158f16 342* "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
7280022e 343in hex as well as in symbolic form.
e6158f16 344
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345* Process record and replay
346
347 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
348 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
349 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
350 execute commands.
351
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352* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
353step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
354set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
355reverse execution.
356
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357* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
358feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
3592.6.28 or later.
360
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361* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
362target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
363char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
364literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
365U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
366`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
367system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
368the installation instructions for more information.
369
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370* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
371remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
372with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
373the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
374
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375* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
376and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
377
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378* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
379now complete on file names.
380
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381* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
382completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
383For instance, consider:
384
385 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
386 # struct example variable;
387 (gdb) p variable.
388
389If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
390completions will be "f1" and "f2".
391
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392* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
393the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
394
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395* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
396operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
397macros.
398
47a3467a 399* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
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400the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
401implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
402
403* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
404registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
405can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
406and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 407
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408* New remote packets
409
410qSearch:memory:
411 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
412
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413QStartNoAckMode
414 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
415 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
416 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
417
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418vKill
419 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
420 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
421
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422qXfer:osdata:read
423 Obtains additional operating system information
424
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425qXfer:siginfo:read
426qXfer:siginfo:write
427 Read or write additional signal information.
428
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429* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
430
431 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
432 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
433 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
434
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435* The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
436source+assembly.
437
c055b101 438* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 439DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
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440
441* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
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442and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
443`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 444
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445* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
446with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
447
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448* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
449
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450* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
451
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452* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
453which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
454
1fddbabb 455* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 456list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 457
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458* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
459conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
460have also been fixed.
461
bfb8797a 462* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
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463From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
464are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 465
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466* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
467example, given:
468
469 template<typename T> class C { };
470 C<char const *> c;
471
472GDB will now correctly handle all of:
473
474 ptype C<char const *>
475 ptype C<char const*>
476 ptype C<const char *>
477 ptype C<const char*>
478
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479* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
480
481 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
482 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
483
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484 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
485 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
486 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
487
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488 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
489 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
490
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491 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
492 gdbserver.
493
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494 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
495 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
496
497 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
498 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
499 as appropriate.
500
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501* Python scripting
502
503 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
504 available is determined at configure time.
505
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506 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
507
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508* Ada tasking support
509
510 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
511 been introduced:
512
513 info tasks
514 Print the list of Ada tasks.
515 info task N
516 Print detailed information about task number N.
517 task
518 Print the task number of the current task.
519 task N
520 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
521
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522* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
523add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
524
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525* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
526
527 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
528 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
529 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
530 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
531 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
532 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
533 below.
534
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535* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
536"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
537information.
538
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539* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
540to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
541architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
542See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
543more information.
544
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545* Multi-architecture debugging.
546
547 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
548 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
549 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
550 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
551 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
552
553* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
554use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
555Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
556powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
557--enable-targets configure option.
558
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559* Non-stop mode debugging.
560
561 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
562 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
563 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
564 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
565 section in the user manual for more information.
566
567 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
568 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
569 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
570 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
571 extensions on linux targets.
572
d7713ae0 573* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 574
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575catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
576 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
577 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
578 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
579 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
580 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
581 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
582 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
583 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
584
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585find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
586 val1 [, val2, ...]
587 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
588
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589maint set python print-stack
590maint show python print-stack
591 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
592
593python [CODE]
594 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
595
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596macro define
597macro list
598macro undef
599 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
600 interactively.
601
602info os processes
603 Show operating system information about processes.
604
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605info inferiors
606 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
607
608inferior NUM
609 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
610
611detach inferior NUM
612 Detach from inferior number NUM.
613
614kill inferior NUM
615 Kill inferior number NUM.
616
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617* New options
618
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619set spu stop-on-load
620show spu stop-on-load
621 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
622
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623set spu auto-flush-cache
624show spu auto-flush-cache
625 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
626 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
627
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628set sh calling-convention
629show sh calling-convention
630 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
631
e0a3ce09 632set debug timestamp
75feb17d 633show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
634 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
635
636set disassemble-next-line
637show disassemble-next-line
638 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
639 the debuggee stops.
640
641set remote noack-packet
642show remote noack-packet
643 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
644 under "New remote packets."
645
646set remote query-attached-packet
647show remote query-attached-packet
648 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
649
650set remote read-siginfo-object
651show remote read-siginfo-object
652 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
653 packet.
654
655set remote write-siginfo-object
656show remote write-siginfo-object
657 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
658 packet.
659
40ab02ce
MS
660set remote reverse-continue
661show remote reverse-continue
662 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
663
664set remote reverse-step
665show remote reverse-step
666 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
667
d7713ae0
EZ
668set displaced-stepping
669show displaced-stepping
670 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
671 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
672 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
673
674set debug displaced
675show debug displaced
676 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
677
678maint set internal-error
679maint show internal-error
680 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
681
682maint set internal-warning
683maint show internal-warning
684 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 685
ccd213ac
DJ
686set exec-wrapper
687show exec-wrapper
688unset exec-wrapper
689 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 690
aad4b048
JB
691set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
692show multiple-symbols
693 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
694 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
695 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
696
74960c60
VP
697set breakpoint always-inserted
698show breakpoint always-inserted
699 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
700 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
701 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
702
0428b8f5
DJ
703set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
704show arm fallback-mode
705set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
706show arm force-mode
707 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
708 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
709 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
710 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
711
10568435
JK
712set disable-randomization
713show disable-randomization
714 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
715 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
716 multiple debugging sessions.
717
d7713ae0
EZ
718set non-stop
719show non-stop
720 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
721 a breakpoint.
722
b3eb342c 723set target-async
d7713ae0 724show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
725 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
726 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
727 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
728 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
729
6c7a06a3
TT
730set target-wide-charset
731show target-wide-charset
732 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
733 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
734
84603566
SL
735set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
736show tcp auto-retry
737set tcp connect-timeout
738show tcp connect-timeout
739 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
740 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
741 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
742
17a37d48
PP
743set libthread-db-search-path
744show libthread-db-search-path
745 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
746 libthread_db.
747
d4db2f36
PA
748set schedule-multiple (on|off)
749show schedule-multiple
750 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
751 the current process.
752
4e5d721f
DE
753set stack-cache
754show stack-cache
755 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
756 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
757 affecting correctness.
758
910c5da8
JB
759set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
760show interactive-mode
761 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
762 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
763 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
764 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
765 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
766
2277426b
PA
767* Removed commands
768
769info forks
770 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
771 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
772 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
773 command.
774
775fork NUM
776 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
777 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
778 alias for the `fork' command.
779
780process PID
781 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
782 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
783 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
784
785delete fork NUM
786 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
787 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
788 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
789 fork' command.
790
791detach fork NUM
792 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
793 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
794 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
795 fork' command.
796
a80b95ba
TG
797* New native configurations
798
799x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
800
b8bfd3ed
JB
801x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
802
75a2d5e7
TT
803* New targets
804
c28c63d8 805Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 806x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 807x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 808S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 809
6de3146c
PA
810* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
811 (mingw32ce) debugging.
812
d5cbbe6e
JB
813* Removed commands
814
815catch load
816catch unload
817 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
818
75feb17d 819*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 820
af5ca30d
NH
821* New native configurations
822
823NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 824Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
825
826* New targets
827
828NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 829Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 830
7a404eba
PA
831* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
832
833 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
834 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
835 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
836 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
837
430ebac9
PA
838* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
839(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
840
fe6fbf8b 841* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 842is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
843
844* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
845including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
846and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 847
10665d76
JB
848* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
849accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
850more than one contiguous range of addresses.
851
7cc46491
DJ
852* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
853
d71340b8
DJ
854* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
855registers on PowerPC targets.
856
523c4513
DJ
857* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
858targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
859
a6b151f1
DJ
860* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
861commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
862
2d717e4f
DJ
863* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
864extended-remote mode.
865
24a836bd 866* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
867The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
868error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
869The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 870
d0c678e6
UW
871* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
872building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
873target architectures.
874
d64a946d
TJB
875* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
876Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
877now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
878stored in two consecutive float registers.
879
ee163bf5
VP
880* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
881breakpoints now.
882
b93b6ca7 883* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
884Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
885include:
b93b6ca7
JB
886 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
887 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
888 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
889 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
890 of an assignment
891 - Improved command completion in Ada
892 - Several bug fixes
893
d001be7a
DJ
894* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
895process.
896
a6b151f1
DJ
897* New commands
898
6d53d0af
JB
899set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
900show print frame-arguments
901 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
902 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
903
a6b151f1
DJ
904remote put
905remote get
906remote delete
907 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
908
909* New MI commands
910
911-target-file-put
912-target-file-get
913-target-file-delete
914 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
915
916* New remote packets
917
918vFile:open:
919vFile:close:
920vFile:pread:
921vFile:pwrite:
922vFile:unlink:
923 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 924
2d717e4f
DJ
925vAttach
926 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
927 mode.
928
929vRun
930 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
931
8d5f9c6f 932*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 933
19d378fc
MS
934* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
935bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
936Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
937
3a40aaa0
UW
938* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
939symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
940-Bsymbolic linker option.
941
a6ec25f2
BW
942* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
943recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
944is not supported.
945
6dd09645
JB
946* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
947frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
948
c9bb8148
DJ
949* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
95032-bit or 64-bit register values.
951
0d5de010
DJ
952* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
953
23181151
DJ
954* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
955target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
956a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
957
ea37ba09
DJ
958* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
959automatically displayed as character or string data.
960
961* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
962arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
963as strings.
e1f48ead 964
123dc839
DJ
965* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
966for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 967only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 968
05a4558a
DJ
969* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
970iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 971
7c963485
PA
972* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
973ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
974has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
975
b18be20d
DJ
976* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
977
0ca420ce
UW
978* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
979
31d99776
DJ
980* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
981layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
982segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
983
a4642986
MR
984* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
985immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
986
cfa9d6d9
DJ
987* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
988"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
989packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
990where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
991Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
992
993* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
994(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
995
996* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
997according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 998
c9bb8148
DJ
999* New commands
1000
23776285
MR
1001set remoteflow
1002show remoteflow
1003 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1004 when debugging using remote targets.
1005
c9bb8148
DJ
1006set mem inaccessible-by-default
1007show mem inaccessible-by-default
1008 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1009 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1010 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1011 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1012 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1013
1014set breakpoint auto-hw
1015show breakpoint auto-hw
1016 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1017 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1018 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1019 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1020 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1021 including "next" and "finish".
1022
0e420bd8
JB
1023catch exception
1024catch exception unhandled
1025 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1026
1027catch assert
1028 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1029
f822c95b
DJ
1030set sysroot
1031show sysroot
1032 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1033 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1034 an alias to "set sysroot".
1035
83cc5c53
UW
1036info spu
1037 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1038 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1039 architecture.
1040
bd372731
MK
1041* New native configurations
1042
1043OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1044
23181151
DJ
1045set tdesc filename
1046unset tdesc filename
1047show tdesc filename
1048 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1049 not query the target for its built-in description.
1050
c9bb8148
DJ
1051* New targets
1052
54fe9172 1053OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 1054MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 1055Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 1056
6dd09645
JB
1057* New remote packets
1058
1059QPassSignals:
1060 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1061 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1062
23181151
DJ
1063qXfer:features:read:
1064 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1065 features.
6dd09645 1066
83cc5c53
UW
1067qXfer:spu:read:
1068qXfer:spu:write:
1069 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1070 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1071
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1072qXfer:libraries:read:
1073 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1074 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1075 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1076 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1077
483367ee
DJ
1078* Removed targets
1079
1080Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1081
d08950c4
UW
1082alpha*-*-osf1*
1083alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 1084d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
1085hppa*-*-hiux*
1086i[34567]86-ncr-*
1087i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1088i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1089i[34567]86-*-netware*
1090i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1091i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1092i[34567]86-*-sco*
1093i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1094i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1095i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1096i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1097i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1098i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1099i[34567]86-*-isc*
1100m68*-cisco*-*
1101m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 1102mips*-*-pe
483367ee 1103rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 1104sh*-*-pe
483367ee 1105
7ce59000
DJ
1106* Other removed features
1107
1108target abug
1109target cpu32bug
1110target est
1111target rom68k
1112
1113 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1114
ea35711c
DJ
1115target hms
1116target e7000
1117target sh3
1118target sh3e
1119
1120 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1121 H8/300.
1122
1123target ocd
1124
1125 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1126 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1127 interfaces.
1128
7ce59000
DJ
1129DWARF 1 support
1130
1131 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1132 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1133
54d61198
DJ
1134Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1135
1136 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1137 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1138 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1139 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1140
ea35711c
DJ
1141MIPS ".pdr" sections
1142
1143 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1144 in debugging information.
1145
1146Scheme support
1147
1148 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1149 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1150
1a69e1e4
DJ
1151set mips stack-arg-size
1152set mips saved-gpreg-size
1153
1154 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1155
6dd09645 1156*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 1157
ca3bf3bd
DJ
1158* New targets
1159
1160Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 1161Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 1162
6aec2e11
DJ
1163* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1164(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1165running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1166
1167* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1168Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1169supported.
1170
17218d91
DJ
1171* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1172broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1173
9ebce043
DJ
1174* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1175stub provides the required support.
1176
7d3d3ece
DJ
1177* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1178longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1179
4f8253f3
JB
1180* New commands
1181
1182set substitute-path
1183unset substitute-path
1184show substitute-path
1185 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1186 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1187 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1188 between compilation and debugging.
1189
9fa66fd7
AS
1190set trace-commands
1191show trace-commands
1192 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1193 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1194 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1195
1f5befc1
DJ
1196* REMOVED features
1197
1198The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1199
2ec3381a
DJ
1200Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1201an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1202
3d00d119
DJ
1203The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1204
be2a5f71
DJ
1205* New remote packets
1206
1207qSupported:
1208 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1209 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1210 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1211 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1212 target.
1213
0876f84a
DJ
1214qXfer:auxv:read:
1215 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1216 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1217
9ebce043
DJ
1218qXfer:memory-map:read:
1219 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1220 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1221
1222vFlashErase:
1223vFlashWrite:
1224vFlashDone:
1225 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1226
0876f84a
DJ
1227* Removed remote packets
1228
1229qPart:auxv:read:
1230 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1231 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1232
e374b601 1233*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 1234
96309189
MS
1235* New targets
1236
1237Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1238
1239Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1240
53e5f3cf
AS
1241* New commands
1242
1243init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1244 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1245
ac264b3b
MS
1246The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1247
1248checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1249
1250restart <n> Return the program state to a
1251 previously saved state.
1252
1253info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1254
1255delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1256
1257set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1258 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1259
1260info forks List forks of the user program that
1261 are available to be debugged.
1262
1263fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1264 forks of the user program that are
1265 available to be debugged.
1266
1267delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1268 that are available to be debugged (and
1269 kill the forked process).
1270
1271detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1272 that are available to be debugged (and
1273 allow the process to continue).
1274
3950dc3f
NS
1275* New architecture
1276
1277Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1278
0ea3f30e
DJ
1279* Improved Windows host support
1280
1281GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1282native console support, and remote communications using either
1283network sockets or serial ports.
1284
f79daebb
GM
1285* Improved Modula-2 language support
1286
1287GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1288basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1289pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1290printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1291written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1292GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1293
acab6ab2
MM
1294* REMOVED features
1295
1296The ARM rdi-share module.
1297
f4267320
DJ
1298The Netware NLM debug server.
1299
53e5f3cf 1300*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 1301
e0ecbda1
MK
1302* New native configurations
1303
02a677ac 1304OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
1305OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1306
d64a6579
KB
1307* New targets
1308
1309Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1310
b33a6190
AS
1311* New command line options
1312
1313--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1314--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1315 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1316--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1317 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1318 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1319 with the --command (-x) option.
1320
11dced61
AC
1321* Deprecated commands removed
1322
1323The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1324removed:
1325
1326 Command Replacement
1327 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1328 othernames set arm disassembler
1329 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1330 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1331 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1332 regs info registers
1333
6fe85783
MK
1334* New BSD user-level threads support
1335
1336It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1337library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1338configurations are:
1339
1340FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1341FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1342OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1343
1344Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1345are not yet supported.
1346
5260ca71
MS
1347* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1348(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1349
e84ecc99
AC
1350* REMOVED configurations and files
1351
1352VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 1353Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 1354National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 1355
31e35378
JB
1356* New "set print array-indexes" command
1357
1358After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1359when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1360behavior.
1361
e85e5c83
MK
1362* VAX floating point support
1363
1364GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1365
d91e9901
AS
1366* User-defined command support
1367
1368In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1369to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1370section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1371
f2cb65ca
MC
1372*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1373
f47b1503
AS
1374* New command line option
1375
1376GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1377debugging.
1378
f2cb65ca
MC
1379* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1380
1381GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1382information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1383by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1384proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1385to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 1386
d08c0230
AC
1387* Internationalization
1388
1389When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1390internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1391continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1392
117ea3cf
PH
1393* Ada
1394
1395Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1396implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1397into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1398
d08c0230
AC
1399* New native configurations
1400
1401GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1402
1403* Remote 'p' packet
1404
1405GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1406packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1407
1408* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1409
1410GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1411The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1412features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1413i386 application).
1414
1415GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1416compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1417continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1418configurations:
1419
1420hppa-*-hpux
1421ia64-*-aix
1422mips-*-irix*
1423*-*-lynx
1424mips-*-linux-gnu
1425sds protocol
1426xdr protocol
1427powerpc bdm protocol
1428
1429Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1430made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1431
1432* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1433
1434Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1435been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1436configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1437permanently REMOVED.
1438
1439h8300-*-*
1440mcore-*-*
1441mn10300-*-*
1442ns32k-*-*
1443sh64-*-*
1444v850-*-*
1445
ebb7c577
AC
1446*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1447
1448* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1449
1450When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1451heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1452been fixed.
1453
1454* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1455
1456When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1457fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1458IRIX long double values).
1459
1460* VAX and "next"
1461
1462A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1463command. This problem has been fixed.
1464
860660cb 1465*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 1466
0dea2468
AC
1467* Fix for ``many threads''
1468
1469On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1470rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1471error message:
1472
1473 ptrace: No such process.
1474 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1475
1476This problem has been fixed.
1477
2c07db7a
AC
1478* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1479
1480Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1481GDB to dump core).
1482
c23968a2
JB
1483* New ``start'' command.
1484
1485This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1486
71009278
MK
1487* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1488
1489Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1490live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1491platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1492
1493FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1494FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1495NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1496NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1497NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1498OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1499OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1500OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1501OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1502
3c0b7db2
AC
1503* Signal trampoline code overhauled
1504
1505Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1506These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1507of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1508call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1509signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1510
73cc75f3
AC
1511Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1512features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1513include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 1514
7243600a
BF
1515* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1516
6f606e1c
MK
1517* New native configurations
1518
97dc871c 1519GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 1520OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
1521OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1522OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 1523OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1524NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 1525OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1526
a1b461bf
AC
1527* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1528
1529GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1530The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1531including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1532migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1533compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1534work, was also included.
1535
1536GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1537module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1538
1539h8300-*-*
1540mcore-*-*
1541mn10300-*-*
1542ns32k-*-*
1543sh64-*-*
1544v850-*-*
1545xstormy16-*-*
1546
1547Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1548made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1549
3c7012f5
AC
1550* REMOVED configurations and files
1551
1552Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1553Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1554Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1555Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1556Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1557AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1558Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1559decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1560riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1561sonymips mips-sony-*
1562sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1563
e5fe55f7
AC
1564*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1565
1566* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1567
1568The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1569GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1570command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1571program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1572with GDB".
1573
1574* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1575
1576Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1577libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1578cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1579GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1580shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1581the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1582are created.
1583
1584Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1585
1586* Fixed ISO-C build problems
1587
1588The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1589non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1590compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1591
1592* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1593
1594Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1595wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1596
1597* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1598
1599The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1600permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1601systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1602
1603* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1604
1605Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1606has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1607
1608* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1609
1610GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1611its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1612panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1613
1614* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1615
1616When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1617by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1618not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1619
faae5abe 1620*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 1621
9175c9a3
MC
1622* Removed --with-mmalloc
1623
1624Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1625conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1626
3cc87ec0
MK
1627* Changes in AMD64 configurations
1628
1629The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1630the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1631and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1632you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1633
f0424ef6
MK
1634* Revised SPARC target
1635
1636The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1637FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
1638support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1639from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1640(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 1641
59659be2
ILT
1642* New C++ demangler
1643
1644GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1645names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1646with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1647programs.
1648
9e08b29b
DJ
1649* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1650
1651GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1652arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1653encountered these.
1654
8dfe8985
DC
1655* C++ nested types and namespaces
1656
1657GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1658improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1659is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1660Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1661namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1662"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1663frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1664if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1665GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1666
cced5e27
MK
1667* New native configurations
1668
1669NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 1670OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 1671OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
1672OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1673OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 1674
b4b4b794
KI
1675* New debugging protocols
1676
1677M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1678
7989c619
AC
1679* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1680
1681The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1682and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1683tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1684
5994185b
AC
1685* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1686
1687Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1688been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1689configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1690permanently REMOVED.
1691
1692Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1693Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1694Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1695Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1696Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1697AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1698Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
1699decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1700riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1701sonymips mips-sony-*
1702sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 1703
0ddabb4c
AC
1704* REMOVED configurations and files
1705
1706SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1707SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
1708Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1709Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1710H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1711HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1712HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1713HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1714PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 1715386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
1716Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1717 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1718 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
1719SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1720SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
1721Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1722Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 1723
c7f1390e
DJ
1724*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1725
1fe43d45
AC
1726* Objective-C
1727
1728Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1729integrated into GDB.
1730
e6beb428
AC
1731* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1732
1733DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1734information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1735By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1736backtraces.
1737
1738The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1739have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1740DWARF 2 CFI support.
1741
1742* Hosted file I/O.
1743
1744GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1745file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1746remote protocol documentation for details.
1747
1748* All targets using the new architecture framework.
1749
1750All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1751architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1752to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1753ppc32 on ppc64).
1754
1755* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1756
1757GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1758per-thread variables.
1759
1760* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1761
1762GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1763GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1764
1765* Separate debug info.
1766
1767GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1768automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1769of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1770system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1771and optional debug files.
1772
1773* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1774
1775DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1776describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1777debugger.
1778
1779GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1780for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1781
1782* Java
1783
1784A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1785Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1786considered "useable".
1787
85f8f974
DJ
1788* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1789
1790The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1791commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1792kernel.
1793
0fac0b41
DJ
1794* GDB supports logging output to a file
1795
1796There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1797used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 1798
6ad8ae5c
DJ
1799* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1800
1801The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1802disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1803command.
1804
e286caf2 1805* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
1806
1807The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1808registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1809
d28f9cdf
DJ
1810* Profiling support
1811
1812A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1813be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1814session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1815"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1816data, for more informative profiling results.
1817
da0f9dcd
AC
1818* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1819
1820The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1821option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 1822"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
1823
1824Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1825removed.
1826
fb9b6b35
JJ
1827Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1828Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1829Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1830 in a subsequent -var-update.
1831
954a4db8
MK
1832* New native configurations.
1833
1834FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1835
6760f9e6
JB
1836* Multi-arched targets.
1837
b4263afa 1838HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 1839Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 1840
1b831c93
AC
1841* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1842
1843Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1844been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1845configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1846permanently REMOVED.
1847
8b0e5691 1848Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 1849Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 1850H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
1851HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1852HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1853HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 1854PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
1855Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1856 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1857 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
1858Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1859Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 1860
5835abe7
NC
1861* REMOVED configurations and files
1862
1863V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
1864Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1865IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1866i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1867i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1868i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1869HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1870 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1871 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1872Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1873Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1874Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1875OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1876I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 1877
a094c6fb
AC
1878* MIPS $fp behavior changed
1879
1880The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1881the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1882context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1883address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1884The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1885
299ffc64 1886*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 1887
46248966
AC
1888* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1889
1890When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1891`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1892in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1893library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1894shared libs like mad''.
1895
b9d14705 1896* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 1897
b9d14705
DJ
1898Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1899the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1900arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1901powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 1902
e0e9281e
JB
1903* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1904
1905GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1906and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1907they expand.
1908
dd73b9bb
AC
1909The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1910invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1911
1912The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1913macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1914
e0e9281e
JB
1915Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1916information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1917your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1918information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1919
2250ee0c
CV
1920* Multi-arched targets.
1921
6e3ba3b8
JT
1922DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1923DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 1924NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 1925National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
1926Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1927Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 1928
cd9bfe15 1929* New targets.
e33ce519 1930
456f8b9d
DB
1931Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1932
e33ce519 1933
da8ca43d
JT
1934* New native configurations
1935
1936Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 1937SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 1938MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 1939UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 1940
cd9bfe15
AC
1941* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1942
1943Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1944been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1945configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1946permanently REMOVED.
1947
92eb23c5 1948Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 1949OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 1950IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 1951Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 1952Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 1953Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
1954i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1955i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1956i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
1957HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1958 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1959 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 1960I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 1961
db034ac5
AC
1962* OBSOLETE languages
1963
1964CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1965
cd9bfe15
AC
1966* REMOVED configurations and files
1967
1968AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1969A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1970AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1971AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1972AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1973
1974testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1975
20f01a46
DH
1976* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1977
1978This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1979commands. The default is 1024.
1980
a5941fbf
MK
1981* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1982
1983Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1984
89743e04
MS
1985* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1986
1987These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1988to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1989from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 1990
9fb14e79
JB
1991* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1992
1993The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1994including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1995of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1996
2037aebb
AC
1997*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1998
1999* New targets.
2000
2001Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
2002
2003* Bug fixes
2004
2005gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2006mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2007Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2008
2009gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2010dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2011Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2012
2013Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2014Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2015By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2016
2017i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2018avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2019By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2020
37057839 2021*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 2022
1a703748
MS
2023* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2024
2025This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2026really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2027In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2028target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2029This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2030(notably embedded) targets.
2031
cefd4ef5
MS
2032* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2033
55241689
AC
2034This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2035process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2036GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2037hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 2038
352ed7b4
MS
2039* New command line option
2040
2041GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2042
2043* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2044
2045There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2046command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2047a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2048be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2049open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2050issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2051a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2052it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2053GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2054is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2055
fe419ffc
RE
2056* Changes in ARM configurations.
2057
2058Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2059configuration is fully multi-arch.
2060
eb7cedd9
MK
2061* New native configurations
2062
fe419ffc 2063ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 2064x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 2065AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 2066Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 2067
c9f63e6b
CV
2068* New targets
2069
2070Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2071
9b4ff276
AC
2072* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2073
2074Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2075been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2076configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2077permanently REMOVED.
2078
2079AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2080A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2081AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2082AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2083AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2084
b4ceaee6 2085testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 2086
e2caac18
AC
2087* REMOVED configurations and files
2088
2089TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 2090WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
2091PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2092PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2093PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 2094Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
2095Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2096 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 2097SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 2098Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
2099Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2100ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 2101Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 2102
c2a727fa
TT
2103* Changes to command line processing
2104
2105The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2106for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2107
467d8519
TT
2108* Changes to key bindings
2109
2110There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2111
7072a954
AC
2112*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2113
2114Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2115
2116Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2117corrupted.
2118
2119Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2120
2121Numerous documentation fixes.
2122
2123Numerous testsuite fixes.
2124
34f47bc4 2125*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
2126
2127* New native configurations
2128
2129Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2130x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 2131MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
2132MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2133ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 2134s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 2135
bf64bfd6
AC
2136* New targets
2137
def90278 2138Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 2139CRIS cris-axis
55241689 2140UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 2141
17e78a56 2142* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
2143
2144x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 2145Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
2146Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2147 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
2148TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2149WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 2150Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
2151PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2152PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2153PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 2154SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
2155Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2156ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 2157Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 2158
17e78a56
AC
2159stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2160kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2161
7fcca85b
AC
2162Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2163been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2164configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2165permanently REMOVED.
2166
a196c81c 2167* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
2168
2169Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2170Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2171Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2172ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2173Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 2174ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 2175
6d6b80e5 2176* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 2177
6d6b80e5 2178GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
2179sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2180present.
2181
bf64bfd6
AC
2182* Other news:
2183
e23194cb
EZ
2184* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2185
2186* The MI enabled by default.
2187
2188The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2189revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2190engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2191using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2192which is now deprecated.
2193
2194* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2195
2196GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2197main features are supported:
2198
2199 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2200
2201 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2202 extension;
2203
2204 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2205
2206 - a Pascal expression parser.
2207
2208However, some important features are not yet supported.
2209
2210 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2211
2212 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2213
2214 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2215 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2216
2217 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2218
2219 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2220
2221* Changes in completion.
2222
2223Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2224to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2225users expect at the shell prompt.
2226
2227Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2228`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2229program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2230files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2231be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2232considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2233name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2234
2235`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2236
2237* New platform-independent commands:
2238
2239It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2240hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2241documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2242
2243* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2244
d7275149
MK
2245Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2246revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2247many threads as your system allows you to have.
2248
e23194cb
EZ
2249Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2250
d7275149
MK
2251Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2252multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
2253
2254* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
2255
2256Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2257
e23194cb
EZ
2258GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2259debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2260supported.)
2261
2262* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2263
2264Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2265breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2266implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2267put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2268and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2269registers.
2270
2271The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2272debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2273watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2274
2275* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2276
2277New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2278the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2279
2280New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2281display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2282IDT.
2283
2284New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2285from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2286New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2287a given linear address.
2288
2289GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2290program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2291which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2292
2293DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2294
6c56c069
EZ
2295It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2296
e23194cb
EZ
2297* Changes in documentation.
2298
2299All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2300Documentation License.
2301
2302Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2303manual.
2304
2305TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2306
2307Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2308manual.
2309
2310The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2311documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2312hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2313
5d6640b1
AC
2314* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2315
2316The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2317``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2318contents of this file.
2319
1a1d8446
AC
2320* gdba.el deleted
2321
2322GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 2323
9debab2f 2324*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 2325
c63ce875
EZ
2326* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2327
2328Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2329programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2330displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2331greater level of detail.
2332
2333* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2334
2335It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2336bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2337on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2338written.
2339
2340* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2341
2342The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2343necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2344machines ``out of the box''.
2345
2346The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2347possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2348signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2349would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2350interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2351
2352It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2353standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2354even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2355and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2356terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2357
2358The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2359enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2360also works.
2361
2362DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2363GDB.
2364
2365It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2366directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2367times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2368breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2369
ed9a39eb
JM
2370* New native configurations
2371
2372ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 2373PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 2374
7a292a7a
SS
2375* New targets
2376
96baa820 2377Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
2378x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2379PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
2380TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2381
085dd6e6
JM
2382* OBSOLETE configurations
2383
2384Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2385Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 2386Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 2387ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 2388Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 2389
9debab2f
AC
2390Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2391but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2392these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2393be permanently REMOVED.
2394
5330533d
SS
2395* Gould support removed
2396
2397Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2398
bc9e5bbf
AC
2399* New features for SVR4
2400
2401On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2402without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2403load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2404
2405* Many C++ enhancements
2406
2407C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2408in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2409
adf40b2e
JM
2410* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2411
2412A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2413sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2414with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2415``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2416
2417 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2418 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2419
43e526b9
JM
2420* MIPS 64 remote protocol
2421
2422A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2423expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2424instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2425
2426The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2427added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2428
96baa820
JM
2429* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2430
2431The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2432``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2433include ``set remote P-packet''.
2434
11cf8741
JM
2435* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2436
2437The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2438accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2439``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2440
7876dd43
DB
2441* ``apropos'' command added.
2442
2443The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2444documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2445try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2446
bc9e5bbf
AC
2447* New MI interface
2448
2449A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2450interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
2451process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2452"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2453enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
2454
2455 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2456
c906108c
SS
2457*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2458
2459* New native configurations
2460
2461HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2462HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 2463M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
2464
2465* New targets
2466
2467Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2468Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2469Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2470
2471* OBSOLETE configurations
2472
2473Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2474
2475Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2476but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2477these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2478be permanently REMOVED.
2479
2480* ANSI/ISO C
2481
2482As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2483buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2484containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2485use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2486available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2487configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2488information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2489already.
2490
2491* Readline 2.2
2492
2493GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2494
2495* set extension-language
2496
2497You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2498languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2499you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2500 set extension-language .c c++
2501The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2502and their associated languages.
2503
2504* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2505
2506When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2507you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2508PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2509
2510 set processor NAME
2511
2512sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2513following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2514
2515 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2516 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2517 403 IBM PowerPC 403
2518 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2519 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2520 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2521 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2522 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2523 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2524 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2525 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2526
2527At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2528special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2529registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2530only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2531
2532* HP-UX support
2533
2534Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2535more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2536library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2537support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2538for xdb and dbx commands.
2539
2540* Catchpoints
2541
2542HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2543generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2544to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2545
2546This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2547argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2548output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2549
2550* Debugging across forks
2551
2552On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2553in the inferior.
2554
2555* TUI
2556
2557HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2558it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2559configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2560
2561* GDB remote protocol additions
2562
2563A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2564Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2565fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2566allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2567
2568For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2569full 64-bit address. The command
2570
2571 set remoteaddresssize 32
2572
2573can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2574the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2575will be discarded.
2576
2577In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2578command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2579
2580 maint packet heythere
2581
2582sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2583disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2584time.
2585
2586The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2587target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2588downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2589
2590* Tracing can collect general expressions
2591
2592You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2593further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2594doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2595
2596* mask-address variable for Mips
2597
2598For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2599a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2600of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2601
2602* Higher serial baud rates
2603
2604GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2605230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2606to achieve all of these rates.)
2607
2608* i960 simulator
2609
2610The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2611builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2612
2613
2614*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2615
2616* New native configurations
2617
2618Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2619Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2620Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2621PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2622PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2623Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2624Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2625
2626* New targets
2627
2628Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2629Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2630Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2631Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2632MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2633MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2634MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2635Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2636Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2637Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2638NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2639
2640* New debugging protocols
2641
2642ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2643M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2644DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2645PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2646PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2647Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2648
2649* DWARF 2
2650
2651All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2652format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2653information.
2654
2655* Java frontend
2656
2657GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2658only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2659
2660* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2661
2662For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2663loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2664locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2665
2666* Live range splitting
2667
2668GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2669range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2670more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2671
2672* Hurd support
2673
2674GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2675updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2676
2677* ARM Thumb support
2678
2679GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2680instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2681instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2682accordingly.
2683
2684* MIPS16 support
2685
2686GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2687instruction set.
2688
2689* Overlay support
2690
2691GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2692linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2693will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2694control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2695additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2696in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2697
2698* info symbol
2699
2700The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2701the symbol at the specified address.
2702
2703* Trace support
2704
2705The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2706asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2707extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2708includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2709file tracepoint.c for more details.
2710
2711* MIPS simulator
2712
2713Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2714by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2715of most MIPS variants.
2716
2717* Sparc simulator
2718
2719Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2720by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2721Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2722
2723* set architecture
2724
2725For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2726basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2727architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2728the possible architectures.
2729
2730*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2731
2732* New native configurations
2733
2734Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2735M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2736PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2737PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2738PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2739RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2740
2741* New targets
2742
2743ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2744I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2745MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2746MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2747PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2748Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
2749Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2750
2751* PowerPC simulator
2752
2753The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2754contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2755PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2756basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2757performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2758
2759* Solaris 2.5
2760
2761GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2762
2763* Windows 95/NT native
2764
2765GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2766To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2767which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2768Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2769ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2770
2771* dont-repeat command
2772
2773If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2774command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2775useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2776extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2777
2778* Send break instead of ^C
2779
2780The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2781rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2782GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2783
2784* Remote protocol timeout
2785
2786The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2787that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2788to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2789
2790* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2791
2792By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2793loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2794stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2795when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2796in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2797
2798Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2799/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2800automatically on hpux10.
2801
2802* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2803
2804Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2805
2806* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2807
2808When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2809may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2810the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2811every character. The default value is 1050.
2812
2813* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2814
2815If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2816a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2817replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2818details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2819remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2820to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2821
2822* Speedups for remote debugging
2823
2824GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2825the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2826and more efficient S-record downloading.
2827
2828* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2829
2830GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2831Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2832
2833*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2834
2835* Psymtabs for XCOFF
2836
2837The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2838can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2839
2840* Remote targets use caching
2841
2842Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2843remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2844it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2845debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2846off' turns the the data cache off.
2847
2848* Remote targets may have threads
2849
2850The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2851in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2852gdb/remote.c for details.
2853
2854* NetROM support
2855
2856If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2857support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2858acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2859write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2860support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2861another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2862sequence is something like
2863
2864 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2865 load <prog>
2866 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2867
2868* Macintosh host
2869
2870GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2871may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2872it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2873available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2874device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2875directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2876scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2877mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2878
2879* Autoconf
2880
2881GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2882but does simplify configuration and building.
2883
2884* hpux10
2885
2886GDB now supports hpux10.
2887
2888*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2889
2890* New native configurations
2891
2892x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2893x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2894NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2895Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2896
2897* New targets
2898
2899A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2900HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2901CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2902PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2903WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2904
2905* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2906
2907GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2908possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2909filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2910the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2911if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2912
2913* Arguments to user-defined commands
2914
2915User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2916Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2917trivial example:
2918define adder
2919 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2920
2921To execute the command use:
2922adder 1 2 3
2923
2924Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2925Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2926use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2927
2928* New `if' and `while' commands
2929
2930This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2931commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2932expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2933execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2934terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2935`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2936if the expression is zero.
2937
2938* Fortran source language mode
2939
2940GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2941Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2942variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2943with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2944Fortran compilers.
2945
2946* Better HPUX support
2947
2948Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2949running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2950processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2951for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2952that behavior do the following before running the program:
2953
2954 adb -w a.out
2955 __dld_flags?W 0x5
2956 control-d
2957
2958This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2959To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2960
2961 adb -w a.out
2962 __dld_flags?W 0x4
2963 control-d
2964
2965You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2966the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2967external linkage.
2968
2969GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2970HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2971
2972* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2973
2974You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2975commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2976current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2977"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2978associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2979configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2980
2981* New DOS host serial code
2982
2983This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2984no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2985a PC's serial port.
2986
2987*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2988
2989* New "complete" command
2990
2991This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2992were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2993
2994* Trailing space optional in prompt
2995
2996"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2997allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2998
2999* Breakpoint hit counts
3000
3001"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3002has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3003can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3004to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3005less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3006that breakpoint.
3007
3008* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3009
3010"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3011an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3012arrays actually contain only short strings.
3013
3014* Shared library breakpoints
3015
3016In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3017breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3018
3019* Hardware watchpoints
3020
3021There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3022targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3023
55241689 3024Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
3025
3026* Annotations
3027
3028Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3029and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3030
3031* Improved Irix 5 support
3032
3033GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3034
3035* Improved HPPA support
3036
3037GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3038
3039* New native configurations
3040
3041Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3042HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3043Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3044RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3045
3046* New targets
3047
3048OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3049MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3050Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3051
3052* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3053
3054There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3055This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3056
3057* Fixes
3058
3059As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3060and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3061
3062*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3063
3064* Irix 5 is now supported
3065
3066* HPPA support
3067
3068GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3069to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3070GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3071of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3072can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3073
3074
3075*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3076
3077* User visible changes:
3078
3079* Remote Debugging
3080
3081The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3082target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3083debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3084integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3085debugging info for the mips target).
3086
3087* DEC Alpha native support
3088
3089GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3090debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3091work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3092Alpha-specific notes.
3093
3094* Preliminary thread implementation
3095
3096GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3097
3098* LynxOS native and target support for 386
3099
3100This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3101to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3102for details).
3103
3104* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3105
3106This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3107mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3108call methods, ...etc.
3109
3110*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3111
3112 * User visible changes:
3113
3114Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3115supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3116other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3117somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3118
3119Filename completion now works.
3120
3121When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3122arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3123addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3124
3125All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3126vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3127should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3128your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3129to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3130
3131 * DEC alpha support
3132
3133This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3134cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3135
3136
3137*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3138
3139 * Testsuite
3140
3141This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3142The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3143via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3144
3145 * C++ demangling
3146
3147'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3148emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3149Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3150disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3151use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3152
3153 * Simulators
3154
3155GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3156So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3157Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3158
3159 * New targets supported
3160
3161H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3162H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3163SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3164Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3165IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3166
3167Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3168version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3169GO32 memory extender.
3170
3171 * New remote protocols
3172
3173MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3174
3175 * New source languages supported
3176
3177This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3178used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3179into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3180
3181
3182*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3183
3184 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3185
3186GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3187version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3188University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3189compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3190format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3191(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3192
3193Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3194
3195 * Faster and better demangling
3196
3197We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3198demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3199character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3200only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3201This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3202increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3203symbol lookups.
3204
3205`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3206from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3207compiler does not actually implement.
3208
3209 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3210
3211In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3212inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3213recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3214very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3215The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3216circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3217fix.
3218
3219The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3220release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3221
3222 * Improved configure script
3223
3224The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3225you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3226host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3227done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3228
3229We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3230version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3231`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3232The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3233only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3234We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3235
3236 * Documentation improvements
3237
3238There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3239produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3240before submitting changes.
3241
3242The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3243M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3244`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3245you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3246a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3247
3248*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3249We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3250been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3251or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3252`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3253around this problem.
3254
3255 * New features
3256
3257GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3258the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3259`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3260the target program.
3261
3262The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3263how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3264
3265 * New native hosts supported
3266
3267HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3268386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3269
3270 * New targets supported
3271
3272AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3273
3274 * New file formats supported
3275
3276BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3277HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3278
3279 * Major bug fixes
3280
3281Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3282
3283We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3284printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3285
3286We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3287for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3288release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3289
3290You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3291will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3292
3293We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3294for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3295especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3296libraries.
3297
3298The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3299information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3300command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3301any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3302when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3303
3304 * Internal improvements
3305
3306GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3307debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3308
3309GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3310Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3311symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3312contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3313shared code that handles any of them.
3314
3315 * New command line options
3316
3317We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3318
3319 * Mmalloc licensing
3320
3321The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3322General Public License.
3323
3324*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3325
3326 * Host/native/target split
3327
3328GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3329hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3330target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3331local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3332ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3333
3334The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3335GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3336is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3337code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3338any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3339built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3340handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3341
3342GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3343It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3344plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3345
3346 * New hosts supported
3347
3348HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3349386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3350386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3351
3352 * New targets supported
3353
3354Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
335568030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3356
3357 * New native hosts supported
3358
3359386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3360 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3361386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3362
3363 * New file formats supported
3364
3365BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3366supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3367format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3368
3369 * New commands
3370
3371`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3372`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3373These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3374
3375`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3376
3377You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3378scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3379prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3380executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3381
3382 * C++ improvements
3383
3384We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3385info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3386symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3387
3388Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3389
3390 * Major bug fixes
3391
3392The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3393fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3394by the compiler.
3395
3396We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3397support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3398
3399John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3400slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3401that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3402purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3403the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3404mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3405
3406Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3407about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3408completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3409we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3410
3411 * AMD 29k support
3412
3413A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3414specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3415calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3416usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3417in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3418
3419We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3420Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3421of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3422resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3423
3424 * Remote interfaces
3425
3426We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3427with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3428message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3429This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3430needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3431breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3432each instruction being stepped through.
3433
3434The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3435registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3436
3437There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3438find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3439Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3440processor with a serial port.
3441
3442 * Configuration
3443
3444Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3445`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3446supported, and what files each one uses.
3447
3448 * Library changes
3449
3450There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3451disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3452Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3453disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3454
3455The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3456Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3457can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3458grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3459
3460 * Documentation
3461
3462The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3463reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3464as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3465encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3466system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3467bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3468
3469And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3470
3471
3472*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3473
3474 * Better support for C++ function names
3475
3476GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3477names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3478(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3479single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3480Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3481
3482GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3483the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3484You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3485lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3486for the list of formats.
3487
3488 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3489
3490Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3491C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3492directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3493can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3494usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3495about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3496this problem.)
3497
3498 * New 'maintenance' command
3499
3500All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3501the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3502can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3503
3504 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3505 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3506 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3507 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3508 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3509 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3510
3511The following commands are new:
3512
3513 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3514 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3515 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3516
3517 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3518
3519We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3520(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3521be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3522read after argv processing.
3523
3524 * New hosts supported
3525
3526Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3527
55241689 3528GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
3529
3530We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3531is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3532for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3533masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3534fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3535It costs extra.
3536
3537 * New targets supported
3538
3539Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3540
3541 * More smarts about finding #include files
3542
3543GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3544all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3545greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3546especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3547the one that contains your sources.
3548
3549We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3550breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3551try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3552
3553 * Interesting infernals change
3554
3555GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3556section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3557target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3558stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3559
3560 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3561
3562There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3563 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3564 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3565
3566See the ChangeLog for details.
3567
3568*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3569
3570 * New machines supported (host and target)
3571
3572IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3573
3574SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3575
3576 * New malloc package
3577
3578GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3579Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3580capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3581This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3582pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3583more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3584
3585 * info proc
3586
3587The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3588'help info proc' for details.
3589
3590 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3591
3592The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3593Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3594possible.
3595
3596 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3597
3598Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3599support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3600conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3601environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3602that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3603in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3604
3605 * Cross byte order fixes
3606
3607Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3608targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3609
3610 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3611
3612If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3613system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3614`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3615program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3616called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3617Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3618and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3619the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3620option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3621starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3622
3623You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3624the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3625information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3626slower, but makes future operations faster.
3627
3628The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3629build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3630A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3631use is:
3632
3633 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3634
3635The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3636It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3637shared across multiple host platforms.
3638
3639 * longjmp() handling
3640
3641GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3642siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3643all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3644platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3645
3646 * Solaris 2.0
3647
3648Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3649this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3650reading symbols.
3651
3652 * Bug fixes
3653
3654As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3655People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3656crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3657
3658*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3659
3660 * New machines supported (host and target)
3661
3662SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3663 (except core files)
3664BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3665Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3666
3667 * New machines supported (target)
3668
3669AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3670
3671 * C++ support
3672
3673GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3674The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3675per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3676
3677GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3678`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3679extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3680good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3681will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3682released.
3683
3684 * New features for SVR4
3685
3686GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3687shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3688only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3689
3690The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3691on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3692it prints the address mappings of the process.
3693
3694If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3695bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3696
3697 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3698
3699Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3700now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3701skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3702make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3703same code linked statically.
3704
3705 * New Getopt
3706
3707GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3708version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3709continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3710Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3711added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3712future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3713
3714 * Bugs fixed
3715
3716The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3717Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3718See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3719
3720
3721*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3722
3723 * New machines supported (host and target)
3724
3725Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3726NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3727Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3728
3729 * Almost SCO Unix support
3730
3731We had hoped to support:
3732SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3733(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3734that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3735about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3736
3737 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3738
3739GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3740debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3741is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3742send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3743reqired (if any).
3744
3745 * New Readline
3746
3747GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3748is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3749required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3750
3751 * Bugs fixed
3752
3753The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3754Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3755See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3756
3757 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3758
3759GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3760supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3761symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3762
3763Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3764mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3765debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3766mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3767version 2.
3768
3769Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3770really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3771line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3772variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3773situation somewhat.
3774
3775When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3776However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3777methods.
3778
3779We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3780DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3781encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3782
3783
3784*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3785
3786 * Improved configuration
3787
3788Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3789Porting BFD is simpler.
3790
3791 * Stepping improved
3792
3793The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3794of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3795in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3796function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3797
3798 * Bug fixing
3799
3800Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3801
3802 * New host supported (not target)
3803
3804Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3805
3806
3807*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3808
3809 * Multiple source language support
3810
3811GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3812It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3813and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3814language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3815You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3816`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3817
3818 * GDB and Modula-2
3819
3820GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3821currently under development at the State University of New York at
3822Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3823continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3824
3825Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3826debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3827symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3828
3829There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3830in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3831
3832 * set write on/off
3833
3834GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3835a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3836the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3837by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3838effect immediately.
3839
3840 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3841
3842When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3843shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3844The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3845examining core files.
3846
3847 * set listsize
3848
3849You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3850The default is 10.
3851
3852 * New machines supported (host and target)
3853
3854SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3855Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3856Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3857
3858 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3859
3860IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3861
3862 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3863
3864AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3865AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3866Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3867
3868 * New remote interfaces
3869
3870AMD 29000 Adapt
3871AMD 29000 Minimon
3872
3873
3874*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3875
3876 * New Facilities
3877
3878Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3879
3880Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3881target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3882is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3883remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3884remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3885also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3886using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3887stub on the target system.
3888
3889New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3890
3891GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3892library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3893object file types such as a.out and coff.
3894
3895There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3896refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3897
3898
3899 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3900
3901All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3902by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3903
3904For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3905``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3906Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3907
3908What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3909print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3910will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3911all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3912
3913confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3914 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3915 it is already running. Default is ON.
3916
3917editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3918 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3919 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3920 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3921 Default is ON.
3922
3923history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3924 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3925 or the value of the environment variable
3926 GDBHISTFILE.
3927
3928history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3929 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3930 HISTSIZE.
3931
3932history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3933 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3934 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3935
3936history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3937 history expansion will be performed on
3938 command line input. The default is OFF.
3939
3940radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3941 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3942 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3943
3944height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3945 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3946 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3947 variable TERM.
3948
3949width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3950 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3951 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3952 variable TERM.
3953
3954Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3955``set width'' instead.
3956
3957print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3958 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3959 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3960 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3961
3962print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3963 is OFF.
3964
3965print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3966 "raw" form if off.
3967
3968print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3969 like instructions.
3970
3971print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3972
3973
3974 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3975
3976The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3977new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3978are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3979window.
3980
3981
3982 * Support for Shared Libraries
3983
3984GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3985Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3986before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3987happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3988At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3989from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3990shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3991It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3992
3993sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3994 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3995 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3996
3997info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3998
3999
4000 * Watchpoints
4001
4002A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4003expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4004tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4005quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4006problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4007more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4008
4009watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4010
4011info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4012
4013delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4014disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4015enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4016
4017
4018 * C++ multiple inheritance
4019
4020When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4021for C++ programs.
4022
4023 * C++ exception handling
4024
4025Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4026ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4027the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4028handler's context).
4029
4030catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4031 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4032 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4033
4034info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4035 current stack frame.
4036
4037
4038 * Minor command changes
4039
4040The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4041command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4042is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4043
4044The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4045at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4046frames without printing.
4047
4048 * New directory command
4049
4050'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4051The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4052about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4053with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4054find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4055
4056 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4057
4058For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4059for more details.
4060
4061GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4062two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4063Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4064where the program that you are debugging will run.
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